Taitei no ken

Samurai, ninjas, zombies, aliens, spaceships... I thought this movie was supposed to be some kind of Jidaigeki.

This is one of weirdest movie I've ever watched.

The story makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, and it's really cheesy (intentionally). CG is very fakey and villains look like a Halloween costume. But hey, it's a comedy movie, and it's so bad that it's actually good.

What really surprised me was that somewhat big name actors like Abe Hiroshi and Hasegawa Kyouko would appear on such a dumb B-movie. You'll get a good laugh at it.

Much like the film Jipangu from 1990, Sword of Alexander is a fast paced action comedy that makes fun of the samurai genre as much as it honors it. The film mixes genres quite liberally although one wouldn't expect spaceships and aliens in a period drama at all.

The story follows an unkempt swordsman hero as he wields the over-sized Sword of Alexander the Great protecting a princess and keeping his magic sword out of the clutches of the Shogun and an evil alien who has crash landed in Japan.

That's not all the plot details but I think it's probably enough to give an idea how this film goes. The film is very funny and a good amount of action influenced by HK cinema. The special effects are unrealistic and intentionally humorous. The characters are interesting and the hero is unique in Japanese cinema as far as I know. He is the son of a African man and a Japanese woman. The aliens aren't the only weirdness in the story, a number of other villains are demons with odd powers. The acting is over the top but that goes with the wacky story. The movie has only one unfortunately out of place joke at the end but otherwise it's a lot of fun. Several movie references will be obvious but some of the cameos might be mysterious to non-Japanese audiences.

Recommended.

This is an excellent movie, that has a good plot that is easily grasped and great characters. The movie has both humor and seriousness, and they are rather well placed, there isn't really a situation where the humor is out-of-place.

Obviously, if you hate movies that are out of the ordinary and "strange", then you might not like this one. This is no art movie, nor is it a Hollywood-esquire yarn. It is very original and those involved in it certainly loved making it, it is most assuredly made with a clear vision of the writers and directors in mind and it doesn't cater to the whims of the masses, but was made as they felt was the best.

All in all, it has much action and humor, which are the main elements the movie is composed of. The plot is rather simplistic in that it doesn't offer any great twists, but that is good, for it fits the movie very well.