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Killing (2018) – English Review

He’s no killer. Or is he?

A ronin meets another ronin who asks him to join him on a journey to the capital. He’s traveling to the capital to work for a shogun. But the problem is that the young man doesn’t like to kill, and he falls in love with a beautiful woman. She has a younger brother who has said yes to travel to the capital with the ronin who’s going to work for the shogun. But then some scumbags show up in the small village, and the nightmare begins.

Killing is directed by Shinya Tsukamoto. He’s best known for the Tetsuo movies, which I haven’t watched yet. I don’t know if those movies will fall in taste after watching Killing because I didn’t like how they shot Killing. They shot the movie with a handheld camera. During a long action sequence towards the end, it was difficult to see what’s going on. That’s not the way it should be!

But I liked the atmosphere, and especially the sound and sound effects. In many scenes, it feels like you are watching a horror movie. The atmosphere is dark. The movie is short. The runtime is around 76 minutes before the end credits appear on the screen.

The story is interesting with the two ronin who meet and who are planning to travel to the capital to work for a shogun. But then some rotten people show up. And after an incident where a young man is humiliated, all hell breaks loose when the oldest ronin punishes the dirty villains!

Even with a short runtime, the movie is in some scenes too artistic. I wish they could have filled the runtime with more dialogue and a deeper character study of the ronin who doesn’t want to kill.

There’s a lot of interesting things going on here, and Killing is a samurai movie that feels different. But there are some choices here that I didn’t like. But director Shinya Tsukamoto got a lot out of this script with the short runtime.

Rating: 6/10

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