Re:Born

Ever since I watched the Rurouni Kenshin films I've been trying scour the internet to find more japanese films- particularly the action ones and I got lucky to have stumbled upon this hidden gem! Action movie fans will surely not be disappointed. My dad freaking loved it.

Don't be fooled by the high rated reviews. This is a mediocre action movie that's part John Wick, part Taken and part Metal Gear Solid.

The "hero" is a cardboard cutout with the ability to dodge bullets and put a knife in a neck from nowhere and the villains are comical in the extreme.... one tries to hypnotise the hero to death.

Poor fight scenes where no one seems to see the hero despite him wearing a hoodie that stands out a mile and creaks everytime he moves, and most of it filmed in the woods or in a disused factory, this is a firm pass.

Fast paced martial arts film with enough originality to be worthy of a recommendation. This is worth watching for the superbly executed fight scenes. The one in the phone booth sums up the style of the movie and is the most memorable for me. As the movie progressed I wondered how the pace could be held to the end, my mind can only take so much, but it just got more and more tense. I found myself almost holding my breath in the final scenes. OK so there is a background story to justify the high octane killing but the strength of the movie is mainly the action. Toshiro nicknamed the legendary Ghost was a former special ops soldier and unstoppable killer. He's now given that up and living as a shopkeeper but is still haunted by his past. His former commanding officer is seeking revenge so Toshiro has to return to killing and deal with what seems like an unlimited number of 'fight to the last' assassins.

My rating 6/10 Highly recommended if you're into exciting martial art knife combat with lots of blood. If not then this may seem like 115 minutes of ridiculous gratuitous killing.

Casting and story is good. And the main characters can actually do martial arts, so nothing looks bad. But they look uncoordinated and there's a lot of digital help. It's more action than anything else, but it's like Ninja Kali/Eskrima and it looks off. And the protagonist has ninja pyschic powers. It's just a really weird mix of Fantasy Japanese with WWII Filipino guerilla. Not bad at all. And techniques were real. It was way better than the Jason Bourn stuff. Just weird for me seeing Japanese fighting like Filipinos. And mixing psychic powers with practical killing techniques. Better than Hollywood anyday, though.

Overall, I would recommend "Re:Born" to fans of the action genre. It may be short on story, but if you like martial-arts and well-choreographed fight sequences there is a lot to enjoy here. A solid thriller that puts some effort into creating an interesting world, characters that you care about, and some great set-pieces