‘Blade of the 47 Ronin’ Ending, Explained: Who Is the Descendant of the 47 Ronin?
Welcome to the Ending Explained for Blade of the 47 Ronin, a new fantasy action film arriving on Netflix this week. The film is directed by Ron Yuan and stars Anna Akana, Teresa Ting, Mike Meoh, Dustin Nguyen, Chikako Fukuyama, Luna Fujimoto, and Mark Dacascos. The film centers around a battle of samurai clans who have been working in secret, in today’s world. When the menace of a witch comes to claim The Witch Blade, one of the most ancient and powerful of Samurai relics, the samurai must find a hero to claim the blade and defeat the evil that looms above them.
Blade of the 47 Ronin is a sequel of sorts to the original 47 Ronin. The original film starred Keanu Reeves, and it was one of the biggest box office flops of that year and really hurt Universal Pictures. This sequel has very little to do with the original, which was a period fantasy piece. Instead, Blade of the 47 Ronin tries to be closer to a John Wick film, but it fails to do so as it lacks the proper cinematic feeling that those movies transmit. It is a shame because the excellent work of the stunt team feels wasted on very non-cinematic shots and poor direction overall.
The following paragraphs contain spoilers for Blade of the 47 Ronin. Read at your own risk.
What Is The Witch Blade?
Blade of the 47 Ronin starts with the introduction of the main conflict. We are introduced to two unknown individuals as they are trying to form an alliance. It seems someone named Yurei is back from someplace and these two individuals are afraid of them. It seems they are leaders in a secret samurai organization that is still working in current times. Their meeting is cut short by the arrival of Yurei and his henchmen. Yurei dispatches the two leaders with ease thanks to the use of his magic.
Later, we are introduced to the rest of the samurai organization. Three leaders stand out from the rest: Lord Shinshiro, Lord Nikko, and Lord Ikeda. Everyone is worried about Yurei’s return and the death of their peers while facing him. Nikko proposes that they should get ready for war. He has provided modern weaponry to his soldiers, and he is clearly ready to use it against Yurei and his men. However, Shinshiro has other ideas. Yurei wants the Witch Blade, an ancient magical sword. It is said that if he put his hands on it, it would be the end of the samurai.
Shinshiro proposes to find the last direct descendant of the 47 samurai. This descendant will be able to use the blade against Yurei and kill him once and for all. Nikko doesn’t believe in these tales and proposes that they should just use the blade as bait. Onami, Shinshiro’s protégé, says that they are only there to protect the blade. They decide to make a decision later, but Onami thinks that there is no time to let the leaders agree on what they are going to do, so she begins the search for the descendant of her own volition.
She recruits the help of Aya, and Mai, her two best friends and also an expert warrior. She also finds help in Reo, a samurai that has been out of the clan for a while, but whose ability to track and find people are unmatched. Onami and Reo meet in Budapest, at a club, and Reo reveals that that is the place where they will find the descendant of the 47 Ronin. We are talking about a girl who is the daughter of the previous direct descendant. This girl is called Luna, and she is there to sell an old sword. Onami is doubtful but follows Reo’s logic.
Who Is the Descendant Of The 47 Ronin?
Here we are introduced to the protagonist of the film, a character named Luna. Luna is a bit of a drifter. She seems to have no family, and we discover later that she lived with her mother and that her father abandoned them when she was a little girl. Shinshiro, Onami, and Reo saved her from some of Yurei’s men, and they explained to Luna that they think she is the descendant of the 47 Ronin. The last one is thus the only one that can kill Yurei using the Witch Blade. Luna doesn’t believe them one bit, but she follows them to be safe.
Lord Shinshiro puts Onami in charge, and they start training Luna so that she can defend herself when the time comes. However, Luna has been sensing something strange happening to her. She feels some sort of connection with Yurei, but she doesn’t understand it, not yet. Things go for the worse when it is revealed that there is a traitor among them. Some of their allies are killed by the traitor, a tall woman who served as a guard in their safe house. Aya tries to stop her, but she is killed in the process. When Onami and the rest arrive, they mourn the death of their friend.
While in search of the Witch Blade, Shinshiro, Onami, and Reo are ambushed by Yurei and his men. The battle is desperate, and Yurei reveals that Luna is not the last descendant of the 47 Ronin. She doesn’t have their blood, she has his blood, which makes her a witch. The Witch Blade is not in Yurei’s possession, and Lord Shinshiro is killed. Onami mourns the death of her father, as Shinshiro rescued her when she was little and raised her as his own daughter. The team is unsure whether to trust Luna now that they know she is a witch, but she assures them that she is now on their side.
In the final battle, Yurei tries to compel Luna to betray Onami and the rest of the team, as they are family, but Luna chooses to side with Onami. They fight against Yurei, and Luna manages to hit him with the blade, but because she is not the descendant of the 47 Ronin, the blade has no effect on him. It is here that Onami is revealed as the real descendant of the 47 Ronin, and she kills Yurei with it. The Witch Blade is brought once again under the Samurai’s protection, and Onami takes the seat that once belonged to Lord Shinshiro.
As a teaser for a sequel, she now proposes that they must search for the Tengu Blade, another lost magical sword.
