If splattering blood in film is an art form, the Japanese director Takashi Miike is Jackson Pollock — and his 100th movie as director, the samurai movie “Blade of the Immortal,” is one of the most viscerally energetic action flicks around.
A 9-minute black-and-white opening segment, with a higher body count than both “Kill Bill” movies put together, sets the stage. In medieval Japan, the fugitive samurai Manji (played by Japanese star Takuya Kimura) is on the run after killing a village’s police chief and six of his officers. His companion is his sister, Machi (Hana Sugisaki), driven mad when she saw Manji kill her husband, one of the officers.