Man this really good, one of the best sport drama i ever seen, Wonder  why holding this up  to this point for so long.  I suppose pretty much  the original source by taiyou matsumoto quiet translated well for live  action, which i never, yet to read any rather than by reputation and other adaptation  of his works, blue spring and anime tekkon kinkret -which a must see too imo-
It's not focused on the dynamic of the game, much characters driven with  got a lot to say about passion, self discovery and relationship  themselves. It could be a little overdramatic, cheesy  and cliche but never goes  beyond gimmicky and ridicule, but poetic at the time
I would  prefer if the ending  hold or cut in moment of subtleness rather showing it by shoving scene to audience which one made proggress to the professional level because it doesnt match with movie tone at all.

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Cool and quirky chanbara. Maybe it's too fast paced made the intrigue  and polemic a little hard to follow. it's not that complicated though, only again there this flow of narrative -to me- been sacrificed. Not help when many characters -which some supposedly intriguing, and they were-  also  became abruptly introduced, developed and resolved. i guess it's still fair on this kind of flick.
the fights,  humors, the absurd circumstances is strong  on this one. the points that remind me of the work of seijun suzuki. only talk kihachi okamoto , he has some social commentary implied, in this case ridicule obselete samurai code of duty to a complete laughing stock.

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