This review may contain spoilers, read at your own risk. Before I start this review I just want to state that I have not read the manga, and that this review is based purely on the movie adaptation. I realise that not reading the manga beforehand means I most likely do not 'fully comprehend' the context, history and motivations of certain characters, but like I said, this review will focus on the movie as it is, a standalone from other adaptations. Story Reincarnation is a fascinating subject, combined with Buddhism's perspective of karma, and you have an interesting combination of the two; especially when it's used as aplot device to further the story or a character's development. Sadly however, 'Houou-hen', does not adequately portray this plot device as much as I hoped it would. We're introduced to the 'Phoenix', the embodiment of reincarnation and overseer of karmic retribution, yet the all too convenient timings of its appearance honestly lessen the impacts of certain events in the story. For example, a certain character being visited by the 'Phoenix' to motivate them to do their duty for whatever banal reasoning is a pretty lame way to move the plot forward.

The story for the most part was easy to follow, however, it just was not as engaging as I thought it would be. There are constant time skips and we're not given enough background information on our two protagonists to really comprehend their situations.

Characters
The 'Phoenix' is portrayed as an enigmatic, awe-inspiring deity, however, the motivations or should I say, judgements handed down by the 'Phoenix' followed no reasonable or logical reasoning. I realise that this story is a take on Buddhist beliefs of reincarnation and karma, but I honestly could not understand any of the reasonings behind certain decisions of the 'Phoenix'. To illustrate, we have a character who's possibly killed dozens or hundreds of innocent people, why? Who knows, the movie does not go into depth, but because of a certain incident with his lover (who might I add, he raped and captured her), he all of a sudden has a change of heart and goes on some sort of 'disillusioned pilgrimage' to change his ways. All the while, we are made to feel sympathetic towards this scumbag of a character, while on the opposite end, we have our second protagonist, a wood carver who by all regards is literally just a normal person with normal aspirations but instead the movie paints him out to be a villain lmao.

As I am not a Buddhist, I do not fully comprehend the cause and effect of the karma system, however, I do realise that the moral or theme this movie tries to portray is that no matter how many wrong deeds one has committed, there will always be a way for them to repent? Or maybe not, because as I recall in the movie, when the 'Phoenix' is talking to Gaou, our reformed mass murderer, it informs him that he will "suffer eternal pain, sadness, and hate for all eternity" despite him already changing his ways. As for our second protagonist, the woodcarver, he is reborn into a "small fish" lmao just because he didn't follow his original dream of finding the 'Phoenix' and because he outed the mass murderer for being well, a mass murderer.

All in all, I fail to see any sort of deep meaning or message behind the movie. If repentance gets you nowhere, then why even bother, and if a momentary lapse in moral judgement dooms you for eternity, then I guess we're all doomed. The only take away from this I can really surmise is that the 'Phoenix' is an all around dick to everyone.