Monday, February 05, 2007
Dororo
Went to see Dororo (『どろろ』) tonight and was thoroughly entertained, though as with many Japanese films of late I thought it ran about 10-15 minutes too long. The stunning New Zealand locations really set Dororo apart from other period action epics, not to mention enjoyable performances from Tsumabuki Satoshi (妻夫木聡) as Hyakkimaru and Shibasaki Kou (柴咲コウ) as the titular tomboy.
The cinematography was interesting -- I'm pretty sure it was shot on HD video and processed to give it a filmic look. Some scenes recalled WKW's Ashes of Time, others spaghetti westerns, but at times it was murky and grainy. Legendary action director Ching Siu-tung's contribution didn't disappoint, with plenty of eye-popping battles using just the right amount of wirework. The film paraded out a lot more monsters than I expected. Most were CG creations, but there was one hilarious fight featuring a giant rubber Komodo dragon-type creature shot in a style similar to some of the old tokusatsu TV shows (Ultraman etc.) This was somewhat at odds with other more realistic battle scenes featuring thousands of massacred samurai, their heads and limbs lopped off. The soundtrack was an odd combination of flamenco and Morricone-inspired minimalism -- I quite liked it. 
Soon after I got home, I noticed the Nihon Eiga Senmon Channel was showing all 26 episodes of Fuji TV's 1969 series, also based on Tezuka Osamu's (手塚治虫) characters. Click on the image to see a short video clip shot on my mobile phone (QuickTime, 27s, 1.1Mb). As you can see, the original character of Dororo was a little girl (who acts like a boy). Shibasaki Kou's much older version of the character still swears she's male, but the producers obviously wanted to create some man-woman chemistry onscreen, which has now apparently continued offscreen.
I don't play video games, but I'm curious what the PS2 adaptation was like (released abroad as Blood Will Tell).
Trivia: I'd always wondered about the roots of animation companies in Nerima ward. While drafting this blog entry I read that Tezuka built a house in Fujimidai in the 60s. Could be the missing link.
Show Info on Tezuka Osamu World
Dororo Official Site
Dororo on Wikipedia
Japan Times review
Update: If you're reading this entry on the main page, be sure to check out the comments section, where Don Brown of Ryuganji and Nicholas Rucka of Maboroshii Productions and Midnight Eye weigh in.
*Thanks to a great little site called Media Convert that took my cell phone's .asf file and converted it to QuickTime.
9 comments:
initial thoughts the trailer had me thinking japan was trying for another live-action in similar tone to 'azumi', as though the manga adaptations that have commercially worked have actually been quite distant from what we would expect of most manga given the works we're familiar with from translations... is this the holy grail then? 'dororo' looks like a commercial action manga / anime adaptation but it actually works on many levels? looks that way from what you say...
logboy
I don't know if I'd call it a "Holy Grail," but I thought it was better than something like Azumi.
It was fun without being immature. Shiota Akihiko (塩田明彦監督) is not the kind of director people expected to helm a film like this -- I think he helped strike a good balance between entertainment, tragedy and even some politics.
To honest, I'm surprised you liked it as much as you say you did. Perhaps my expectations were too high - I really wanted this to work because of the involvement of Shiota and Nakamura Masa, not to mention the New Zealand connection. But the incongruous mix of poor CG and guys-in-suits tokusatsu, the miscasting of the two leads, the pointless cameos by several comedians, the lack of a decent villain etc. (I could go on) just ruined it for me. That's not to say I thought it was a disaster: in the end it's passable enough, but should have been so much better.
The only thing that really worked for me, and quite unexpectedly, was Tsuchiya Anna. Normally I can't stand her, but she was perfect for the part and revitalised the film, albeit briefly. I never thought I'd say this, but I wished she'd been on screen longer.
Wonder if it will do well enough to warrant the sequel that the ending hints at?
Come on, the rubber monster with the long sticky tongue was great!
I don't know, I was in a good mood (and must confess that I got the tickets for free). But really I had 0 expectations and enjoyed it for what it was. Outside of a few directors, I never go in with expectations anymore and it's served me well. You did have a link to the movie, though...
Why do you feel Tsumabuki and Shibasaki were miscast? I thought they were solid. I wouldn't mind getting kicked in the balls by her, actually.
I thought the dual destruction Nakai wrought on the country and his own son worked as an ominous backstory, but you're right that a movie is only as good as its villain. And yes, Tsuchiya was very effective as a black widow in waiting.
Looking at the Yahoo! manzoku rating, it's at 3.25/5, which is dead average.
Mark S. seemed to love it more than anybody. Care to comment, Mark?
Don't get me wrong - I love me some latex kaiju too, but they didn't gel with the po-faced treatment of the story. They seemed more suited to something like "Yokai Daisenso", which also has its flaws but is much more even in tone (except maybe the gratuitous teen thigh closeups).
As for the miscasting jibe, I thought Tsumabuki tried his best but he's a little too *nice* for my liking. Which is not necessarily the kind of quality you want in a merciless demon killer.
Shibasaki got stuck in to her role too, but it felt like it had been written for a child rather than a grown woman. Her 'feisty' dialogue soon fell into a monotonous pattern too, although again I that was more a problem with the screenplay. Like Tsumabuki, I think she can be great in the right kind of role but this wasn't one. A bit more action chop-sockey from her would have been welcome too.
As for Ko-chan being Mifune's true heir, well... I thought that title had already gone to Oda Yuji ;)
nice to see early contradictory / opposing opinions in english on a japanese film. my dislike of 'the great yokai war' has me apprehensive but semi-excited about this one, hate jarring CGI the most...
logboy
I definitely liked Dororo more than Yôkai Daisensô (which I can barely remember). Though I will agree that the latter was more consistent in style/tone throughout. Mizuki Shigeru's original creations are great, but as far as movies go I liked the bakemono in Dororo.
wow. i found 'the great yokai war' to be a jumbled mess, from start to finish, and not in a good way either... it's all over the place, and the cinematography really confused me too - so many of the locations, if i remember correctly, were incredibly small or tight, and the look of it was more made-for-TV (but with lots of cash) rather than cinematic... still, i can't remember most of it now either, i found it practically impossible to maintain any concentration on it. bet your boots, some years down the line, i will rewatch it and find i was just having a bad night when i watched it. i've not had that experience before though, it's just that it's miike, and i still can't believe it didn't work for me...
logboy
Hey all,
Jason invited me over to add a coupla comments to this since I'd sent him a little review I did for my pals at the New York Asian Film Festival. I don't know if it's cheeky for me to repost what I wrote to my friends in email about the film, but it somehow best sums up my feelings about DORORO. (Apologize if it is cheeky.)
I will say, though, that if you like films like AZUMI and SHINOBI, despite all of their blotches and pimples, then you will like this film. Jason did ask me whether my problem actually was with the original Tezuka manga itself and not just the film. Perhaps. But since I haven't read it, I can't really say. While I did have some story issues my problem with the film boiled down to one thing: half-baked.
I was entertained in small bursts throughout the film, but in the end, the film just didn't gel at all for me.
I'm pasting my review below, for those who want to read it. Thanks, Jason, for letting me put it here. (For the record, I loved Miike's YOKAI DAISENSOU. I wrote my reasons why on my contribution to Midnighteye's best of 2006 list.):
First off, while I thought that the Yomiuri Shinbun's review was bad, I think he's right about one thing: it's not that good of a movie. But what does this mean in terms of audiences who like these kind of Shinobi, Azumi, Duelist etc kind of films? Not too much. They'll probably like this despite all of it's flaws.
Basically, DORORO is, at it's heart, PINOCCHIO. But instead of a little boy who wants to be human, it's a guy named Hyakkimaru who, because of a deal that his dad does with a demon in exchange for that super seductive "power of the gods" with which he can conquer all, he gives up 48 body parts in his unborn son. When said boy is born he looks like a little Pillsbury Dough Boy sans arms, legs, eyes, ears, nose etc. His father, being evil, is disgusted by him but his mother being loving, well, loves him. The evil father wants to kill the abomination; loving mother pleads for the helpless creatures life-- so they throw him in a basket in a river, and like Moses, go where fate takes him.
Still taking its cues from PINOCCHIO, fate takes him into the hands of Geppetto-- or whatever his name is. (Who cares.) Anyway, this guy is a medieval genius apparently (looking like a Japanese 'Whistler' from the BLADE movies) and not only nurses Hyakkimaru back to full health, he somehow makes the little baby incredible regenerating limbs and organs from... magic PLAY-DO like stuff. Oh, and this is important, Hyakkimaru has, instead of bones in his forearms, super shiny, badass gold swords. When in a pinch, he sheds his arms and SCHWING! he's fighting like an Iron Chef in a twister! These are extra handy (*ahem*) considering Hyakkimaru's destiny in life-- or aim for this film and its inevitable sequels-- is to kill 48 goblins and by doing so, he'll regenerate those missing body-parts that his dad exchanged for unmatched power.
So who's this Dororo character that this film is named for? You'd be forgiven in thinking that the film should be called HYAKKIMARU, but Dororo is the Japanese idol who's convinced that she's a boy-- and therefore a super sexy (not that super, actually) tom-boy who is also a famous thief... or something. She's interested in Hyakkimaru because of his amazing (and valuable!) arm swords and knows that her street rep will be assured if she can steal one. She has some sort of sad back story too which makes her hide her femininity and it's so by-the-numbers that you can probably guess that all she wants is a good hug and maybe some vengeance for her parents deaths (see the above comment about sequels). And that's about it for the story. Basically, Hyakkimaru and Dororo travel around while he kills goblins and drops his old fake limbs and organs and grows new 'real' flesh ones (like candles burning backwards and into shape).
The film itself doesn't look so great. As an example, the grain in the flashback sequences is so big, I thought I was watching a Roy Lichtenstein painting. Really, the film is trying desperately to have that 'HERO' look to it, but no amount of post production color timing can save the fact that a) the film wasn't shot by Chris Doyle and b) some of the film was, in fact, just lit poorly. Speaking of hack-jobs, the make-up is laughable. It's strange, but it's like the SFX people didn't think that this film would be on the big-screen. (Things that I'm sure they let slide on your average NHK jidai-geki drama, stick out like juicy red pimples!) Example: you can see all of the wig seams and fake scars, down to where the spirit gum was applied to the skin. What gives? But that's not the most confusing thing about the film, no, for some reason about an hour into it there's a total ULTRAMAN monster and fight scene. Don't get me wrong, the theater full of 10-year-old kids loved it, but it seriously was that whole low-angle, man in a suit, snap zoom, edit, edit, edit, jump through the air, thing! It's like a reel from the next theater over got mixed into this movie! And that, in fact, pretty much sums up the problems with the movie: it doesn't know what it wants to be at all: not story-wise, not visually and not effects-wise.
Oh, and it's long too.
So, Nick, what did you like? Well some of the monsters were pretty cool. I especially liked the giant baby creature with screaming baby skulls pressing out of the flesh on its back. I also liked the creepy little girls that turn into giant slugs with human eyes on each section of their segmented bodies; that was cool too. But I dunno... The film could have been better.
Oh and a final thing the score by
安川午朗 Yasukawa Goro福岡ユタカ Fukuoka Yutaka -- (I don't know who did the score itself, I'll have to look that up) is pure Ennio Morricone. Mainly variations on the themes from the DOLLAR trilogy. Man, it's good music, I know, but write some new stuff guys.
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