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Aragami: The Raging God of Battle

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I am a fan of Ryuhei Kitamura, I loved AZUMI, VERSUS, THE MESSENGER and even ALIVE.
First of all, let me give you a history of ARAGAMI THE RAGING GOD OF BATTLE(aka: Aragami:duel). This film was shot as a challenge/wager with the director of 2LDK, the rules being: shoot and finish the film in 7 days, 2-3 actors, one room and 1 character has to die. I heard Kitamura actually wrote this while he was shooting Azumi.
The story is about 2 wounded samurai who fled to a remote temple fleeing from unseen enemies. They are greeted by a mysterious woman before losing consciousness. One samurai dies while the other samurai(TAKAO OSAWA, SKY HIGH) wakes healed from all wounds. He is greeted and fed by the lord of the temple(MASAYA KATO, Fighter in the wind). Afterwards, he is told that he is in fact a Tengu, or an Aragami who rules that mountain and feeds on human flesh for sustenance. the so-called lord of the temple has been waiting for a worthy opponent to kill him in single combat because he has lived too long.

SPOILER ALERT: It is said that if you are fed human liver and depending on who cooks it, like the mysterious, nameless woman,(kanae Uotani, who is beautiful, THE MESSENGER, SKY HIGH)a human being may become almost immortal. Also, it was never proven, but the lord of the temple also stated that he is famous throughout the land with the name of MIYAMOTO MUSASHI(the greatest swordsman in Japanese history)There is also a great cameo appearance by the character(TAK SAKAGUCHI) in versus, if you look closely, even the katana sword in Versus was used by one of the combatants. I guess Kitamura intended this as well as make use of Props from his other films.

The film is well-done. No conversation is wasted, and it is well-acted. There is a lot of great chemistry among the actors, hence, for a 79 minute film, it is never boring, and the sword fight at the end is among the best I've seen. Forget Anakin vs. Kenobi, this can be the fight of the year. [...]

I would advise watching it in original Japanese dialogue, it maintains the effect and excitement as it was intended to be.
I highly recommend ARAGAMI if you are a samurai/adventure fan, or if you specially like Kitamura's films. I bought it w/out renting it, and I was glad I did!! Like Masaya Kato says: "Things aren't always what it seems" . People expected a weak brainless film for a movie shot in 7 days, but this film is better than most of the films made in a year.

Enjoy!!Aragami wins over 2LDK in my opinion.
Now if only Hollywood directors will do a challenge movie made in 7 days...

The first thing to remember about this movie is that it was the other half of the "movie duel" with 2LDK. The movie was shot in about a week on half the budget it should have had. The script was tight and the acting was superb. The movie had tension, humor, drama and plenty of action. The actor who portrayed Aragami was a mixture of Antonio Banderas, Johnny Depp, and little bit of Brad Pitt. Very cool dude. You could tell he was comfortable in the role. And the ending...WOW!

This movie will stay in my collection. A definite must-see!!!

"Aragami" is not only a great film, but one that is very much overlooked. The film itself was directed by Ryuhei Kitamura, and clocks in at about only 79 minutes. However, for a short film, it packs in more suspense and great drama than many supernatural films I have seen. And if you are like me and enjoy samurai films, you will like the action the film delivers in such a short time span. One thing I enjoyed about the film too, was that director Ryuhei Kitamura does not throw the film at the viewer in the opening scenes, but allows the dialogue of the films two main characters to build up the suspense, which will eventually culminate into a great action duel towards the end of the film.

When I first viewed "Aragami" a few years ago I was really impressed with it, and thought how smart Kitamura was in being able to get this films message across in such a short amount of time that the film allows. There is no wasted dialogue in this film. The films narrative follows two main characters: A wounded samurai (Takao Osawa), who has stumbled into a Temple deep in the mountains, and the caretaker of the Temple (Masaya Kato). This fleeing samurai is seriously wounded, and has with him a wounded companion. As the two samurai arrive at the Temple, they both collapse to the Temple floor--as their wounds are serious. However, upon waking up, the samurai (Takao Osawa) finds that his wounds are not serious, and that his comrade has died. But there is more to his healing, and his fellow samurai that I do not wish to divulge and spoil for you.

Further, this is not a typical Temple sanctuary that this fleeing samurai has stumbled across. The surviving samurai's host at the temple is very strange indeed. He claims that he is the great warrior Miyamoto Musashi, who can never be defeated in battle: The ultimate samurai. With this introduction out of the way, this Lord of the Temple begins to treat the samurai very good. Giving him food to enjoy, and much drink. However, this host is about to drop a bombshell on this samurai. This Lord of the Temple tells the samurai that a Japanese demon lives in the mountains near the Temple and feeds off the flesh of men. Eventually, this host tells the samurai that he himself is none other than this very Demon.

Moreover, he tells the samurai that his name is Aragami. He challenges the samurai to a duel to the death. This demon, Aragami, cannot leave the Temple until he is defeated. It is not known how long he has been there, but like others before him, he too wandered into the Temple long ago. However, he is tired of living. Further, he will not die of old age, and since he is forbidden to kill himself, or allow himself to die at the hands of another--his only way to leave the Temple is to be defeated by a worthy opponent. Now, the question is: Even if the samurai defeats this Aragami, will he still be free? And is there no other way out of the Temple other than having a duel with this demon Aragami? Moreover, is Aragami truly invincible? Has he finally met a worthy opponent? I do not want to spoil the film for you, so I will leave this for you to watch. The ending is very good, and in fact pretty different than what you might expect. Highly recommend.

I don't want to sound biased but you would be too if, without fail, you love every movie this director makes. There is a moment, in Aragami, where the one character confesses to be the said Aragami, a murderous and unstoppable god of battle, the scene plays out for what must have been almost a whole minute with complete silence and then the two characters bust out laughing. I was dying through the whole thing, it was truly joyful to watch a scene play out without a quick cut or shakey documentory style camera angle because in America we would have ruined. We would have ruined because some suit would be sitting in the editing room going "You can't just have them sit there and not talk! They have to say something!!!" No they don't have to say anything. The Japanese are doing great things with movies and styles that have been developed here in the US, Italy, and England. More and more we're seeing movies like: VERSUS, ALIVE, AZUMI, THE RETURNER, and ARAGAMI; that explore the form of cinema with the freedom of style that they are allowed. Aragami is not perfect but that is part of it's appeal. It's very short(1hour 16min) but it feels like a much longer movie (not a boring movie just longer, El Mariachi feels long too and it's fantastic) than it is. Most Japanese movies ARE hit and miss with me, I don't love them all mind you, but it's getting to a point where I feel like director Kitamura can do no wrong. Every movie he makes is exciting, cool, and yet intelligent in that he explores new directions everytime.

Not a Fanboy, just fair.

I hold heartly enjoyed this film the dark setting and dramatic exchange between the characters helped to build up to one great sword fight scene. The warrior demon and his quest to meet another warrior on his skill level only to find redemption through death to free his tormented soul but not at sacificing his great swordmanship to those he challenged. A great anticipation film with a great ending.

The movie is about an almost invincible aragami wanting to end his life in a duel to the death. Most of the movie there are two guys talking across from one another. If you have ADD don't watch this movie, but if you love a well writen samurai movie with the best duel in samurai cinema history pick this one up.

Originally, I found out about this movie after watching 2LDK a couple pf months ago and found out about this challenge. I thought it was an interesting concept and would like to see how some of today's American directors could tackle such a project. Although I liked 2LDK, Aragami was simply the better movie. At times, the style and dialog (or lack of) reminded me of something Tarantino would do.

The very basic plot is that Aragami (Masaya Kato), who, incidentally, is the God of Battle, challenges a samurai (Takao Osawa) to a fight to the death. Aragami is tired of living and can not commit suicide nor die of old age or other natural causes. He must be killed in battle, as he is the God of Battle. He immortalizes the samurai by feeding him his deceased friend's liver and the fight is on.

Surprisingly, this basic plot did not seem to drag on for too long and was just about the right length to establish the two main characters. Unlike most other movies this one lacks a clear antagonist the two leads are described as men of honor each with his own unique personality and at times, the dialog was humorous. While making the impact of the fight between them even more effective as both characters are likable. Kitamura's decision to keep the battle for the final part of the film proves to be a correct one, as tension builds up between the two leads with each and every revelation, setting their motivation for what's coming.

"Aragami: The Raging God of Battle" It's not a fully blown action film instead its simple plodded. I enjoyed this film very much and would recommend it to anyone that enjoys samurai movies.

This is talent. In what should be an insanely restricted format, the director and actors in this movie create a brilliant performance. Two men, near to death from their wounds, arrive at an obscure shrine in the mountains. Their hosts are an older warrior and a mysterious woman. The older warrior is a hospitable demon looking for someone who can match his skill in combat. The woman is enigmatic, with only a few references to her role in this drama, and only a single moment of animated expression.

The set is the main hall of the shrine. Visually busy, but well executed and providing both visual and conceptual depth to the movie.

There are excellent fight scenes, and they are critical to the plot, not gratuitous. Conceivably, they could be your main reason for watching this film, but you'd have to be a complete rock to not get drawn into the story.

The central character, Aragami, is played wonderfully. He is decadent, energetic, hospitable, foppish, humorous, and violent by turns and is the type of character that would make someone welcome a duel to the death after dinner.

Driven by the players, this movie shows what can be done with human ability rather than extravagant sets and effects.

E.M. Van Court

Saw this at the San Francisco Indie film festival. Was blown away at how a simple story, written within a week, can pruduce an awesome, visually entertaining sword fight. Was written as a contest against 2LDK, the losing director would have to shave his head. A must have.

This is a great film directed by Kitamura, the same one who directed Versus, Alive, and Azumi. Although I haven't yet seen Alive and Azumi, Versus was highly entertaining, showcasing Kitamura's style of making everything just look cool. Aragami definitely falls in the cool category.

The history behind this movie was that there was a competition between 2 directors (Tsutsumi and Kitamura) to both direct a movie that would be shown at various film festivals. At the end of watching both films, the fans would vote on which one they liked more, and the director that lost would have to shave his head, and act as an assistant to the winning director for his next movie. Furthermore, the film had to be completely shot in 7 days, have no more than 3 actors in it, take place in one room only, and have at least one of the actors die.

This film, in my opinion far surpassed its competitor (2ldk) in all ways. The film is short, clocking in at 80 minutes including credits, but is perfect. It involves 2 samurais who are in a temple. The story centers on the tension that mounts as the samurais get into more and more discussion throughout the night, culminating in an awesome sword fight. It's that simple, and yet the movie totally rocks.