Match Monde (2026) Big Bad Film Festival

High schooler  gets rescued by a guy on the street when he is attacked and beaten up as part of the use of an app that sets up street fights. The idea is that if you win you get money. Soon things begin to spiral out of control.

Based on a manga this is a film you are going to love ot hate. Put me in the middle. While I like the characters, a lot of this didn't work for me. Don't get me wrong what is here is good, the trouble is that it's good the first time.... and maybe the second time. The problem is there is a samesness to what is happening here. The set ups feel similar as do the fights. If you look at how they are choreographed they seem to follow a similar flow. That may have worked if the way the sequences were staged was better. You can feel how the sequences were put together.

To be fair, I know part of the reason I wasn't as high on this film as I should have been except that I had watched all of the Big Bad Film Festival shorts and several of the shorts echoed the fights in this film.  Some of the shorts played better for me.

Is the film bad? No, but it just didn't work for me.

Brief thoughts on Wind Breaker (2026) Fantasia 2026

Manga based action film has an outsider high school kid going to a new school. He wants to be the number one guy, even if it means fighting everyone. He ends up joinging the other local kids to be part of a group o who are fighting gang of outsiders who want to take over the town.

Good but not particularly remakable action film isn't anything we haven't seen in any number of films over the years. Well told and well made with some great one lines and characters, the film suffer doesn't rise  as high as the pieces because the narrative is much too run of the mill we have been here before.

At the same time this is the perfect sort of film for a rainy Saturday on the couch.

Worth a look

Initial D plays NYAFF on July 12

 

MY IMDB review:

Chinese adaptation of a Japanese comic is not you typical race film. Probably will play better if you don't know the source and are open to different take in a race film

Takumi is a high schooler who often delivers his fathers tofu late at night. His late night trips have made him adept at the winding down hill run of Mt. Akina, which is a course used by the street racers of the area as the ultimate test of skill. When an unintentional race brings him to the notice of the racers, his life changes as he has to field numerous offers to actually see who is the best driver.

Based on a Japanese comic and cartoon, Initial D is a live action Chinese film thats broken box office records across Asia. Despite being a huge animation fan I've never seen the animation nor have a I read the comic. I'm not sure if thats a good thing or a bad thing, but seeing how many fans of the source material are unhappy with the film I would say its a good thing.

Flat out I liked this movie. It did take a while to warm up to, but once I began to take it for what it is I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Is it a great film? In someways yes and in others no. As I said this takes a bit to get going. The lead is a bit too closed mouth for my taste, barely uttering a word for the entire two hours. Its a bit too teen angsty. Still you have great characters and great performances by pretty much everyone in the cast (even if everyone was speaking three or four different languages when this was filmed.

The racing is excellent. Its mostly seems to have been done with out CGI enhancement. I like that there are no horrific crashes, police chases or other clichéd events that are so rampant in American movies. And while I was initially apprehensive by the fact the racing is always on the same stretch of road, I warmed to the idea since by doing that we really got to see who was best. (If you want American style racing in many different environments stay away)

Definitely worth a look see, especially if you want to see a race film that is not like all of the rest. 7.5 out of 10 rounded up to 8 out of 10 for IMDb purposes.

Nightcap: 12/28/25 I am haunted by Tezuka; thoughts on the future, a word of advice for those who cooking their IMDB ratings and some Oscar Shortlist animation

I am an early American adopter of the work of Osanu Tezuka. I was hooked as a child by the series Kimba The White Lion and Astroboy (aka Mighty Atom). I was watching the series as soon as they hit American TV in the 60's. It has been all down hill from there.

I didn't start reading Tezuka's manga until the 1990's when it was more readily available in the US, and it was eye opening. In a weird way it was life changing because the manga was and still is some of the greatest stories I've ever read. None of the anime adaptions (with the exception of Pluto, which is bsed on a managa based on an Astroboy story) has maintained the complexity of Tezuka's graphic work simply because the animation doesn't have the room to tell the stories right.

Over the last few weeks, I find I've been haunted by his masterwork PHOENIX which is multi-part time spanning tale about humanity from birth to death in a far-off future. The phoenix of legend always figures in in some way, either as a character or a symbol. The tales quietly reference each other and echo thematically, but they are all self-contained tales.

The series is out as a download at Amazon at 10 bucks a section, but the print edition is scarce and when I want to track to down the books years ago, I had a hard time, and probably over paid for some volumes. (For the record Tezuka never finished it and while we have the beginning and end pieces there are parts in the middle he never set to paper. 

Trust me if you take the time to read it all (that's the important part because the individual stories do tie together thematically) it will haunt you too.

The other Tezuka tales that haunt me are:

ASTROBOY of course. I've read everything that has come out in English. The stories of a robot boy are all over the place because Tezuka was doing all sorts of things with them. Some are comedy, some tragedy, some action, some serious, some toss offs. It's all over the place much like any long running characters body of work. It inspired Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka, a retelling of one of the best Astro stories about a robot killing off other robots that pays homage to the original and deepens the tale in ways Tezuka would have loved.

BUDDHA haunts me. It is the arc of the life of the man who would become Buddha. It's the journey of one man to enlightenment and what he discovers along the way. Covering 8 volumes in the American edition, it is a work that will stay with you long after it's done. At times a tad uneven, the work still manages to be greater than the sum of its parts with the tale revealing much about the nature of mankind and the individual human heart.

DORORO is the story of a ronin who travels with young man who is missing 48 body parts that were given to demons. The pair travel the world attempting to reclaim them. The source of both animated and live action adaptions, DORORO is a hell of an idea that ended up getting abandoned after it being canceled.  I've read that Tezuka was unhappy with details of publication, however, what exists is really good and influenced generations of artists and storytellers because what is here is so gripping you want more or to try and do something similar. 

BLACK JACK is a disgraced and unlicensed doctor with his own sense of right and wrong. Willing to do anything for the right price, he will help those who need it and make sure the privileged feel the pain of their existence, the stories are almost always thought provoking. There are hundreds of stories, almost all a dozen or so pages, the series has spawned both live action and animated adaptions. It's a great kind of fantastic noir with a heart

While Tezuka's work can be all over the place, you should wade in and try him because when he's good he's among the best to ever tell a story.

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After today the year end lists start. 

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If you were curious about some of Oscar animated films on the short list here are some reviews and interviews:

QUINTA'S GHOST
THE GIRL WHO CRIED PEARLS
SNOW BEAR (with interview)
PLAYING GOD (with Interview)

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How do you know a rating on IMDB was cooked?

There are five IMDB reviews four of them are 10 out 10. It has 20 reviews one is a 1 out of 10, two are 7 out of 10 and seventeen are 10 out of 10. It is also not on Rotten Tomatoes

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As I said earlier there will be no Unseen Film Awards this year. I just couldn't do it. Largely the last two or three weeks have just been watching sports, odd TV shows and whatever randomly hit my fancy. I say that because I still have about three dozen 2025 FYC screeners yet to watch and little desire to watch them.

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What will the new year bring? Coverage of Dances with Films New York, Berlin, Rotterdam, and Sundance. After that who knows. 

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As 2025 fades - I wish you all a glorious and magical, in all the right ways, 2026

HONEKO AKBANE'S BODYGUARDS (2025) Fantasia 2025

I will argue HONEKO AKBANE'S BODYGUARDS is one of the best manga adaptions ever. It's a film that is so perfectly done that even if you don't know the source you can follow it and become caught up in it.

 I will also resport it is one of my most favorite films of 2025.

The plot has a young man named Arakuni to protect a high school girl and internet sensation Honeko Akbane from the killers who want her dead. It seems he biological dad is the head of the Japanese CIA and he wants to keep her safe from the people who hate him. She is not to know anything about it. Actually every person in her class is a bodyguards with a specialty.

This is just great. From top to bottom is a near perfect delight that made me smile. It's not only a film that knows exactly what the job is, but it's one that does so in a couple of important ways that most other similar films, nay most other films period don't ever do.

The first thing the film does is have wonderfully drawn characters.  To be certain the huge cast of characters occassional is short changed in screen time, but by god when they are on screen you know exactly who they are. Everyone has a genuine character to play and they do it.

The other thing the film does is have a bunch of actors who shine. Everyone is fully invested at every moment so we believe what is happening and that people are feeling as they do. The sequence at the end when Honeko's father accidentally meets her,  is masterful. Watch how her dad tries to have a poker face but you can see the emotion welling up in his eyes. Likewise the rapid turn and wonderful smile a few minutes later when he tells one of the bodyguards she did good. I should not be getting misty in movies like this.

And not to sell anything short the fights are great and the sense of humor is spot on at every moment. 

This film is just the best sort of film out there.

A must see.

Let's Go Karaoke! (2024) NYAFF 2024

Manga based tale concerns a yakuza soldier who forms a friendship with high school boy whom he wants to teach him to sing.

Off kilter story never really worked for me. I shouldn't be asking questions  from the opening minutes when the yakuza essentially kidnaps the kid and takes him to sing karaoke. The kid was with a school group and no one says boo?  I was wondering why no one noticed the differences between the real world and the manga source.

It didn't help that the kid was rather uninteresting to be around and seems to mostly just be the excuse that we are seeing things happen.

I was disappointed

KINGDOM:RETURN OF THE GENERAL (2024) NYAFF 2024

Before we start you don't need to have seen the first three films. The brief piece to get you up to speed at the start is enough. I say this because I haven't seen parts 2 and 3 and I have no memory of the first part. 

Set during the wars that unified China, this manga based film is the story of a young man named Shin who is working to be the greatest general ever. As this film begins Shin and his men are waiting to battle the enemy. One of the enemy generals, known as the God of War, appears and decimates the band. Shin is wounded and is carried off by his friends. They are fleeing into the night because Shin lead is small force to victory and the enemy fear them. Re joining the main force the Shin and his men end up in a huge battle.

Trust me it's infinitely better than it sounds. This is a film of grand spectacle and perfect performances. For all the war this is a film about the characters. Seriously this is a film where we fall into the characters and are brought to tears by their trials. Unlike Hollywood and the Marvel films no one gets lost and everyone shines.

This is a staggering achievement. It's a film that moves our hearts. Details are filled in in such away that give new details to those  who know what went before and enough detail that new comers like me can follow along.

No film series with a continuing story ever has had a fourth film this readily accessible- nor has a fourth film been this good.

I need to go back and watch the earlier films.

This film is one of the best of 2024.

Highly recommended

Look Back (2024) Japan Cuts

Two young women meet in school and bond over a love of drawing comics. Over the course of the film we watch as the pair are shaped by their relationship and their art.

Tatsuki Fujimoto, creator Chainsaw Man goes in another direction in a story about friendship, creation, finding someone who shares your passion, and how our lives go in unexpected ways. It is also a wicked exploration of what if we don't do what we love.

In one way or another this is my life. I lived almost every god damned moment of this film. From being king, to finding out you may not be, to giving up what you love, to returning to it, to finding people you can create with and then having life intervene. I lived some form of this, and I sobbed ugly repeatedly a I connected to the tale of the need to create at all costs played out. For  me this wasn't a drama but a waking memory

This is the cinematic version of the the song from A Chorus Line, What I Did For Love. The song is not about romance with another person, but the love of the things we do, and what happens when we can't do it any more. (It's sung after an injury has a dancer leave after a probable career ending injury occurs). This film is a look at what we all do so we can do the thing we love.

I have no words. I suspect that if you create, especially if you do it with friends you too will have no words - other than to express how the film will make you feel seen. 

As a straight forward film it's a very good film. Yes, the narrative is bumpy with some links missing, but at the same time, it's not the literal narrative that's important. It's the emotional journey. Its that journey that will kick your ass to the curb.

This was an unexpected treasure. It is a film I will forever hold tightly to and press closely to my heart.

LOOK BACK is currently sold out at Japan Cuts. Keep checking the website to see if they release more tickets because you need to see this.

City Hunter (2024)

Private detective Ryo Saeba teams with hi dead partner's sister to find his killer. Along the way they find themselves chasing a corporation making a super soldier serum that turns people homicidal before killing them.

Wildly uneven manga adaption has some truly great sequences (most of the action) as well as some head scratcher WTF bits (the cosplay convention) to become a pretty okay film.While not as good as the 1993 Jackie Chan film, it's probably just as good as the 2018 French film.  It's not high art but it does entertain which is enough.

The problem here is the manic humor rarely blends with the serious nature making things a bit bumpy. Still I laughed and smiled and talked to the TV.

Recommended

The Concierge (2023) (aka The Concierge at Hokkyoku Department Store ) NYICFF 2024

 

A young woman takes a job working as a concierge at department store that serves animals. 

Episodic tale feels more like the manga that it  is sourced from. It feels like three episodes of a TV show more than a feature film. The first is her first day of work, the second is her involvement in several stories of romance and the final is a number of Christmas stories.

This is a wildly uneven and very messy film that wanders all over the place. At  times it feels like it is juggling way to much. There are so many idea in this film, from the basic tale of finding your place in the world to serious pondering of how humanity is destroying environment and killing off species.  It was such a mess that I thought I was going to write a review trashing the film. However by the time the film ended the film had pulled it all together and I was getting misty. 

What a joy. Sure it's messy, but it's a joy.

Recommended

The Three Sisters of Tenmasou Inn (2023) Japan Cuts 2023

 

The spirit of a young woman who is in coma travels to an inn between life and death where she meets the spirits of the sisters she never knew she had, who are running an inn where people wait to see if they will cross over or return to earth.

This manga based tale is either going to thrill you with it's gushing sentimentality, especially in the final half hour, or it's going to make you flee from the theater. It's a film that works very hard to have a point and to make you feel good about life and what comes next.

Truth be told I really liked much of the film. A great deal of the film is good times with good people. Everyone on the screen is really nice.  SO long as the film is focusing on the various relationships, I was perfectly happy to go along with everything.

The problem for me is that the film works a bit too hard to make us feel warm and fuzzy. The film seems intent on making us tear up and it goes to great lengths to make it happen. It's not completely bad, but you really will wish it dialed things back a notch or two. Especially in the final half hour where it is so intent on getting us to a certain point the film loses several characters along the way.

While not bad, the film kind of wears out it's welcome by the end. This might have worked if it had been a half an hour shorter.

Worth a look for the curious

The First Slam Dunk (2022) Fantasia 2023 Japan Cuts 2023

With THE FIRST SLAM DUNK Takehiko Inoue has turned his legendary manga into one of the biggest films in Japanese history. Its the story of a high school basketball team battling their way into the the big game. They are led by Ryota, a point guard who learned to love the game from his older brother. Beginning in the big game, the film then flashes back to show us the guys and how they came together.

On the face of it the film shouldn't be as moving as it is. Its a mix of well worn cliches mixed with driving score and gorgeous animation, and normally that would be a sure sign that the film was trying to distract us from any flaws. But the truth is Inoue isn't interested in the flash, but the human. He's crafted a very real and very moving group of guys who we pull for. While the film is mostly focused on Ryota, the truth is everyone is beautifully drawn. We get a sense of them beyond the screen. This is clearly the result of the film coming from a 31 volume manga series, an earlier TV adaption, and several earlier films. The result is a film that moves us and makes us feel well earned emotion.

The animation is impressive. Using a variety of subtle palettes for the different part of the film, the animation adds to the story telling in ways we could never have gotten if this were live action.  For example look at the rich details in the flash back sequences and contrast it with the hard edged game sequences, Yes it all looks essentially the same, but at the same time the differing pen and brush strokes entirely alter our feeling. You can't get that level of image change in anything live action. This is why some films need to be animated.

This film is awesome.  It's a wonderful human tale you need to see on a big screen at Fantasia or Japan Cuts or where ever you can.

Recommended.

Knights of the Zodiac (aka Saint Seiya: The Beginning) (2023)

I need to say right at the top that I enjoyed the hell out of KNIGHTS OF THE ZODIAC, but at the same time it proves a maxim  that is almost always true, which is that the vast majority of manga and anime probably should not be turned into a live action film. It's not that the stories are bad, more that what we accept animated or in a few pen and ink lines really pushes the boundaries of what we are willing to believe in a real world setting.

The film is loosely based on the classic manga Saint Seiya by Masami Kurumada. It ran for 28 manga volumes and 114 TV episodes. It follows Seiya, a young man who is tapped to become a knight to help protect a reincarnated goddess Athena who is going to wage a war against the other gods who want to take over earth. I read some of the early chapters back in my mad manga/anime days but it never clicked with me enough to stick. On the other hand it is considered of of the most successful manga/anime stories there is.

The current feature simplifies things down a great deal. Focusing just on Seiya who is  surprisingly good fighter, who is unaware of his supernatural abilities. When he  kicks the ass of a cage fighter he is put on the radar of a named Guraad (Framke Jensen) who wants his abilities for her own. Seiya is rescued by Alman (Sean Bean) and his right hand man, Mylock (Mark Dacascos) and brought to his secret mansion where his adopted daughter, and reincarnated Athena is kept safe. Guraad and Alman were once married but an accident involving the infant goddess' powers left her convinced that she must die. Some good set action set pieces happen in what is clearly intended to be the first of (now never happening) series.

Once I realized that this was going to be a simplified manga adaption I was pretty much fine with the film. I realized this was going to be an arc or two of the story, and I realized there was going to be a lot of mumbo jumbo that would only make sense if I was fluent in the source or if we had more films to lay more ground work. The action sequences were pretty good. The character arcs were fine, with a wonderful dark gray to both Bean and Jensen's characters (I mean they were married and they did do a lot of bad things as well as good things). Every one sells their role, and it was a joy to see Mark Dacascos being a cool bad ass good guy. On its own terms it's a lot of fun.

Okay yes the condensing of the plot can be wonky, the visual effects are sometimes uneven and it has a really bad training sequence that should have been rewritten or done away with, but if you want a popcorn film to pass the time there are a lot worse than this.

Honestly I expect this film to get a fan following once it hits streaming/cable and people can just pop in and see it.

The real question that I have concerning the film is how did it get made and who thought they had a shot at a series? Leaving changes to the source alone, the real problem is that a large number of fantastical manga live action films don't work. It's not that the films are bad as such, but more that seeing characters as living breathing characters in the real world doesn't usually work. If you need proof look at the design of the Knights' battle armor, it looks silly. Guraad's storm-troopers look better, but even some of their abilities look laughable. As for the image of the reincarnated Athena floating with her staff, it looks less real and more like really good cosplay. In context it's fine, but at the same time we never buy it to consider it real. 

Additionally the plots of so many manga/anime are so complicated that there is no real way to get them into a two hour movie. It always just the plot, but the world creation. All comics and animated series and films work because they are inherently of another world. We are open to whatever we are told about this new world because we have not been there before. With anything real world there is the basic problem of it looks real so we have to apply what we know of this world to that. Going into a live action world created from a piece of art we are less open. In someways watching animated feature film based on anime or manga, or comic property is easier because we are willing to give that film a slight pass. For example  m brother has loved several features based on material my niece loved because he just went with it. He never tried to make sense simply because he knew it was another world.

I never bought much of this as real, even if I enjoyed the ride.

But getting back to  the question of who did Sony decide this was a good idea? I don't know. Did they think the source fans would turn out? If so I'm even more confused since there is zero attempt to connect it to the manga/anime while outside of the US the film is branded as SAINT SEIYA: THE BEGINNING. I had no idea what the film was until I looked it up on-line.

Frankly Sony and their PR people set this up for failure in the US- and that's a huge sin, because frankly, this is better than a lot of the big studio releases. 

If you can go with it and if you can just let the film be what it is, with no expectations, I think you will be entertained. (Not sure I can say so for 20 bucks a seat but for the 12 I paid I had a good time).

A Summer Story (202) NYICFF 2023

A film like One Summer Story is one of the reasons I started Unseen Films. I wanted to put films on the radar that seem to have disappeared. ONE SUMMER STORY is exactly that. Released two years ago in Japan, the film apparently never really played anywhere and only surfaced at this years New York International Children’s Film Festival because the programming director did a deep dive into back catalogs.

The film concerns an anime loving girl who decides to try and find her biological father via the brother of one of her classmates.  The result is a film full of magnificent people, lots of laughs, a few tears and the most moving romance in years.

My god this is a great film.

This maybe the crown jewel in NYICFF’s line up this year and its only screening played to a near packed house at the festival.

I truly love this film.

Sure the film looks like a typical teen film, but the truth is it speaks volumes about life, family, friends and potential lovers. This is a film about real people who live without TV like conflicts. People just are. I adore that the film  has a trans character who is just there among everyone else. I love that people connect in ways that real people connect, shared interests. This is the way people do it in real life.

I don’t know how this hasn’t escaped to more festivals and world wide release. Yes it looks typical, but the fact is that is you watch it, if you watch the whole thing, you find that there is this magic to it. There is these moments late in the film where it’s like watching lightning in a bottle as all the buildup between the characters pay off in spades.

This film needs to be seen. Some bigger festival, such as New York or New York Asian or Fantasia or some other bigger name festival needs to get this on the world’s radar.

This is the sort of film that explains why films can be more that bang bang shoot’em up.

I have no idea how you can do it, but track this film down and see it.

Block out two and a half hours, get some popcorn and just sit an watch this film and watch people find each other.

This is a great film and highly recommended.

THE MOLE SONG -UNDERCOVER AGENT REIJI- FINAL(2022) Fantasia 2022

 

Takashi Miike concludes his MOLE SONG trilogy with more insanity as only he can inflict upon the world.

As the story winds down Reiji Kikukawa, the mole of the title, is in Italy with his gang. They are working to bring  tons of drugs disguised as  pasta into Japan. However Reiji has been told he needs to wrap things up. How is he going to arrest the boss and what of the inevitable betrayal of his "brother"?

This is a good ending to the series. Having been an early adopter of the series, I fell madly in love with the first film and I was equally thrilled with the second, I'm glad we get to have it all more or less resolved. I'm also thrilled that the insanity level remains  high. There are lots of laughs here, almost all will make even people walking in off the street laugh, though  jokes will be funnier many if you've been riding along.  They are almost all low brow but really really clever low brow. 

I roared from start to finish.

As good as the film is it isn't quite up to the first two films. It's not that there is anything wrong with the film, rather it's because the film is saddled with FINAL in the title.  Because the film is a final chapter everything must come to an end so things are forced to bend toward an ending.  The film doesn't have the pure joy of the first two where anything could and did happen. (That said some truly unexpected things happen here). 

The film also suffers slightly with a number of flashbacks to the first film. There is a bit too much refering back.

Quibbles aside, this film is a joy. It's a wonderful send off to good friends.

Brief word on Sensei, Would You Sit Beside Me (2021)

Romance between manga artists makes for a sweet little film.

I'm not sure what to say about this film?  This is a really good romance that I enjoyed the hell out of . Its a film full of great characters that will win your heart. Sure the film doesn't do anything new, but it does entertain which in the case is enough.

Recommended

THE FABLE: THE KILLER WHO DOESN'T KILL (2021) NYAFF 2021

Sequel to the 2019 New York Asian hit about The Fable, an assassin who refuses to kill. This time out Fable has to take on a masked killer who is actually a well respected man who has dark plans.

This time out it's more of the same with humor mixing with crazy violence.  Making a bit more sense than the previous film the film's main selling point is the action sequences. While the characters and humor are fine, the real treat here is the action sequences.  Each sequence had me talking to the screen in the best sort of a way. I was thankful that I was watching it at home because it meant I could go back and rewatch some of the amazing things in the film. Amazing things that didn't look like they were all done with computers.

I had a grand time. 

While the film isn't perfect it is fun. As such it is recommended

jigoku-no-hanazono: Office Royale (2021) NYAFF 2021 Fantasia 2021

 

Office Royale is a damn near perfect manga adaption. It’s the story of gangs of office women within an organization battling it out  for supremacy in combat. It’s an amusing candy colored  film that produces a lot of laughs… and runs out of steam by the twenty minute mark.

As good as the film is the film is the plotting is one note. Yes there are some twists and turns in there but largely this is a series of set ups that lead to a battle over one thing or another. It’s the sort of arcs that you find in many manga/anime stories. And while it is works on a page over the time you are reading it, being trapped in a theater for 100 minutes it becomes something that wears you down.  I went from loving it to just kind of sort of liking it. I also went from thinking this would have been a blast in a theater to I probably would have walked out. (As it is I stopped it a couple of times)

This probably would have worked better as five or six episodes of a series with credit sequences to break it all up.

Worth a look if it interests you but be warned you mileage may vary.

Tokyo Revengers (2021) Fantasia 2021

 

30 year old loser in a dystopian present where Tokyo is kept in fear by a street gang battling the yakuza, tries to get through life after discovering the only girl he ever loved was killed in a violent clash.  Unexpectedly  he suddenly travels back in time, to the moment just before the fateful day when he was beaten up and sent on a down trodden road. Refusing to follow the course of history he makes some changes before being thrown forward again into a changed present. Discovering that he is capable of jumping back in time he sets about trying to change the past in order to save the life of the girl he loves

When I started Tokyo Revengers I had no idea that the film was based on a manga running in Shonen Jump. I went in blind to see it because it looked cool and because the film was playing Fantasia, which meant that the film was vetted by a high authority. However ten minutes into the film I could feel the chapters opening and closing around me. Frankly as good as this film can be the back and forth nature of the story would have been better as a series.

The problem with TOKYO REVENGERS as a film is that the back and forth nature is one note. For much of the early part of the film each jump back results in his getting the shit kicked out of him. The difference is that even though he knows he’s going to “lose” his standing and refusing to give up somehow alters everything around him.  Its interesting to a point, but at the same time it is a bit too reputative. It also doesn’t help that there have been other similar stories that point us toward how this is going to go. Worst of all the time limit of 115 minutes limits how detailed we can get in setting up the numerous side characters.

I need to restate I don’t dislike this film, I just think a feature film does a disservice to the source material.

Reservations aside worth a look for those interested.

Tezuka's Barbara (2019) Fantasia 2020

Yosuke Mikura is a novelist with everything it seems. He has rich friends hobnobs with the powerful and has met with great success. But there is a problem he isn't writing up to his old standards and can feel it slipping away.  Things change when he meets the seemingly homeless drunk Barbara. She sparks his creativity as he heads off in a new obsessive direction.

Driven by an excellent jazz score Makoto Tezuka's adaption of his father's 1974 adult manga is film were reality and unreality(or is it?) blur and blend. Very mannered in its construction, everything in every shot seems to be a clue to something (thank you Christopher Doyle). At the same time you can feel Tezuka's hand manipulating the actors.  The result is not so much a work of the heart but of the intellect with a result the film is something I admired much more than I liked.

To be honest while I am a fan of Osamu Tezuka's body of work, I never much cared for his sex infused stories such as BARBARA. It was not that they were bad, but more that of all his stories they seemed to be one one's that he was most clearly writing. I could feel him at his drawing board writing the story where everything else just seemed to be this great stories that simply existed.

Worth a look for the jazz score and because it's a good film, even if you are held at arms length