Bringing The Rurouni Kenshin Prequel OVA "Trust And Betrayal" To Life Into A Feature Film

I remembered watching the Rurouni Kenshin Trilogy which broke quite a record in Philippine cinema. Unfortunately, the two films that served to wrap things up with the finale then we had the origins of Battousai - all before Kenshin decided to get a reverse-edged sword when he swore never to kill again. The whole movie is a condensed version of the Trust and Betrayal OVA series. The finale deals with the late Tomoe's younger brother Enishi. This one explains why the final movie went that way (and why it NEVER became the Anime finale is really confusing IMHO). 

The whole era here was the Tokugawa Shogunate. I could remember a bit of my Japanese history in high school now! Okay, Rurouni Kenshin is just a story but you can learn some Japanese history. The Tokugawa era created an isolationist policy against Western influence. Much persecution of western ideas happened during the Tokugawa era. Much of the grudge that Shogo Amakusa (Muto, actually) was because of the loss of his Catholic Christian family to the Tokugawa government. I felt the Amakusa arc was probably skipped for that reason though I actually want to see it live. The Amakusa arc makes you question if your beliefs do come in contrast to your actions. Also, Shogo was more of an anti-villain who had noble intentions. The whole era was a mess because of how Japan's protectionist, exclusive policy (which I'm afraid is rising already) or some entertainment companies seeking to "make stuff exclusive for the Japanese" is happening.

The story of the Trust and Betrayal is pretty much ironic. By now, I guess a lot of fans of the original Anime and Manga would know the story. It has the bittersweet irony that Kenshin swore to protect the happiness of his first love, the late Tomoe. Tomoe was supposed to marry a man named Akira but was killed by Kenshin. The two lovers each formed a portion of Kenshin's famous x-scar - the very reason why the international distribution title is Samurai X instead of Wandering Kenshin. 

For me, this was probably the least favorite of the five films. I think the pacing can be quite rushed in one way or another. Things tend to get rushed in contrast to the four-part OVA. Yet, it does still manage to bring it to life even with the 2 hours and 45 minutes constraint. Personally, I felt it should've been divided into two films like how the Shishio saga was. Instead, they opt to simply compress it into one single film for some reason. Did they decide it was time to end the film series or what? I can't really be sure. It'd be helpful if I can get more information on the decision of Keishi Otomo on that matter.