The characters, especially the protagonist, Munsu, felt multidimensional but at the same time undeveloped. Munsu experiences in the desert alone show various sides to him. He is kind to Monlyon and grateful for the water but at the same time he is willing to use the body of the guy he looked to be about to save to block numerous spears. Likewise he shows compassion for the citizens of the city Lord Byun controls, but at the same time anger at their trust in others and lack of initiative. In the same way he shows care for the boy Jyun but then is quick to give him a lesson in tough love. He is someone who seemingly has a strong sense of justice but at the same time he is often overly vicious in his manner of retribution. I would love to see this internal struggle continue and perhaps come to a head when he meets his nemesis. Thun Hyan is also very interesting. She is quite a determined strong-willed individual, who at one time tried to commit suicide by biting her own tongue out due to the restraints she was under. Her fighting prowess is amazing to boot. At the same time she is quite weak too, seemingly needing to hang onto others and lacking in independence after she is rescued. She almost willingly becomes Munsu's slave. She doesn't speak in the first half of the narrative but finally finds her voice towards the end. This too would be interesting to build more upon.
In fact, the relationship between the two main characters also showed some development. At first Munsu feels sympathy and pity for Tyun Hyan and her situation, but when she wants to accompany him it turns into displeasure and him ignoring her as they trek through mountains and over streams, etc. When he finally does accept her it is more as a slave than a bodyguard. Then when she fails to follow his orders, stepping in to save him from Juite's minion, she is scolded and told to leave as he had not told her to do so. She finds her voice, and promises to follow his orders, which she does, until he is almost killed by Juite himself and she saves him. This time it is gratitude not a scolding she is met with and their relationship is allowed to grow. Most interesting of all was how Munsu straight out said he was not her dead lover, and would not replace him. However, this dynamic was not explored and this relationship generally, like the main characters themselves, was underdeveloped in terms of its potential. Although there was conflict between them at one point there could have been more. Basically I would have liked to have seem them get closer and then have a fight and reconcile again, or something along those lines, maybe even have a romantic part that tested Munsu's resolve as an Amen Osa (as he is thus not allowed to have a lover) and Tyun Hyan's dedication to her dead lover, Monlyon.
Despite all this the biggest downfall of the film was the big plot hole left open. This is that we learn of Munsu's nemesis, his ultimate enemy named Ajite, only after he has defeated Juite, the main antagonist of the film. It is most irritating to learn of who could be the main antagonist only in the final minutes of the film. In fact it somewhat devalues the film as a whole knowing what we watch did not bring any closure to the protagonist, only to the supporting cast first Monlyon and then Jyun, both of whom are dead already in fact. Furthermore, after the credits role we get another glimpse of Munsu and his Sando wandering around, imparting justice and presumably looking for Ajite. I suppose this would all be fine if this film was planned to have a sequel, but it wasn't. It was made to be a standalone and annoyingly so. If this film was to be a standalone film from a manhwa series it should have followed the precedent set by Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind or Akira. These were both made from manga series, but both took a single ark and treated fully as if it were a single story without naming main enemies in the last ten minutes.
So due to all this I felt as though the film in terms of its writing and adaption was incomplete and should have been made into a series and not a film. I mean the opening song comes thirty minutes into the film where there is a break in the action and seemingly between what could have been the opening episode and the second one. Quite literally nothing is said, and although it sets up the relationship between the Amen Osa and his Sando (bodyguard), with her following him around and not being acknowledged, it really did feel like a break between episodes. I feel like this movie could have been made into a Trigun-esque series where, like Vash, Munsu goes from town to town helping it until he eventually has to find his nemesis, Ajite, and defeat him.
Before i end this post I would also like to bring up how each part of the movie, through Munsu's speeches, brought up a different issue and message. The first part of the film somewhat touched on politics or more how to make your life better. Munsu said how the people of the town that had been overthrown were useless because they just waited for help namely from Monlyon, who was of course killed in the desert. Munsu called them worthless and threaten to slaughter them too because they did not take matters into their own hands. Both Munsu and Monlyon talk about "miracles" and how they are nonexistent. He then praises the townsfolk for killing the feudal lord themselves after he had destroyed the army and was fighting Tyun Hyan. Likewise we feel sympathy for Tyun Hyan because she tries to all she can but is physically restrained from doing so, to the point where she tries to commit suicide by biting out her own tongue. Although this will not fix the issue, she does not submit to the situation. This is a nice play on the Korean folk tale of Tyun Hyan where she promises to marry Monlyon, not become his Sando, and (when he leaves) she waits for him eventhough she terrorised for doing so by other suitors. In other words, what would be the first episode tells never to give in to circumstances, no matter how bleak and if we want to change things we need to take action ourselves, not wait for things to happen for us.
The "second episode" seeming touched on the issues of drug abuse to escape from reality. It pitted the importance of the truth we find in reality against the happiness we find in hallucinations and believing what we want to. This is played on with the demon guy Juite who, posing as a doctor, makes all the people on an isolated island happy through giving them mandrake extract. It turns out all the island actually died in a horrible plague and were not saved by the "miracle worker" doctor. This reality must be faced by Jyun who must shoot his already dead sister, which he does after a flashback, and then he eventually realises he too is dead and thus disappears, at peace. The battle between Munsu and Juite is the personification of the battle between reality and hallucination. Of course Munsu wins and after Jyun is laid to rest, within whom this battle also raged, Munsu asks him (rhetorically) what is the best thing in life. Munsu answers it himself, it is not pure happiness, but instead being able to look up into sky (facing reality) and be proud of yourself. There is an implication of happiness in it but the main focus is on being able to be face reality or the truth of life and not hiding for it behind happiness. The film, or rather the series (could have), had some interesting ideas and again I would have liked to have seem more.
Wicked drawing of the Amen Osa and his Sando: http://raykit.deviantart.com/art/Shin-Angyo-Onshi-43975670
Overall, this film left me with mixed thoughts. On one hand it presented good messages, showed glimpses of interesting characters and relationships between these characters, as well as creating a fairly interesting (post-apocalyptic come fantasy) world. On the other it felt very incomplete, in terms of plot and characterisation. What I came away with was more on the feeling that there should have been more, this should have been made a series, not a film. Really I would have wanted Blade of the Phantom Master to have been a series and I think it could be remembered as fondly as say Trigun, which shares a similar post-apocalyptic setting, deep characters and rather philosophical messages sprinkled throughout the series.
Movie poster (Korean).
Links:
http://anidb.net/perl-bin/animedb.pl?show=anime&aid=2190
http://myanimelist.net/anime/884/Shin_Angyo_Onshi
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=5182
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