Ashura (2005)

Ashura (2005)
Original title: Ashura-jô no hitomi; Blood Gets in Your Eyes
Translation: Eyes of Ashura’s Castle

Starring: Somegorô Ichikawa, Rie Miyazawa, Kanako Higuchi, Atsuro Watabe, Takashi Naitô, Yukijirô Hotaru, Fumiyo Kohinata, Hanae Kan
Director: Yôjirô Takita
Action Director: n/a

It's almost fitting that I watched this (for the first time) after I watched Demon Slayer the Movie, as this movie does revolve around a similar premise: in the Edo period, the Capital is infested with demons. There is a corps of sword-wielding warriors known as the Demon Wardens whose job is to exterminate them. It sounds pretty similar to the immensely popular anime Demon Slayer, with the difference being that this is set in the Edo Period and the anime is set in the Taisho Period (1912 – 1926).

One of the aforementioned Demon Wardens is Izumo (Somegoro Ichikawa, who played the same role in the 2015 adaptation of the same material), retires from the force after a traumatic incident during a raid. But before that, we are introduced to the premise via a meeting between the head Demon Warden, Noboyuki Kuninari (Takashi Naitô, who did voice work in Spirited Away) and Bizan, the Demon Nun (Casshern's Kanako Higuchi, who looks like Michelle Yeoh from some angles). Bizan is the current leader of the demon realm, but she informs Kuninari that Ashura, the Demon Queen, will soon be reborn. We then segue into the aforementioned raid, which ends with Izumo striking down a young child who was pretty obviously possessed by a demon. At that point, Izumo starts to wonder that age-old question: “Who’s the real monster?” I’m pretty sure it’s those creatures who are killing people and sucking their blood, but I may be biased.

Izumo becomes a popular Kabuki actor, the sort of one who’s a huge hit with the ladies. I do like how Kabuki Theater is an integral part of the story in the same way that Peking Opera was an integral part of Vengeance! I also like that the current venue is for a play that involves the hero riding a giant fire-breathing toad, which leads me to believe that it’s the same story that inspired The Magic Serpent. The trope’s writer-director, Naboku Tsuruya IV (Fumiyo Kohinata, Dark Water and Beyond Outrage), is desperate for some new inspiration. The nutjob even goes so far as to ask his main stagehands if they could get themselves eaten by demons in order to inspire him.

Izumo meets a travelling acrobat, Tsubaki (The Twilight Samurai’s Rie Miyazawa, who looks like Michelle Yeoh from other angles), who seems to moonlight as a kunoichi, or female ninja, named “The Night Camellia.” At their first meeting—she’s hiding under a bridge from the authorities while Izumo is enjoying a Japanese gondola ride with his “leading lady” (actor Yukijiro Hotaru, of the 1990s Gamera trilogy)—Izumo comes into possession of her hairpin. She visits his quarters the next night in ninja mode and Izumo starts falling for her, even so far as to pull the “magical red thread” trick on her. What he doesn’t know is that their meeting has caused rose-shaped tattoo/scar to appear on her shoulder. And when a demon attacks her the next day, the scar goes into action and melts the poor bastard.

On hand to witness that strange event is Izumo’s former demon-slaying partner, Jaku (TV actor Atsuro Watabe). Jaku is a bit ambitious in the Demon Warden “corps,” so ambitious that the next time his boss and Lady Bizan meet up, Jaku just kills the old man and pledges allegiance to the demons. You see, Tsubaki is the vessel through which Ashura the Demon Queen shall be reborn. Jaku, like the wizard Saruman, thinks that the future favors the demons, and that if he goes turncoat now, he’ll be rewarded with a great amount of power. What Bizan doesn’t tell Jaku is that the key to unlocking the demon in Tsubaki is through love. And her blossoming relationship with Izumo may just be what the doctor ordered for a demon apocalypse…

The film is based off of a play, although I don't know if it’s a modern play or a kabuki play. I assume it’s the latter, which makes the film “meta” in that one of the subplots is how Naboku Tsuruya IV keeps on throwing himself in the middle of important events of the film so he’ll have something to write. By the end of the movie, he has written the tale of Ashura that is known to the Japanese people today. The film is mainly a love story, which permeates the proceedings right up to the final sword fight and its conclusion. I don’t mind that sort of melodramatic approach to the material, although at 118 minutes, the film is about 15 minutes too long. It needed to be tidied up a little bit in the last act, when the “big transformation” occurs and Izumo prepares to face Ashura in her castle.

Rie Miyazawa is very cute and a joy to watch. Apparently, she was a girl-next-door actress until she did a film called Erotic Liaisons and released a nude photo book, which was hugely successful. She had some personal problems in the late 1990s and dated a Sumo wrestler[1], but was able to put her career back together in the 2000s. She has since won multiple awards for her performances in films like The Twilight Samurai and Her Love Boils Bathwater. Somegoro Ichikawa makes for a convincing romantic hero, with a dollop of playful arrogance—or self-assured literacy--to complement his sword-fighting scenes. I guess that makes sense, as he was also in The Samurai I Loved.

There is a fair amount of action in the film, although it's choreographed more like a traditional chanbara film than in Hong Kong style, as many of its contemporaries (like Death Trance) were. The climax has our hero fighting of scores of ogres in an upside-down castle, with the camera moving in vertical circles around our hero, followed by a series of one-on-one duels.

The demons are very similar to those in "Demon Slayer," in which they look like normal humans until it's time to feast on blood. In this case, they have neon green eyes and green CGI blood. There are demons and trolls with more Wolfman-like faces that show up in a few scenes, especially during the final series of sword battles. Those creatures were designed by Tomoo Haraguchi, the FX guy who also directed films like Mikadroid; Death Kappa; and Sakuya, Slayer of Demons. Eh…this is not his most creative mercenary job, but that wasn’t really the point of the film.  There are also some Godzilla-style miniatures during the destruction of Edo sequence; I enjoyed watching old-style buildings explode in the way modern buildings do in movies like Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S.

The entire film feels intentionally staged, as if it were a successor to the set-bound wuxia movies of the Shaw Brothers at its best. This goes back to the meta aspect of the film: a staged adaptation of a play, telling the story of the how the playwright had the idea for the play, much of which is set a theater itself. The best art direction—courtesy of Yoji Hayashida, who an impressive résumé that includes Uzumaki; The Great Yokai War: Guardians; Shin Godzilla; and the 13 Assassins remake. The most impressive visuals, set and costume-wise, come at the beginning during the raid on the festival. The cinematography is also strong, brought to you by Katsumi Yanagijima, whose credits include the Ju-On: The Grudge films, Takeshi Kitano’s Zatoichi, and Battle Royale.

It’s a good film, with great visuals—save for some dodgy CGI—a few good performances and some nice romance and melodrama (which is the intention). My major qualm is the aforementioned overlength, which is something that I often take issue with in Japanese films (a reason I often prefer the American cuts to Japanese Godzilla movies: they flow better). I also wish that they would have gotten Yuji Shimomura or Go Ohara to do the action. And gotten more and better creature designs out of Tomoo Haraguchi. But it’s still worth a view.

 

 

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[1] - Dating a sumo wrestler is sort of a “prestigious” thing to do, but it is still what amounts to a flower vase role in the media. But yeah, successful sumo wrestlers can bag some hawt babes in Japan.