Singapore Movie Trip 2011: Gantz Reviewed
Oh man, suddenly I'm attacked by a fit of the coughs. I don't know whether it's the chocolate drink that I had at Kitchenette on Thursday that is the culprit or the slurpee I got from Seven Eleven yesterday. Or maybe both. -___-;; Blurgh, my throat feels icky right now and I've been sleepy all day long. (Still managed to watch Inception on DVD, though, so maybe that's why I was sleepy. I mean, I was subconsciously try to layer my dreams so I can meet Tom Hardy and Joseph Gordon Levitt in the dream realms, probably...)
Anyway. I hope my next review is coherent enough. Not a lot of you may be familiar with the movie but J-pop fans will probably like this... (or, if you're a Clint Eastwood enthusiast, this might be of interest as well because there's Kazunari Ninomiya who played in Letters from Iwo Jima in this movie.)
Tomatoe Movie Trip 2011 (May 2011)
PART III - REVIEW FOR GANTZ
As was the case with (most) Marvel movies, I went to watch Gantz with almost no knowledge of the manga it was based on. Unlike with the Priest manhwa, the English translation of the Gantz manga by Hiroya Oku came out way after I'd stopped reading manga. And I didn't catch on with the hype until I took over the Comics section in 2009, so all I knew about the manga was that I had to order the English version because it was quite a solid bestseller among the male customers in the movie.
When my friend in Singapore alerted me of the movie's existence, she suggested that I watch this movie during my trip. She works with several hardcore Gantz fans in her office, all of whom gave the movie favorable reviews. So I thought, "Right. I have to catch up with them and watch this movie." Without gathering any info about it, I decided to pre-order the ticket through my friend. You could say I had almost no expectations for it (except for the fact that I needed to toughen up my stomach because the movie was apparently going to be "very violent and very gory". I would be lying if I didn't experience some feelings of regret after hearing that, but... what the heck. Japanese movies in general are hard to come by in Indonesia, so if I could watch one Japanese movie during my trip, it would definitely enrich my moviegoing experience, so to speak.)
I went in the cinema, expected to be queasy from the violence and... I ended up loving this movie best out of everything that I watched during the trip. Gantz - which is the first of 2 movies planned that are based on the comic, the second being Gantz: Perfect Answer - trumped all of those other Hollywood movies I watched simply for the fact that it affected me in a huge way. It was one of those movies that got me thinking for a long time about existentialism and also about how the Japanese remain No. 1 in the Crazy Creative department and why the hell am I not part of that world anymore*.
So the story is this (and I'm 100% sure the adaptation follows its original source closer than Priest did): two old acquaintances - Kei Kurono (Kazunari Ninomiya) and Masaru Kato (Kenichi Matsuyama) - got killed when trying to rescue a man who fell onto the subway train tracks. After getting hit by that train, they found themselves in a strange apartment room with a bunch of people facing a black sphere (whose name was Gantz) that gave all of them instructions to kill aliens. Whether this was the real afterlife or not, all they knew was that only when they play the game and return from their confrontations with the aliens alive can they return to their previous lives. The problem was, the aliens were not only creepy-looking, but also very brutal, violent and mean.
Kurono and Kato were slow to catch on with the game and they both watched, in the first stage, as their fellow 'gamers' got torn apart (literally) by the Onion Alien. A veteran of the game, Joichiro Nishi (Kanata Hongo), tried to give them hints of the game but Nishi then got killed when facing the second alien (a Boom Box alien that shot deadly laser beams through its mouth). So Kurono and Kato had to wise up and learn how to deal very quickly. Kato, the more sensitive of the two (and the one with a troubled past), was reluctant to go on but Kurono was eager to embrace the super powers the black suit Gantz gave them. Kurono experienced some very jackass-y moments where he recklessly challenged this Buddha-like alien without thinking of the other players, but then he had a change of heart when Kato (and Kato's love interest Kei Kishimoto - a girl; just so we're clear - played by actress Natsuna) was injured. Kurono, Kato and Kishimoto decided to fight the last alien - a multiple-armed aliens that sliced people up - but the last two died in the process so they didn't return to the apartment with Kurono.
Kurono was obviously devastated... but there's apparently a way for him to be reunited with Kato. You see, when a player reaches 100 points in the game, he or she gets to resurrect his favorite player that had fallen victim to the aliens. Cue mysterious ending that is a foreshadowing of things to come in the second movie.
First of all, can I just say: WHOA! I mean, I don't know about you, but this is probably what they call a blockbuster Japanese movie and its "blockbuster-ness" shows. They certainly didn't skimp on the cast or the special effects. Everything was just so cool and awesome in that certain Japanese way that not even Hollywood could copy.
Another thing they didn't skimp on was the blood. Did my friends say "gory"? Well, I say it was "BLOODY GORY". I don't think I've ever watched a scene where a man's head was severed from the neck while he was still alive almost in interminable slow-mo with my eyes wide open. It was like a train wreck; I just couldn't look away. Not even knowing that it was an alien doing that made the scene less real. But the difference between this gory sequence with many gory sequences that I knew in B-grade Hollywood action flicks is that this scene had a purpose. It was to condition the characters (Kurono, Kei, Kishimoto) - and in extension, us the viewer - just how serious the alien threat was and that the black sphere named Gantz, though it may seem cruel, didn't send these people off to fight aliens for nothing. This was one scene that definitely grabbed your attention and it would keep you interested in the story despite the level of queasiness it might induce.
(And I hear that the fans of the manga thought that even all of the violence in the movie wasn't up to par with the ones in the manga... insane.)
But what I'm also impressed by is that, no matter how heavy the action was in the movie, there were also some sentimental moments that shone through. Kato's situation with his younger brother, Kishimoto's crush on him and Kurono's obvious bromance with Kato were moments that made me tear up a bit in various points of the movie. Most manga stories, I find, have qualities such as these ones (both badass action and then subtle sentimentality) but ones that correctly translated those qualities from paper to a live action motion picture are rare. With animated stories, I think it's easier to portray them... but live action films are a whole different game together. I think the charm of Gantz the movie in general is how they still manage to retain that "manga"-ness in live action form.
There's also the fact that Kazunari Ninomiya is an effing acting genius. I've always known that he's the best actor among the members of his boyband, Arashi, but I've never really seen evidence of this before. I didn't watch any of his dramas before and I didn't watch Letters from Iwo Jima because it was a war movie. And I am pleasantly surprised at how mature and how convincing his acting his. Compared to his co-stars, Kenichi Matsumoto and Kanata Hongo, I got the feeling that they were "acting". They were good but there was that impression of them trying to hard... but with Ninomiya, there was no trace of that. Oh, he was flawless... I never saw him as "Nino member of Arashi". I saw him as "Kei Kurono". I can see why he caught Clint Eastwood's eyes. I can also see why he has hordes of fangirls who support him like he's the last idol on earth.
At the end of the movie, I was just in awe of everything. Several things ran through my mind: "Damn, now I need to read the manga and there are already 17 volumes of them to collect!"; "OMG WHEN IS THE SECOND MOVIE COMING OUT?! GIVE IT TO ME, QUICK!"; "I declare myself Ninomiya acting fan for life." But on top of all, I was just, like, "Can I see the movie again?" I almost never say this about movies with an excess of blood in it but this movie, I just felt like I had to own the DVD right away so I could relive those cool moments I saw in it whenever I want.
I'm not saying this movie is for everyone. I don't know how well this movie would go with 'Western' audiences. I hear the movie is released in the US, too, but I can't verify because I haven't done my research. But I think Gantz is an all-encompassing movie that will entertain many people, if not exactly please them. The fangirls can see cute Japanese idols, the fanboys can just enjoy the story and the J-culture enthusiasts can discover/find proof of how "awesome" is defined in Japanese pop culture.
In the end, I only have one word to describe this movie: awesome. There's nothing else to it.
---------------------
* Note: the reason why I'm not involved in J-pop culture anymore is because I've been there, done that and not happy with the general fan behavior. You thought Glee fandom was madness? Try the J-pop/K-pop scenes. They're insane.
So, anyway, that's the penultimate review of the movies I watched in Singapore. I saved the biggest one for last... and I can't wait to just go all fangirl-y on Pirates. *grins*
Tomorrow morning my mom flies off to Singapore and I wish I could come with her (but I can't). Now I have to go home, go to sleep, so I won't miss saying goodbye to my mom. And I need to get some rest so this bloody cough doesn't get out of hand. *sigh* Have a non-coughing weekend, F-list.
Anyway. I hope my next review is coherent enough. Not a lot of you may be familiar with the movie but J-pop fans will probably like this... (or, if you're a Clint Eastwood enthusiast, this might be of interest as well because there's Kazunari Ninomiya who played in Letters from Iwo Jima in this movie.)
Tomatoe Movie Trip 2011 (May 2011)
PART III - REVIEW FOR GANTZ
As was the case with (most) Marvel movies, I went to watch Gantz with almost no knowledge of the manga it was based on. Unlike with the Priest manhwa, the English translation of the Gantz manga by Hiroya Oku came out way after I'd stopped reading manga. And I didn't catch on with the hype until I took over the Comics section in 2009, so all I knew about the manga was that I had to order the English version because it was quite a solid bestseller among the male customers in the movie.
When my friend in Singapore alerted me of the movie's existence, she suggested that I watch this movie during my trip. She works with several hardcore Gantz fans in her office, all of whom gave the movie favorable reviews. So I thought, "Right. I have to catch up with them and watch this movie." Without gathering any info about it, I decided to pre-order the ticket through my friend. You could say I had almost no expectations for it (except for the fact that I needed to toughen up my stomach because the movie was apparently going to be "very violent and very gory". I would be lying if I didn't experience some feelings of regret after hearing that, but... what the heck. Japanese movies in general are hard to come by in Indonesia, so if I could watch one Japanese movie during my trip, it would definitely enrich my moviegoing experience, so to speak.)
I went in the cinema, expected to be queasy from the violence and... I ended up loving this movie best out of everything that I watched during the trip. Gantz - which is the first of 2 movies planned that are based on the comic, the second being Gantz: Perfect Answer - trumped all of those other Hollywood movies I watched simply for the fact that it affected me in a huge way. It was one of those movies that got me thinking for a long time about existentialism and also about how the Japanese remain No. 1 in the Crazy Creative department and why the hell am I not part of that world anymore*.
So the story is this (and I'm 100% sure the adaptation follows its original source closer than Priest did): two old acquaintances - Kei Kurono (Kazunari Ninomiya) and Masaru Kato (Kenichi Matsuyama) - got killed when trying to rescue a man who fell onto the subway train tracks. After getting hit by that train, they found themselves in a strange apartment room with a bunch of people facing a black sphere (whose name was Gantz) that gave all of them instructions to kill aliens. Whether this was the real afterlife or not, all they knew was that only when they play the game and return from their confrontations with the aliens alive can they return to their previous lives. The problem was, the aliens were not only creepy-looking, but also very brutal, violent and mean.
Kurono and Kato were slow to catch on with the game and they both watched, in the first stage, as their fellow 'gamers' got torn apart (literally) by the Onion Alien. A veteran of the game, Joichiro Nishi (Kanata Hongo), tried to give them hints of the game but Nishi then got killed when facing the second alien (a Boom Box alien that shot deadly laser beams through its mouth). So Kurono and Kato had to wise up and learn how to deal very quickly. Kato, the more sensitive of the two (and the one with a troubled past), was reluctant to go on but Kurono was eager to embrace the super powers the black suit Gantz gave them. Kurono experienced some very jackass-y moments where he recklessly challenged this Buddha-like alien without thinking of the other players, but then he had a change of heart when Kato (and Kato's love interest Kei Kishimoto - a girl; just so we're clear - played by actress Natsuna) was injured. Kurono, Kato and Kishimoto decided to fight the last alien - a multiple-armed aliens that sliced people up - but the last two died in the process so they didn't return to the apartment with Kurono.
Kurono was obviously devastated... but there's apparently a way for him to be reunited with Kato. You see, when a player reaches 100 points in the game, he or she gets to resurrect his favorite player that had fallen victim to the aliens. Cue mysterious ending that is a foreshadowing of things to come in the second movie.
First of all, can I just say: WHOA! I mean, I don't know about you, but this is probably what they call a blockbuster Japanese movie and its "blockbuster-ness" shows. They certainly didn't skimp on the cast or the special effects. Everything was just so cool and awesome in that certain Japanese way that not even Hollywood could copy.
Another thing they didn't skimp on was the blood. Did my friends say "gory"? Well, I say it was "BLOODY GORY". I don't think I've ever watched a scene where a man's head was severed from the neck while he was still alive almost in interminable slow-mo with my eyes wide open. It was like a train wreck; I just couldn't look away. Not even knowing that it was an alien doing that made the scene less real. But the difference between this gory sequence with many gory sequences that I knew in B-grade Hollywood action flicks is that this scene had a purpose. It was to condition the characters (Kurono, Kei, Kishimoto) - and in extension, us the viewer - just how serious the alien threat was and that the black sphere named Gantz, though it may seem cruel, didn't send these people off to fight aliens for nothing. This was one scene that definitely grabbed your attention and it would keep you interested in the story despite the level of queasiness it might induce.
(And I hear that the fans of the manga thought that even all of the violence in the movie wasn't up to par with the ones in the manga... insane.)
But what I'm also impressed by is that, no matter how heavy the action was in the movie, there were also some sentimental moments that shone through. Kato's situation with his younger brother, Kishimoto's crush on him and Kurono's obvious bromance with Kato were moments that made me tear up a bit in various points of the movie. Most manga stories, I find, have qualities such as these ones (both badass action and then subtle sentimentality) but ones that correctly translated those qualities from paper to a live action motion picture are rare. With animated stories, I think it's easier to portray them... but live action films are a whole different game together. I think the charm of Gantz the movie in general is how they still manage to retain that "manga"-ness in live action form.
There's also the fact that Kazunari Ninomiya is an effing acting genius. I've always known that he's the best actor among the members of his boyband, Arashi, but I've never really seen evidence of this before. I didn't watch any of his dramas before and I didn't watch Letters from Iwo Jima because it was a war movie. And I am pleasantly surprised at how mature and how convincing his acting his. Compared to his co-stars, Kenichi Matsumoto and Kanata Hongo, I got the feeling that they were "acting". They were good but there was that impression of them trying to hard... but with Ninomiya, there was no trace of that. Oh, he was flawless... I never saw him as "Nino member of Arashi". I saw him as "Kei Kurono". I can see why he caught Clint Eastwood's eyes. I can also see why he has hordes of fangirls who support him like he's the last idol on earth.
At the end of the movie, I was just in awe of everything. Several things ran through my mind: "Damn, now I need to read the manga and there are already 17 volumes of them to collect!"; "OMG WHEN IS THE SECOND MOVIE COMING OUT?! GIVE IT TO ME, QUICK!"; "I declare myself Ninomiya acting fan for life." But on top of all, I was just, like, "Can I see the movie again?" I almost never say this about movies with an excess of blood in it but this movie, I just felt like I had to own the DVD right away so I could relive those cool moments I saw in it whenever I want.
I'm not saying this movie is for everyone. I don't know how well this movie would go with 'Western' audiences. I hear the movie is released in the US, too, but I can't verify because I haven't done my research. But I think Gantz is an all-encompassing movie that will entertain many people, if not exactly please them. The fangirls can see cute Japanese idols, the fanboys can just enjoy the story and the J-culture enthusiasts can discover/find proof of how "awesome" is defined in Japanese pop culture.
In the end, I only have one word to describe this movie: awesome. There's nothing else to it.
---------------------
* Note: the reason why I'm not involved in J-pop culture anymore is because I've been there, done that and not happy with the general fan behavior. You thought Glee fandom was madness? Try the J-pop/K-pop scenes. They're insane.
So, anyway, that's the penultimate review of the movies I watched in Singapore. I saved the biggest one for last... and I can't wait to just go all fangirl-y on Pirates. *grins*
Tomorrow morning my mom flies off to Singapore and I wish I could come with her (but I can't). Now I have to go home, go to sleep, so I won't miss saying goodbye to my mom. And I need to get some rest so this bloody cough doesn't get out of hand. *sigh* Have a non-coughing weekend, F-list.