Jmovie review: Taitei no Ken/ Sword of Alexander

After the huge disappointment that was Dororo, can Japan finally produce a decent action movie that does not look like a a sentai show? This film has it all, Abe Hiroshi wielding a huge sword, aliens, ninjas, bazookas, lots of cg blood. I'm not even bother going to give an introduction to the movie's story. There isn't really any. Its a huge mishmash of genres that just don't belong together, no matter how tongue in cheek they try to present it.

Obviously, she's not into S & M menage trios.

Abe Hiroshi is a damn good actor but not even he can save this mess of a movie. The starting is entertaining. The CG of the alien spaceship is good for jmovie standards. Genkuro (Abe Hiroshi) saving the hostage scene is funny. Then it begins to drag, from one lame action scene to another. I guess that the show is primarily aimed at kids and all kids watch sentai shows so they're accustomed to the ridiculously bad fight scenes. The only positive thing I can say is that the fight scenes are not as bad as Dororo. But then, nothing is as bad as the rubber snake fight in Dororo.


The only intriguing part of the show is Kuroki Meisa (the other chick from Tada Kimi wo Aishiteru) who plays a mystery historical character who I will not spoil here. Fans of Samurai Spirits should be able to guess the male character that she plays. She was overshadowed by Miyazaki Aoi in Tada Kimi wo Ashiteru but here, she's just too fucking hot. Maybe I just like chicks wielding swords.


This is one film that tries to do too much. Its evident from the CG and sets that they have a pretty good budget. Instead of so many crappy fight scenes and villains who belong in Power Rangers, they could have reduced the number the fights and spent more time on the humour. Less is more. One or two fight scenes done really well is so much better than 5 or 6 lame ones that can be seen on Japanese TV every evening. There are some scenes where I can't laugh at the absurdity cause I'm not 6 years old and I'm wondering why I'm putting myself through this misery.

Where are the Power Rangers when you need them?

Maybe the fact that Dororo did well means that I can never understand appreciate the influence of sentai shows in Japanese action movies. Maybe they feel that action has to be as exaggerated as those in anime. I guess, I should have expected it from the movie poster. I probably would have liked it better if half an hour were trimmed off the running time. In summation, only watch this movie with the assistance alcohol or other depressants.

Someone please cast Abe Hiroshi as Miyamoto Musashi based on the Vagabond manga! He is goddamn perfect for the role.