If this is beginning to sound confusing, you may be, as I am, a relative newcomer to the Kenshin universe. Among those trying to thwart him is Shinomori Aoshi (Yusuke Iseya), a saturnine former ninja leader in the service of the Shogunate, whose sword technique rivals Kenshin’s. There he finds allies in Kashiwazaki Nenji (Min Tanaka), aka Okina, an elderly former Shogunate spy who is now running an inn Makimachi Misao (Tao Tsuchiya), a frisky young female ninja under Okina’s care, and Saito Hajime (Yosuke Eguchi), a tough chain-smoking police official.
Despite the protests of Kaoru and the doubts of Sanosuke, Kenshin decides to make the fateful journey to the former capital, now a hotbed of rebellion. Kenshin hesitates, but an outrage committed by Shishio’s grinning young henchman Seta Sojiro (Ryunosuke Kamiki) and his band of killers changes his mind. Okubo asks Kenshin to go to Kyoto and stop Shishio Makoto (Tatsuya Fujiwara), the above-mentioned ex-assassin, who is plotting a coup d’etat against a government he feels has betrayed him. One day Kenshin is called from his labors as a teacher at Kaoru’s dojo by a government official and, together with his sidekick Sanosuke, is ushered into the presence of home minister Toshimichi Okubo (a real-life figure, played by Kazufumi Miyazawa). With the advent of a new, more peaceful era, however, Kenshin resolved to never kill again, and now carries a sword with a reversed blade that he uses to stun his opponents, not draw blood from them. Kenshin, for those late to this particular party, is a smooth-faced, softly spoken master swordsman who, in the chaotic last days of the Shogunate, came to be known as Hitokiri Battosai (roughly, “Sword-drawing Manslayer”) for his deadly skill as an assassin.
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The story, about a bitter ex-assassin’s attempt to overthrow the new Meiji Era government in the 19th century, takes a sharp turn to sheer fantasy, a la “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.” That is, it’s a movie for those who know their samurai mostly from games and comics, not real history (with which traditional jidaigeki, admittedly, take considerable liberties). Which is not to say that the film is an old-school jidaigeki with more extras (5,000 to be exact). They maximize the impact of the many sword-fight scenes with crisp pacing and cool, inventive moves, while keeping a rein on the sort of eye-blink cuts and eye-candy CGI effects that drain so many action films of anything resembling realism. What makes this sequel and its predecessor different from the jidaigeki that have recently sunk without a box-office trace? One thing is how director Keishi Otomo and action choreographer Kenji Tanigaki, a disciple of Hong Kong martial arts star Donnie Yen, handle the on-screen action. Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Taika-hen (Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno) Rating Soon Hajime and Kenshin learn that Shishio intends to burn Kyoto down and they prepare the defense of the town. Kenshin defeats the Shishio's warrior and he is arrested by the police. Arai's son Keiku does not help Kenshin, but when the evil Sawagejo Cho kidnaps his baby, he calls Kenshin to save his son and gives him a new sakabato. He seeks out the talented blacksmith Shakku Arai to repair his sakabato and finds that he is dead. Kashiwazaki Nenji, who was the ninja Okina that worked for the Tokugawa shogunate, runs the place and teams up with Kenshin. When Kenshin arrives at Kyoto, Misao asks whether he would like to go to a cheap inn. Meanwhile, Kaoru decides to find Kenshin in Kyoto and Yahiko and Sanosuke follow her. Their sword fight stops when Kenshin's sakabato is broken and Shishio and his men go away. A man called Sojiro Seta contacts Kenshin and brings him to meet Shishio that asks Sojiro to duel Kenshin. They find the trio murdered by Shishio's men and Kenshin defeats them in the nearby village. Kenshin meets the thief Makimachi Misao that tries to steal his sakabato on the way to Kyoto and they stumble upon a boy that tells that his brother and his parents are in danger.
He refuses first, but when a minister is murdered, he accepts to go and leaves the dojo of Kaoru Kamiya and the boy Yahiko Myojin, his friend Sanosuke Sagara and Dr. Kenshin Himura is summoned by the government to help them to find Shishio in Kyoto. The Chief of Police Hajime Saito and a team of policemen hunt down the outlaw Makoto Shishio, who was betrayed by the government after defeating the Tokugawa shogunate however Shishio and his men slaughter the police officers and only Hajime survives.