Vice Interrogation: Sword of the Stranger

Lisenced by      Bandai Enterainment
Directed by       Masahiro Andō
Written by         Fumihito Takayama
Format               DVD/Blu-Ray
Release Date    June 16th 2009


Some apologies are in order. As to be expected, technology can rarely be trusted, and a bad rendering in iMovie turned our review a little choppy. However, the content is still in order. Today's interrogation was over Bandai Entertainment's Sword of the Stranger. For those not indoctrinated, Sword of the Stranger is a feature length film, centered around the relationship of a boy on the run and the nameless swordsman who protects him. Since this is essentially a video review, I'll cut to the chase.

I liked this movie and can find almost nothing wrong with it, which, in of itself is the only problem. The entire project comes off feeling very "safe," finding a way to amalgamate period style life with a modicum of character development/blockbuster self growth. There is a theatrical term called the well made play, which is very akin to the feeling I get here. Using a fairly methodical process, users can generate the characters and the order events in such a way that they are almost guaranteed to be "sound." The story was enjoyable, yet never managed to inspire any real investment on my part.

Other than that, I have absolutely nothing bad to say about the movie. Studio Ocean did great job dubbing the movie, and I was pleased to realize I knew almost none of the voices involved with the recording. Also, as expected of Studio Bones, the visuals were top notch. As stated in the review, sometimes it feels like snow exists entirely for the purpose of sword fighting in.

Overview: A good movie, but nothing original. Though, in the end being good is often enough. If you're in the mood to watch to a period samurai flick, you can't go wrong.