Assassinato

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.

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...

Mokunoshin lives more in his imagination than reality. He is a young samurai in feudal Japan who has not fought, much less killed anyone. Mokunoshin is helping villagers harvest rice, nursing a crush on Yu and sparring with her brother, when opportunity knocks. An experienced warrior is forming a fighting unit to raid the capital and tries to recruit Mokunoshin, who is doubtful he can leave Yu. Caught between his calling and his heart, Mokunoshin hesitates. The first kill is hardest, but doubt may prove tougher still.

Killing is a minimalist film that takes advantage of the beauty of natural light and simple sets and dialogue. It is a good antidote to all the CGI that seems to dominate film these days. I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunities to appreciate the primal pulse of drumbeats and rainfall, and splendor of fire, shining steel, drifting clouds and the mist filled and mysterious cedar forests of Japan. Even so, it is hard to tell what is going on in the action scenes when the camera moves so much. The film was shot in three weeks in the north of Japan according to the director who was at this 2018 Toronto International Film Festival screening.

I love period pieces it is my favorite genre. Especially from WWI, WWII, Korea, Japan and China. This movie seemed like the perfect fit for my tastes. I was very wrong. I stopped this movie at 57 minutes and refused to watch anymore. I do understand what the director was trying to do on him not wanting to kill. However the execution failed miserably. The movie had beautiful scenery, the costumes and setting were perfect. The camera was terrible for any scenes with extensive movement. It was reminiscent of the zombie movie Rekill where I got vertigo trying to watch it. I personally think the critics got this very wrong. It's why I don't trust critics.

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.