Saint Young Men
What if Jesus and Buddha were roommates in modern day Tokyo?
The annual Japanese Film Festival is a great opportunity to catch elusive movies. Saint Young Men 2nd Century is based on the popular slice-of-life manga by Hikaru Nakamura. This live action movie is actually the compilation of a web series, consisting of 10 episodes, each 6 minutes long.
I heard about the manga a while back, and loved the premise, but execution is everything. I was mostly hoping the movie would be funny and heartwarming, and not awkward and uncomfortable.
It was - okay, I guess? I liked them as odd couple roommates with divine powers, but I couldn't help having moments of, "This seems kind of OOC." It worked better when I imagined them as two original characters. Some of the humour was a bit silly or cringy (eg the running joke of comparing things with climbing up Golgotha), but other bits were sweet and charming (eg trying to stay up all night to see the New Year sunrise by playing boardgames). My favourite scene was when they were in Akihabara arguing about whether to get a PS4 or a rice cooker.
Part of me was hoping for meaningful epiphanies about the human condition, but it was more lighthearted adventures in the modern world, with surface level riffs on their religious backstory. Not a bad way to spend an hour though.
Crossposted from Dreamwidth, where there are
comments. Comment here or there.
The annual Japanese Film Festival is a great opportunity to catch elusive movies. Saint Young Men 2nd Century is based on the popular slice-of-life manga by Hikaru Nakamura. This live action movie is actually the compilation of a web series, consisting of 10 episodes, each 6 minutes long.
I heard about the manga a while back, and loved the premise, but execution is everything. I was mostly hoping the movie would be funny and heartwarming, and not awkward and uncomfortable.
It was - okay, I guess? I liked them as odd couple roommates with divine powers, but I couldn't help having moments of, "This seems kind of OOC." It worked better when I imagined them as two original characters. Some of the humour was a bit silly or cringy (eg the running joke of comparing things with climbing up Golgotha), but other bits were sweet and charming (eg trying to stay up all night to see the New Year sunrise by playing boardgames). My favourite scene was when they were in Akihabara arguing about whether to get a PS4 or a rice cooker.
Part of me was hoping for meaningful epiphanies about the human condition, but it was more lighthearted adventures in the modern world, with surface level riffs on their religious backstory. Not a bad way to spend an hour though.
Crossposted from Dreamwidth, where there are
comments. Comment here or there.