Blade of the Immortal

This samurai actioner from the prolific Takashi Miike is fairly straightforward, once you account for the hero, who isn’t quite dead yet. Manji (Takuya Kimura), a legendary samurai, is killed, but then a witch doctors him with “blood worms,” which effectively keep him from dying, despite gruesome injuries. He meets a young orphaned girl named Rin (Hana Sugisaki), and the two of them buddy-up to take on a series of violent gangs. There’s so much double-crossing that by the film’s end, virtually everybody has fought everybody else. So if you’re here for lots of sword work, acrobatic fighting and gruesome amputations, leavened by some wry humor and fantastic costumes, you’re at the right place.