Aragami: The Raging God of Battle

Starring:Aragami Raging God of Battle
Studio: Tokyo Shock
Product Type: DVD

Description

Fleeing from enemies, two wounded samurai arrive at a mysterious old temple in a remote location in the mountains. Unable to walk any further, they collapse from exhaustion. One awakens to find himself miraculously healed. His mysterious host tells him the legend of a Japanese goblin that is said to reside in the mountains dining on the flesh of men. He goes on to reveal himself as the demon "Aragami." And Challenges the Samurai to a duel. Wishing to end his own seemingly invincible existence, an existence without sleep or dreams, with a battle against a worthy opponent. The only way for the Samurai to leave the temple is to destroy Aragami.

Customer Reviews:

Watched it again last night.......2007-07-01

Shortly after I started on this whole "Asian ZFilm" addition I now have, I purchased Aragami knowing nothing of the director, the actors, the so called "director's bet" to film it ion less than a week. Basically I had no preconceived notions about this movie.

I can tell you without any doubt in my mind that this is one of the greatest films I have ever seen, domestic or foreign.

After seeing the movie 3 times now, I just found out it was only 80 minutes long. I am so sucked into the world inside Aragami's temple that time seems to stop.

I could go on and on. Basically, add this movie to your collection.

Aragami is an interesting samurai movie in existence........2007-01-18

Originally, I found out about this movie after watching 2LDK a couple pf months ago and found out about this challenge. I thought it was an interesting concept and would like to see how some of today's American directors could tackle such a project. Although I liked 2LDK, Aragami was simply the better movie. At times, the style and dialog (or lack of) reminded me of something Tarantino would do.

The very basic plot is that Aragami (Masaya Kato), who, incidentally, is the God of Battle, challenges a samurai (Takao Osawa) to a fight to the death. Aragami is tired of living and can not commit suicide nor die of old age or other natural causes. He must be killed in battle, as he is the God of Battle. He immortalizes the samurai by feeding him his deceased friend's liver and the fight is on.

Surprisingly, this basic plot did not seem to drag on for too long and was just about the right length to establish the two main characters. Unlike most other movies this one lacks a clear antagonist the two leads are described as men of honor each with his own unique personality and at times, the dialog was humorous. While making the impact of the fight between them even more effective as both characters are likable. Kitamura's decision to keep the battle for the final part of the film proves to be a correct one, as tension builds up between the two leads with each and every revelation, setting their motivation for what's coming.

"Aragami: The Raging God of Battle" It's not a fully blown action film instead its simple plodded. I enjoyed this film very much and would recommend it to anyone that enjoys samurai movies.

Accross between The Twilight zone and Kill bill.......2006-08-21

The movie is about an almost invincible aragami wanting to end his life in a duel to the death. Most of the movie there are two guys talking across from one another. If you have ADD don't watch this movie, but if you love a well writen samurai movie with the best duel in samurai cinema history pick this one up.

EXCELLENT MOVIE: DUEL UNTIL YOU DIE!.......2006-08-07

"Aragami" is not only a great film, but one that is very much overlooked. When I saw it for the first time a few years ago I was totally enthralled. The movie is about two fleeing samurai who find sanctuary in a remote temple in an even more remote place in the mountains of Japan. The two samurai are allowed into the temple. One dies during the night, while the other one recuperates. The surviving samurai's host at the temple is very strange indeed, and tells the samurai that a Japanese demon lives in the mountains where they are, and feeds off the flesh of men. Eventually, this host tells the samurai that he himself is noneother than this very Demon, and that his name is Aragami. He challenges the samurai to a duel to the death. The demon Aragami cannot leave until he is defeated. It is not known how long he has been there, but like the samurai before him, he too wandered into this temple. And the only way he can leave is to be defeated in battle. And more importantly, he must be defeated by a worthy opponent. The question is: even if the samurai defeats this Aragami, will he still be free? I do not want to spoil the movie for you, so I will leave the middle and the ending for you viewers to watch. The ending is very good, and in fact pretty different than what you might expect. A must see.

Among the best climactic fights caught on film.........2006-07-22

I am a fan of Ryuhei Kitamura, I loved AZUMI, VERSUS, THE MESSENGER and even ALIVE.
First of all, let me give you a history of ARAGAMI THE RAGING GOD OF BATTLE(aka: Aragami:duel). This film was shot as a challenge/wager with the director of 2LDK, the rules being: shoot and finish the film in 7 days, 2-3 actors, one room and 1 character has to die. I heard Kitamura actually wrote this while he was shooting Azumi.
The story is about 2 wounded samurai who fled to a remote temple fleeing from unseen enemies. They are greeted by a mysterious woman before losing consciousness. One samurai dies while the other samurai(TAKAO OSAWA, SKY HIGH) wakes healed from all wounds. He is greeted and fed by the lord of the temple(MASAYA KATO, Fighter in the wind). Afterwards, he is told that he is in fact a Tengu, or an Aragami who rules that mountain and feeds on human flesh for sustenance. the so-called lord of the temple has been waiting for a worthy opponent to kill him in single combat because he has lived too long.

SPOILER ALERT: It is said that if you are fed human liver and depending on who cooks it, like the mysterious, nameless woman,(kanae Uotani, who is beautiful, THE MESSENGER, SKY HIGH)a human being may become almost immortal. Also, it was never proven, but the lord of the temple also stated that he is famous throughout the land with the name of MIYAMOTO MUSASHI(the greatest swordsman in Japanese history)There is also a great cameo appearance by the character(TAK SAKAGUCHI) in versus, if you look closely, even the katana sword in Versus was used by one of the combatants. I guess Kitamura intended this as well as make use of Props from his other films.

The film is well-done. No conversation is wasted, and it is well-acted. There is a lot of great chemistry among the actors, hence, for a 79 minute film, it is never boring, and the sword fight at the end is among the best I've seen. Forget Anakin vs. Kenobi, this can be the fight of the year. [...]

I would advise watching it in original Japanese dialogue, it maintains the effect and excitement as it was intended to be.
I highly recommend ARAGAMI if you are a samurai/adventure fan, or if you specially like Kitamura's films. I bought it w/out renting it, and I was glad I did!! Like Masaya Kato says: "Things aren't always what it seems" . People expected a weak brainless film for a movie shot in 7 days, but this film is better than most of the films made in a year.

Enjoy!!Aragami wins over 2LDK in my opinion.
Now if only Hollywood directors will do a challenge movie made in 7 days...

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