Rurouni Kenshin and my many Firsts

I consider the eighth and fifteenth day of December so memorable in terms of watching movies.

On the eighth of December, I would never forget how my husband stared at me with wide eyes, eyeglasses removed. He couldn’t believe that for the first time,
I was the one who eagerly invited him for a movie, all expenses paid. He couldn’t believe that for the first time, I hadn’t slept inside the cinema while watching a movie. And for the first time, he had not heard any complaints from me about the movie ticket price. It was because the film about my favorite Samurai “Kenshin Himura” was finally screened on selected Philippine Cinemas.

I had not watched the entire animation on TV due to conflict with my schedule. It was broadcast on ABS-CBN in 1999 when I was still a junior student in high school, thus, I only watched a few episodes on holidays and vacation days. For those who are not familiar of who Kenshin is, he is an anime character who was once a famous assassin during the Meiji Period in Japan (late 1800’s). He is known as Hitokiri Battosai  or Battosai the Manslayer due to his skill in battojutsu or “sword-enraging”  technique. It is very easy to recognize who he is: he has a long, red hair tied into ponytail and a large X-shape scar on his left cheek. After years of being an assassin, he decided to change his life and thus became a wanderer to protect Japanese people as a means of atonement for the crimes he had committed in the past. 

Why was Rurouni Kenshin Live Action Movie memorable for me? These are just some of the reasons:

FOR THE FIRST TIME, I HADN’T SLEPT WHILE WATCHING A MOVIE.

Rurou-Ken Cast

Yes, when it comes to watching movies, I am such a wet blanket. No matter how interesting the movie is, I’d always sleep in the middle of watching it which made my husband frustrated. Whether it was an English or a Filipino film, I’d sleep. And after several minutes, I’d wake up and ask someone about the parts that I’d missed. I had slept in the middle of watching Harry Potter and the Goblets of Fire, the only Harry Potter film that I had ever watched. I watched Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, the only Transformer film that I had watched on big screen, with my husband and friends, but I had fallen asleep while watching it. I had watched a Filipino horror film that I had completely forgotten what the title was because, yes, I slept again. That was why my husband and I would always invite someone else to watch with us.

Rurouni Kenshin Cast taken from Google

But this time was different. From the beginning, the film had captured my attention and had blown my sleepiness away. There was something about that film that had attracted me like a magnet that had made me focus on the screen for two hours.

FOR THE FIRST TIME, I WAS THE ONE WHO HAD INVITED SOMEONE TO WATCH A FILM.

My favorite Samurai, Takeru Satoh AKA Kenshin

When one of my friends had told me that she would be watching the film, I sent a text message to my husband right away. When he replied, I could sense his hesitation; it might be because of financial constraint or because of his schedule. When I reached home, I mentioned it again and he responded that he, too, wanted to watch but he was thinking of our financial responsibilities. Okay. That was it.

The next day, I asked him again for a movie. I told him not to worry about the expenses, because I would be the one who would be paying for it. Based on his reaction, my husband couldn’t believe how serious I was in inviting him for a movie. Like I said, it was the first time that it happened. I proved that I was serious by saying that I would be paying for our tickets. 

AND FOR THE FIRST TIME, I DID NOT FEEL ANY REGRET AFTER SPENDING ALMOST FIVE HUNDRED PESOS FOR A FEW HOURS OF FUN.

Takeru Sato’s portrayal of Kenshin Himura rocks! I felt like the anime character had been alive, walking, eating, talking, fighting and saying his signature expression “ORO?” . I couldn’t think of anyone else to portray Kenshin except him.  Sanosuke’s (Munetaka Aoki ) street fight and the “break and chicken-eating at the middle of his fight scene” had made me laugh the loudest.

Hindi naman halatang nag-enjoy ako, di ba?

Had it been another movie, I wouldn’t be eager to convince my husband to spend more than two hundred pesos to watch it. I would have waited for it online. I would have waited for its copy on DVD. But this is Kenshin, one of the characters who made my childhood years so memorable. And this is Satoh Takeru, the actor who portrayed six personalities in Kamen Rider Den-O.  From the time that my best friend mentioned that Sato Takeru would be the one who’d portray Kenshin, I promised myself to NEVER miss it. 

I had almost forgotten about the movie. It had been scheduled last October but was postponed. And I’d say that the schedule of the screening was in “bad timing” since I had to save money to buy presents for my more than a dozen godchildren, nieces, nephews, siblings, parents and some friends. But this Christmas, it will be my first to hide from them. 

Rurouni Kenshin: Live Action had brought back the memories of my teenage years. It was the first anime that gave me an overview of how samurais and ancient people of Japan had lived. Since it was loosely based on historical setting, it had given me an idea of how fiction and history could be mixed to create a unique story. It had shown the wonder and beauty of the country that I had always wanted to visit. Plus, the cast, costumes, musical score and its theme song are all good that had made me wanted to buy its ORIGINAL DVD and not to wait for it on torrent or youtube (another first).

The Hiten Mitsurugi Stance

And oh wait a minute. I had watched it the second time last December 15^th. This time, there were three of us—my husband, our best friend Dennis and I. This was the first time that I had watched the same film TWICE on big screen without regret, without boredom, without any complaint.It was worth the price. It was worth the wait. And wait, there's another one. My husband bought an original DVD for me. This was in addition to my "many firsts".

Hoping for PART II.