DORORO

supernatural samurai action flick

Based on the manga from Osamu “God of Manga” Tezuka,

“Dororo,” acclaimed indie filmmaker Akihito Shiota’s first venture into the period-fantasy genre, may have serious money behind it, from the TBS network among others, but it is not another solemn-faced epic. It is deep enough in some of its themes, including the meaning of what it is to be human in an age of human engineering, but it also deserves adjectives that used to be rolled out for old Errol Flynn movies: dashing, swashbuckling, rollicking.

The hero, Hyakkimaru (Satoshi Tsumabuki) is a wandering “demon hunter” whose extra body parts — 48 to be exact — were grafted onto his head and trunk by a herb doctor (Yoshio Harada) who discovered him as an infant, in a process that echoes “Frankenstein” and “The Island of Dr. Moreau.” His warlord father (Kiichi Nakai) gave the originals to 48 demons in exchange for power. When Hyakkimaru kills a demon, he wins back a body part.

He is spotted in one of these battles, with a giant spider demon, by Dororo (Kou Shibasaki), a scrappy female thief who is fascinated by not only Hyakkimaru’s prowess with the sword blade poking out of his arm but the new leg he grows after dicing his opponent. Is he a man — or a monster? After hearing his story from an old minstrel, she decides to join him on his travels and find out for herself.