IMDb > Sutorenjia: Mukô hadan (2007) > IMDb user comments
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41 out of 45 people found the following comment useful :-
A must SEE!!!!, 27 April 2008
9/10
Author: juggiman from United States

One of the Best samurai animation action flicks I have seen in a very long time. The story isn't drawn out into a long story about nothing. You get a good sense of the main character without them going into a long epilogue. The characters are well drawn with great attention to detail especially in the action sequences which in my opinion are drawn very well. The score goes perfectly with all the different scenes of the movie. I am pretty good on what good anime samurai flicks are out and I am surprised that I never got a heads up about this one and also why this film wasn't nominated for any type of award. Honestly from the action to the music this movie will grab you. :)

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16 out of 17 people found the following comment useful :-
Most detailed animation i ever seen, 4 May 2008
9/10
Author: beenno1 from United Kingdom

One of the most outstanding action animation movies.

(sorry if you are confused with my comments cause i'm not a native English speaker :>)

The storyline is quite simple and unlike the other tedious Japanese animation movies, the audience don't need to smash their head onto the wall to get an idea about what's going on. Actually the only down side of the movie is you can guess the ending more or less at the beginning.

The blood spilling scenes are very astonishing, and the Chinese swordsmen who take secret pills and never feel pains will give you chill in the bones with their cruelty.

Actually In real history, the famous emperor who sacrifice his people to find a medicine of Immortality, is Yíng Zhèng, the first emperor (we call him Qin Shi Huang)of a unified China from 221 BCE to 210 BCE. Later in his life, Qin Shi Huang feared death and desperately sought the fabled elixir of life, visiting Zhifu Island several times to this end. He even sent a Zhifu islander Xu Fu with ships carrying hundreds of young men and women in search of Mount Penglai, where the Eight Immortals lived. These people never returned, as they knew that if they returned without the promised elixir, they would surely be executed. Legends claim that they settled down in one of the Japanese islands, a view that many Chinese and Japanese people are familiar with today. (from HTTP://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qin_Shi_Huang)

Although the movie is mainly animated in 2D, the 3D effects used in scenes are perfect and only used when necessary, It's more practical 3D than showing off the techniques.

Music used in the movie is extraordinary, you can actually feel the cold wind passing by your face and hear the echos among the mountains. Bamboo flute used in the music gives an amazing oriental feeling throughout the movie.

As a native Chinese speaker, i think the Chinese dialogue reflects the way people talking at that time pretty well, but sometimes they speak Japanese as well, which breaks the reality of the movie, hope they could manage to get more voice casters in Chinese.

I highly recommend this movie to anyone interested in actions, orient myths or violent scenes.

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16 out of 19 people found the following comment useful :-
A great animated movie (not for kids), 13 May 2008
10/10
Author: David H. from Germany

I really enjoyed this one a lot. I have not seen such a good animated movie for years and I'm still wondering how people can rate it 1 or 2.. I mean, the taste in movies is always different, but even if you didn't like it that much it is not possible to rate it that bad. It is flawless in its way in my opinion and even though I do remember that there was a movie (not animated) which felt almost the same, because there was a samurai walking around with a kid and stuff.. it was still cool and it didn't feel old fashioned at all. Ah well, just give it a try and you will definitely have a great time watching it.

I would have given a 9, but I'm trying to fix the impossible votes a bit, even though.. it may even deserves a 10. ;-) Cheers

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14 out of 17 people found the following comment useful :-
like a minimalistic piece of art it shines without blinding, 27 May 2008
10/10
Author: mani_za01 from Costa Rica

as a anime fan i must say first that i saw these movie whit great expectations. What i saw was far beyond what i expected or could have imagined. lets start by explaining that the plot is simple but poetic at the same time and it never gets in the way of you enjoying the action, now i am a big fan of action anime and i must say that there is where these movie shines above anything that tries to stand in its way art direction is superb these movie has incredible character design the best weapon design in any movie that i can remember, each character has a unique weapon minimalistic but beautiful simple enough not to draw attention to themselves but so well designed that they give each character a different feel and a different fighting stile that ads variety to the already amazing action.these movie also has animation that makes Hollywood action cheap in comparison, music is great but it blends so well whit the rest of the movie that its hard to notice its there the background just like many other superb pieces of the puzzle, setting are like paintings and have a unique style but again they blend together and are hard to discern. Voice acting is amazing and makes the characters believable. Watching in the original language is a must. the movie isn't perfect but then again nothing is and the little flaws it has may have been sacrifices for the greater good of the movie or simply don't get in the way of the main purpose of the flick. sword of the stranger is a great movie that has a mixture of elements in the exact measurement to do one thing and that is make the incredible action stand out, never the near perfect art direction, incredible music and voice acting,the well written plot or any of the other elements of the movie take the main stage but that is how it was intended. action is the most important element and the rest is there to make the action rock but like a masterful painting it shows what you as much as want to see, it can be great action or much much more but that is for the viewer to decide. These movie is a classic in my book and must not be missed, movies these good don't come close to one another and it may take many years before another piece of these magnitude takes form.

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10 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
A complete samurai anime in 105 minutes, 13 May 2008
9/10
Author: max_soxy from Romania

It follows the same style of action, drama and legendary aura like sensation as in Samurai Champloo or Samurai X.

The graphic is amazing and the music score isn't too far behind.

Still what really gets you about this anime movie besides the high paced action is the showdown between your classic Nippon samurai master and a barbarian with god-like skills in sword wielding serving under the emperor of the ming empire (in his search for the elixir of immortality).

So, if you like anime, really cool sword-fights and a jade empire sort of atmosphere then you're in for a treat.

Enjoy! :)

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6 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Stunning, 5 February 2009
10/10
Author: hawkeyefla-1 from United States

I just got back from seeing this film locally thanks to Fathom Events. I don't normally take the time to write reviews for movies, but I felt the need to here. I don't watch a lot of Anime, so what I do watch has to be *good*. This surpassed my expectations 10fold. A truly epic take of a certain amount of eastern mysticism intermixed with a tale of redemption. I haven't walked out of a movie feeling this good about my time spent (which *flew* by) in a long long time. I certainly hope Bandai can get this out on DVD soon, as it is a must own for my collection. And hopefully whatever DVD release that comes out will have the commentary that we got to see at the end of the Fathom Events presentation as well.

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6 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
Cliché in the most adorable way, 6 May 2008
9/10
Author: Peter Hendriks from Netherlands

To be really honest the movie contains a few clichés. It just has to be sad. But with that part out of the way, I can only speak of great appreciation for this movie. The story is not the most brilliant and again it might be a little cliché, but in a very adorable way. In my case it didn't bothered me for a second. This might be because I really love the traditional anime way of capturing samurai hero stories. For people who have a little more trouble with that, just looked passed it. Because the other parts of the movie have been worked out better than most of the movies I've seen so far. Let's begin with the looks of the movie. For a pretty much traditional drawn anime it is just beautiful. And it gets even better with the action scenes. They are drawn, animated and captured very well. They are fast but clear, they contain a lot of cool moves (if you can put it that way) and are supported by absolute wonderful sound effects and music. The thing that really captured me and makes me watch the final scene over and over again, is the perfect balance between action and music. This movie might not be the industries best, but contains something a lot of the other movies don't: Heart.

If you like traditional anime, samurai and hero stories, this is absolutely one to watch!!

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4 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
A Technical Marvel in the Animation World, 27 January 2009
9/10
Author: evilmugsy

My perception of 2D animation practically changed after seeing this movie. No doubt about it. Since today's standards mostly rely on 3D technology to capture realistic and fluid movements in animation, this movie shatters the limits I thought really existed in 2D animation. Since animation marvels like Samurai Champloo back in 2005, Chinese and Japanese sword arts never looked so good in an anime. However yes 3D technology was used in making this movie but only to a limited extent to which it only deemed necessary like cameras panning to arrows, panning fluidly on background terrain and such. All the organic character movements were hand drawn so perfectly well that even all the action was so clear which is just a marvel to see over and over again.

The story may not be the most original but at the same time it isn't bad at all. In fact the characters of this movie retain their depth throughout the entire film which makes it easy for any viewer especially who appreciates animation to look past it as the movie alone offers plenty of intriguing visuals that sincerely complement the story backed by a superb soundtrack which captures the very essences and themes of the setting.

Highly recommended for anime enthusiasts as well as anyone who appreciates cartoons. in fact they shouldn't miss this one as watching this film once simply isn't quite enough.

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Even the dub is good!, 16 August 2009
Author: zeez5 from Tucson, Arizona

I first watched this film online and was completely swept up in the story, the characters, and the amazing action. I immediately ordered my own copy, and I think it was the best twenty bucks I ever spent.

I was particularly pleased at the quality of the English dub. I generally prefer to watch anime in the original Japanese, but I actually prefer the English in this film. For one thing, there's too much wonderful detail in the animation to be distracted by subtitles. I also liked the fact that they kept the original bits of Chinese dialog. You can't tell the difference in the voice actors! I thought Scott MacNeil did a wonderfully sinister job as the blond Luo-Long. Michael Adamthwaite sounded comfortingly strong as well as kind-hearted as our ronin hero.

If you can find a place to rent this movie, go ahead, but if you're any kind of anime fan or samurai movie fan, this film should have a permanent place in your library!

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I didn't think they made anime this good any more, 26 July 2009
9/10
Author: offaroundthebend from United Kingdom

I very rarely write reviews on IMDb but I've just watched Sword Of The Stranger (subbed. Always subbed.) for the 3rd time and I feel like this has the potential to be a classic example of great Japanese animation, but somehow hasn't attained the popularity.

I'm not going to write a massive in-depth review. I will simply say that if you enjoy samurai action anime films, you will absolutely love this. Visually and aurally, this film blew me away. I cannot begin to describe how artistically beautiful it is, and how full of tiny details which enrich the entire viewing experience. The characters are very clichéd, and the story itself contains little that you haven't seen elsewhere, but the details in the characterisation still make this movie feel totally fresh.

The boy's relationship to his dog, Tobimaru, is particularly touching, and is rendered beautiful by one scene in particular which has the boy getting water from a river to give to his sick dog. Keep an eye out for those 5 seconds, because they contain unnecessary detail which just brings the whole film to life. Every character has its quirks which just makes the whole experience so much more dramatic, as if you're watching great acting on screen rather than flat drawings, and this really lends the movie a Disney-esquire sense of magic to it. At no point do you doubt the existence of the world you're watching, and it's authenticity just sucks you completely in to the experience.

It goes almost without saying that the fighting in this film is superb. Easily the best action scenes I've ever seen in an anime, and very reminiscent in feel and technical accuracy to Samurai Champloo's fight scenes. Every move here is perfectly choreographed, and you won't find an attack which doesn't feel like it has weight behind it. The film's antagonist is a fantastic character who, of course, rivals our ronin hero in skill, resulting in an epic climax...you really need to see it for yourself!

Bottom line is that if you have any interest in animated films, Japanese or otherwise, see this movie. I would compare it tonally more to a Disney film than to a stablemate such as Ninja Scroll, in that the characters feel real and the world has such a beautiful, almost nostalgic feel to it. Yet be aware that when the swords are drawn, you are gonna get action like you've rarely seen before, and it is quite a bloody film. Definitely not for kids.

If the story were just a little more original I'd give it a perfect 10, but as it stands it gets a 9. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

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