This film had the ingredients to be great--both the fight director and the main star of Versus, which I love--but they made a totally forgettable movie. The villains were uninteresting, the characters were one dimensional, and all the cool concepts weren't executed well at all. For instance, there was a bad guy in the beginning with a huge sword like Cloud's in FF7. He died almost immediately after swinging it around a few times.<br /><br />The director and star were so pretentious in the Making Of documentary. "Period dramas are a staple of Japanese cinema, so we decided to do something completely different with it, to reinvent it and create a type of action never seen before!" The costumes were all weird, Gothic, and in some cases, almost futuristic. I thought this had potential since it was really stylized. I had my doubts about the heat seeking missile from a samurai's rocket launcher, but it was the motorcycle that ruined it for me. Cause if there's one thing that period pieces are lacking in, it's motorcycles. They put some chains on it, which did nothing. Anachronisms can work wonderfully in historical fantasy, but this time it was plainly obvious that the filmmakers were trying desperately to be cool and failing.<br /><br />My biggest problem was the fight choreography, especially after seeing it executed so well in Versus. The star, Tak Sakaguchi, is a fighter in real life who was brawling in the streets before Ryuhei Kitamura found him and cast him in Versus. No wonder he's a good stuntman! In this film, he decided to come up with "a new type of action never seen before!" The underlying principle of this amazing revolution of action cinema? Actually hitting people. That's his idea, his contribution to stuntwork. First of all, it's common practice in Hong Kong cinema where contact is required, and they usually use shields under their clothing. So his "innovation" is nothing new. Does this "new kind of action" add anything to the film? Not at all. For one, I didn't even notice he was actually hitting people. The difference was imperceptible. Here's the stupid part--it actually looked worse. Rather than choreograph something really cool like an exchange of blocks, dodges, punches, and kicks with maybe some acrobatics, his "revolutionary new technique" consisted of him just doing rapid fire punches to the torsos of the poor stuntmen who had to work with him. The sword work was the same back and forth swings little kids do when they play sword fight. I'm not kidding. Almost all of the fight scenes consisted of one hit kills on disposable bad guys with the same back and forth motion. No variation. No high and low. No fancy spins. Just back and forth. They used wire work and occasional camera tricks to spice it up, but many of the sequences were done in long shot, which made it glaringly obvious that a circle of opponents was approaching one at a time to be punched ten times in the chest in real life, then die. At least cover that stuff up with close ups and editing.<br /><br />Additionally, the plot was incoherent. I kept expecting a moment where all would be revealed, but it never came. It's not even symbolic or profound. The star himself said, "When I read the fourth draft, I thought that it was absolute crap! So thought I would save it with my acting." (This was the fourth draft?! Oh my God!) And his efforts didn't work. Especially since he plays the same character in every movie: the anime badass who is annoyed all the time and says "Urusei!" to everybody. I think the best part, action-wise was when they had a capoeira guy do some cool inverted kicks and handstands and flips. Then he was dispatched by the actor punching him in real life.<br /><br />The only thing that roped me in when I started watching was the production design. All of the costumes and props showed great potential for something really interesting and original, then failed to deliver on that promise. And I didn't know the "zombie" enemies were even zombies until they were called that in the documentary. They didn't look like zombies at all; they were just moaning people dressed all in black with silly hoods over their heads. I don't mean that to be dismissive of their costumes--their hoods were quite silly by hood standards; they resembled a jester's hat.<br /><br />Fans of a good Gothic fantasy set in ancient Japan will be disappointed since the filmmakers only implied a plot without coming up with one. Last time I checked, the movie in which Tak Sakaguchi played a battle-loving badass who had a hidden reserve of power foreshadowed throughout the film only to be revealed at the climax was called Versus. After five years, the best they can come up with is Versus minus the story and fight choreography set in a different time period. I hope they're proud. Action connoisseurs will be very disappointed since the fight choreography is uninteresting and repetitive 90% of the time. It's sad when the best fight scene in the film is the one with the gun, and not the hand to hand exchanges or swordfights. If you're not picky about violence and just want to see an actor beat stuntmen uninterestingly, then this film is for you.<br /><br />Frankly, I felt betrayed.