"Dororo" is an epic Japanese fantasy movie adapted from a manga series. The story features a male orphan whose body parts have been given to forty-eight demons by his vindictive father and who grows up with an old farmer who puts an artificial body with parts of dead babies together for the poor child. After the death of his adoptive father, the young man without a name, a soul and an own body, crosses the country to get back all parts of his body and discover his identity. To do so, he must find all forty-eight demons and kill them one by one. In a poor village, her crosses a young female thief with a lot of energy. She witnesses his fight with a demon and decides to give up her desperate life to follow the cold and mysterious warrior. Together they cross the country, fight many demons and finally find out that their tragic fates are somewhat connected and lead to a powerful tyrant who fails to unite a shattered Japanese country by taking too many radical decisions.This movie kicks off very promising. The legendary story around the nameless warrior is very creative. The scenes set in the cabin of the old farmer, the stunning Japanese landscapes and the poor village have a somewhat fantastic feeling and great atmosphere. Both characters are introduced very well.After a while, the movie starts to get a little bit disappointing. The two main characters are quite opposite from each other and have no gripping connection between them. Their dialogues always turn around the same things and are interrupted as soon as they may start to get interesting. Only in the end, the character development improves a little bit. Of course, it's normal that a soulless warrior who seems to have the whole world against him won't be very emotional and I didn't expect a passionate love story or anything but the whole thing feels simply too emotionless and the movie contains a couple of lengths from this point of view.The next problem really are the embarrassing slapstick comedy moments. I know that this kind of influence probably comes from the original manga but the gripping story and the slowly built up atmosphere in the beginning really gets some serious cracks at that point. While the female character of Dororo is overall charming and well portrayed, the moments when she seems to be a little bit hyperactive, naive and silly are too present and should have been skipped to make this movie more mature.It's probably due to financial issues that many just turn out to be ridiculous. Instead of being mysterious as they should be, their appearances are quite silly. The special effects of this quite recent flick are definitely mediocre. It reminds me of the aged stop motion techniques that can be witnessed in old Gamera, Gojira and King Kong flicks. This kind of costumes and effects had a certain charm four or five decades ago but they just are somewhat embarrassing today.This all sounds rather negative but the great beginning of the movie and a couple of atmospheric scenes throughout the movie, for example the secret of the ugly worm demons that took the lives of twenty young orphans or the moment when the warrior finds out the truth about his existence, pardon for the mentioned flaws. The ending seems to indicate that at least one sequel might follow this flick and I really would like to see them happen and watch them. I would recommend this movie to any fan of fantastic mangas or Japanese legends who doesn't care too much about too old fashioned special effects and a couple of minor lengths.

The film opens on a bloody battlefield, Kentei year 3048, the battle is over but the slaughter of the fallen continues the conquering general Lord Kagemitsu enters a sealed temple of 48 demons, the Hell Shrine. Kagemitsu makes a deal with the demons to give them 48 parts of his newborn son's body in return the demons are to make Kagemitsu the ruler of the world. The mutilated baby has survived and twenty years later he's looking to take back those body parts as he travels the world slaying demons. His name is Hyakkimaru and he's played by Tsumabuki Satoshi (Orange Days, ), Shibasaki Kou (Galileo, Orange Days) plays Dororo, another victim of the long war Kagemitsu has waged, it's cost her family and home she joins him as he travels battling demons, regaining body parts. Her ultimate aim is to use his demon slaying sword to assassinate Kagemitsu.The story is based on a manga by the incredible Osamu Tezuka, and the stars of Orange Days, who couldn't have stepped into more different roles. From the sophisticated Detective Utsumi in Galileo to the ragtag thief in Dororo, she great in the role of comic relief and she does her work perfectly. After Hyakkimaru slays the first demon, Dororo is covered in a shower of blood. This happens to her countless times throughout the movie to her frustration. The special effects range from pretty good to fairly bad, one particularly poor effect was demon that reminded me of a man sized rubber-suited Godzilla. Spotty effects aside the film is loads of fun, never taking itself too seriously this is like a Fritz Leiber Fafhrd And Gray Mouser tale brought to film. If you like 80's fantasy movies like Conan, Sword and the Sorcerer, or Deathstalker give this movie a try. If you prefer High Fantasy like Lord of the Rings give this a pass and try the Korean TV drama The Legend instead.

although its effects are not satisfying, the scenario is well written and the actors (and actresses)are all (even the ones at the background)playing with everything they have in the movie. So this make the film going without loosing anything of its interesting tale and making the audience kept on their seats.When we thing there are lots of movies with expensive effects but really have nothing to watch and extremely boring, maashallah dororo having cheaper effects has done no damage in the entertainment.I congratulate all players especially the leading actor and the actress.Waiting for next episodes.

...Dororo kicks arse and has much nicer, more natural scenery for its walkabouts.Okay, so some SFX would be at place in an episode of Power Rangers, thus inevitably costing it a huge amount of would-be fans, but with its tongue-in-cheek tale to suit its SFX - in parts making their badness seem deliberate - who cares? Not all films are for everyone, but for those Dororo IS for, it satisfies totally!Dororo follows a young Pinocchio-type man as he saunters Japan, killing demons to regain his lost body, and with it his humanity. Joining him on his quest is the troubled nameless thief he dubs "Dororo"; her own motives are unclear at first, but when revealed, aid the plot rather well.Filled with action, slapstick antics and being the fruit of a script which can successfully carry a viewer on a high from start-to-finish, Dororo offers 2hours and 18 minutes that you won't want given back, instead, you'll gladly accept the exchange of time for watching this great flick.Even though the film seems complete in itself, its story does insinuate that other adventures (i.e. "sequels") could very well stem from it.I've seen that parts 2 and 3 are set to be made - for once, these will be sequels that I'll be looking forward to.