Dororo [DVD]

For the record, I've never read the original "Dororo" manga by Osamu Tezuka, and I probably won't. Not any time soon, anyway.

But for some reason I ended up snaring a copy of the horror/fantasy story "Dororo," a bizarre Japanese fantasy story about a stoic young man who wanders through an unnamed Asian land trying to regain his body parts. It's a strange, dark story with lots of macabre humour and a raucous sidekick, and director Akihiko Shiota keeps the story chugging along to the end.

Years ago a brutal warlord traded forty-eight of his unborn son's body parts to a slew of demons, in exchange for power to dominate the whole world.

The baby was sent adrift on a nearby river, and a kindly old spellcaster gave him artificial limbs and organs. Now the young man (Satoshi Tsumabuki) roams around killing the demons to regain his body parts. A young thief (Kou Shibasaki) learns his story and starts following him around, after dubbing herself by his nickname "Dororo" (or "Monster Child") and him Hyakkimaru after the sword inside his artificial left arm.

The two of them succeed in slaying several demons -- including voracious caterpillars and an armless dinosaur -- and regain a few more of Hyakkimaru's body parts. But when he kills one demon, it hints at the identity of the man who ruined Hyakkimaru's life. And he inadvertently learns that the cruel warlord who murdered Dororo's family is none other than Daddy Dearest.

"Dororo" is one of those truly bizarre movies that you usually only find in Asian countries -- they seem a bit more secure with the macabre, bizarre, and totally unbelievable. Seriously, where else can you find a Japanese steampunk castle, a man-eating moth, and a young man whose body is mostly composed of artificial organs and limbs animated by electricity?

And director Akihiko Shiota does a good job juggling the fantasy, horror and family rama, as well as the first buds of a potential love story. And while the story gets dark and bloody in the last third -- including a gruesome duel between family members and Hyakkimaru's bleak battle with two mind-twisting demon dogs -- he's not afraid to splatter it with some rather macabre humour. Hyakkimaru barfs up various organs and reacts oddly when he has the real thing back ("SHUT UP!") and Dororo repeatedly gets sprayed with demon gore.

While the CGI is merely adequate, the demons encountered are nicely gruesome -- carnivorous caterpillars, leather-faced harpies, and a man-eating tree are amongst them. And the movie takes takes full advantage of the windswept, grassy New Zealand terrain and the many burned temples, shady green forests and dark rivers that our heroes encounter.

And since it takes place in an unspecified Asian land -- Japanese-styled with some European armor and goblets -- Shiota has fun with the details, adding in everything from Japanese monsters to a Frankensteinian body-part-making machine.

Tsumabaki does a pretty solid job as the "monster child" -- glum, stoic and tormented by his freakish body, but occasionally he tumbles down in the rain laughing his head off. And while Shibasaki is initially a bit annoying as the sexually confusing urchin, she becomes a much stronger and more likable character once she gains some concern for her new friend.

"Dororo" has a thoroughly unbelievable plot, but this is surprisingly not enough to overshadow this enjoyably bizarre horror-fantasy story. Strange, quirky and just gross enough.

Dororo is based on a manga that started in the late 60's and although it doesn't follow it exactly (at least what little of it I have managed to read) it is still a very entertaining and enjoyable movie.

There was also a video game based on the story available for the ps2 called Blood Will Tell, and the movie appears to have closer ties to that than it does the original source material.

Anyway, on with the review...

Lord Daigo Kagemitsu has been defeated in battle but in a last desperate plea he makes a deal with 48 demons. The deal he makes is, that in return for the body of his unborn child, the demons will give him the power to destroy his enemies and rule the world. Each demon takes a body part from the child for it's own, be it a limb or an organ and when the child is born it is just a limbless torso with no real features on what should be its face.

The child is placed in a basket and then put in a river and left to its fate.

Fortunately, the baby is found by a shaman who is skilled in the healing arts, and he sets about restoring the child.

The child, now grown up and calling himself Hyakkimaru sets off to find the 48 demons that stole his body and reclaim them. Every time he kills one of the monsters with the enchanted blade in his left arm he regains one of his missing body parts.

On his journey, he is joined by a thief who takes the name Dororo for herself.

As Hyakkimaru and Dororo hunt down the demons, Hyakkimaru learns of his family which leads to him having to confront his father.

This is a realy good movie that is well shot and doesn't outstay its welcome despite a run time of just over 2 hours. The music is very good at fits it well and the sound quality -there is a DTS option- is very clear. The demons themselves, some of which (maybe all?) are based on various Yokai of Japanese folklore, are well realised using all manner of techniques ranging from cgi to make up. The cgi is done well in the main and although it is very obvious that you are seeing a cgi creation, they do look the part. In fact, I don't mind the creations looking obviously cgi, after all, you would expect a ghostly or demonic creature to have an otherworldly apperance to it and not to naturally fit into our world.

If you are looking for a supernatural samurai movie that is entertaining and you're not expecting hollywood multi-million dollar cgi standards then you should enjoy this.

Also, I should make a quick comment on the soundtrack which is fantastic and suits the movie very well.

The only fault I have with the film is that, for me it does get a bit melodramatic right near the end but otherwise this is an enjoyable movie that is worth purchasing.

At the time of writing, as far as I know there is no sequel, which is a shame as Hyakkimaru still has more demons to defeat so it would be nice to see the characters return for another outing.

**** few mild spoilers ****

Having recently viewed and reviewed the truly bizarre Kitaro, I wasn't entirely unprepared for the jaw-dropping weirdness of this admittedly more adult take on Japanese supernatural mythology. To attempt to draw comparisons with Western legends or movies is probably misguided, but if you threw Beowulf, Doctor Faustus, Edward Scissorhands, Pirates of the Caribbean, Highlander and a hint of Spaghetti Western into the mix, you just might get something approaching Dororo. The basic premise is perhaps a difficult one for us to swallow - that a power-crazed warlord would sell not his own soul but body parts of his unborn son to the powers of evil, in exchange for invincibility in battle. Daigo is an effective boo-hiss villain, who inhabits a truly impressive stream-punk style fortress. His unfortunate son, born blind and limbless is cast adrift Moses-like by his grief-stricken mother. Rescued by what we would call an alchemist, the infant Hyakkimaru/Tah maru/Dororo is given artificial organs and prosthetic limbs which slip off to reveal swords. Weird? You ain't seen nothing yet! After teaming up with the waif like and tomboyish Dororo (an extensive backfill explains her story), Hyakkimaru goes in search of his missing body parts to reclaim them from the demons who received them as part of his father's deal. When defeated, the demon releases control over the plundered body tissue, which starts to regenerate, forcing Hyakkimaru to expel his ersatz liver, eyeballs, heart etc. This is the core premise behind the film and, for the most part, it works pretty well. Some of the ghastly CGI apparitions Hyakkimaru must fight are genuinely nightmarish, including a spider entity, a moth woman and a very impressive scarlet-tendrilled tree demon. Some of the others, however, look faintly ridiculous. There's a large glowing baby-like thing and a just plain silly Godzilla-esque mini dinosaur (man in a rubber suit) with a prehensile tongue. With hoots of derision, I almost gave up at that point! I stuck with it though and was rewarded by a reasonable plot twist, some extraordinarily well choreographed combat, loads of entertaining chemistry between Hyakkimaru and Dororo and even a laugh-out-loud moment near the end. Things do end rather abruptly on an enigmatic note, which hint strongly at a sequel. Given the entertainment value of Dororo, I would probably invest in a further episode. Bet he gets the girl in the end! The soundtrack is interesting, with hints of flamenco and cowboy themes and the 5.1 surround sound is superb, particularly during combat sequences and in the dialogue with the circling dog demons. So there you have it. Perhaps not 100% satisfying, but worthwhile and entertaining nonetheless.