Paradise Kiss ~ パラダイス・キス
As one of the anticipated movies of 2011 (in my list, maybe not yours :p), I'd expect a speedy subs once it's out in DVD, and I'm right. So, how does it fare? Does it butcher the beloved Yazawa Ai's manga?
As mentioned, ParaKiss (the short form) is based on the manga under same title. The story revolves around Hayazaka Yukari aka Caroline, a bored and stressed 3rd year high school student who still has no clue on what she's going to do after high school. By chance, she meets the Parakiss team who're looking for a model for their final creation, and the story evolves from there. In Parakiss team, we have Isabella, the transgender who dresses in drags, Miwako, the cutie who dresses in lolita getups and act like one too, Arashi, the short tempered punk with all the chains and piercings, and finally we have the male lead, George, the rich kid but a genius designer with eccentric behavior (I don't recall seeing a normal genius... they're always eccentric in one way or another). How Yukari gets along with these bunch of people?
I have more rant than rave for this movie. Why? Because I love the manga and I watched the anime. The manga, though only 5 volumes, is more complicated in story line than Nana (another Yazawa Ai's creation) and even Nana was not even trying to cover the whole series, split it into 2 movies and still not cover everything. So, when you compress such complicated plot into a 2 hours movie, you'll have lots of gaps and choppy scenes because thay have too many things to cover. Example, they don't explore more about George's relationship with his mother which is actually form his character. Or suddenly you'll see George in kissing Yukari after the fashion show, and you'll wonder how? since when? because they don't elaborate on George and Yukari's relationship. Also, the complex triangle relationship of Hiro, Miwako and Arashi is explained by sentences and a bit of flashback, that's it, all because of the limited screentime. That itself can become another 1 drama SP episode. So, we're missing TONS of details just so that this movie can be packaged as a 2 hours movie. Next, is the casting. I can tolerate Mukai Osamu and Kitagawa Keiko as George and Yukari, as both are the pulling factor for this movie, but I don't understand why they pick Omasa Aya for Miwako. One thing is that she's too tall for Miwako though the cutesy loli act is OK but the height itself still ruins Miwako's image. Then, I'd blame the script and story telling. I think Mukai can act better than what he did for this movie. I feel that his performance is capped by the script so there's not much chance that he can express better emotion that what he did. All same with the rest of the cast. Am pretty sure the rest can act well, especially the Kamen Rider guy (Yusuke Yamamoto). He can act much better in Ouran series for goodness sake than here. Oh, 1 last thing. This movie is made to PG rating, which is quite far off compared to the manga, so good bye to all the ecchi stuffs LOL...
What I love from this movie is the settings. They do a fantastic job to details the Parakiss studio and the dresses (especially the blue dress) down to the almost exact replica of what's in the manga. Even George's costumes are almost exactly like what George would wear in manga and the same goes to Isabella's. Then the OSTs by YUI is great as well, it suits the mood of the movie and how the students get going to reach their dreams.
So, in the end, I find that the manga is slightly butchered by the movie. BUT, do watch this movie for some Mukai dose because you can't deny that he looks hot even in the shiny shirts, retro suits and never without the hats :p....