Aragami (2003)

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

The movie runs out of plot and jokes well before the end of a two-hour running time, long for a light comedy.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

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.

Made in one set, with three principal actors, and over seven days, Aragami impresses far more than the more immature Versus. Setting himself the task of shooting an action movie in one room (itself a possible contradiction in terms) the constraints ultimately make for a much more satisfying and engrossing experience than his previous, overrated breakthrough film - which was too carelessly off the wall and derivative to impress this viewer. As a project Aragami also contrasts strongly with the much more opened out Azumi (another personal favourite), which replaced the gloomy interiors and philosophising of Aragami with something much more kinetic and light hearted.At heart Aragami is a film about knowing who you are, and both Osawa (who has since appeared in the less concentrated Sky High) and Masaya Kato are excellent in roles which, like chamber music, leave every flaw in performance likely to be exposed. Obviously written at speed, the film's pay off could have been more enlightening (but perhaps a touch of obscurity in this sort of thing is a benefit, especially at a time when Hollywood genre efforts typically feel obliged to spell everything out), but fans won't argue too much and interpretations are easy to make. The wonder of the film is that the director was able to stage and direct two action scenes - one short, one more extended - with such gusto and convincing moves, given the tight shooting schedule and limitation of the set, while still allowing himself time for empathetic set ups during slower moments. It requires the ingenuity and confidence of a Roger Corman to bring this thing off, raising such stuff above straight-to-video fodder, and Kitamura succeeds magnificently.Ignore those who claim the film is 'too talky', for none of the chat is wasted (there's none of the narrative indulgence seen in the recent Sky High, for instance), the actors have enough presence to carry it off, and time spent with them never palls. Over 79 minutes nothing drags, and the changing relationship between the samurai and the goblin provide constant interest. The developing duel between the two principals neatly reflects back to the friendly rivalry between Kitamura and his fellow director Tsutsumi which originally initiated the film. If you are tired of bloated Hollywood mega-buck productions and want to get back to the basics of purposeful dialogue, imaginative stageing and thought-through editing - in short, lean, popcorn pumping cinema - then this is a film you need to see.

This film was abysmal. It was so abysmal and such a waste of time that I at first decided not to waste even more time on writing a comment, but upon realising the lack of proper critique of this film, I decided to make possible future viewers a favour. This is not an action film, it is not an intelligent film. It would be unfair to say that it is somewhere in between; yes, it does fail to be any of the two, yet it also completely fails to be an interesting mix of the two. The result is truly bland. This seems to me a 15-year old's image of intellectualism and just general "coolness". If the director wanted this movie to be taken seriously, why is Aragami's hair dyed red? Just one of those stupid details which makes no sense, other than adding "coolness".No, I have nothing against action movies, nothing against intellectual movies, nothing against Japanese movies and I would say I usually do not have anything against samurai movies either. So... trust me. Just don't waste your time on this movie.

I saw this movie at the SF Indie Film fest which presented this & Yukihiko Tsutsumi's 2LDK back-to-back and the audience got to vote on which was the better of the 2. As has been noted, the directors of both of these films stayed up late one night drinking @ Berlin Film fest & dared each other to a duel. The terms of the duel: make a film about a duel involving 2 characters that takes place in one setting and shoot it in 7 days. Unfortunately, TsuTsumi had back problems and was unable to attend, but Kitamura was present & introduced the film. He said Tsutsumi had called him a few months after the pact & asked him how his project was going & took him entirely off-guard as he was working on Ozumi & hadn't done anything. So he wrote Aragami very quickly & used it as a way to help prepare for Ozumi. The theme is very interesting, A samurai runs into an old temple in the mountains w/ his buddy & both are near death. One of the samurai's survives by the help of the temple's resident, who is somewhat of a mystery (is he a samurai? priest? doctor?). Without revealing too much of the plot, the surviving samurai is led into a duel with him & it becomes clear that defeating the temple's mysterious resident is beyond his abilitites as a samurai. The plot (with the exception of the ending) was extremely good & there were some really good moments of rapport between the 2. The film's main theme of war & a warrior's duty/calling is not new, though the way it evolves in this film is quite interesting. Most notable is the way the film shows how homoerotic desire/affection underlies much hand-to-hand combat (i.e. sublimating a desire that is unspoken by attempting to kill the desired). However, this theme is not as well developed as the overall theme. As a result, the ending feels a bit like a cheap shot, a rather hurried attempt at a clever ending, than something that evolves well from the characters' sparring (both verbal & in actual action). Despite this, the ending does present an interesting take on the subject of war & those who are willing to fuel the fire. Those who really come to these films for the action sequences might be a bit disappointed, as the action sequences in this film are short & comprised of extremely quick takes, though there is an interesting sequence that uses flash images of the fighting giving it a strobe effect. Other problems I had with the film were the setting, lighting & sound. The movie took place in a rather odd temple w/ cheesey buddha artifacts. It looked more like more like Disney Park room (if it were created in the 1980s) version of a Japanese Temple complete with dark colored lighting (heavy on red & blue). The light & sound affects in the film (rain, lightning, etc.) also gave the film an artificial feel, making it look almost like some of Fassbinder's films (i.e. Berlin Alexanderplatz), however the distancing affect it creates on the viewer, didn't really seem to add to the film's theme any. The director did state that he was more influenced by the Hollywood films of the 70s & 80s that he watched while growing up, than by martial arts films. Most distracting, though, was the film's electronica background music, which became very repetitious & annoying at times, as it really detracted from the dialogue between the 2 characters. The heavy metal music at the end, perhaps wasn't as out of place as the electronica, given the ending, but was also pretty annoying & felt like overkill. Overall I'd give it a 7/10....with more time, attention & money this one could have been quite exceptional. But unfortunately the director has quite a lot going on (a re-issue of Versus with new scenes, Versus 2 & Godzilla) & so the rushed job that it was really did seem to affect its quality. I did not get to stay to see who won the duel, but judging by how many people were going to the 2LDK ballot box, I think the votes mirror the imdb rating....2LDK is the winner (and that is my feeling too).