Tamako Tomita (Yui Aragaki) hates Ping Pong. She's actually good at it, but an overbearing mother and a grueling training regimen turned her off the sport. But when her boyfriend (Seto Koji) betrays her for another woman, Tamako is led down a path towards Ping Pong once more.
A perfect fusion of sports movie, romantic comedy and ganbare! film (the kind of film where a person gets better at a very specific skill), Mixed Doubles is the hilarious brainchild of director-screenwriter duo Junichi Ishikawa and Ryota Kosawa. The two have worked together before in another feature film, but are perhaps better known for their TV work, including series such as Legal High (which also starred Yui Aragaki).
However, Mixed Doubles definitely feels like a film, and a very entertaining one at that. It's filled with the highs and lows of a sports drama, complete with a climactic match up set to inspirational music. It has the quirk and charm of a romantic comedy, and Eita and Aragaki are both wonderful in terms of chemistry. It is also an interesting character study - all of the characters in this film have their own reasons for playing, whether it be to escape the stifling environment of being a trophy wife, to honor a lost loved one, or simply to combat the ennui and loneliness of being left behind.
Like fellow Ping Pong movie Ping Pong (2002), Mixed Doubles isn't about winning, it's about falling in love again, whether it be the sport you left so long ago, or the person beside you. It's irreverent, funny and a solid entertainer from start to finish.
Anime adaptations are usually either hit or miss, as adapting a long series or manga to a couple of live action movies means that a lot of things are going to be taken out for the sake of time. In the case of Laughing Under the Clouds (Donten ni Warau), the alterations to the story are pretty substantial.
The gist of the movie is this: in the Bakumatsu period, three brothers protect a town from the return of Orochi, a snake demon. Ninjas want the demon to return. The government doesn't, and trouble ensues.
The film focuses more on the oldest brother, Tenka (Sota Fukushi) and less so on the other two brothers - even giving him a crucial scene that belongs to another character. A group of government soldiers tasked to seal the Orochi are all turned from interesting characters with their own quirk into a boring boy squad with little personality or backstory.
The film seems to have been modified for the ikemen-hungry crowd, to the detriment of some fans of the original source material. It's kind of a shame, considering that the source material is pretty good by itself and that the film is technically well made, especially during the first half. Katsuyuki Motohiro certainly has the pedigree to make this work, having worked on adaptations like Ajin and original films like Summer Time Machine Blues, so with the right material he could've made this shine.
Fans of Fukushi and pretty Bakumatsu bois will find much to like here, but the anime series and the manga are far superior to this particular iteration.
Based on Rie Aruga's manga of the same name, Perfect World is the story of Itsuki (Takanori Iwata) and Tsugumi (Hana Sugisaki) who fall in love with each other. It seems straightforward, but there's just one little detail about their relationship: Itsuki is paralyzed from the waist down.
The film examines how life would be like living with a person with disabilities. It's certainly full of its own set of challenges - medical conditions like pressure sores are common, family and friends can and will tend to misunderstand and discourage such relationships, and just being a caregiver on top of being a romantic partner is added challenge enough. All this, in a setting where accessibility for disabled people is very much available.
The conflicts, however, feel more weighty when Itsuki and Tsugumi are dealing with these everyday problems, compared to a major unexplained medical speed bump in the third act that feels very contrived. Perfect World is best when it lets its two characters breathe in the world they're in, instead of manufacturing drama for the sake of drama.
And finally, I was unaware that Wishing Chong's Yakiniku Dragon was based on his play of the same name going into the movie theatre, but from the first few minutes of the movie I knew that it felt like a play on film. On second viewing, my suspicions were confirmed, and the film's theatricality proves to be its greatest weakness.
The film follows a family of Koreans living in Japan, and their struggles as they try to fit into society and sometimes fail. At the same time, there are love problems among the family's daughters. The film tackles issues of discrimination, marginalization and human dignity in the face of hardship.
Owing to its theater roots, Yakiniku Dragon's drama works when it works. But at the same time, it suffers from a lack of restraint, in that some things a play would take for granted don't exactly translate that well when adapted into a feature film.
The film is best when it shies away from histrionics, which is unfortunately not that often; most of the film is composed of hysterics, hitting, shouting and screaming. After a while, it gets kind of shrill and tiring. The romantic subplots of the film feel a little too tacked on, and are easily some of the most skippable parts of the film.
The film also lacks restraint in terms of editing. There are many moments in the film where one anticipates a cut to the next scene, but the scene just keeps going on and on. In a play, the script would be responsible for the overall pace, but not so in film. The extra dimension of temporality that a proper edit brings seems to be lost on the film's first-time director.
No comments:
Post a Comment