Wednesday, August 13, 2008
20th Century Boys: The T.Rex of J-Cinema?
It was back to Hibiya this evening to attend a press screening at Toho of the first installment in the 20th Century Boys (20 Seiki Shônen, 『20世紀少年』) trilogy.
I hadn't read the whole manga series before the screening but did manage to get through books 1-5, which is what the first film encompasses.
As usual, I'm not going to spend hours honing a review -- these are just some thoughts (with possible spoilers for those who haven't read the books.)
-----
After a somewhat wobbly beginning with a protracted scene that seemed out of place, the film quickly gets stuck in to the world of the manga and Marc Bolan's legendary song blares through the halls of the school.
Unlike many Japanese movies that run around 142 minutes, this time it's justified. There are a lot of characters and considerable back story to set up, with locations as far flung as Thailand, San Francisco and London. Things are of course compressed but with the breathing room afforded in a trilogy characters didn't have to be dropped and all the subplots seem intact. Everything is just tightened (the first cut was apparently 2h50m).
Some of the early scenes do look quite plain, but the lives of the grown boys are just that. As things get weirder and darker, the cinematography and production design follow suit. The sepia tinted childhood scenes are well produced, evoking mid-period Showa without the terabytes of CG employed in Always. I focus a lot on editing and enjoy films that do time-jumping well, and like the manga the film has a lot of it. Combine that with the deft intercutting of the contemporary threads and you have a splicing tour de force.
The casting is pretty much spot on. Hire decent actors like that look like their hand-drawn counterparts and don't fuss with what's on the printed page. In the press notes director Tsutsumi Yukihiko (堤幸彦監督) cites an article he read about The Bucket List where Rob Reiner said he didn't need to "direct" Nicholson and Freeman... Not surprisingly, he also states great respect for Urasawa Naoki's mammoth creation.
As the mystery of cult leader "Friend" grows so does Kenji's long dormant courage. The National Diet and Haneda Airport are left in smouldering ruins, leading to the climax with that robot. It thunders its way through southern Shinjuku on the eve of the new millenium, spraying a super strain Ebola-inducing mist. It's a seat shaking sequence.
Spielberg's War of the Worlds had similar (and bigger) sequences, but having Kenji and his buddies bravely face off against the end of the world prophecies they scribbled down as kids is a lot more dramatic, I think.
After the credits was a trailer for part 2, set for release in Jan 2009. It heavily features grown-up Kanna, played by relative newcomer Taira Airi (see Ryuganji for the story behind the casting).
Urasawa's ambitious manga is a page-turner that strives to capture the zeitgeist, chronicle pop culture and create its own mythology at the same time. I think hardcore and casual fans alike will be impressed with how faithful the film strives to be. I'll leave it to the worshippers and experts to comment on the finer details.
16 comments:
everyone has been so negative about this one based purely on conjecture.. it's nice to finally get some perspective from someone who's actually seen it.
They could've loaded the trailer with a lot more money shots. The film's huge when it needs to be huge and "normal" in scenes that are normal (maybe too vanilla for some). Plenty of the framing is right out of the manga.
Some good use of music too, including Urasawa's own slide guitar.
There will be plenty more opinions in a couple weeks. In the meantime, people can read short Japanese reviews here (stick to the ones by people who've actually seen it).
i do believe there are many people who are looking forward to this movie.
I hope this finds its way to the cinemas in Sweden. Not many japanese movies gets here at all. This is a movie a want to see on the big screen.
thanks for the impressions, I've been dying to hear about this movie since it came out, but it's hard to find anything in english. It sounds like you thought it was fairly good, but not great. Looks like the japanese viewer average is around the same 7/10 area...
thanks for the review. i'm very much looking forward til i get to watch it through DVD releases of this film since i really love the manga.
I saw this film the other day - it was excellent!
Can't wait for the next 2!
It sucks, you people are RETARDED. I wasted near 3 hrs of my life
"It sucks, you people are RETARDED. I wasted near 3 hrs of my life"
^ can you be mature and not troll/leave flamebaits here like most childish forumers do?
Its all right if you do not like this film, perhaps provide a proper explanation? I mean, lewl, if my little brother likes lolipop and you don't, can i call you retarded as well?
(Here's another anonymous)
I watched this film last weekend and I must said I was very disappointed with the way of the directing. I love the casting, build set, color grading, soundtracks etc, but the director (or the original author, sorry I didn't read the manga) did not give a very good reason why those fans of "Friend" could be so senseless, and even the police force could be doing such a stupid things to the society.
The show can be much much smoother if there's not too much of the character being "blank" during the robot destroying the city. And it's not sensible to have a few adults doing such a big fight back without any proper plan. It could be more impact, more fun and much more entertaining.
It's very much like "The Sinking Japan", which is good for TV series, but it's just not good enough for a movie release.
It's arguable that some of the things that worked so well on the page didn't necessarily transfer to the screen -- it comes down to opinion.
Different executions of certain scenes could've worked better, but with the way it was produced and Urasawa's heavy involvement, rewriting/restaging things completely wasn't really an option.
Did you like it enough that you'll see pt. 2 (and 3)?
Yahoo rating is hovering around 3.44/5 now.
I saw the film, and think it is good, but not great. However I really liked it and will recommand it to my friends.
It is mostly to do with the translation of media. Manga stories are usually self contained within each episode. They are short and concise. Connecting it together and make the movie that long usually will make me feel tired after the 1st half. This can't really be helped, as for movies it needs the climax at the end.
I would still hope people read manga before going to cinemas though. I have to say they are still in different levels.
For those who read the manga then go, it will not be a better experience (as you will not be spoiled by the movie), but then you get the fun of seeing the effort of the whole production crew trying to pick the right actor, seeing the scenes in live action and also see why the music was a good match for the stories.
I'm sorry, but I saw this movie a couple months ago and thought it was terrible. I didn't know it was based on a manga at the time, but the trailers looked promising. Unfortunately, the lack of any sort of logic involving "the virus" and the actions of the characters made sure I will not watch the sequals.
The culmination of the ridiculousness of the movie is when the woman in the group is beating on a glass revolving door screaming "let me in" and the only response is another guy saying "they're not open, no one can hear you!"... despite the fact that they all have guns and dynamite, and the door AND walls is made of glass.
Nothing in this movie made any sense, and could only be acceptable if they had made the movie animated just to let the suspension of belief be possible.
Well if you read the manga then the plot would have made much more sense, but I guess the blame could be shouldered on the director because the story needs to be accessible to those who have never read the manga.
The movie is on TV in Osaka at the moment. It's painfully contrived. I find so many Japanese movies trying far too hard to be quirky.
The acting is usually dreadful as well, and this movie is no exception.
Hope this only triggers more manga/anime adaptations, of a much better quality. The Japanese live-action movie market could skyrocket if they could produce and just specialize in Hollywood-quality versions of more straightforward source material, like Naruto or Bleach. ^^
Post a Comment