Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
I love reviews like this that pop into the mailbox for stuff I’ve never heard of. I really enjoyed BATTLEFIELD BASEBALL as a piece of total absurdity, so I’ll be curious to check this one out, and hopefully soon:
Hey harry. RyougaSaotome here with a review of Yudai Yamaguchi's Sakigake!! Cromartie High School. If you use this, call me RyougaSaotome
I remember a year or so ago, when I had stumbled upon a little movie called Battlefield Baseball. The vendor at the flea market had told me it was like Battle Royale, only with baseball. I believed his words and bought it, but after popping it in the dvd player, I soon realized that was hardly the case. I was somewhat taken aback to find all my favorite Versus actors in the film, which led me to question who actually made it. Upon looking it up on IMDB, I discovered that Yudai Yamaguchi, 1st AD on Versus, directed the movie, and Ryuhei Kitamura produced. I was pleasantly surprised to find a movie that was extremely entertaining and funny, filled with some very cool ideas. Even with it's low budget, one could see Yudai had a lot of potential as a new filmmaker.
Much to my delight then, when I discovered that Yamaguchi would be directing the live action adaptation of one of my favorite manga/anime's, Cromartie High School. Granted, I was still kinda worried, because Cromartie isn't really the type of source material that seemed like it would translate well to live action. You'd need a very very diverse cast that would be faithful to the original manga, and a writer that was willing to really put his career on the line by making a risque and almost retarded script.
Sakigake Cromartie High School The Movie has both, and more.
(Note, Summarizing this film is impossible, so I'm not even gonna try)
This review is coming only five minutes after having completed the movie in it's entirety. I had many high expectations going into it, mostly because of my love for the original Manga. The Manga is an extremely entertaining and original forray into the typical Shounen boys manga that populates shelves. It parodies and spoofs those types of comics, but paves it's own way with memorable characters like Mechazawa, and of course Freddie. This movie is no different in it's style and character. Director Yudai Yamaguchi has taken a well loved piece of pop-culture, and turned it into a formidable movie to be reckoned with in the future.
Battlefield Baseball was unquestionably low budget, but still comical none the less. Cromartie High School is far better budgeted, and this can be seen in every shot, every musical chord, and every gag onscreen. You can tell Yudai really went all out with the budget he had when you see the shaolin monk training sequence, followed by the Mechazawa Laser attack, and then the inevitable meteor falling. Yet he doesn't overuse the computer animation. He simply uses it to enhance the scenes further. Characters like Mechazawa, the robot student, are kept nearly entirely practical. You can tell there's a man in the suit, but it doesn't matter because the character himself is so cool in the first place. This also goes for characters such as Gorilla, Gori, and Lla, who are all obviously just gorilla suits, but that matters not in this case. Which brings me to my next point...
Each character really gets his or...it's moment to shine. Freddie's first appearance comes to mind, as his signature theme music kicks in and he doesn't say a word, just merely stands there. Mechazawa is also done justice from the manga; he's onscreen with flair and zest, and his little Exorcist excursion is something every film buff needs to witness. The actors for each of these two characters, Hiroyuki Watanabe and Shinji Takeda respectively, do an outstanding job with two characters who are very much different than all the rest. For Watanabe, his acting had to be done with only his body and facial movements, while Takeda only had his voice to go with, though the suit actor did an outstanding job bringing life to the little robot.
Mitsuki Koga does an entertaining job as the extremely stupid Hayashida, Kamiyama's friend. He's extremely slow witted, and he says each line with an almost absolute confidence, even when the line makes absolutely no sense, or is entirely incorrect. Hiroshi Yamamoto who plays Akira Maeda (And Akira's mom), is convincing as the hapless victim of simply being in the wrong place, at the wrong time, every time. His small cameo's playing Akira's mom are hilarious, and completely spontaneous, adding to the humor. Tak Sakaguchi, though given limited screentime in this film, adds his familiar punk-attitude to the character of Ichiro Yamamoto, the friend that gets Kamiyama into Cromartie in the first place.
Someone who gets special notice however, is Takamusa Suga, who plays the role of Takashi Kamiyama. In a cast of characters as diverse as this, Kamiyama stands out as being the one who is the most straight-laced so to speak. He's not a punk, he's just a dorky schoolboy who's been thrust into this school of punks and yakuza. He's probably the only 'straight' character in the film, though almost every scene he's in is humorous because he acts as if nothing is all that strange in the first place. Suga does an incredibly admirable job, really resembling the character from the manga in not just appearance, but attitude as well. As Hayashida says in the anime "If a rabbit lives in a den of lions, doesn't that make the rabbit a badass?". Indeed Hayashida. Indeed it does. Though I'm neglecting to mention several other characters, one can assure you that they are all played with equal respect to the character, though I would have liked to see more of the two Pootan, and of Noboru Yamaguchi as well.
Yudai already has a clear style in the way he makes his films. The editing here is very crisp, and has a great flow to it. He uses a filter for the entire movie, clearly for stylizing purposes, and the whole thing very much has the feel of a live action anime. It's almost cartoonish sometimes in the way it's constructed. Much like the manga/anime, there is no real ongoing story until the final thirty minutes when Gori and Lla appear. Even then the film strays for a five minute sequence involving the Pootans et all. The expanded budget can also be seen in the set design, and the music as well. It is noticably less B-movie in it's quality, and this helps the film to really stand out visually.
I don't think I can compliment Shoichiro Masumoto enough for the spectacular job he did writing the screenplay. I'm only used to him as an actor in films (The Handless cop in Versus, the referee in Battlefield Baseball), so it's quite a refresher to see what the comedian can do on paper. Each line is filled with wit, and there is rarely any point where the dialogue gets dull or drawn out. Everything ends in a beat, and it keeps the movie on it's feet at all times.
Sakigake!! Cromartie High School really surprised me. I expected an entertaining, fun film. Yet coming out of it, the only thing I want to do is watch it again because it was just such a good time. It's hard to resist going another paragraph about how great a job the cast and crew did, but for the sake of length, I'll hold back. All I can say, is that if you're a fan of Cromartie High School, watch this movie as soon as possible. The Region 2 dvd comes with English subtitles. If you're capable of playing R2, you'd be wise to buy it. For those who aren't fans of Sakigake Cromartie High School, I reccomend you watch the show, read the manga, and buy this film. Because otherwise, you'll be missing out on one of the most original and entertaining idea's to come from Japan in a long time.
**** out of ****
Thanks, man. Sounds insane.
"Moriarty" out.
