I really enjoyed the film. The action was great and the storyline as well.

Set in the transitional period between the samurai era and modern Japan, we follow a samurai who has sworn to never kill again. He meets and defends a young woman against the henchmen of a criminally-minded businessman, all the while struggling to uphold his vow. A well-paced story, fantastic fight sequences, and great characters. A must for fans of the genre.

It's a re-telling of the first arc of the manga/anime, and it merges the roles of a few characters, while skipping over or cutting the contributions of many major characters in the original story. The cut content doesn't feel notable in its absence, however, and the story flows better in a film than it could if it was too tightly limited to the original source material. Action scenes are brilliantly done, and only really outdone by the best of the best (and the sequels to this film).