Killing

...absolutely correct running time to make the point on this film. Is about ambivalence. Is all in our minds; life is easier than what most of us think; however, depending on the role that we are playing, for any reason, most finishing thinking in Black and White forgetting the Grays. Plenty of times we are in the middle of a situation that is not what we wanted but we are obliged to play. Sometimes the good guys are not so good and the bad ones are just a product of the events. In the case here, all the trouble start due to a hot headed teenager; too green to understand situations; but is like when you move a piece on the Chess board.

-The camcorder takes are too shaky but contributes to the overall chaos of those shots. Very good music and scenery.

The first word that came to mind after the credits rolled was 'intense'. What started of as a classic samurai tale quickly escalates into something... else, to the point I'd call this a deconstruction of the genre.

The choreography of the fights was great and even though a lot of it was a bit shaky due to the digital camera they've used it always felt engaging to watch and really fast! My eyes barely kept up at some movements.

There area a few scenes I can't quite wrap my head around yet and I guess you could argue some of the acting was a bit over the top but none of that bothered me.

Due to the short length 'Killing' never has any real down time and keeps thrilling throughout, never losing it's momentum.

The ending sequence will definitely stick in my mind for a while...

A samurai drama about several people trying and continually failing to leave a small village for about 80 minutes.

It was interesting to see Shinya Tsukamoto's take on the samurai film, but I don't think it worked great overall. I could get used to the digital look of things, but I hated how often it would cut to a close-up from exactly the same angle- it looked cheap and jarring almost every time (they did the same thing less frequently in the new Top Gun, whenever they wanted a close-up of a pilot mid-flight; I hope it's not a thing that's considered acceptable editing nowadays).

Worth it for Tsukamoto completionists of course, and maybe for die hard samurai fans, as it's not awful, but otherwise it's a little hard to recommend.

One samurai says to another, "Tell me, Mr Sawamura, I don't get how you kill so easily. How can you? I want to... I want to be able to kill."

And that's what this film comes down to: one character is young, inexperienced, and grappling with that daunting prospect of a first kill, whereas the other is a lightning-quick master swordsman, blade fused with the mind, not needing to think in the moment of decisions. Their paths will cross, destinies tied, fates already sealed...

Overall, 'Killing' is just a great samurai film, providing us with a small portion of a much larger picture. It's intimate in scope and thematically engaging - an entertaining diversion in a bygone landscape. The handheld camera work is initially off-putting, especially if you're used to the likes of Kurosawa's filmmaking style within the genre, but otherwise there's few complaints to list in this Japanese historical drama.

8/10.

The shaky camera pretty much ruined it. I mean, plotwise it has nothing. Running at only 80 mins with a title like that you expect it to be more focus on the action, less on the drama. They had one job, which is to make the action sequence "awesome." However, the director decided to go with the Blair Witch shaky camera instead. You pretty much can't see anything, what is going on, and it is nauseating.

It's really sad because I heard good things about this film, how a lot of samurai drama films are now heavily based on CGI and this film uses the traditional style. Yet, they managed to ruin it. It is nothing like Twilight Samurai, The Devil's Claw, or When the Last Sword is Drawn.

Utterly waste of time.