Plantiana Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Cubussoli Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

CommentsXp Best movie ever!

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

8thSin I really liked the story in this movie, of mysterious beings that existed in the world and the night they spent before the showdown. However, it turned out to be just another action B-movie plagued by poor acting and story development.I should've known from the English opening credits that this movie would be a joke made for the foreign audience though. I can just see it now, these directors and producers discussing this film in a meeting. "Subtlety doesn't work for foreigners, let's have Oosawa Takao over-react to everything." "They like CG, let's add an unnecessary space scene to it." "They liked VERSUS, let's get Tak to appear in the end"...Katou Masaya's performance as Aragami was pretty impressive. He seemed to be really into the character and portrayed the mysterious character and its motive very well. Oosawa Takao though, I know is a much better actor from other films.This film's action wasn't bad, but nothing out of ordinary. It was clearly produced in a rush and little attention to details. The Aragami's speech, for example, ended sentences with "...Ja" in beginning of the movie, which is what barbaric men say in Japanese, but he practically stopped it altogether in the second half of the movie for no reason. Such abrupt change in speech pattern is a proof of poor production. A nice stab at the Dual Project Challenge, but ultimately a good script wasted.

chrichtonsworld Maybe I missed something. We have two men,one woman in one building. One man is a samurai and the other admits being a demon. First they eat and drink and talk. Nothing wrong with that. Until the samurai is asked by the demon,(war god) to kill him because he is tired. The samurai refuses since he doesn't believe him. After a short fight he finally believes him and accepts the demon's request. Now this promises a wonderful duel between the two. I must admit, I saw some good action. In my opinion it wasn't intense enough. When they fight,there are to many breaks in between that ruin the pace of the movie. And that is a bad thing because the pace is to slow from the start. There is nothing wrong with dialog. But for me this wasn't interesting enough. And I could forgive this if the action sequences would have been better,but that was not the case. Judging by the other reviews this movie is a masterpiece! I disagree. I just don't have the patience to watch a movie like this.

Company_of_Wolves When both Ryuhei Kitamura and Yukihiko Tsutsumi finished their short films for the Jam anthology early, their producer gave them something new to try. In the space of one week they were each to produce a film, using only two man characters, one location and it had to be focused around a fight. This was called the "Duel" project.Kitamuras film was "Aragami". The title meaning "fierce deity", and the story revolving around a demon who seeks an opponent who can beat him in combat, taking a wounded samurai in and healing him so that they can face of in a climatic battle. The story, essentially being a simple good versus evil affair was very well done. At times it's hard to tell if one of them is evil, or if they both are in fact evil. And there are enough plot twists to keep your attention throughout this whole suspense filled feature.Try as I might, I find it almost impossible to find anything to complain about with this film, it really is something amazing. It's a very atmospheric film. Kitamura makes excellent use of light to make the temple look suitably dark and mysterious. From flickering candle light, to eerie purple light flooding in from the night outside, to breath taking lighting that gleams from swords classing in the dark. "Aragami" is a very beautifully shot film, with excellent use of camera angles and not just during the fight scenes. But he made superb use of it to highlight both characters persona throughout.The use of music was also really well done in this film. At times it heats up the action speeding your heartbeat, at other times it helps establish a more calm mood. During the final battle the use of sound makes it seem like we are almost on a roller coaster. The protagonists feelings of suspicion at the beginning is not only conveyed through acting, but through the music that accompanies his realisations. The use of music is possibly most notable when it helps reinforce the almost friendship that the two of them forge over their drinks and conversation.Both of the main characters were very well acted, which for some reason I was surprised at. Perhaps it was the depth of the acting that did it for me. Or how quickly they were able to change the mood, and focus of the conversation. At one point the Aragami seems very evil and dark, but in a matter of a few words the focus is shifted onto the protagonist, making him appear as a cold and heartless monster. This was very well done, and very believable. You really get the feeling that the Aragami is bored, ancient and somewhat noble.The only problems I can find with this film, is that it does have an incredibly slow pace up until the much anticipated climatic battle. Perhaps this was intentional, as to make us more desperate to see them tear into each other but I felt it wasn't very well done. For most of the film the two of them are just sitting there talking over drinks, and while this is well acted there isn't enough action to excite us until the finale.Kitamura teases us with a little bit of a fight early one, but it's not until the end that we finally see one of his trademark epic battles. Which in itself could have been better, it wasn't as fast as his other films. Perhaps due to the "Anime" posing the characters did while the talked to each other during the fight. If they had just tore into each other in a brutal show of skill the film would have been so much better.Some slight issues with the pace of the movie, but in all a very well made and entertaining film. And for anyone who has seen "Versus", you're bound to chuckle a little when you see the ending.8.5/10

niz The director of VERSUS is back, and this time he gives us an old-school samurai sword-fighting flick. ARAGAMI was apparently made in 7 days as a challenge with a fellow director. Its minimalistic to the extreme: 3 actors, one big room as the only location, a plot structure as simple as it gets: dialogue - fight - dialogue - fight - dialogue - fight. And what fights! They're as hyper-kinetic, exciting and fun as the dialogue is bizarre & funny. ARAGAMI is 100& crowd-pleasing action. This one deserves to be a big international hit.