ai Doh Maru opens on a distorted black-and-white sequence that evokes traditional Japanese wall scrolls as well as modern manga. As a winded young prince and his retainer flee through a forest, demon-masked men corner and confront the fleeing pair. Unmasking himself, one of the hunters orders his men to kill the boy, whom he calls "Kintoki." The boy gasps when he realizes the masked man is his uncle, but their reunion is cut short as another man intervenes, carrying Kintoki away and asking him, "Little one, are you the Kaidohmaru?"
Five years later, in 894 A.D., two figures, a white-haired boy and a traditionally garbed princess, discuss plague as they watch corpses float by in a diseased river. The princess flashes back to a time when she offered to marry Kintoki. Elsewhere, Kintoki's rescuer, Raiko, speaks to his lord about the magic-using evildoers in the area, and about security for a festival. He finds and speaks to Kintoki, who is now a girl. Meanwhile, a man offers "the usual sacrifices"—two apparently sleeping children—to the white-haired boy and the princess. Shortly thereafter, two scarred monks discuss the heat and Kintoki's sadness, and how what she needs is her rescuer, Lord Raiko. Then they're all patrolling together, and they meet with the white-haired boy, who displays unusual powers as he lops the heads and feet off their horses. None of these events quite seem to cohere into a narrative; the characters are clearly connected, but Kai Doh Maru reads more as a disjointed series of vaguely related events than as a story.
By reading between the lines and consulting supplementary materials, determined viewers can learn a few things: Kintoki was raised as a boy, and the princess Onhi became obsessed with her. But Kintoki's traitorous uncle massacred his brother's family to usurp his position, and Kintoki would have died had she not been rescued and raised by the knights of the capital city's defense ministry, becoming a member of their elite group. Onhi, now an evil sorceress, still wants Kintoki, and will do anything to get her, even threaten the capital itself.
What? Huh? Who?
Kai Doh Maru is the kind of oblique, fragmented feature where virtually every sentence seems either like a revelation or just a waste of time. Watching it is like working through a mental checklist: "And these guys are who? Well, they're working for a lord. ... Oh, wait, someone just mentioned the Defense Ministry, they apparently work for that. ... Now where are they going? Who's this new guy?" Like Blood: The Last Vampire, a similarly short, experimental, digital-dependent piece by the same production company, Kai Doh Maru reads more as a showreel or a proof-of-concept piece than a complete feature. Credits aside, the entire film amounts to about 39 minutes of opaque, disjointed events that end abruptly and unsatisfyingly. As with Blood, the main reason to see it would presumably be for the experimental designs and stylish visuals.
But unlike Blood, Kai Doh Maru isn't terribly visually appealing. The characters are bland and wan, with fixed features and immobile faces, except when they're in motion, when they become twisted and distorted. The scenery is computer-animated, and looks it; one feature on the disc takes viewers on frictionless glides through panoramic 3-D sets that look like something from a late-'80s production-house showreel, and those sets feature prominently and repeatedly in the film itself. Most disturbingly, virtually the entire piece is designed in mood pastels: In a scene at night, everything will appear a washed-out blue or violet, whereas a scene in the sunlight will mostly be a washed-out pale yellow or brown. The variations in color between characters' clothing, face and surroundings is often subtle at best; nothing stands out. The effect is certainly unusual and artistic, but it also makes everything look dim and samey, at least until the blood starts to flow.
Kai Doh Maru does have its standout moments—the white-haired demon boy is suitably creepy, and his nonchalant slaughter is striking. But between the choppy plot, the lack of ending, the vague design and faint coloring, and all the unanswered questions, the film feels unfinished, as though it was waiting for more design detail, more color and, above all, about another half an hour of story.
The best way to watch Kai Doh Maru is uncritically and without concern for who the characters are, how the scenes connect and what anything means. After you've seen the basic story, turn to the "Characters" extra feature on the DVD to interpret events and fill in the many, many blanks, such as why Kintoki is called "Kaidohmaru." Then it's possible to watch it all again, and actually follow the story the second time through.
— Tasha
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