Dororo: At least tell me your name! If you don't I'll call you something weird and shout it out.
Hyakkimaru: If you ask, tell me yours first.
Dororo: A thief has no name. A name could get you arrested. Any thief with a name is just third-rate.
Hyakkimaru: So we're the same. I have no fixed name. Drifter, Hyakkimura, Dororo.
Dororo: "Dororo?"... Sounds perfect for a professional thief like me. All right, it's mine! So I'm Dororo, you're Hyakkimura.

I realize I'm a bit late for Tezuka Month, but here's my bit:

Dororo is the 2007 live action adaption of the classic Osamu Tezuka classic about a ronin named Hyakkimaru who's accompanied by a young thief named Dororo on his search for the 48 demons who possess his body parts, given to them at birth by his father, in exchange for the power to conquer the world. As with most adaptations, Dororo takes some liberties with the source material. The Hyakkimaru of this movie is much younger than the one in the manga, and Dororo is closer to his age, as opposed to the little child presented in the manga.

The bulk of the movie can easily be divided into two halves, with a montage-like interlude in the middle. The movie opens with the yet-unnamed thief stealing from a group of men, while our young hero is on the hunt for one of the fiends at a seedy burlesque joint. Dororo stumbles upon Hyakkimaru as he's delivering the final blows, witnessing as he uses his swords in place of arms to slay the beast, and as his real foot grows back after this. Dororo learns the story of Hyakkimaru from a traveling minstrel, and after learning of the rare sword in his left arm, decides to follow him on his quest.

The Hyakkimaru of the movie is as stoic as his predecessors from manga and anime, but far less bitter, quickly letting Dororo accompany him. Much of the first (and indeed, latter) half of the movie is spent with boring dialogue between Dororo and Hyakkimaru, Dororo expressing her desire to steal Hyakkimaru's sword. They encounter some demons which Hyakkimaru slays with some help from Dororo, and then the movie cuts to a montage of slaying various fiends. At this point, it feels like so much time and the movie is ending on a feel good never-ending monster quest...but no, only about an hour and fifteen minutes have passed, and there's still at least an hour to go!

Hyakkimaru learns of his father through the last fiend he slays in the montage, and meets his mother and brother after visiting his father's castle, Lord Daigo Kagemitsu. Hyakkimaru's brother is played by a terrible actor, his mother even more so. Meeting his mother and the events surrounding this felt so awkward it was difficult to watch. Eventually it gets to Daigo, the father, that his accursed son has resurfaced, and the demons convince him to engage him. Hyakkimaru and his brother Tahomaru engage in battle, Tahomaru dies, Daigo appears and kills their mother, and fights Hyakkimaru and loses. Hyakkimaru agrees to spare his life due to a heart to heart had with Dororo earlier, and then a demon possesses Daigo in exchange for reviving Tahomaru and leaving Daigo's empire to his son after his death. This leads to one of the most lackluster final confrontations ever.

I've heard that sequels are planned for this. Truthfully, I did like this movie. Some of the special effects were Power Rangers quality, but the storytelling was decent when it didn't lag due to terrible dialogue, mostly Dororo's fault. I've been meaning to watch this movie for a very long time due to my love of the PlayStation2 game, Blood Will Tell. I left mildly disappointed, and hoping the sequels do a better job of combining action with storytelling, and they don't succumb to the action montage curse.

Dororo (2007) - 6.5/10