In the year 3048, the wounded Lord Kagemitsu Daigo (Kiichi Nakai) proposes a deal to rule the whole world to forty-eight demons in their sealed temple. In return, the demons ask forty-eight parts of the body of his unborn son. When the mutilated baby is born, his mother puts him in a basket in the river flow to save his life. The baby survives and becomes the demon slayer Hyakkimaru (Satoshi Tsumabuki) that slash demons to retrieve his body parts. During his journey, he meets the female thief Dororo (Kou Shibasaki),who was raised as a boy after the death of her parents by the evil Lord Daigo, in a small town and she befriends Hyakkimaru and joins him in his quest seeking revenge against the Daigo's clan.

I saw the trailer of "Dororo" and I found it very promising. It is a good fantasy, based on a historic moment of Japan, with reasonable special effects and developed in a slow pace. The story could be a little shorter; Satoshi Tsumabuki and Kou Shibasaki show a great chemistry; but the character Dororo is silly and annoying in many moments. Nevertheless it is an entertaining movie and I will certainly watch the possible sequel, since it still has twenty-four demons to be slashed. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Dororo"

Film adaption of Osamu Tezuka's comic about a swordsman who's father sold 48 of his body parts to various demons for help in taking over the country and the world. As the swordsman kills the various demons he gets the parts back. He travels with a young thief named Dororo whom he picks up along the way. As the story progresses the pair encounters many demons and move ever closer to the revenge Hyakkimaru, the swordsman, desires.

Its an okay adaption of the comic (just now being published in the US),with several changes to the story (Hyakkimaru's father is wounded in battle and angry at his Lord when he makes the deal with the demons not just desirous of power, the creation of Hyakkimaru's prosthetic body is something out of Frankenstein instead of carved from wood, the source of one of the swords that serve as arms has been changed and it appears that how and what our hero can see has changed),the film travels close to episodic nature of the comic in spirit if not in actuality. This presents a problem since much of the first half of the film is exposition, setting up back stories and who these characters are.Its okay but it doesn't allow for things to really take off until the second half (which angles towards two promised sequels). There is also a weird shifting of tone from action to comedy to drama to horror in a way that doesn't quite work. (It doesn't help that there is an over abundance of CGI that often makes things seem less real) I like the film but I don't love it. Its not because I'm really enjoying the comic and the film doesn't match it, rather its just that the film is long winded and doesn't work for its own reasons. Frankly the almost two and a half running time is too much for a film that is too episodic to fully buildup momentum (perhaps the next two films will play better with the need for set up removed). The look of the film is often breath taking and the action is quite good and over all the film is worth seeing if you are willing to allow for its flaws. I don't know if I'd pay to see this at 10 bucks a head (a possibility since this has been popping in and out of theaters) but I would rent it or wait for a cable appearance should a station actually purchase the broadcast rights.

6.5 out of 10.

--------- Addendum: I recently spoke with a representative from Vertical Publishing who is putting out the comic. He said that there will be no sequels because the Tezuka estate dislikes this film enough to stop production.

"Dororo" is an epic Japanese fantasy movie adapted from a manga series. The story features a male orphan whose body parts have been given to forty-eight demons by his vindictive father and who grows up with an old farmer who puts an artificial body with parts of dead babies together for the poor child. After the death of his adoptive father, the young man without a name, a soul and an own body, crosses the country to get back all parts of his body and discover his identity. To do so, he must find all forty-eight demons and kill them one by one. In a poor village, her crosses a young female thief with a lot of energy. She witnesses his fight with a demon and decides to give up her desperate life to follow the cold and mysterious warrior. Together they cross the country, fight many demons and finally find out that their tragic fates are somewhat connected and lead to a powerful tyrant who fails to unite a shattered Japanese country by taking too many radical decisions.

This movie kicks off very promising. The legendary story around the nameless warrior is very creative. The scenes set in the cabin of the old farmer, the stunning Japanese landscapes and the poor village have a somewhat fantastic feeling and great atmosphere. Both characters are introduced very well.

After a while, the movie starts to get a little bit disappointing. The two main characters are quite opposite from each other and have no gripping connection between them. Their dialogues always turn around the same things and are interrupted as soon as they may start to get interesting. Only in the end, the character development improves a little bit. Of course, it's normal that a soulless warrior who seems to have the whole world against him won't be very emotional and I didn't expect a passionate love story or anything but the whole thing feels simply too emotionless and the movie contains a couple of lengths from this point of view.

The next problem really are the embarrassing slapstick comedy moments. I know that this kind of influence probably comes from the original manga but the gripping story and the slowly built up atmosphere in the beginning really gets some serious cracks at that point. While the female character of Dororo is overall charming and well portrayed, the moments when she seems to be a little bit hyperactive, naive and silly are too present and should have been skipped to make this movie more mature.

It's probably due to financial issues that many just turn out to be ridiculous. Instead of being mysterious as they should be, their appearances are quite silly. The special effects of this quite recent flick are definitely mediocre. It reminds me of the aged stop motion techniques that can be witnessed in old Gamera, Gojira and King Kong flicks. This kind of costumes and effects had a certain charm four or five decades ago but they just are somewhat embarrassing today.

This all sounds rather negative but the great beginning of the movie and a couple of atmospheric scenes throughout the movie, for example the secret of the ugly worm demons that took the lives of twenty young orphans or the moment when the warrior finds out the truth about his existence, pardon for the mentioned flaws. The ending seems to indicate that at least one sequel might follow this flick and I really would like to see them happen and watch them. I would recommend this movie to any fan of fantastic mangas or Japanese legends who doesn't care too much about too old fashioned special effects and a couple of minor lengths.