You don't need to be familiar with the rest of the Rurouni Kenshin live-action movie series—or the original manga and anime, for that matter—to appreciate The Beginning as a powerful period drama in its own right. This is a story that courses its historical context about a tumultuous time in Japan's past through a stoic, fearsome protagonist who can't seem to escape the violence that's become his only function. And even more impressively, as a prequel, the film keeps a heavy sense of dread about it, even if you're sure about which characters are meant to survive in order to appear in the previous films. It's the mark of any great tragedy that even the things that are destined can still feel so painful.

The Beginning easily stands as the best installment in the five-movie live-action franchise, and a big reason for that is how deliberately it pushes against the series' worst impulses. Certain installments were riddled with fan service and the occasionally overwrought action scene or overcooked performance, but this movie knows better than to make a big deal out of its connections to the rest of the franchise. It's much bloodier but in a way that inspires sorrow rather than excitement, and the lead performance given by Takeru Satoh is finally allowed to feel like one coherent—and heartbreaking—vision for this character.