Sakurai's Japanese manga work "Yajin", in addition to exciting action scenes, constantly explores the question of human nature and "what is human", and the live-action film version has also received many praises after its launch.
The long-awaited live-action film was directed by Katsuyuki Motoko from Jumping the Great Search Line and Psycho-Pass, with the assistance of Production I.G.
Here are a few spoilers
Yajin is a Japanese manga series by Sakurai Kamen published by Kodansha and serialized in July 2012. Episodes 0 to 5 of the story were written by Miura, and the story and manga were also handled by Sakurai Sensei.
The live-action film version is about 110 minutes long, and probably chooses the story content of the first to the ninth period, that is, from the beginning of the discovery that the protagonist Kei Nagai is an "Asian" to the end of Sato's gang attacking the building. The film script drastically took away Nagai's good friend Haidou, so the plot of the two escaping at the beginning of the original book can be completely omitted, and at the beginning of the film, it has become Nagai because he was killed by a truck and was found to be a subhuman, and he was directly arrested into the research institute and carried out countless painful human experiments. The "hat" Sato joined the Research Institute with Tanaka in an attempt to recruit Nagai into their part in an attempt to establish a "Subhuman Autonomous Region" in Tokyo.
In addition to decisively taking away the part of the sea bucket, the script also gently takes over the complex setting part of the original book, the name and setting of the subhuman's "twin" IBM (Invisible Black Matter) is not mentioned or explained, only the word "ghost" is replaced, in the original book, Dr. Ogura Yuya explained that black particles are also the matter of the physical world, so they can physically attack humans, for example, when Shimomura Izumi was attacked by Tim Tanaka, others saw that she seemed to float in the air. But why can't ordinary humans see it? The metaphor of glass is used in the comics, if glass is a real substance, but the light transmittance reaches 80–90%, and the black particle is an unknown substance that is 100% transparent.
In addition, the original book also explores human nature and the question of "what is human" from time to time, and I like a short passage in the original book, where Sato explains to Nagai that he has a "way" to kill sub-people:
Subhumans will also die. For subhumans, a part that is too far from the body to be recycled will produce a completely new one. What if that position is the head?
I will now, by myself, behead you, and then pick up your head a little farther away, so that you can take your last breath and observe the process of your own newly grown head. So does the newly grown head, brain, heart still belong to you?
No.
You're over here, and you're dying.
Like the definition and thinking of humans in "Ghost in the Shell", it is also mentioned from time to time in comic stories, what is the difference between humans and subhumans? Are subhumans human? Dead and dead and reborn, is that still the original "me"?
This live-action movie version also put down these topics that require more space to study, and the main force is spent on the other strongest killing in the original - the unique "mind skill shooting" developed by using the special setting of the Asian people! Ordinary subhumans, regardless of the attack or destruction of the body, can also be "reset" after death, such as being shot in the head by a gun, cutting the carotid artery with a knife, or piercing the heart, which is a common reconstruction method used by subhumans.
Further subhuman is that they can release their own unique IBM (like JOJO's stand-in), each IBM in addition to the head is different, the shape and ability are also similar. They can be controlled by their masters from a distance, and sometimes appear and act on their own will.
With these basic conditions, all the battles in the story are almost developed in this way, and after the sub-people are severely damaged by the attack, they decisively cut themselves off or are fatally attacked by other companions to make the body
This kind of refreshing pleasure and mental warfare of thinking, coupled with the powerful storyboarding of Sakurai's painting door, is what attracts me the most to the work.
The film extracts this most important advantage from the original book and reinforces it with the language of the film. Sato and his party did not hesitate to kill people, shooting humans like breathing, pulling the trigger with a smile, the gunfight screen was full of strength, plus quick editing, just like watching the manga storyboard, of which Sato's single entry into the institute and the most outstanding after the crash of the plane, the only disadvantage was that when the limb was broken or reset (probably because the picture could not be too bloody) it was not processed in close up or slow mirror like the manga, only gently brought over, and the texture was slightly insufficient.
In terms of character development, the director and actors are also very careful. Nagai in the original book has a feeling of contempt for the world and other people, and Ken Sato's eyes can also show this feeling of loneliness (but in the original, Nagai is a little evil, and the relationship with his sister is not so simple). The small movements of Sato and Tanaka in the original book are also carefully presented by Tsuyoshi Ayano and Yu Shiroda, such as Sato's sideways shooting and Tanaka's occasional finger scratching his lower lip.
Two or three times in the movie, when Sato starts fighting, the soundtrack also has the sound effect of "Three, Two, One, Go", which has a very video game flavor, echoing his favorite video game, which is actually described in more detail in the manga, and the number of reports when he does not stop Mario stepping on the monster in the movie is also very chilling... In addition, I have to praise the actors' personal action performances, and the most surprising thing to me is Kawaei Rina, who plays Shimomura Izumi, and her two duels with Yu Shiroda are also super good.2
However, there are also dissatisfactions, the first is that the proportion of IBM size is smaller than that of the comic, and it is not as thin as the original, and the current version is almost as tall as the person, and it is full of muscle. In addition, although each IBM color has done a little hand and foot, but because all IBM is dark color, plus in addition to the head, the shape is basically the same, so in the rapid fight will inevitably be unable to see who hits whom, the action is also a little blunt. Overall, though, production I.G's IBM stunts are outstanding, especially the texture of particles as they flow.
Like "Notebook of Death" (not the Netflix version) and "Ranger Sword Heart", excellent adaptations, in addition to extracting the essence of the original book, also need the courage to make drastic changes and reorganizations for the plot. This time the plot extracts several important battles, and then cleverly mixes the plot that originally appeared in another scene, the result is not to destroy the focus of the original work but also to make the film more rhythmic. The final battle of the mansion guards also retains two important scenes, namely Nagai's particle transfer and Sato's body reorganization, but unfortunately the section at the end that goes into the Chamber of Secrets has been deleted ((I like that one!). ）......
Finally, I would like to mention a detail, that is, Tozaki's glasses. In the manga, the left and right brackets of the spectacle frame are specially designed, and there is probably a curved position next to the eyes, which Sakurai Sensei also uses when depicting Tozaki's eyes, especially when it is more obvious on the side. Although Tozaki's glasses in the film version are not so exaggerated, the team also found a similar bracket, and there was also a special look in Tamayama's eyes when shooting, which shows that the director and team also like the details of the original manga.
Will The Super Hope Sea Bucket appear in the sequel? If you like this movie, be sure to check back the manga, because the characters and sub-people are more detailed, and the portrayal of human nature is more in-depth, and Sakurai's "Yaren" is definitely one of the best manga in recent years!