Beck (Japan 2010)

No surprise here (at least in terms of Japanese entertainment), but Beck is the live-action adaptation of the manga and anime of the same name. I don't see a lot of anime, but I did see Beck and I thought it was alright (review possibly to come?), and it's generally fun to see how they bring a cartoon to life. The live-action Beck however, wasn't fun. Go figure.

The story of Beck centers around a quiet loner by the name of Yukio "Koyuki" Tanaka (Takeru Sato), a seemingly average middle-school student without any real direction or desires in life. To make matters even more cliche, he's always on the butt-end of the bullying stick. He doesn't really know where his interests lie and by chance, or fate, he runs into the English-speaking, yet very Japanese, Ryusuke Minami (Hiru Mizushima), by helping Ryusuke's dog Beck from being bullied by a bunch of gaijin (foreigners!). Ryusuke is obviously thankful to Koyuki and the two hit it off. Koyuki soon discovers that his new friend is an amazingly talented guitar player by witnessing Ryusuke perform live. This, as you can imagine, was a life-altering moment for young Koyuki as he was able to witness the awesomeness of guitar and live music in all it's glory. Koyuki now knows that he wants to learn to play the guitar and begins taking lessons with an eccentric middle-aged man named Saito (Takanori Takeyama). He also meet's Ryusuke's younger sister Maho (Shiori Kutsuna), a spunky, firecracker of a girl who has no problem telling people how she feels, in English no less! Naturally, Koyuki's sparks fly when he sets his sights on Maho, but the attraction isn't exactly going both ways. Meanwhile, trouble brews in Ryusuke's band because the "leader", Eiji (Kensei Mikami), seems to be more concerned with the band's image than the music. The two guitarists go their separate ways and vow to each start the best band possible. Dun dun dun! Ryusuke begins recruiting different musicians from around town that are well-known for their specific abilities. He grabs Taira (Osamu Mukai) for his killer bass skills and battle-rapper Chiba (Kenta Kiritani), for his vocal ability and energy. Saku (Aoi Nakamura), is a transfer student that just started at Koyuki's school. He strikes up an instant kinship with Koyuki because of their shared interest in Dying Breed, the million-selling American band that Ryusuke introduced Koyuki to. Ryusuke and Eddie (Dying Breed's guitarist) ran the streets together in New York and decided to break into a car, stealing the dog, Beck, and a guitar with bullet-holes in it named Lucille. Trust me, this comes into play later on. Back in the now, a wonderful coincidence occurs, Saku is a great drummer and Koyuki has gotten pretty darn good at guitar from months of non-stop practice. Could they two be the missing links for Ryusuke's upstart band? You wouldn't be foolish to think so dear readers. During a meeting, in which to come up with a name for the band, Chiba suggests, "Beck", in reference to Ryusuke's dog. Everyone thinks it's a little weird at first but decide to go with it.

Soon, Beck are making a name for themselves by playing a lot of shows around town and releasing their own E.P. However, Eiji's new band, "Belle Ame", are making an even bigger name for themselves by recruiting pretty-boy actor, and friend of Maho, Yoshito (Yuta Furukawa), as their singer and by having one of the biggest, and most evil promoters in the game, Ran (Shido Nakamura), backing them. I said it would come back to haunt us, but the guitar Lucille was stolen from Leon Sykes (Cinque Lee), a famous-yet-villainous promoter from America. He saw footage of Ryusuke playing Lucille on-stage and wants his guitar back. Beck is approached by Sato Kazuo (Yuki Matsushita), a woman driven to fulfill the wish of her deceased sister by booking the Grateful Sound Festival with real quality rock bands. She feels that the festival her sister started before her passing has gone downhill in recent years and believes that Beck would be perfect for the lineup. Beck, of course, would love the opportunity but Ran stands in their way. This dude has some clout. So Ryusuke, having an uncomfortable meeting with Leon Sykes, then has the nerve to ask Leon for help in getting Beck in the festival. Leon, presumably intrigued at Ryusuke's gall, agrees to let Beck in one condition...a condition that Ryusuke agrees to. So Beck are in, and will have their opportunity to face off with Belle Ame, but at what cost?

Good Lord, I didn't realize how much nonsense went on in Beck until I started writing my review for it. That, in and of itself, is my biggest problem with the anime and the movie. The story is, to be frank, overly-complicated, to the point where it detracts from what is actually interesting and engaging about Beck; the characters and their journey to make music together. The Leon Sykes storyline is a mess and feels like an unnecessary last-minute attempt at creating drama and tension. The same can be said for the story of the guitar Lucille and how it got the bullet holes in it. It's simply not as interesting as just following these guys and the ins-and-outs of the music industry. I'm also going to point out that there is quite a bit of English in this movie (and the anime) due to Ryusuke and Maho having spent time abroad, but my God, I found it incredibly annoying and distracting because of how bad their English sounds. Hey, don't get me wrong, kudos for trying in the first place, but it's pretty cringe-worthy, as is most of the English acting from everyone else. Also, in the anime, it turns out Koyuki has a pretty solid singing voice and sings quite well in English. In the live-action movie, they play some generic music over Koyuki's vocals so you don't get to hear him sing. They do this throughout to the point where it feels like it's an intentionally huge build-up and you'll finally get to hear him belt out a tune at Grateful Sound. However, they do the same thing at the music festival! They play music over his vocals so you don't hear him!! What is that!? Every time he sings in the movie they make it seem like an angel came down from heaven and whispered in their ears, but yet the viewing audience gets a giant middle-finger from the filmmakers. To the man or woman responsible for making that decision, resulting in an absolute climactic finale failure: fuck you. You may be wondering if I liked anything about the live-action Beck movie. Well, not much. I thought the casting, in terms of looks, was pretty solid and they all seemed to be playing their instruments, or at least doing a darn good job at acting like it. They also tried to follow the anime storyline as much as possible and I suppose that should be commended but oh how time can be an enemy. Hmm, that's all I got for positives.

You would think that an ideal as simple as friends starting a band to jam would be a lot more simple than this, but Beck chose the route of trying to do too much. The anime worked (mostly), because it had around 27 episodes to tell the story, but the film is a 2 and 1/2 hour bore-fest with far too many shortcuts taken. It's a poor example of fan-service, which is ironic because only fans of Beck will watch this crap, and non-fans will wonder the heck is going on. When compared to the anime and possibly the manga, it's just a real disappointment. (Lee)

Grade: D



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Akunin (Japan 2010)

Well it' about time! I've been wanting to see Akunin ever since I saw previews for it last September. Fast forward almost a year later and I've finally seen it. Was it worth the wait? Absolutely. Sometimes the high expectations we create get met.

Yuichi (Satoshi Tsumabuki) is a quiet, socially-awkward loner who lives in a small, rural village in Nagasaki working construction. He stays with his grandmother, Fusae (Kirin Kiki), and grandfather, Katsuji (Hisashi Igawa), and helps to take care of things around the house, as well as helping others in the neighborhood. His grandfather is in poor health so Yuichi often has to help bathe him and take him to and from the hospital on a regular basis. With a basically non-existent social life, he started emailing women on an online dating site. Yuichi corresponds with a young woman, Yoshino Ishibashi (Hikari Mitsushima), who leads a bit of a double-life by working in insurance during the day and getting paid for sex with Yuichi at random times. Yoshino's father, Yoshio Ishibashi (Akira Emoto), a barber living in a rural town in Fukuoka with his wife Satoko (Yoshiko Miyazaki), has no idea that his little girl is spending her free time doing such very adult things. While Yoshino has a sexual relationship with Yuichi, she's actually infatuated with spoiled, rich-kid Keigo Masuo (Masaki Okada), who lives a care-free life as a playboy, getting pretty much anything he wants. Masuo really has no interest in Yoshino but humors her by responding to her emails with the intention of just getting in her pants. On a night when Yoshino plans to meet with Yuichi, she runs into Masuo while Yuichi is within eyesight. She ditches Yuichi and gets in the car with Masuo which enrages our blonde-haired protagonist, prompting him to follow the two as they drive off. However, after Yuichi begins to tail the two of them, we fade to black and settle in on the next morning with Yuichi getting ready for work. Wait...what happened last night!? Ah, we'll we find out soon enough as Yuichi makes his way to work, which happens to pass by the same area Masuo and Yoshino were driving by last night but now it looks like a crime scene. What happened here? Well, we soon see Yoshino's dead body being pulled up the embankment on the side of the road by the authorities. Again I ask, what happened last night!?

Later on, Yuichi gets an email from Mitsuyo Magome (Eri Fukatsu), another member from the dating site, and decides to meet with her. After an initial misunderstanding with their intentions in regards to a relationship, the two find themselves to be quite a match. At least they seem to think so. Mitsuyo, while nowhere near as socially awkward as Yuichi, is just as desperately lonely as he is, fueled even more so by seeing her older sister in a healthy relationship. The two really seem to be hitting it off, but all is not well as the police have started asking grandma Fusae about Yuichi and his relationship with the deceased Yoshino. Turns out Masuo claims he didn't kill Yoshino but simply kicked her out of his car by the side of the road. What exactly did Yuichi did that night? The grieving Yoshio and his wife grow more emotionally unstable with the news that the police might not have the right guy after all. Yuichi panics at the news that the police are snooping around his home and decides to leave town, asking Mitsuyo to go with him. He doesn't have a plan, he knows he doesn't want to go home, and he finally musters the courage to make a confession to Mitsuyo. She doesn't seem to care about what he tells her, and only knows that she doesn't want to leave his side.

I really battled with how much of Akunin I wanted to give away. I didn't want to come right out and say so and so murdered Yoshino, so I'm not going to and I'm certainly not going to tell you the circumstances of her death. These are all things you should experience as a viewer with no real prior knowledge. The film does a great job at building suspense and maintaining a real air of mystery while the lives of all it's characters continue to move along. Speaking of which, there are an abundance of characters in Akunin and at first I wondered if the film would lose it's focus while shifting to so many different perspectives. Thankfully, when it does change perspective and focuses on a different character, it doesn't feel like the pace of the movie suffers and, as it should, still feels geared around the central storyline. I really felt that each character was interesting in their own right and I genuinely wanted to see how their side of things played out. Akunin won a small truckload of acclaim, including Best Picture, Best Actor (Satoshi Tsumabuki) and Best Actress (Eri Fukatsu), at numerous awards shows and after seeing the movie, that makes perfect sense to me. While everyone in the film put forward incredibly strong performances, Satoshi and Eri, if I may be so bold, acted their asses off. The situation they're placed in is a tale as old as Romeo and Juliet, a forbidden love that tries it's hardest to defy the odds and those opposed. I could relate to the aspect of wanting something so bad, knowing it's near impossible and yet still trying even though you know it may be all for naught. Another theme that's accurately shown in Akunin is that sometimes our desires make us selfish and we end up hurting those that care for us, forcing their lives to change in the process.

The minute Akunin starts, you get the feeling that things aren't going to end well. However, you hang in there because of a cast providing incredibly strong performances, a story that keeps you guessing and a doomed romance that you can't help but wish had another chance under different circumstances. I'd be hard-pressed to find something negative to say about Akunin and have it be anything buy nitpicking. Truly a powerful film. (Lee)

Grade: A-



Official Website

Highschool of the Dead (Anime 2010)

Zombies, guns, blood, gore, T&A, oh my! How can you go wrong with that winning combination? Well, let me tell you...you can go wrong, and H.O.T.D. is proof of that. Don't get me wrong, the series oozes with promise and possibility, and there are some great moments, but that just makes it's glaring flaws all the more frustrating.

Takashi Komuro is just a loner high-school student that is lost in thought, pondering life, love, and how unfair both can be. His "me" time is interrupted by his old childhood friend, the pink-haired Saya Takagi, who seems to be constantly on Komuro's case about being stupid, a day-dreamer and so on. Both students are interrupted by a rattling coming from the front gate of the school. When some faculty members make their way over to the gate, they realize something is very wrong with the stranger trying to make his way in. The man at the gate bites one of the teachers and for all intents and purposes, kills him. After a few seconds though, the recently deceased begins to move again and gets up with a moan in his voice and a lifeless look on his face. What we have here is certainly no longer human. That's right folks, the zombie invasion has begun. Komuro and Takagi take no time in realizing that all is not right at the front gate and rightfully decide to kick things into high gear. Komuro's first stop is in getting his classmate and friend, Rei Miyamoto, and her boyfriend (who happens to be Komuro's best friend) Hisashi. Meanwhile, Takagi runs into the fat, nerdy, and somewhat awkward Kohta Hirano, and explains that there may be a situation at the school and that they need to prepare themselves. Luckily, everyone here seems to be familiar with the concept of zombies so they make sure to grab whatever they can to use as weapons. Komuro, Rei, and Hisashi decide to make their way to the rooftop, thinking that help will come for them if they barricade themselves away. Fighting their way to the top, Hisashi is bitten and things take a turn for the dramatic. Once securely barricaded away, Hisashi begins to turn into one of them and Komuro is forced to take his best friend's life. Rei is overcome with emotion in having to witness her boyfriend's death, but she and Komuro realize that they need to stick together in order to survive. As zombies continue to swarm the rooftop, the two realize that being stuck on the roof might not be such a good idea after all and begin making their way out of the school. They run into Takagi and Hirano on the way, and just before they leave they also meet Saeko Busujima, a kendo expert, and the school's giant-breasted, mostly aloof nurse, Shizuka Marikawa. Ah, the band is together and ready to rock. Everyone brings something unique to the group with Komuro's leadership skills, Rei's defensive skills (taught to her by her policeman father), Hirano's expert aim with firearms, Takagi's genius, Busujima's kendo skills, and Marikawa's ability to care for the injured. Wow, it's like an RPG game! The group decide that the best plan of action is to get the heck out of the school and stick together in checking on each others families.

Time to smash some zombie brains!

So what lies in wait for our band of unlikely heroes? Well, mostly a world in turmoil and countless walking undead. Turns out this is a worldwide pandemic and nations across the globe are in panic mode, unsure of what to do. Chaos is breaking out in the streets and no one is safe. The group, having picked up some other students and a teacher, Koichi Shido, who is hated by Rei, make their way to the city on a school bus. Shido tries to convert everyone into making him the boss, and it gets to the point where Rei can't stand to be on the bus with him anymore. Rei leaves and Komuro goes with her, thus separating the group but they all (minus Shido and his brainwashed followers) agree to meet at the police station the next day. Being alone gives Rei and Komuro time to bond and understand each other better, while Takagi and the others eventually separate themselves from Shido as well. Shizuka tells the group that they can rest up at her friends apartment close by and luckily, Rei and Komuro stumble upon the group just in time. Now that everyone is back together again, it's business as usual as they all continue to talk and bond, forming friendships and slaying zombies together. Their goal remains the same, to try and find family alive and well (wait till you get a load of Takagi's parents), and they even take in a little girl, Alice Maresato, whose family was killed, and an annoying little dog name Zeke. Sure, you'll find out why Rei hates Shido so much, and just who is Mirakawa's friend with the well-stocked apartment, so fear not.

Pink-haired girls and shotguns...awesome.

I'm obviously not going to tell you every little thing that happens in H.O.T.D., because I'm a spoiler-free advocate, but it's safe to say at this point that you get the gist. A group of survivors, mostly high school kids, are just trying to stay alive in a world gone to hell. This type of zombie-apocalypse scenario is generally right up my alley, and there are certainly a lot of things in H.O.T.D. that I dig. For one, there's no shortage of action and with that action comes plenty of blood and gore. There's also a lot of half naked (and sometimes fully naked) girls and women in this series, with breasts and crotch-shots flying across the screen in almost every scene. I feel like this anime is paying homage to those low-budget zombie movies of yesteryear, what with the over-the-top action sequences, and the out-of-nowhere panty shots and breast-bouncing. I mean hell, throw in the rock/metal guitar riffs for good measure and you basically have all the ingredients for cliche zombie entertainment. I say this because H.O.T.D. both takes itself seriously at times and at other times it's quite comical, but intentionally so. It's an interesting blend to say the least. There are 12 episodes here, and that's really not that many episodes when you consider all the scenarios you could put these characters in. Oh the possibilities! However, that's where things go horribly wrong and totally piss me off. For one, it takes three of those precious twelve episodes for the group to get out of the school. The fourth episode is half flashbacks from the first three episodes, and the sixth episode is a pointless, hentai-esque, filler episode in which nothing of real significance happens except for nudity...which is kinda awesome, but let's not get sidetracked. What is going on here!? Why are we squandering such potential on nothing!? I mean, I like looking at half naked animated women with big breasts as much as the next guy...I guess, but for 20+ minutes while the crap is hitting the fan just outside your door? Anyway, consider all the time wasting a low point for me in this series and a major reason why I didn't like it more. I should point out the art and animation are both quite good, although I'm not a fan of mixing the CG with traditional 2D art. Thankfully those moments are more in the minority. I also want to say that the character design is decent enough, although Rei's hair looks strange to me, like she has two alien antennas coming out of her head and Mirakawa's boobs are...well, ridiculous. The characters themselves though are all interesting enough with Busujima being my personal favorite, mostly because she seemed to have the most depth to her. Although I would've tossed that little dog Zeke to the first group of zombies I saw...maybe even Alice too.

H.O.T.D. overall is a fun series and any hardcore anime fan will love it, and more than likely any hardcore anime fan has already seen it and probably did love it. I'm just a casual anime viewer however, and I had a good time with the series for the most part, but I'll never forgive it for all it's filler and squandered potential. It came so close to hitting the mark across the board. I hope they have a second season and if they do, I'll be waiting with my always fine-toothed comb. (Lee)

Grade: B -




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