"Dororo" is an epic Japanese fantasy movie adapted from a manga series. The story features a male orphan whose body parts have been given to forty-eight demons by his vindictive father and who grows up with an old farmer who puts an artificial body with parts of dead babies together for the poor child. After the death of his adoptive father, the young man without a name, a soul and an own body, crosses the country to get back all parts of his body and discover his identity. To do so, he must find all forty-eight demons and kill them one by one. In a poor village, her crosses a young female thief with a lot of energy. She witnesses his fight with a demon and decides to give up her desperate life to follow the cold and mysterious warrior. Together they cross the country, fight many demons and finally find out that their tragic fates are somewhat connected and lead to a powerful tyrant who fails to unite a shattered Japanese country by taking too many radical decisions.

This movie kicks off very promising. The legendary story around the nameless warrior is very creative. The scenes set in the cabin of the old farmer, the stunning Japanese landscapes and the poor village have a somewhat fantastic feeling and great atmosphere. Both characters are introduced very well.

After a while, the movie starts to get a little bit disappointing. The two main characters are quite opposite from each other and have no gripping connection between them. Their dialogues always turn around the same things and are interrupted as soon as they may start to get interesting. Only in the end, the character development improves a little bit. Of course, it's normal that a soulless warrior who seems to have the whole world against him won't be very emotional and I didn't expect a passionate love story or anything but the whole thing feels simply too emotionless and the movie contains a couple of lengths from this point of view.

The next problem really are the embarrassing slapstick comedy moments. I know that this kind of influence probably comes from the original manga but the gripping story and the slowly built up atmosphere in the beginning really gets some serious cracks at that point. While the female character of Dororo is overall charming and well portrayed, the moments when she seems to be a little bit hyperactive, naive and silly are too present and should have been skipped to make this movie more mature.

It's probably due to financial issues that many just turn out to be ridiculous. Instead of being mysterious as they should be, their appearances are quite silly. The special effects of this quite recent flick are definitely mediocre. It reminds me of the aged stop motion techniques that can be witnessed in old Gamera, Gojira and King Kong flicks. This kind of costumes and effects had a certain charm four or five decades ago but they just are somewhat embarrassing today.

This all sounds rather negative but the great beginning of the movie and a couple of atmospheric scenes throughout the movie, for example the secret of the ugly worm demons that took the lives of twenty young orphans or the moment when the warrior finds out the truth about his existence, pardon for the mentioned flaws. The ending seems to indicate that at least one sequel might follow this flick and I really would like to see them happen and watch them. I would recommend this movie to any fan of fantastic mangas or Japanese legends who doesn't care too much about too old fashioned special effects and a couple of minor lengths.

"Baramui Fighter" is a very well done biopic of the Korean national hero Choi Bae Dal who was one of the best martial arts fighters in the whole world and who has gone through loads of hard times as being a part of the Korean minority in Japan that has been shattered by the Second World War and the following cruel occupation by American soldiers and the slow return to form of the country.

The movie surely idealizes a little bit too much the main character with this homage and the story reserves not many surprises. A poor Korean boxer gets in trouble with local authorities, isolates himself in the mountains after the tragic assassination of his idol and comes back to become the country's best fighter before he realizes that there are more important things than fighting for its own honour. The story includes some philosophic parts, a typical but very well played subtle love story and a load of breathtaking fighting scenes.

It's not only the solid acting or the very well done but not outstanding fighting scenes that make this movie quite entertaining but the authentic portrait of the hard life in Japan after the war. The scenes in the poor quarters of a big Japanese city including gang fights, conflicts with brutal local authorities and an emotional melting pot of honour, identity and passion that are questioned make this movie very addicting. Especially the first forty-five minutes or so of the movie are great to watch, the rest is your solid standard martial arts flick.

In the end, anybody interested in Japanese and Korean culture and history might highly adore this movie. Martial arts fan will also like this well done film. Those who like the more emotional and philosophic parts might give this movie some credits but might claim that it could have been more profound. This flick is clearly better than many recent Chinese and Japanese martial arts movies but it can't keep up with the classics of the genre.

Note that the very diversified soundtrack of the movie from tradition folk music to modern symphonic metal came as a positive surprise to me.

Here comes another superhero movie after all those Supermen, Batmen, Spidermen and so on. Many movie experts simply start getting tired of all these quite similar movies and I only watched this one because somebody told me that this was a standout of its genre. The story is indeed interesting as somebody tries to murder a gang of retired superheroes that all have their dark sides in this atmospheric movie that has some film noir tendencies and a couple of solid ideas.

This all sounds promising but the movie is simply way too long and has many lengths. The film kicks off very well and especially the narrative parts of Rohrschach, the best character among the superheroes played by the best actor in this film with Jackie Earle Haley, is highly addicting. The movie simply develops too many flashbacks and uninspired side stories that slow down the starting dynamics after a while. Especially the typical Hollywood love story stereotypes bring what could have been a different kind of movie on a more commercial and ordinary flick for the masses. The dialogues are quite cheesy and there are too many of them. The characters are not sympathetic enough to really care about them. If they had all died, I would not have been unsatisfied. In my opinion, there is quite a waste of time and potential in this film.

The acting is not bad but not outstanding, the action sequences are the same and the story has its ups and downs so that the only solid thing are the special effects but they can't save this movie from mediocrity. Another letdown is the ending of the flick. I've waited for more murders, chasing scenes and the proposal of diversified possibilities to guess who's behind the crimes. In the end, there aren't so many murders and the final solution doesn't come as a big surprise and what happens in the big boom just won't come. The conclusion is not that standard and can be described as courageous as it differs from your usual happy end but I disliked the movie's philosophy and would have expected something more emotional, engaging and surprising.

In the end, I would only recommend this movie to those who like superhero movies and would like to see a darker side of some heroic characters. Anybody who likes Hollywood cinema and modern special effects will surely adore this movie. Anybody who's expecting something gripping, original or profound should simply avoid this kind of movie.