Ariel (Janno Gibbs) is a small-time baranggay basketball coach. Many years ago, he literally had a shot that could've changed his life forever. But he missed that shot, and years later, despite the presence of family and friends that love him, he has a lot of problems of his proverbial plate.
The story of Hello, Universe! Is fairly familiar, if a bit cliched - the all-too familiar tale of a man who doesn't know what he has until he loses it all. In this case, the magical catalyst that sets off the events of the film is a supernatural Taxi Driver (Benjie Paras,) who literally allows him to shoot his shot and change his life. When he wakes up, he gets everything he ever wanted: he's a coach working his dream job, he has a big house and a hot wife. But Ariel soon pines for his original family and learns the truth behind the adage that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.
The premise leans a lot on nostalgia and basketball - various PBA players make cameos in the film, and the movie pays homage to 90's comedy films and the 1989 fantasy basketball film Last Two Minutes. It doesn't feel like appropriation and the film sets out to make its own thing, though its reliance on old fashioned humor that hasn't aged well in the past 30 years works a bit to its detriment.
Xian Lim has certainly improved from his earlier directorial attempt, Tabon, having had a little more experience directing a couple of television series. He feels much more confident here and he's slowly developing his own unique style. With that said, while a lot of his directorial decisions in Hello, Universe! work out, a lot just don't. Most noticeable are his choice of shots: Lim chooses to shoot his subjects in closeup, which does work in certain situations but when the point is shooting a basketball game, a lot of the action is missed. Perhaps he was trying to emulate, say, Kurosawa-esque action framing ala the horse scenes in Seven Samurai, but I don't think it works particularly well in this context. I can't believe I just made that comparison, but here we are. Whenever either team makes a successful shot, Lim chooses an off-center shot of the basket which just looks off. Heck, even Last Two Minutes feels better with its shot choices. And in the final scene of the film, even though there were several great ways to cut, it just kept on going and going.
I'll give them this: it's certainly a great effort, even if a lot of things in the film come up short. But there's definitely improvement there, and a decent cast and a simple premise make up for most if Hello, Universe's shortcomings.
It's not common for a manga director to be able to direct their own anime adaptation. Some work on the story or script, while some are heavily involved with the production but do not helm the entire thing. But when the mangaka/director has enough experience with both industries (Hayao Miyazaki for Nausicaa, Katsuhiro Otomo for Akira) the results are pretty astounding. In this case, Takehiko Inoue himself took over the production for this film, and he manages to translate his detailed, gorgeous art style into gorgeous hybrid 2D/3D animation. In particular, the final few minutes of the film - basically the last two to three possessions of the game - perfectly capture the intensity of those last moments.
One of the most substantial changes in The First Slam Dunk from its source material is its shift of point of view character, from hotheaded, self-proclaimed genius Hanamichi Sakuragi to calm and collected Ryota Miyagi. In the manga, Miyagi isn't given as much focus as his teammates and is mostly considered a supporting character. But in this film, he's pretty much the central character. Inoue expands on Miyagi's backstory and explores his motivation for playing basketball - it's not erroneous to say this is a family drama as much as it is a sports drama.
I had reservations on how this all would play out; at its very core, Slam Dunk is Sakuragi's story, and even though Miyagi's the point guard (essentially the guy directing the plays and making scoring decisions on the court) Sakuragi makes most of the crucial decisions in the game. But ultimately I think Inoue and his team made it work, with a few caveats. For viewers unfamiliar with the series, The First Slam Dunk is a wildly entertaining sports film about a man standing on and moving on from the shadow of his brother; for fans of the series, it's a wonderfully animated conclusion to a much-loved story that people have waited for at least two decades to finish.
After the wildly successful adaptations of South Korean films Miracle in Cell No. 7 (2013) and Miss Granny (2014), Viva Films has gone all in with subsequent adaptations to mixed results: A Hard Day (2021) had a modest amount of success in the 2021 edition of MMFF, while films like Always (2022) were tepid affairs that made little, if any, impact. The latest such adaptation is Spellbound, a remake of the 2011 film Chilling Romance directed by Hwang In-ho. Hwang's original film isn't exactly the best of films, often suffering from tonal inconsistencies and a so-so romance that's only saved by its quirky humor. Spellbound is almost a shot for shot (or at least, scene for scene) remake of the original film, and thus shares the same weaknesses and strengths as the source material.
Yuri (Bela Padilla) works as a magician's assistant. She has difficulty forming social relationships because she frequently sees ghostly apparitions. Her boss, Victor (Marco Gumabao) wants to form a relationship with her and discovers her secret. Together, the two of them help spirits gain closure while they figure out the ins and outs of their burgeoning relationship.
It's certainly possible to make a horror comedy using this concept, but the film can't seem to decide, and isn't too good at either one. The quirkiness of the original seems to be lost here, even though things are mostly the same. Bela Padilla deserves some kudos for her performance, but I found it difficult to find chemistry between her and Marco Gumabao, even though this isn't even their first outing together.
In a world where we are slowly getting re-acclimated to a more open, face to face world, the plot and themes of Spellbound - especially in how its main character gradually opens up her heart to others after a long period of isolation and solitude - may find a little resonance with the post pandemic crowd. But perhaps in this case, a little divergence from the source material wouldn't hurt.
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