A Potpourri of Vestiges Review
By Murtaza Ali Khan
The
cinemas are finally open and the cinephiles can at last get a taste of some
good old big screen magic. And as someone who has grown up watching the
animated films of the legendary Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki, I don’t
think that there could have been a better film to break the lull than the
Japanese animator Haruo Sotozaki’s dark fantasy action film ‘Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train’. Based on the shōnen manga series ‘Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba’
by Koyoharu Gotouge, ‘Mugen Train’ is a direct sequel to the first season of
the anime series, which was also directed by Haruo Sotozaki.
So far ‘Mugen Train’ has
done a business of around 500 million USD and in the process it has even
surpassed Miyazaki’s 2002 masterpiece ‘Spirited Away’ to become the all-time
highest grossing Japanese film worldwide. ‘Mugen Train’ was also the
highest-earning film worldwide from 2020—the first non-Hollywood / non-American
film to top the yearly box office worldwide in the history of cinema. While the
COVID-19 pandemic has had a major role to play in it, the film’s unprecedented
show at the box-office is no mean feat. When put together with the global
exploits of Bong Joon-Ho’s 2019 film ‘Parasite’, it’s a clear indication of the
growing dominance of Asian cinema, triggered by Hollywood’s creative block
during the superhero decade.
‘Mugen Train’ follows Tanjiro
Kamado's journey as a demon slayer after his family gets brutally murdered with
his sister being turned into a demon. Tanjiro joins with Inosuke Hashibira, a
boy raised by boars who wears a boar's head, and Zenitsu Agatsuma, a scared boy
who reveals his true power when he sleeps. Together they board the Infinity
Train as part of a new mission with the Flame Pillar, Kyojuro Rengoku, to
defeat a vicious demon that’s has been tormenting the people and killing the
demon slayers who oppose it. The journey is both external and internal for
Tanjiro and his friends. What ensues is battle of wits as the demon and the
demon slayers engage in a deadly game of one-upmanship.
Since I have been a huge
admirer of Miyazaki and the anime-manga culture, I had a great time watching
the English-dubbed version of ‘Mugen Train’ (with English subtitles) on the
big screen. But for those of you who are new to the genre ‘Mugen Train’ may
not be the ideal place to start. But, if you want to watch it purely for the
big screen experience then you can certainly go for it.
A version of this review was first published in The Daily Guardian.
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