Parky at the Pictures (DVD 17/5/2018)

As narrator Xiao Suizi (Zhong Chuxi) informs us, He Xiaoping (Miao Miao) arrives in south-western China from Beijing in 1970 to join the PLA Arts Troupe. She has been escorted by soldier friend Liu Feng (Huang Xuan), who has tried to make things easier for her by removing the name of her disgraced father and replacing him with her loyal stepfather. She thanks him and looks on in awe, as the troupe rehearse a patriotic routine with a full orchestra. When the choreographer asks her to show what she can do, Xiaoping launches into a series of somersaults and draws a round of applause.

Entrusted into the care of Suizi, Xiaoping collects her kit from the store. However, there is a shortage of uniforms and she has to make do with an alternative. Suizi introduces the newcomer to pianist Lin Dingding (Yang Caiyu) and accordionist and dormitory captain Hao Shuwen (Li Xiaofeng). The latter is far from impressed when Xiaoping attempts a salute, but she heads for the showers thinking that she has found a sanctuary away from the bullying she has had to endure at home at the hands of her stepsisters.

Over in the canteen, Feng (who is the unit photographer) returns a watch he has repaired for Dingding and she thanks him for going to the trouble of buying a manual to learn how to fix it. However, he is called away when some pigs escape from their pen and he has to chase through the streets as a Red Guards procession proclaiming the benevolent genius of Mao Zedong goes past. Unfortunately, he is unable to advise Xiaoping against putting on Dingding's stage uniform for a photograph to send home and Shuwen spots the picture in the studio window as the troupe ships out to entertain a detachment of troops.

During their stay, Feng helps Dingding burst the blisters on her feet, but then makes her miss a cue by feeding her tinned oranges. Suizi also gets a crush on bugler Chen Can (Wang Tianchen) and is touched when he plays for a column of tanks massed on a muddy road. Once back on the compound, however, Shuwen finds the photograph that Xiaoping had been hiding under her pillow and she is ridiculed for lying about borrowing Dingding's uniform. Suizi watches from the dormitory doorway, as Shuwen proposes reporting her to their superiors for theft. But Dingding suggests that they find a way for Xiaoping to atone for her error of judgement.

Out on the rifle range, Shuwen has a bet with Can that she can outscore him. He is astonished to discover that she beat him with more hits on the target than she fired bullets and it transpires that Xiaoping shot so inaccurately that she peppered Shuwen's target instead. He goes off in a sulk and Suizi tries to cheer him up. Meanwhile, Shuwen continues to bully Xiaoping, who is still refusing to admit to taking the uniform. She is saved from a midnight showdown over a shirt and a padded bra by the choreographer, who reminds the girls that they are comrades and should behave as such.

Following the death of Mao in 1976, China is ruled by the Gang of Four. But, as Suizi reveals in her narration, they were soon ousted and things began to change in the Arts Troupe, too. Having been away on duty, Feng returns with post for the dancers and Suizi is overjoyed to receive a suitcase full of goodies from her father, who has been rehabilitated. This gives Xiaoping hope that her own father will be freed and she writes him a letter by torchlight explaining how she had been so afraid he would not recognise her that she had a photo taken in her uniform to send him. Now, she just hopes that they can be reunited and that he will forgive her for taking her stepfather's surname.

During a rehearsal, male dancer Zhu Ke (Zhang Renbo)  refuses to hold Xiaoping because he can't stand her body odour. She is hurt and Feng offers to dance with her in front of the rest of the troupe. He is doing odd jobs with the stage crew and informs the commissar that he would like to remain with the company rather than accept a promotion. However, he is also asked to tell Xiaoping that her father has died and she reads his final letter, in which he laments having been separated from her when she was so young and thanks her for the photograph that gave him so much solace.

As time passes, Feng starts making some armchairs for one of the officers and Suizi is impressed by the fact that he can turn his hand to anything. When Can gets hold of a tape recorder and plays the group a tape by Taiwanese singer Teresa Teng, Feng is so swept away by the lyrics that he decides to let Dingding know how he feels about her. But she is taken aback by his protestation of love and they are caught with Feng bear-hugging her in silent desperation. She howls on her bunk and Shuwen is surprised that she has reacted so badly to a harmless hug. But Dingding declares Feng to be a creep and files a complaint against him that results in him being interrogated by the security branch.

Dismayed to be accused of trying to molest her, Feng puts up a fight and is punished by being sent to a timber brigade on the Vietnamese. Xiaoping comes to see him off and takes away a box of belongings that he no longer wants. She also waits at the gate to give him a last salute and he turns to take a last glimpse of the barrack where he had been so happy. Working with the costume department because she is too embarrassed to dance, Xiaoping is also on the move and she is asked to dance a leading role when her Mongolian roommate, Drolma (Sui Yuan), damages her knee before a morale-boosting performance for a cavalry unit. Feigning illness, Xiaoping swaps a thermometer to claim a debilitating fever. But the commissar marches her on stage and informs the audience that they could learn from her courage in dancing while suffering from altitude sickness and Xiaoping blushes as she returns their cheers with a salute.

After the performance, the troupe is made to stand in the driving rain on a parade ground, as the commissar congratulates them on their efforts. He also announces that Xiaoping will be leaving for health reasons and she smiles quietly at the way in which her excuse has been rumbled and punished. As a consequence, she finds herself on the south-western border in February 1979, as the Sino-Vietnamese War breaks out and she is assigned to a field hospital. Unbeknown to her, Feng is stationed nearby and several of his men are killed and wounded when his horseback supply train is ambushed in some fields and he insists on standing guard with his men with a bullet in his arm rather than receive attention.

As Suizi reveals in the narration, Feng had lost the will to live after Dingding had spurned him and he hoped that he would die in action and be immortalised in a song that she would end up playing because he had become such a national hero. She gets to learn these things because she has been transferred from the Arts Troupe to be a writer with a documentary film unit. She finds Xiaoping, who is feeling the strain after caring for the badly wounded and the dying. They embrace and she tells Suizi to keep an eye out for Feng because she knows he is somewhere on the frontline. She also reminds her to tell Dingding that she will never forgive her for breaking his heart.

That night, the hospital is blitzed during a mortar attack and Xiaoping is badly shell-shocked after her tent takes a direct hit while she is talking to a 16 year-old, who had lied about his age to sign up. She is taken to an institution, where she is reunited with Feng, who has lost the lower half of his right arm, but is still in uniform. He tries to jog her memory, but she has no idea who he is and she seems nonplussed at learning that the war is over.

Back at the Arts Troupe, Suizi finds herself in the ranks again alongside Dingding. Rumours are circulating that the army is going to disband its entertainment units and Can is so distracted that he crashes his back and loses the front teeth he needs to play his trumpet. Suizi is dismayed because she knows how much his music means to him. So, she offers her gold necklace so he can have special dentures made. But Dingding is too preoccupied with her engagement ring to care about anyone else, especially as her fiancé plans to take her to live abroad.

The commissar assembles the troupe to inform them that they will give their final performance that night. Several casualties from the war will be in the audience and Suizi recognises Xiaoping and Dingding and the other dancers rush to see her sitting sedately in her blue-striped uniform. As Drolma dances a duet, Xiaoping seems to recognise the music and she slips out of a side door and dances her own steps against the darkening sky, as the music swells from the theatre. As they drive back to their barracks, Suizi slips a love letter and her first poem into Can's trumpet case, only to learn from Shuwen that they are an item. So, when everyone else has dozed off during the journey through the night, Suizi retrieves the pieces of paper, tears them up and throws the shreds on the wind.

Led by the commissar, the troupe holds a farewell dinner and they toast their health and sing sentimental songs, as the choreographer asks why such a noble group has to be broken up. Suizi wakes with her head on a table the next morning and looks around at her comrades still sleeping it off. She reveals that many never saw each other again. But, as a Coca-Cola advert now stands where a hoarding had once borne the image of Mao, Feng returns to the old barracks and he imagines the dancers performing as he stands in the empty theatre. He is surprised to find Suizi staying in one of the dormitories and she is saddened to see he has lost his arm. Wandering into her room, he treads on a loose floor tile and finds beneath it the torn pieces of Xiaoping's uniform photo. He is more interested in her smile than in the whereabouts of Dingding and Suizi laments that all she had ever wanted was acceptance.

The scene shifts to Haikou in Hainan Province in 1991. Shuwen has come to a special event with her young son and she explains to Suizi that Can isn't able to attend because he is making so much money from real estate that he has to stay focused. As she waits for Suizi, Shuwen sees Feng cycle past and she follows to see him being roughed up in a police station, where a corrupt captain has ordered him to pay an extortionate fine to retrieve his truck. During the tussle, Feng's prosthetic arm is pulled off and Shuwen rails at the cops for disrespecting a war veteran.

She pays the fine and returns with Feng to the bookshop where Suizi is going to give a reading. Shuwen admits she sees nothing of her husband, who used the gold necklace to fix his teeth, but never played the trumpet again. While Feng goes to write a cheque, Shuwen shows Suizi a snapshot of Dingding in Australia and laugh at how fat she has become. While Shuwen rips up the cheque, Suizi passes Feng a picture of Xiaoping and he smiles at how healthy she looks.

Four years later, in Mengzi in Yunnan Province, Feng and Xiaoping meet in the cemetery to pay their respects to the young trooper they had both known at the front. As they sit on a bench, he reveals that his wife ran away with a bus driver and he jokes that he has never really understood women. She asks if he remembers the last time they had seen each other and admits that she had wanted to ask him to hold her. He puts his good arm around her and Xiaoping snuggles up to him.

As Suizi tidies up the loose ends, she reveals that Feng and Xiaoping had gone their separate ways. But, when he fell ill in 2005, she had nursed him back from the brink and they remained companions from then on. In 2016, at the wedding of Suizi's son, the Arts Troupe reassembled and she recalls how the rest bore the ravages of time on their faces, while Xiaoping and Feng looked quietly content, even though they only had each other.

Adapted by Yan Geling from her own semi-autobiographical novel, this is a rattling yarn that combines elements of Revolutionary Opera and Socialist Realist drama with the kind of effects-laden and blood-spattered combat sequences that have crept into cinema from gaming. As ever, Feng Xiaogang (who, like Yan, was a member of an arts troupe) is in complete control of his material and clearly has no compunction about allowing some of the more melodramatic segments to lapse into honest sentimentality. But, while he alludes to the stratification of Chinese society, he makes few concessions for audiences not already familiar with this tempestuous period in Chinese history and some viewers may find themselves doing some background reading to see how the pieces slot together.

Technically, this is nowhere near as audacious as its predecessor. But Shi Haiying's production design is exemplary, as it abets Feng's tonal and temporal shifts, while Luo Pan's nimble photography slips with equal ease between opulence and grit. Shi also did the costumes, while Zhao Lin and Dai Xiaofei contribute a knowingly pastiched score that knows when to swell and quell. The principals also judge things nicely, with Yang Caiyu and Li Xiaofeng making splendidly catty mean girls in opposition to the watchful Zhong Chuxi and the wary Miao Miao. But the most engaging performance comes from Huang Xuan, as the everyman whose good intentions rarely pan out as he had intended.  

In many ways, this is a reminder to the millennial generation of the sacrifices that their parents made to create the socio-economic benefits they now enjoy. To this extent, it has much in common with recent American features like Dee Rees's Mudbound. But, wary of upsetting the censors, Feng often seems as interested in entertaining as he is enlightening and, consequently, keeps his messages hidden in the lines between the human drama and the musical and historical spectacle.

While he may not be as prolific or as provocative as Takashi Miike, Sion Sono is no stranger to subversion, as he has demonstrated in such fascinating features as Suicide Club (2001), Noriko's Dinner Table (2005), Love Exposure (2008), Cold Fish (2010) and The Virgin Psychics (2015). His latest outing, Antiporno, has been made as part of the Roman Porno Reboot Project launched by the Nikkatsu studio to mark its centenary. Requiring directors to put a modern spin on the skin flicks that the zaibatsu had churned out between 1971-88, this sequence has so far spawned Akihiko Shiota's Wet Women in the Wind, Isao Yukisada's Aroused by Gymnopedies, Kazuya Shiraishi's Dawn of the Felines and Hideo Nakata's White Lily. But Sono is less interested in outright titillation than in the way that cinema has commercialised sex and, in the process, objectified, fetishised and exploited women. 

Waking face down on her blue bed with a pair of pink panties around her ankles, Ami Tomite pulls up her underwear and teeters out of her yellow bedroom into a red bathroom. Sitting on the loo, she gazes into a fragment of broken mirror and curses the fact that it's her birthday and she is falling apart. She decides to cheer herself up by putting on a peach dress and chats to the ghost of her late sister, who is playing the piano as Tomite flits around the room and sympathises with a lizard that is trapped inside a wine bottle.

Having danced around for a while and contemplated the dichotomy that she is both a virgin and a whore, Tomte watches some pornography on a video projector and becomes so agitated urging the couple on that she has to rush to the bathroom to vomit. Musing on the importance of bodily functions, Tomite turns off the film and begins laughing hysterically while proclaiming that she is not alone but an independent woman. She is interrupted by the arrival of her loyal assistant, Mariko Tsutsui, who starts reading the daily schedule. But Tomite is distracted by the four large paintings propped against the wall and she declares them depressing because the model is ugly.

Tsutsui tries to stop Tomite from damaging the art and has a glass of water poured over her head for her pains. Tomite asks if she would like to be a whore and Tsutsui nods eagerly, as she is ordered to get on all fours and bark like a dog. Tomite puts a collar around her neck and leads Tsutsui around the room on a lead,  as she laughs that she lacks the purity of heart to be a proper wanton. Enjoying the power she has over her minion, Tomite orders her to read the schedule while licking her legs. But, as she begins to take pleasure in the sensation of being pampered, Tomite is overcome by nausea and dashes back into the bathroom to throw up again.

Although Tsutsui expresses concern, she is rewarded with a thrashing with the leash that is only brought to an end by the doorbell. A trendy magazine editor and her photographer breeze in with their minions to do an interview and they are about to pose Tomite when she decides that her rouge is not suitable and orders Tsutsui to slash her wrists so that she can use her blood. As the others look on enthralled, Tsutsui cuts into her flesh and red spots drip on to the floor. However, Tomite derides the quality of the blood and urges one of the liggers to cut into her own arm.

Rather than applying the blood directly, however, Tomite orders Tsutsui to strip naked and crawl on all four so that her skin can be smeared for her use. Dabbing the blood on to her cheek, Tomite seems satisfied. But she wishes to pile further humiliation on Tsutsui and tells one of the acolytes wearing a strap-on to rape her, while she answers questions about her work as a novelist and her habit of using actresses to fashion her characters and creating artworks based on the books. She smiles at the hazy spirit of her sister on the other side of the room, as she ridicules the idea that her work has a theme.

Whirling around the room as the camera snaps, Tomite asks Tsutsui if she is enjoying being raped and laughs when she replies that she aspires to being as big a whore as her boss. Suddenly, Tomite has a vision of this scene taking place on a floor soaked with red liquid and she wretches as inspiration washes over her and she searches frantically for a paint brush to pound the image into canvas.

But, as she turns around, a voice shouts `Cut!', and we realise that everything we have seen thus far has been self-consciously staged as a film within a film. The director is furious with Tomite for messing up and she looks round to see her co-stars sitting on the bed and shaking their heads in disbelief. Tsutsui is particularly irate and she slaps Tomite for her poor performance and she asks the director why he is wasting his time with such a third-rater. Tomite burns with shame and promises to improve, but the director hits her over the head with his clipboard and warns her to get it right or else. Tsutsui also threatens to ruin her career and the crew bay for Tomite to get on all fours and lick Tsutsui's leg.

They resume from the moment Tsutsui strips, but the scene doesn't play as before, as Tsutsui slaps Tomite around the head and, when she delivers her speech about the freedoms enjoyed by Japanese women, she has lost the confident conviction of the first take and the director calls for a break. Feeling miserable, Tomite looks up and sees several women in print dresses with long trains standing before her. They encourage her to be the best she can be and she appears to have a flashback to a moment in her childhood when she stalked through a moonlit forest brandishing a knife and standing before a couple having sex.

When she comes round, Tomite is lying on the bed again, only this time she is wearing the pink panties around her waist. She feels flustered and opens the door to Tsutsui with an admission that she is finding this role difficult because she is an ordinary woman and not the whore she is being asked to portray. The falseness of the situation oppresses her and she turns to find herself alone on a stage with Tsutsui and an audience laughing at her speech about her life and her work being separate things. Back on the film set, she asks Tsutsui if she will hit her again when the director calls `cut!' But Tsutsui is as confused by the question as she is Tomite's insistence that the film beaming on the wall shows her having sex, when it simply shows a sun-dappled woodland glade.

Light pours through the extractor fan vents and spirals like disco lighting on the floor. Tomite has a vision of her schoolgirl self coming down a flight of stairs and she dines with her parents, who discuss their conjugal activities with her sister using a formal language that they belief distinguishes their love-making from the sordid acts depicted in pornography. Tomite announces that she would like to die and her mother urges her to improve her grades instead. She leaves the table and marches into an adjoining room, where she begs a young man in a suit to kill her by plunging a knife into her abdomen. He obliges and she falls to the floor, while looking up into the lens.

Suddenly, we are back in the yellow room, with Tsutsui posing for Tomite, who has decided to make her the model for her next heroine. She orders Tsutsui to strip and removes her own underwear before fondling her body. They kiss, but Tomite breaks away as inspiration hits her and she rushes back to the canvas. As she paints, she is stricken with self-doubt and is urged on by the women in long dresses who are now kneeling at her feet. She curses being a woman, as they always have to be subservient to men.

The doorbell rings and Tsutsui enters to begin another day's work. She begins reading the schedule, but Tomite is distracted by a vision of her parents having sex against the red bathroom wall. Tsutsui is puzzled that she would be so taken aback by the fact that her parents slept together, but breaks off to answer the door. The editor and photographer breeze in with their entourage and Tomite offers to show them footage of the time she lost her virginity. But the projected image shows snow blowing gently in a glade and the women exchange sceptical looks.

But, as Tomite tries to assert herself, the director loses his patience and sends everyone for a break. Tsutsui tuts in disgust at Tomite's incompetence and she wanders behind the scenery in a daze. She changes into a school uniform and returns home to find her parents canoodling on the stairs. Much to their horror, she announces that she has a role in a roman porno and, when her father protests, she says she is sick of seeing him coupling with her stepmother all the time and pleads with him to take her virginity. She tries to pull him on top of her, but he wriggles free and Tomite rushes into the street to ask a stranger to sleep with her. He agrees and pushes her down in the woods and begins to force himself on her when she suggests that they just grind instead. Looking up, she sees the long-dress woman gathered around a camera on a tripod. But they have vanished by the time her first sexual experience ends and she scrambles to her feet with dirty knees.

A cut take us to Tomite in her uniform auditioning for the film role. The director asks why she wants to appear in a roman porno and she says she wants to be naked and have lots of sex. He isn't convinced and orders her to strip to her underwear and she implores him to make her chaste body smutty. As she yells that she would be a great choice, the director tells Tomite to look into a white cardboard box. She sees her parents fornicating and recalls the pain of losing her younger sister, which she compares to all the pictures of butterflies in the pages of a book flying free and congregating on the ceiling.

Tomite gets up from her desk in a classroom and knocks on a door. Tsutsui answers. She is now the author and she makes Tomite remove her skirt and crawl on all fours like a dog. Tomite is now the one to receive the thrashing with a belt, but the scene is crosscut with Tomite striding up and down the yellow room reading from a manuscript. At that moment, the editor and the photographer arrive and Tomite lets them in. Tsutsui now recites the speech about freedom and how Japanese women are too timid to reach out and take it for themselves.

Once again, the scene shifts to Tomite sitting at a desk, as she describes the plot of the porno and explains that is being made to show that Japanese men are as useless as the fake freedoms and daydream world they have created. She begins to shout, as she denigrates chauvinist voyeurism and all it represents. But she is interrupted by her sister bringing her a birthday cake, which she places on the desk. Tomite repeatedly buries her face in the cake, as she raves that she is worth more than the cheap freedoms men claim for themselves. As purple paint cascades from the ceiling,

Tomite throws herself on the floor and writhes and cackles before pushing the desk out of the top shot showing her being spattered with more paint from above. As two naked women gyrate on the floor beside her and her sister wanders into the torrent of paint as snow begins to fall, Tomite slithers around in search of an exit. She bawls in distress, as we cross-cut to a shot of the lizard trapped in the bottle beside the squished birthday cake.

Typically transgressive, but markedly less controlled than Sono's best work, this is a deliberately difficult picture to watch and fathom. Clearly, casting a jaundiced eye over the roman porno and its poor relation, the pinku-eiga, Sono often appears to be biting the hand that feeds him, as he questions the social and aesthetic aspects of pornography and the way in which its commodification of women impacts upon the way that men treat them in the real world. But he also exploits the old Nikkatsu strategy of giving film-makers a degree of creative leeway providing that they slipped in some nudity or simulated sexual activity every 10 minutes. Thus, this could also be seen as a dissertation on the nature of artistic freedom, as well as the liberty that is referenced so frequently in the script.

Despite the bullishness of Ami Tomite and Mariko Tsutsui, who throw themselves with disarming verve into demanding roles alongside such adult video stalwarts as Fujiko, Ami and Saki, this always feels capricious in its criticisms and excesses. Mako Ito's photography captures the brilliant colours in Takashi Matsuzuka's audacious production design, while Junicho Ito's editing keeps the audience from settling into any sort of passivity. Yet, despite the potency of the audiovisual assault, this is rather laboured in its denunciation of sexploitation and its dissection of the movie-making process. Given the current scandal brewing in the entertainment industry, the asides on the power dynamics between an actress and a director are timely (and droll, courtesy of the self-reflexive shift in the relationship between Tomite and Tsutsui and the characters they are playing). But the hectoring nature of the abrasive satire and the blatancy of the symbolism make this more of an ordeal than a revelation.

First brought to television as an anime series in 2014, Sui Ishida's acclaimed manga Tokyo Ghoul gets the big-screen, live-action treatment in Kentaro Hagiwara's debut feature of the same name. Full of gore and knowing genre nods to keep the fanboy constituency happy, this Shochiku release is set in a present day in which ghouls pass unnoticed in the ordinary world. However, they tend to keep to their own kind, as whenever they feel the need to partake of human flesh, they develop tentacle-like organs known as `kagune' on their backs. In the original tele-show and its triptych of spin-offs, these transformations provided few challenges to the respective animation units. But Hagiwara is somewhat let down by the effects devised by Tomu Hyakutake and rendered in some decidedly dodgy computer-generated animation.

Despite the best efforts of the Comission of Counter Ghoul, Tokyoites are still being stalked by ravenous creatures who somehow manage to blend in with the general population. Consequently, bookish student Ken Kaneki (Masataka Kubota) has no idea that the seemingly innocent Rize Kamishiro (Yu Aoi) is less interested in his mind than his flavour when she accepts his invitation for a date. He gets the picture, however, when she sinks her fangs into his shoulder during a romantic nocturnal walk through the park and she stabs her kagune through his abdomen to hold him still while she feeds. But, while he is spared being devoured when a falling girder crushes the red-eyed Rize, he is forced to endure a fate worse than death when he becomes a demi-ghoul after receiving some of Rize's organs during a life-saving operation.

He gets an inkling of his predicament, however, when he goes for a celebration meal with best pal Hideyoshi Nagachika (Kai Ogasawara) and discovers that normal food tastes vile. As he tries to swallow the contents of his fridge while listening to a ghoul hunter on TV explaining the biology behind his loss of appetite, Ken imagines himself being attacked by Rize and, when he washes his face in the bathroom, he realises that one of his eyes has gone blood red. Staggering into the busy city, Ken smells flesh and promptly falls foul of Nishiki Nishio (Shunya Shiraishi), who accuses him of trespassing in his feeding ground. However, Ken is saved by Touka (Fumika Shimizu), a ghoul waitress who has long had her eyes on Ken and his friends. She despises Rize for stealing her prey and warns Ken to steer clear of Nishiki, who has little time for the Anteiku Code.

Her boss, Yoshimura (Kunio Marai), is more sympathetic, however, and notes that Ken is finding it difficult to adapt to his new condition. He informs him that coffee can hold hunger pangs at bay, but cautions him that he will need to eat human flesh in order to survive. But Ken can't bring himself to consume the cold cut that Yoshimura provides for him and he vows to continue with his old life. Covering his red eye with a patch, he hooks up with Hide at school, only to find that he has become involved with Nishiki, who recognises Ken from the alleyway. He kills Hide by slamming him into a table. But, just as he is about to take a bite, Ken unleashes his trident kagune and defeats Nishiki in an epic battle. As he licks the blood off Hide's face, however, Ken catches sight of himself in the mirror and sees Rize smirking back at him.

Ken is rescued from campus by Touka and Renji Yomo (Shuntaro Yanagi), who tidy up the room and take Hide to hospital before taking Ken back to the coffee shop. Yoshimura tells him that he is the only one who can dwell in both human and ghoul realms and offers him a job as a barista so he can learn to cope with his new reality. Here, he meets regular customer Ryoko Fueguchi (Shoko Aida) and her bashful daughter, Hinami (Hiyori Sakurada), who seeks solace in reading, as there are no other ghouls her age for her to befriend. He is also taken to meet Uta (Minosuke Bandô), who creates his ghoul mask, and accompanies Yomo on a body-collecting expedition to a well-known suicide spot.

Meanwhile, CCG agents Kotaro Amon (Nobuyuki Suzuki ) and Kureo Mado (Yo Oizumi) have become convinced that Ward 20 is the centre of Tokyo's ghoul community and are tracing dress fibres and a ring to find out more. Yoshimura realises that they are closing in on Ryoko and offers her sanctuary at the Anteiku until Yomo can find her new lodgings. Ken takes pity on Hinami when he accidentally blunders in on her eating and she feels ashamed of her nature. He also admires Touka, who bravely gobbles down a meal prepared for her by human friend, Yorkio Kosaka (Seika Foruhata), who doesn't suspect she is really a ghoul. So, Ken offers to help Hinami with her reading and to place some coffee beans on her father's grave. However, CCG rookie Ippei Kusaba (Tomoya Moeno) is snooping around the cemetery and reports back to base. Amon joins him at the graveside and digs up a box containing the mask worn by Ryoko's ghoul husband.

Armed with a quinque (a weapon made from a severed kagune), Amon and Mado corner Ryoko and Hinami when they leave for their new home in Ward 24. Desperate to save her child, who has feasted without killing, Ryoko orders Hinami to run away and she is found Ken. As they hide behind a car, however, they witness Ryoko perish in the driving rain and Ken notes the pleasure that the white-haired Mado took in slaying her. Touka asks permission to exact revenge and attacks Amon and Kusaba after they leave a restaurant (where is seems as though Amon finds human food distasteful). She wears a rabbit mask to protect her identity and succeeds in offing Kusaba before Mado arrives with his quinque to drive her away before she can throttle Amon. He has to witness Kusaba's mother identifying his body and Ken is equally distraught when he learns that Touka has been badly injured.

Seeking Yoshimura's permission, Ken takes a crash training course with the recovered Touka and a montage shows him gaining in strength and guile after some humiliating beatings. But we also see Mado planning to lure Hinami out of her safe house by using the scent of her mother's severed arm to bring her back to the spot beneath a railway bridge where she succumbed. He follows the child down to the river and warns Amon to keep an eye out for Touka and Ken, who have discovered that Hinami has slipped away. Touka takes on Mado, who is armed with a quinque made from Ryoko's kagune, while Ken overturns Amon's car and bites him in the neck during their tussle because he blames the CCG for demonising ghouls when they should be understood.

Mado revels in inflicting pain on Touka and is about to finish her off when Hinami grows her kagune and severs his arm. Touka tells her that this is the man who murdered her parents, but she fights the urge to kill and cries when Touka curses Mado for thinking that ghouls have no right to prey on humans when they are their only source of nourishment. She kills him with a flick of her kagune. But Ken is reluctant to take his first life and spares Amon after they come crashing down from a balcony during their showdown. A single tear drops on the dove agent's eye and, when he looks up, he finds he is alone on the upturned body of his car. He finds Mado's body and later lays flowers at his grave (now also wearing an eye patch). But the film ends positively (in a bid to set up a sequel) by showing Hide coming round in hospital and Ken accepting his new family at the coffee shop, with Touka and Himami.

Plunging the audience into the scenario with a cursory explanation that provides little contextualising background, this is one of those films that will delight admirers of Ishida's bestseller and leave newcomers baffle. Novice screenwriter Ichiro Kusuno is too preoccupied with packing in the busy storyline to bother with niceties like character psychology or development arc. Thus, Masataka Kubota goes from quivering wreck to cackling monster without any insight into his shifting mindset other than a sentimental attachment to Hiyori Sakurada because she's also a lonely bookworm. We also get no indication of why the conscience-stricken Nobuyuki Suzuki appears less gung-ho than his boss or why the silver-tressed Yo Oizumi is such a brooding oddball, as he opens his precious attaché cases to unleash the quinques, whose amputated powers are never explained.

For a first-timer, Kentaro Hagiwara directs the action sequences with plenty of panache, thanks to the contributions of cinematographer Satoru Karasawa, editors Yasuyuki Ozeki and Akira Takeda, and composer Don Davis. But he is less successful in reining in the scenery-gnawing tendencies of some of his players. Kubota is particularly hammy in his opening scenes, while Suzuki lurches between brooding intensity and sadistic ferocity. However, most post-screening discussion will centre on the shoddy CGI, the sudden disappearance of Yu Aoi after Kubota finds a home at the Anteiku, Fumika Shimizu's choice of a bunny mask, and why the citizens of Tokyo are not more terrified of the predators who regard them as items on a walking buffet.

Japanese maverick Takashi Miike joins the 100 Club with Blade of the Immortal. It's impossible to determine who ranks as the most prolific film-maker in history, as pioneers like Louis Feuillade (686), Georges Méliès (531) and DW Griffith (520) racked up impressive credit totals at a time when moving pictures ran for only one or two reels. During the Golden Age of Hollywood, Michael Curtiz (177) and John Ford (144) demonstrated that class and quantity could go hand in hand, although B-hiver William Beaudine could claim to have directed around 350 pictures of varying lengths. In recent times, few could match Spanish auteur Jesús Franco (203), while animators and avant-gardists like Stan Brakhage (377) and George Kuchar (238) have also amassed sizeable tallies of short films. But the 57 year-old Miike is showing little sign of slowing down and has already matched compatriot Kenju Mizoguhi by releasing JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable - Chapter 1.

Returning to the samurai genre for the first time since 13 Assassins (2010) and Hara-kiri: Death of a Samurai (2011), Miike takes his inspiration from a long-running manga series by Hiroaki Samura, which centres on a world-weary swordsman who has been condemned to eternal life after claiming his 100th victim. Doubtless Miike is not the superstitious kind, but even he has yet to make a movie about an undead director.

A monochrome prologue set during the Shogunate introduces us to Manji (Takuya Kimura), a hatamoto samurai who caused sister Machi (Hana Sugisaki) to lose her wits by killing her husband during an assault on a corrupt official and his henchmen. He now takes care of her, even though he has a price on his head that bounty hunter Hishiyasu Shido (Ken Kaneko) is determined to collect. As Manji watches Machi play with a toy windmill, the sagacious and mysterious Buddhist nun Yaobikuni (Yoko Yamamoto) declares herself to be 800 years old in warning Manji about the peril he is about to face.

Crossing the bridge into a village, Manji sees that Machi has been abducted by the shaven-headed Shido and his massed cohorts. He offers to release her if Manji lays down his swords and surrenders. But Shido kills Machi with a single blow of his sword and orders his underlings to finish off Manji. However, even though he loses the sight of an eye and has his one of his hands sliced off, Manji proves more than a match for both the swordsmen and some archers firing at him from a nearby tree. He also vanquishes Shido in a brutal duel before collapsing on the blood-soaked ground. The hooded Yaobikuni picks her way through the corpses and kneels beside Manji. She runs the blade of a dagger over his chest and Manji urges the old woman to put him out of his misery. But, instead, she pours some bloodworms from a holy lama into the wound and they miraculously reattach Manji's severed hand.

As the action resumes in full colour five decades later during the Edo period, we see 16 year-old Rin Asano (Hana Sugisaki) learning the Mutenichi-ryn style of swordplay from her father, Tadayoshi, who runs the most respected dojo in the district. Rin's mother despairs that her daughter isn't more ladylike, but she is determined to master the art of the blade. That night, however, the dojo is attacked by Anotsu Kagehisa (Sôta Fukushi), an exponent of the Itto-ryu style of swordsmanship, who is determined to wipe out rival dojos in a bid impose his own authority.

Having witnessed her father's murder and her mother's rape, Rin vows to avenge the former and rescue the latter. As she prays at Tadayoshi's grave, Yaobikuni approaches and urges her to seek an immortal bodyguard to protect her on her quest. Rin finds Manji at his shack on the outskirts of the town and he is struck by her similarity to his sister. He asks why she seeks him and questions why she feels she is in the right and Anotsu and the Itto-ryu are in the wrong. She fights to keep her temper, as she describes what happened to her parents and prepares to offer her body if Manji helps her. But he is sufficiently impressed by her determination to honour her family and agrees to wander into the town with her to see if he can find anyone to practice on.

As they walk, Rin is greeted by Kuroi Sabato (Kazuki Kitamura), a member of the Itto-ryu who keeps sending her love poetry. He has two cowled heads on his shoulders and one speaks to Rin in her mother's voice. Disgusted by the way Sabato taunts Rin, Manji orders him to back off. But they square up for a fight and Manji appears to be killed. However, as Sabato moves menacingly towards Rin, Manji revives and slaughters him to Rin's astonishment. He explains about the bloodworms and sits in front of her so that she can have a shoulder to cry on.

Meanwhile, Kagimura Habaki (Min Tanaka), a member of the Council of Elders, approaches Anotsu and asks if he will head a fencing academy to provide the Shogunate with master swordsmen. He agrees only if he is allowed to teach Itto-ryu and the emissary departs to inform the council. As he leaves, the spiky-haired Taito Magatsu (Shinnosuke Mitsushima) informs Anotsu of Sabato's death and they wonder who could have killed him. Magatsu goes to the knife grinder's shop to collect the weapon he stole from Rin's father and she overhears their conversation while leaving a collection of swords and knives to be sharpened. She tells Manji that Magatsu is billeted by the temple and he confronts him by dead of night. Boasting of his superior skills and knowledge of the terrain, Magatsu wounds Manji and lures him into some quicksand. But he still feels the sting of cold metal and Manji casually asks his adversary for his name as he departs.

Manji returns Tadayoshi's sword to Rin, who is fascinated by her resemblance to Machi and starts calling Manji `Big Brother'. They go to an inn for tea and Manji is approached by monk Eiku Shizuma (Ebizô Ichikawa), another immortal swordsman, who is keen to prevent Anotsu from becoming the fencing overlord. However, Manji has no intention of joining forces with anyone and they fight. The innkeeper and his wife are horrified by the damage the pair do to their premises, but they are even more aghast when Shimuza recovers from his seemingly fatal wounds. He declares it a shame that Manji is opposed to an alliance and reveals that he has coated his sword with a potion from Tibet that weakens the bloodworms. Manji begins to feel pain and Rin is concerned for him. However, he summons the energy to fight Shimuza, who has become so saddened by seeing five wives die over the last 200 years that he is prepared to succumb to end his wearying ordeal.

Meanwhile, the Council of Elders agree to Anotsu's terms and he informs henchman Sosuke Abayama that he is going to Mount Takao to see the ailing Ibane Kensui (Tsutomu Yamazaki) of the Shinkeito-ryu to ensure that his dojo bends the knee to the Itto-ryu. But, having learned of the deaths of Shimuza and two other sidekicks, Anotsu goes to the red light district to find a geisha named Makie Otono-Tachibana (Erika Toda). She finds Manji getting drunk on sake in the hope that the bloodworms will recover and heal his wounds and he is enticed by her shamisen playing. Sending Rin home, he follows Makie into a quiet alleyway, where her white cloak falls to the ground and she reveals herself to be a warrior.

Their fight is prolonged and vicious, with Makie plunging a sword through Manji's chest through a wooden wall. But, as she moves in for the kill, Rin stands in her way brandishing her father's sword. Makie asks why she feels she has the right to cause such bloodshed and Rin says that she has a duty to avenge her parents, even though she knows that killing is wrong. She now owes her fealty to Manji because he is helping her and she will defend him to the death if needs be. Having suffered similar losses in her own childhood, Makie takes pity on the girl and allows her to take Manji home and treat his wounds.

Having warned Rin that he will abandon her if she interferes in a duel again, Manji goes to pay his respects at Machi's grave and tells Rin to practice on her own. She wanders into the woods and stumbles across Anotsu working with a sword and a black axe that had belonged to his grandfather. Sensing her chance, Rin hurls two fistsful of daggers at Anotsu, who bats them away with his blade. She tries to lift the axe, but finds it too heavy and he explains that her grandfather had ejected his from their fencing school for using the axe and this had cost him a licence with the Mutenichi-ryu and he died in poverty. As he turns to walk away, Rin asks Anotsu why he doesn't kill her and he replies that her unconventional fighting style makes her as much of a heretic as he is.

While Rin returns to the shack and refuses to tell Manji where she has been, Anotsu receives an invitation from Habaki, who is also the leader of the Shogun's Bangashira samurai and a member of the Mugai-ryu clan. However, he has agreed to go to Ibane's dojo and send Abayama in his place. Meanwhile, Manji and Rin run into another Mugair-ryu member when he kills one of the Itto-ryu in the street. It appears that mercenary Shira (Hayato Ichihara) has been impersonating Manji and he now demands to know what he is playing at. He introduces them to acolytes Giichi and the blonde Hyakurin (Chiaki Kuriyama), who offers Manji some sake, while he reads a note from the spy they have in the Itto-ryu that Anotsu intends travelling to Mount Takao disguised as a woman to avoid trouble on the road.

Shira and Manji go on patrol and spot a woman with what looks like an axe in her backpack. But, when Shira investigates, she turns out to be a dupe with a wooden axe sent to distract them. However, Shira is eager to claim the price on Manji's head and pounces on him and appears to overpower him in the ensuing struggle. Enjoying his moment of triumph, Shira goes to rape the decoy and Rin challenges him with her sword. He slaps her down and mocks her for trying to tell him what to do. But, just as he is about to kill her, a metal chain wraps around his wrist and rips his hand off and he looks up to find a revived Manji standing over him. Shira pulls his blade, but runs away to fight another day.

While Manji tells Giichi and Hyakurin about Shira and accuses them of only being interested in the bounties on the heads of the Itty-ryu, Rin decides she has put Manji through enough pain and needs to finish the mission alone. She leaves him a long letter and he is touched by her affection. But he remains bound by his promise and he goes after her. At the same time as this, Anotsu reaches Shinkeito-ryu compound and greets Ibane. However, he has changed his mind about joining forces and Anotsu realises he has been duped into a trap. As he leaves the gate, he is confronted by massed ranks and butchers his way through them cursing Habaki for being part of the conspiracy. As his minions are poisoned and slain at Habaki's table and the now white-haired Shira vows vengeance on Manji, Rin blocks Anotsu's path as he tries to head home. He tells her he is in no mood for a showdown. But, before they now it, they are surrounded by government horsemen and foot soldiers.

Meanwhile, Manji is ambushed by four bandits in the forest. They use a chain to subdue him and he has to summon all his powers to defeat them. As he lies on his back in the undergrowth pleading with the worms to heal a gash in his forearm, he hears Yaobikuni cackling and looks to see her crouched beside him. She tells him that he could surrender his life and join Machi if he wished and teases him that he feels a duty towards Manji. He calls her an old crone and sees his arm recover just in time to defend himself against the last of the bandits.

Standing before Habaki's small army blocking his path, Anotsu refuses to let Itto-ryu die. But Rin thinks it's unfair that Anotsu should be confronted by so many enemies and once and raises her sword to oppose them. When one of the warriors runs at her, he is stopped in his tracks by a flying chain and Rin looks up to see Manji. When he spots Anotsu, he asks who he is supposed to be killing and she insists it is anyone who is trying to kill her. So, battle commences and Anotsu throws in his lot with Manji. As Habaki eats rice balls in exasperation that no one can finish the swordsmen off, Makie flies into action (because she owes a debt from her childhood to Anotsu) and he is delighted to see her.

Manji is less pleased to see Shira gallop on to the scene and is even more furious when he snatches Rin and rides away. Lashing out at the soldiers in his way, Manji finds Rin tied up in a clearing. Shira demands that Manji drops all of his weapons and reveals that he has had a claw fitted in place of his severed hand. He jams the prongs into Rin and examines the blood. As he looks up, Manji throws a knife and Shira laughs when it missed him. But it has cut through the rope and allowed Rin to escape. Manji leaps on Shira and they tumble down a slope until Shira is left clinging to a rope over a waterfall. He goads Manji that he will return from any fall and finish him off. But he explodes in a splurt of blood as his body hits the rocks.

Meanwhile, Anotsu and Makie survey a scene of carnage. However, she catches a whiff of gunpowder and takes several musket balls in the chest in defending Anotsu. Nevertheless, she leaps on to the ledge where the riflemen are standing and kills them all before plunging to her death. Wiping his hands after his snack, Habaki tuts at Anotsu for ever thinking that the Shogun would allow him to head a fencing academy. He pulls his sword and a titanic battle ensues that ends with Habaki crawling through the dust towards his sword, even though he has been sliced in two.

With corpses strewn around them, Manji and Anotsu face each other with an air of unfinished business. As Rin backs away, Anotsu finds it ironic that Manji has saved his life. But he insists that he will not rest until Rin is safe and they launch at each other for a last tussle. His body aching with all of the unhealed wounds, Manji manages to overcome Anotsu and hands his blade to Rin so that she can avenge herself on her father. But she is unable to strike the blow and Anotsu gets to his feet and staggers away promising to wreak further havoc upon Japan. Enraged, Rin charges at him and he is about to turn and hack her with his axe when Manji dashes to defend her. Stunned by such selflessness, Anotsu pauses and this gives Rin the opportunity to plunge her sword into his abdomen. He falls down dead, as Manji lurches forwards. Howling with grief, Rin berates him for lying to her about staying by her side. However, when she calls him `Brother', he opens an eye and corrects her that Machi used to call him `Big Brother'.

Clocking in at 140 minutes, this is a sprawling chambara that never stints on intrigue and incident, as Miike once again examine the bushido bonds that still impact upon modern Japanese society. But, while screenwriter Tetsuya Oishi throws in the odd flashback and expository speech, this is pretty much a sanguinary procession, as J-Pop star Takuya Kimura and Hana Sugisaki encounter the various members of the Itto-ryu, who obligingly take it in turns to confront Kimura with suitably fetishised weaponry, only for him to duly dispatch them.

In fairness Oishi - who was previously best known for Shûsuke Kaneko's Death Note (2006) - does a decent job in distilling the essence from a manga series that has amassed 30 volumes over two decades. The supernatural element adds an extra frisson, as does the burgeoning relationship between the plucky gamine and the taciturn hero. But, while Keiji Tsujii and Masayoshi Degushi stage the swordfights with plenty of panache, cinematographer Nobuyasu Kita and editor Kenji Yamashita cover them in such a choppy (ahem) manner that it's often impossible to see what's going on. Nevertheless, Masatoshi Katsumata's sound design is excellent and is mostly allowed to prevail over Koji Endo's rather discreet score.

Given that Kimuri is immortal, it's a safe bet that he's going to emerge from each skirmish bloodied, but unbowed. Consequently, while the clashing clans backstory strives to give the narrative some much-needed gravitas, the action is often as cartoonish as it was in the fabled Zatoichi and the Lone Wolf and Baby Cart series. This is fine, as far as it goes, and Miike fans would not want it any other way. But 13 Assassins showed what the director can do with this revered genre and, while it makes for endlessly engaging entertainment, this is never as ambitious or accomplished.