JFF 2016 movie binge
So, last weekend I went on a bit of movie binge for the 2016 Japan Film Festival (JFF). The random amount of freebies I get was astounding! End up watching Chihayafuru (both parts) as well as Creepy and Bakuman. The rest of this post might be spoilery a bit.
Chihayafuru was a nice watch. The plot of the movie was clear enough so even people not familiar with the manga could understand. Though yes, if you read the manga… you probably would have a deeper appreciation of the movies.
Hirose Suzu had perfomed well as Chihaya, and Mckenyu is perfect as Arata and Nomura Shuhei was also great for Taichi. The actors playing Nishida and Desk-kun was not quite like their manga counterparts but they did stay true to character. Kana-chan tho…. was PERFECT! Right down to her love of poetry to her wide forehead wwww. Shinobu casting was perfect too.
The plot of the two-parters was just up to the first Oumi Jingu tourney, and since it’s a movie and not a drama series, some of the events in manga were ordered differently in movie and some of the side characters plot details were changed. Like how the ‘Empress’ had started to get involved seriously with the karuta club much sooner than in manga. Or how Harada-sensei’s main profession was changed or the venue for the Shiranami meet was changed. Hyoro-kun’s connection with the Shiranami society was also removed. But more importantly, the timing of Arata’s grandfather’s death and Arata’s quitting karuta was moved forward a bit. Which yes, it does affect on how the movie plot flowed. The plot mostly covered the first year anyway.
That aside, the movie was still fun. The actor playing Sudo-kun didn’t look as menacing as in manga, but he’s okay I guess. A bit weaker looking, but yeah. If I had any complaint bout the movie, it’ll be that the movie didn’t have enough scenes of Harada-sensei being a scary jiji obsessing over becoming a meijin lol. That, as well as no Suoh-san. Then again, Meijin Suoh only appeared much later in manga. XD Like around the mid second year to third year.
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Creepy… is really creepy. Especially once the narrative shifted towards the main psycho villain character and you finally sees all the revelation about the hidden crime. It really shows the horror and dangers when you lived in an isolated community and not wanting to connect with the members of your community. It’s really a good setup that allowed psycho people to do their things without being noticed. Like many times in the movie I felt that a lot of things could have turned out better, had the other neighbours be much more concerned for other people living nearby and look out over each other. Then… a lot of people would not have died.
The main psycho’s ability to manipulate other people using just his words was really scary. I mean, the guy didn’t even look dangerous or menacing or even handsome, but once you dropped your guard on him it’s game over. He may look pitiable, but once you reveal your weakness the man could swoop in to take control. Because despite appearance, the man was able to influence people with just his words. It’s alarming how he managed to brainwash everyone that came in contact with him without even having to physically bind them. Because the guy already captured the minds of his victims already and was able to control them with just that. It’s really a scary psychological thriller.
Well, I watched this movie specifically because Nishijima Hidetoshi-san was the lead. Because yes, my ‘General Rouge’ is the lead and he’s a former detective in this movie. But I guess… having Team Batista in mind while watching this movie I can’t help seeing him still as Hayami-sensei. It’s really nerve-wrecking to see him frustrated not being able to act freely despite his old detective instincts screaming all the time telling him that the creep was really no good. And I can’t help feeling… ah, Hayami-sensei really needed to have Shiratori-san by his side. Because if Shiratori-san was around, he wouldn’t let Hayami run into danger alone. Hehe~~~
Talking about Team Batista tho, both the Takakura couple had an unexpected connection to each other. While Nishijima was involved in Team Batista drama; Takeuchi Yuko who played Yasuko in this movie, also played as the female version of Gucchi in the Team Batista movie. In which me wanting Shiratori to be in this movie is kinda funny. Cos yes, Shiratori-san wouldn’t have let his Hayami and Gucchi gets in trouble. www
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Last movie, Bakuman… was really unplanned. I just happened to decide to watch it since I had an extra free pass available. But strangely because of that, I got extremely lucky. For some reason, the seating for the movie at that time was not really limited. There’s plenty of seats available!!! And I managed to get a pretty good seat. And I managed to win a lucky gift by the sponsor… by some really odd circumstances. It was pretty exhilirating tbh. Since in past JFF I didn’t manage to watch a lot of the movies or take part in a lot of its side activities. So this years experience was really memorable.
Anyway, Bakuman was really enjoyable. I don’t follow the manga but the movie pretty much showed what a tough life being a mangaka was. And that was amazing. Coming from the dudes that once disappointed me with that pretty awful bad ending for Death Note.
Regardless, the movie made me recall some of my fav mangakas and remember the few times their series were either canned or put on hiatus due to the mangaka falling ill while trying to meet the deadlines to submit their manga chapters. It really opened your eyes to their hardships and struggles in order to survive in this industry. But like any other manga adaptation, it should be expected that the plot would be slightly altered in order to fit in the movie.
That said, the casting of Sato Takeru and Kamiki Ryunosuke was really great. Once you get over the Rurouni Kenshin reference, the movie was really engaging And if you’ve watched Kamen Rider Den-O before, you’d probably know already how well Takeru can play those awkward nerd roles.
Picture set
This entry was originally posted on Kaleidoscope World.
Chihayafuru was a nice watch. The plot of the movie was clear enough so even people not familiar with the manga could understand. Though yes, if you read the manga… you probably would have a deeper appreciation of the movies.
Hirose Suzu had perfomed well as Chihaya, and Mckenyu is perfect as Arata and Nomura Shuhei was also great for Taichi. The actors playing Nishida and Desk-kun was not quite like their manga counterparts but they did stay true to character. Kana-chan tho…. was PERFECT! Right down to her love of poetry to her wide forehead wwww. Shinobu casting was perfect too.
The plot of the two-parters was just up to the first Oumi Jingu tourney, and since it’s a movie and not a drama series, some of the events in manga were ordered differently in movie and some of the side characters plot details were changed. Like how the ‘Empress’ had started to get involved seriously with the karuta club much sooner than in manga. Or how Harada-sensei’s main profession was changed or the venue for the Shiranami meet was changed. Hyoro-kun’s connection with the Shiranami society was also removed. But more importantly, the timing of Arata’s grandfather’s death and Arata’s quitting karuta was moved forward a bit. Which yes, it does affect on how the movie plot flowed. The plot mostly covered the first year anyway.
That aside, the movie was still fun. The actor playing Sudo-kun didn’t look as menacing as in manga, but he’s okay I guess. A bit weaker looking, but yeah. If I had any complaint bout the movie, it’ll be that the movie didn’t have enough scenes of Harada-sensei being a scary jiji obsessing over becoming a meijin lol. That, as well as no Suoh-san. Then again, Meijin Suoh only appeared much later in manga. XD Like around the mid second year to third year.
----
Creepy… is really creepy. Especially once the narrative shifted towards the main psycho villain character and you finally sees all the revelation about the hidden crime. It really shows the horror and dangers when you lived in an isolated community and not wanting to connect with the members of your community. It’s really a good setup that allowed psycho people to do their things without being noticed. Like many times in the movie I felt that a lot of things could have turned out better, had the other neighbours be much more concerned for other people living nearby and look out over each other. Then… a lot of people would not have died.
The main psycho’s ability to manipulate other people using just his words was really scary. I mean, the guy didn’t even look dangerous or menacing or even handsome, but once you dropped your guard on him it’s game over. He may look pitiable, but once you reveal your weakness the man could swoop in to take control. Because despite appearance, the man was able to influence people with just his words. It’s alarming how he managed to brainwash everyone that came in contact with him without even having to physically bind them. Because the guy already captured the minds of his victims already and was able to control them with just that. It’s really a scary psychological thriller.
Well, I watched this movie specifically because Nishijima Hidetoshi-san was the lead. Because yes, my ‘General Rouge’ is the lead and he’s a former detective in this movie. But I guess… having Team Batista in mind while watching this movie I can’t help seeing him still as Hayami-sensei. It’s really nerve-wrecking to see him frustrated not being able to act freely despite his old detective instincts screaming all the time telling him that the creep was really no good. And I can’t help feeling… ah, Hayami-sensei really needed to have Shiratori-san by his side. Because if Shiratori-san was around, he wouldn’t let Hayami run into danger alone. Hehe~~~
Talking about Team Batista tho, both the Takakura couple had an unexpected connection to each other. While Nishijima was involved in Team Batista drama; Takeuchi Yuko who played Yasuko in this movie, also played as the female version of Gucchi in the Team Batista movie. In which me wanting Shiratori to be in this movie is kinda funny. Cos yes, Shiratori-san wouldn’t have let his Hayami and Gucchi gets in trouble. www
----
Last movie, Bakuman… was really unplanned. I just happened to decide to watch it since I had an extra free pass available. But strangely because of that, I got extremely lucky. For some reason, the seating for the movie at that time was not really limited. There’s plenty of seats available!!! And I managed to get a pretty good seat. And I managed to win a lucky gift by the sponsor… by some really odd circumstances. It was pretty exhilirating tbh. Since in past JFF I didn’t manage to watch a lot of the movies or take part in a lot of its side activities. So this years experience was really memorable.
Anyway, Bakuman was really enjoyable. I don’t follow the manga but the movie pretty much showed what a tough life being a mangaka was. And that was amazing. Coming from the dudes that once disappointed me with that pretty awful bad ending for Death Note.
Regardless, the movie made me recall some of my fav mangakas and remember the few times their series were either canned or put on hiatus due to the mangaka falling ill while trying to meet the deadlines to submit their manga chapters. It really opened your eyes to their hardships and struggles in order to survive in this industry. But like any other manga adaptation, it should be expected that the plot would be slightly altered in order to fit in the movie.
That said, the casting of Sato Takeru and Kamiki Ryunosuke was really great. Once you get over the Rurouni Kenshin reference, the movie was really engaging And if you’ve watched Kamen Rider Den-O before, you’d probably know already how well Takeru can play those awkward nerd roles.
Picture set
This entry was originally posted on Kaleidoscope World.