Gojoe: Spirit War Chronicle Reviews

Highly enjoyable film from Japan's Sogo Ishi. It's not his best film, and it's nowhere near as frenetic as say ELECTRIC DRAGON 80,000 V, but it's not supposed to be. The packaging and marketing of the film makes it seem like it's an action-packed epic akin to Ryuhei Kitamura's AZUMI films. While it does have some action/fighting sequences and some violence and bloodshed, that's not the driving force of the film - it's more about spiritualism and duality. So, if you go into this expecting wall to wall action you'll definitely be disappointed. The cinematography, sets, and locations are fantastic, and Tadanobu Asano's performance is excellent as usual. Veteran actor Daisuke Ryu's performance is also outstanding. His acting career stretches back to Akira Kurosawa's 1980 film KAGEMUSHA. On another note, if you're looking for a film that deals with spiritualism and duality but actually does have a lot of well-choregraphed action sequences, you should check out Kitamura's ARAGAMI.