BECK [Live-Action Film]
Director: Yukihiko Tsutsumi
Release Date: September 4, 2010
Studio: Shochiku
Genre: Music, Romance, Comedy
Release Date: September 4, 2010
Studio: Shochiku
Genre: Music, Romance, Comedy
Plot: Maho Minami (Shiori Kutsuna) returns to Japan after studying in New York. Her half brother Ryusuke Minami (Hiro Mizushima) is an ultra talented guitarist. Maho & Ryosuke then meet Koyuki (Takeru Sato), a fellow young teen whom Maho takes interest in. Soon enough, Ryosuke and Koyuki form a 5 piece rock band named "Beck," while Maho and Koyuki become involved in a romantic relationship.
The band starts to play live shows and grow an enthusiastic following. The release of their debut CD helps to further the band's popularity. People start to notice Koyuki. The band then endures a producer's planned conspiracy and other hardships. Beck then receives an offer to play at a rock festival, but with the unusual stipulation that the band may have to dissolve. (source: AsianMediaWiki, Wikipedia,)
Thoughts: Hiro, Takeru, and Osamu, all of my favorite actors are in this movie so, I decide to take a look at it. Although, I'm not familiar with the manga and anime adaptation of this series, but I loved it and I thought it was an awesome movie. Even the rock music was good. I might even consider to take a look at the anime, if I have time. Overall, I recommend to watch this movie.
watch the anime or read the manga, they cut a lot of the story out of the movie to fit basically 8 volumes of manga / 26 episodes of the anime. Though it was a good adaptation especially the casting.
ReplyDeleteGlad you liked the movie. It's a great anime series, too. The big difference is that the anime takes place over a lot longer time, so you see how Koyuki grows personally, and the development of Beck as a group is much more organic and natural. You get a few more sideplots, like Koyuki's childhood sweetheart, more aspects to the bullies, a whole swim team subplot, a lot more of the swimmer/paper/guitar teacher Saitou. You also get more humor with regard to Beck and the cockatoo. Really a lot more of the humor that you get cool flashes of in the movie. It's also got a lot of slice of life scenes or visual moments that the movie does have sprinkled throughout.
ReplyDeleteBut that's me singing the praise of the anime. The movie did a great job in adapting such a deep series into a 2 hour movie. The casting is perfect all around. I like that the English that Ryoske and Maho speak is real not-very accented English, and it's not actors trying to just speak the phoenetics. These guys know the language, which is consistent with the original anime and manga.
They capture so much of the spirit of the anime that made it so special. A combination of juke box hero dreaming, plus the frenetic pace of real rock and roll shows, and the glorious highs and spirit in the final festival concert. The music is fantastic, although color me disappointed that we never actually get to hear Koyuki sing. It was funny that when he sang, we would get images of nature and such. Very weird and funny. I guess with that kind of build up, you could never really find someone to sing that well.