Japan will keep retelling the romanticised Shinsengumi story until the end of time. I first knew about them from Rurouni Kenshin a long time ago. I have watched the Mitani Koki Shinsengumi! twice, seen Shinsengumi Keppurroku and finished Ryu ga Gotoku Ishin! so I am familiar with the story.
Moeyo Ken is a retelling of the story with the focus on Okada Junichi as Hijikata and his relationship with Oyuki. I don't remember this Oyuki character from the other Shinsengumi shows. The first 30 minutes races through to the formation of the group. Even I was getting confused what was happening and I would not say there was much character development happening.
Oyuki comes into the story only after the first hour when she helps tend to an injured Hijikata. After that it was basically a this happened and that happened movie.
I have to say the Kyoto scenery is exquisite but the Ikedaya incident action scene was not that exciting. I think the earlier mentioned jdoramas did a better job.
Ultimately Moeyo Ken did not get me invested into any of the characters. The runtime was 2 hours and 30 minutes but it felt like there was less than 5 minutes dedicated to character moments.
The movie should have been above Hijikita and Oyuji talking and they did not need to show the story of Shinsengumi from beginning to end. I know there are a lot of Shinsengumi movies but there is not enough time to do the whole story justice.
Better to concentrate on a few moments in the Shinsengumi history and explore the characters. Moeyo Ken has a huge budget and looks really good as can be seen from screenshots but the doramas do a better job with the characters obviously. Meh.
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