A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

The sequel of the first samurai movie has a lots of action but some unsolved plot twists. The main character, having finally found peace, he is summoned back into the world of killing in order to preserve that peace. Honestly, the girl who always gets disappointed over the non killing thing was annoying, but other than that, she wasn't in the film much. The action sword scenes were really good and the whole thing was once again a big production when it came to settings, costumes and special effects. The performances were good as well. But, my only concern was that everything seemed to just pave the way towards the third movie. So, 8 out of 10.

Asian studios have been trying to adapt manga/anime to live-action for decades. They all failed. Finally, we can call all this pre-Rurouni Kenshin. The first movie had some flaws, some unbalance, but it ultimately delivered. Now, Kyoto Inferno is a great 2nd part leading the way to The Legend Ends.The Shishio Makoto story-arc is super long in the manga. All the Juppongatana mini-story arcs were left behind because of that. This makes it possible to condense it to 2 movies.So, do not expect deeper character development. The movie decided to focus on the very specific attempt to bring down the government and undo the Meiji Ishin (by the way, do read about it at Wikipedia, go look for the terms "Bakumatsu", "Meiji Restoration" and you will understand better the background about Sekigahara, Toba-Fushimi, and you will feel less lost in case you don't know Japanese History).If you watched the anime or read the mangas (which I highly recommend), you will easily feel in the gaps with what you already know. The movie stitches together several memorable scenes from the source material.Some parts had to be adapted, of course, and I think they did a good job, specially on how they fit the Oniwabanshu. Not sure how the Aoshi story-arc will fit in the next movie.This movie had to remove several stuff from the source material in order not to look silly in a live-action, such as the special moves, screaming attacks ("Ryuutsuisen!"). But I'm most interested in how they will fit Kenshin's mentor of the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu on the next movie (in the manga he will teach him the ultimate moves, Kuzuryuusen and Amakakeru Ryuu no Hirameki). He does show up very quickly so it's going to interesting how this unfolds.The relationship of Kenshin and Kaoru, of course, had to be diluted to the bare minimum to give Kenshin the motivation to go forward (it was already diluted in the source material).All in all, the filmography is superb, the casting is spot on, the story adaptation was very competent to compress a very complex source material.If you're already a fan of the series, you will not be disappointed. If you're new to the series, this could motivate you to go read the original.

Are you Japanese Live-Action Fan?If Yes, No reason to miss this show. This is the best live-action movie I've ever watched!The Storyline: Great The Action Scene: Excellent (You will not see the awesome samurai fight like this!) The Music or Soundtrack: More than excellent!and with the length that more than 2 hours, you will really enjoy the show. NO REASON TO MISS, Believe ME!If No, then It's depend on you. Japanese Movie Style may boring for someone who never watched.However, Let's give a chance for this one.

"Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno" picks up where the excellent first episode left off. The year is 1878, the New Age of Japan has taken over the Imperial/Samurai Age. A ruthlessly ambitious and dangerous assassin, who was thought to have been executed in the last war, Makato Sishio, had been killing a large number of policemen. Officials seek out Himura Kenshin, the young wanderer ex-assassin with the X-scar on his left cheek, as the only possible match against Sishio. Upon receiving the invitation from the government officials and seeing the terrors inflicted by Sishio and his goons on the citizenry, Kenshin accepts the challenge and sets off to Kyoto to seek out and put an end to Sishio's mad plans.From the first film, we still have Kenshin's friends: fencing instructor Kaoru, street fighter Sonosuke, doctor Megumi and the young boy Yahiko. We also see samurai-turned-police chief Hajime Saito. Aside from a couple of big battle scenes where Kenshin practically single-handedly plows through entire troops of Sishio's soldiers, we also see Kenshin in several impressively choreographed one-on-one fights scenes with major supporting characters. First he had a funny fight scene with feisty little Misao Makimachi, who tries to steal his sword. Kenshin fought elegantly with Sojiro, Sishio's effeminate but highly-skilled right-hand man, which actually resulted in the breaking of Kenshin's old trusty back-bladed sword. Kenshin has a big brutal fight with the crazy blond fighter, Cho, which gained for him a new sword to continue his fight with.Another big fight scene was between Elder, the leader of the Hidden Watchers, a group of vigilante ninjas of which Misao was a leader, and an enigmatic side character Aoiji, an ex-Hidden Watcher who was now on a singular mission to kill the Battosai (a.k.a. Kenshin). His appearance in this film is quite puzzling.As with the first film, the cinematography, costumes and production design are all so meticulously good. The execution of the fight scenes are also so very well-done. The musical score ranged from traditional Japanese melodies to rock music during the climactic and fiery Kyoto Inferno scene. However, this second film is clearly just a bridge between the first and a future third film. Even if this film lasted for a long 2 and a half hours, all this one did was set up a battle-royale between Kenshin and Sishio in the third and final film. Unlike the first movie, this film does not end like it could stand by itself. The ending of this one is obviously set up as a cliffhanger for bigger things to come. Fortunately for us, we will only have to wait just another more month to watch that.