ANI-MOVIES, *Blade Of The Phantom Master

A Korean-Japanese manga series titled New Royal Secret Agent got an anime adaptation halfway through its run. For some reason, when ADV Films released it into English they called it Blade Of The Phantom Master which is really moronic because the titular "Phantom Master"(which they're never referred to)doesn't use a blade at all but an endless supply of firearms. ADV had a habit of retitling anime releasess to fit a broader audience, but this time it was just downright stupid. Youn In-wan was the original author with Yang Kyung-il supplying the decent art for the manga, even though the anime adaption isn't really a film in the traditional sense but more like the first few episodes from a cancelled TV series strung together in a compilation film. Anyone who's seen MST3K will know what I'm talking about. The movie is literally split into two separate halves, each one its own episode. The story is set in a slightly post-apocalyptic chanbara fantasy where the main character is the only one using modern weapons while everyone else in it uses either swords or sorcery.

In a world modeled after feudal Korea, the kingdom of Jushin has fallen leaving its straggling knights known as the Angyo Onshi to carry on what justice they could find. The last known agent of this order is Mun-su who carries an entire arsenal of guns and explosives underneath his clothes, along with the power to create illusion clones and to summon up an entire army of jester soldiers to wipe out any trouble he comes across. The first part of the film has Mun-su taking down a despotic lord who was holding a beautiful girl named Mon-Ryong who was brainwashed into being an assassin. Mun-su frees Mon-Ryong and takes her on as his secret bodyguard. The second part of the movie is longer where Mun-su tries to liberate an island of undead tortured souls from the grip of a nasty necromancer who turned the entire population into zombies.

Blade Of The Phantom Master is a profoundly misleading title to a production that was clearly not intended into be a theatrical film. It might have made for a decent OVA series, however this fails completely at being a full-length movie. There is some mildly fair animation in it, but it's easy to see how they pulled along with feature with endless scenes of the "Phantom Master" just wandering around the countryside. The first few minutes even has him hoofing it through the desert nearly dying of thirst. You can skip this unless you feel like filling in a long afternoon of nothing.