Aragami (2003)

Movie Rating NR Contains: Violence

Director: Ryuhei Kitamura Movie Genre: Action, Duel Country: Japan Aragami Score Card The following scores are based on a 0.0 to 10.0 rating scale Hover your mouse pointer over the name of each scoring category below for a description Direction: 6.0 Writing: 5.8 Acting: 6.0 Cinematography: 6.5 Sound and Score: 5.0 Functionality: 5.0 Presentation: 6.0 Genre Comparison: 6.0 General Comparison: 4.8 Overall: 5.7 Reviewed 2005-12-04 00:18:05

Aragami is Ryuhei Kitamura’s entry into the Duel Project. The Duel Project is a challenge organized by Yukihiko Tsutsumi and Ryuhei Kitamura. Each director was to make a movie with no more than three characters, only one location, and the two main characters had to duel to the death.

Aragami opens when two wounded samurai happen upon a remote castle. The lord of the castle lets them stay the night and the next day one of the samurai discovers that his companion did not survive. The lord of the castle then informs the samurai that he is an Aragami, or god of battle. This Aragami has been waiting his whole life to find an opponent worthy of defeating him in battle.

Kitamura used his proven duel movie formula and even got Yuji Shimomura, the action choreographer for Versus, to arrange the fight scenes. The fights in Aragami are highly stylized and unrealistic but they are still entertaining. As the fight progresses, the line between god and man is blurred and you begin to wonder just who the Aragami really is.

Aragami provides a lot of entertainment value. This movie is the weaker of the two Duel Project films. It seemed that Kitamura was hindered by the rules of the project whereas Tsutsumi saw these constraints as a window of opportunity with 2LDK. This is a good samurai movie, not a bad duel movie, but not a great Duel Project movie. Tsutsumi was by far the winner of this duel.