In 3 days of release, the box office of the animated film "Slam Dunk" easily exceeded 300 million yuan, and the box office won the championship.
Nearly 80,000 people on Douban scored a high score of 9.1, which shows the common "true love" of mainland audiences.
According to statistics, as many as 535,200 people watched the early morning premiere in theaters across the country on the 20th, helping it to enter the box office just after 0 o'clock.
It is this first wave of audience evaluations that have supported the reputation of the film, helped it to be a box office hit on weekdays, and is currently moving towards the record of "the first box office of imported animated films".
Some people will say, "Feelings are so good to sell." ”
But Pico wants to say that the movie version of "Slam Dunk" sells not only feelings, but also 27 years of waiting;
It is every post-70s and post-80s uncle who loves this IP, who turned over the comic book in his hand and made his dream come true more than twenty years later.
One
Remember when you first saw the Slam Dunk manga, or saw the Slam Dunk anime on TV?
In the 90s, as NBA officials sent a weekly game highlights to Beijing for free, mainland TV stations began to broadcast NBA games, and almost at the same time, the "Slam Dunk" anime was also familiar to mainland teenagers through different channels.
Among the two major balls, basketball is easier to spread and promote in China than football due to the advantages of small field and strong confrontation, and the basketball-themed "Slam Dunk" naturally quickly became loved by teenagers.
Created by manga artist Yuhiko Inoue, "Slam Dunk" was born in 1990 and was serialized from the 42nd issue of Weekly Shonen JUMP.
Although basketball was relatively niche in Japan at that time, the serialization of "Slam Dunk" carried a wave of basketball fever.
At the same time as the manga was a hit, the TV version of the anime of the same name, produced by Toei Corporation, also began airing on TV Asahi in Japan on October 16, 1993.
The animation also made the IP of "Slam Dunk" quickly become one of the favorite sports anime among Japanese teenagers.
By 1995, Slam Dunk and Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball had become two of the most popular manga on Weekly Shonen Jump, with 34 issues selling a record of 6.53 million copies in a single issue.
To this day, Slam Dunk still ranks sixth in total sales of local Japanese manga, and it has only 31 volumes, making it the shortest of the first six works.
Unlike the "Dragon Ball" series, which has been "endless" until now, "Slam Dunk" knows how to take it when it is good.
Yuhiko Inoue, who regarded independent creation as life, in No. 27 of Weekly Shonen Jump in 1996, resisted great pressure from the publishing house to finish this work at the time of strong sales.
Inoue Yuhiko's operation is understandable, because basketball is very niche in Japan after all, and there were few basketball stars in Japan at that time, unlike football, which was able to play all the way to the World Cup.
The style of "Slam Dunk" is inherently realistic, and Inoue Yuhiko does not want his high school students to "enter the NBA", so he chose to end it in "the most glorious moment".
But the manga can be decided by the author himself, and the anime of the same name is not the author's final say.
In 1996, the TV version of the animation of "Slam Dunk" also came to the "National Competition Chapter", according to the plot of the comic, the protagonist Xiangbei team only won the two teams of Fengyu and Sanwang in the national competition.
Due to the great injury to the vitality of the queen of the mountain, Xiangbei finally lost miserably to Aihe Academy and failed to advance to the next round.
At that time, Toei did not want the "Slam Dunk" anime to end here, because if you only play two games, the animation will be twenty or thirty episodes long, which is far from enough.
Toei hopes that the anime can break away from the plot of the manga, let the Shonobu team go all the way to the finals, and let the Sakuragi five realize their dream of "dominating the whole country".
Inoue Yuhiko was unwilling to compromise, and finally the talks collapsed, and the TV version of "Slam Dunk" ended in episode 101, frozen in the train station where the Shonan North team went to the national competition.
For more than 20 years, fans who like "Slam Dunk" can only read the comics again and again, imagining the two games of Xiangbei VS Fengyu and Xiangbei VS Mountain King in the animation.
Until January 7, 2021, Inoue Yuhiko announced on his social account that the movie version of "Slam Dunk" was put into production, which made the whole network boil.
The film was first released in Japan on December 3, 2022, with a box office result of 13 billion yen, and won the first place in the history of Japanese comics in Japan and South Korea, which also brought the expectations of mainland audiences who could not see the film to the peak.
Therefore, it is not surprising that once "Slam Dunk" was released in the mainland, the box office was so hot.
Because this movie carries not only feelings, but also the realization of animation fans' dreams of "national competition" film.
We've waited too long for this movie, which is why the movie version of "Slam Dunk" is a must-see!
Two
Speaking of this, some netizens may ask:
"Will the picture of 'three shades two' collapse?"
"How much was presented in the match between Xiangbei VS Mountain King? Have all those famous scenes appeared? ”
"With Miyagi as the protagonist, will it be uncomfortable to unfold the story?"
Pico also knows that this is everyone's biggest concern about the movie.
It doesn't matter! Next, Pico will answer for you one by one.
Since the release of the trailer, netizens have known that the movie uses the currently popular "three shades two" technology, which is to render the 3D modeled picture into a 2D painting style.
Compared with the pure 2D style of the previous TV version of animation, the flat lines and grayish coloring of the characters' faces are not easy for old fans familiar with the TV version of animation pictures to accept.
Therefore, old fans once complained, feeling that the picture of the movie "ruined the classics".
But what Pico wants to say is that the original TV version of the anime was originally created by Toei's artists, based on the original manga by Yuhiko Inoue.
Although the painting style is close to the characters written by Yuhiko Inoue, there are still great differences, especially the face is more handsome, but it lacks the rough texture of the original.
Today's movie painting style is closer to the style of Yuhiko Inoue's original work, and the character image has become more tough, just like the characters in the manga have moved.
Therefore, after the opening of the movie, the audience will quickly enter the character and find the feeling when reading the manga, so it is not that the drawing style is not similar to the TV version of the animation.
Let's talk about the "three shaded two" picture.
The production team first found a group of basketball players, captured their dribbling motion through motion capture, captured a large number of shots, edited them, and finally made CG animation pictures.
And these storyboard shots, the last piece of splicing and matching, only to restore the classic pictures of the mountain king battle in the comics.
So we can see the characters in the 2D picture in the movie, who can move as smoothly as the players in the NBA basketball game.
The pictures of passes, steals, three-pointers, and dunks are as real as real actions.
These pictures cannot be seen in the TV version of the animation, and they are also not represented by the TV version of the animation due to technical limitations.
The match of Xiangbei VS Mountain King, placed in all sports comics in the world, is also a unique existence, I believe that old fans have watched it more than once, and it is certain that they will be recited backwards.
So how much of this game is presented in the movie, and have all those "famous scenes" appeared?
Pico can play guaranteed, basically all you want to see.
Famous scene 1:
The opening Miyagi and Sakuragi's aerial relay cooperated, by Miyagi Miaoden, Sakuragi jumped up in the air and then volleyed into the bottle, causing the audience to scream, the movie not only restored the action, but also shot the momentum.
After Akagi and Mitsui's tacit cooperation, the two high-fived on the return.
After experiencing injuries, frustration and decadence, this pair of "old men" who are about to bid farewell to their high school careers and still have dreams about basketball, finally find themselves and share the feeling of sympathy, honor and disgrace.
When the score was 36:60 behind, the "layman" Sakuragi first woke him up with a "grief inexplicable", stepped on the table in the judge's seat, and shouted at the audience: "I will definitely defeat the mountain king!" ”
Then he turned back to his teammates on the field and said, "You can't win now!" ”
This is Sakuragi's fearless manifesto and the cunning beneath his "brainless" appearance.
This scene is also seriously restored in the movie, making people feel the hearty mood when breaking the suppressed emotions.
Famous scene 2:
Although the movie has Miyagi as the central character, Sakuragi, as the protagonist of the original work, plays a huge role in the battle of the mountain king, and he is given enough scenes in the movie.
Later, Sakuragi was accidentally injured in order to grab the ball and fell into the audience, and Coach Anzai had to replace him for fear that his injury would worsen.
But Sakuragi still applied to play after returning his breath, and said the words that touched countless people:
"When was Daddy's glory days? When to play a national competition? I...... I only have now! ”
These are also presented one by one.
Famous scene three:
Of course, the most classic nature is the "last 24 seconds" with zero dialogue and holding your breath.
After Rukawa Kaede scored to make Shonbei 77:76 overtake the score, the captain of the mountain king, Fukatsu, passed the ball to Zebei, who dribbled the ball all the way through the half, and scored directly to change the score to 77:78, leaving only 9.4 seconds left for Xiangbei's attack.
Akagi passed the ball to Kaede Rukawa through the gap in Mikio Kawada's big hand.
Kaede Rukawa squeezed a slit in the human wall built by Masashi Kawada and Zekita, passing the ball to Sakuragi, who was already in position, and Sakuragi completed the lore with the simplest civilian pick.
The two then high-fived in celebration, which I believe old fans remember well, and now we will relive it in the movie!
Just because of the sincerity of restoring the original book one-to-one, and the picture that is close to the real game, the movie version of "Slam Dunk" is worth the ticket price.
The movie can have 9.1 points on Douban, and I believe that old fans are also very satisfied with these pictures full of feelings.
Three
Let's analyze in depth why the "inconspicuous" Miyagi Ryota in the original work replaced Sakuragi Hanamichi as the protagonist of the movie.
I believe that it is not difficult for netizens who have learned the background of the author Yuhiko Inoue to guess.
The 168cm Miyagi Ryota is the same height as Inoue himself, and he is a portrayal of the author himself!
When Inoue Yuhiko began to create "Slam Dunk", he was still assisted by Hojoji, and he originally wanted to use his perfect basketball genius Kaede Rukawa as the protagonist of the manga.
But his teacher, Hojoji, gave him valuable advice:
If you want a manga to be recognized by readers and become a serialized long story that can be drawn forever, you must create a hot-blooded protagonist.
So Inoue eventually created Sakuragi Hanamichi with red hair that represented hot blood, but perseverance, fearlessness, and hard work.
This popular protagonist has been recognized by manga fans.
But the character who is really close to the image, personality, and background of Inoue Yuhiko himself is the inconspicuous Miyagi Ryota in the manga.
Ryota Miyagi in the original work is funny, and when he appears, he is more in cooperation with Sakuragi "performing", and he doesn't explain much about his life and background.
However, Inoue still wrote a side story for Miyagi, "Earrings", in which Miyagi grew up in a single-parent family, his brother died in a shipwreck, and the earrings were given to him by his first love girlfriend Ayako.
In reality, Inoue's parents divorced since he was a child, and he followed his mother to the countryside to live with his grandfather, and the environment in which he lived as a child was very similar to that of Miyagi.
It can be seen that Miyagi is the projection of Inoue Yuhiko himself in the story of "Slam Dunk", and Miyagi's mental journey is also a portrayal of Inoue's own state of mind.
In addition, Inoue Yuhiko has always been a person who pursues self-transcendence, and as early as December 3, 2004, after creating "Ten Days Later" on the 23 classroom blackboards of the abandoned school building of Mitsaki High School in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, the story of "Slam Dunk" in Inoue's heart has been told.
This reboot of the "Slam Dunk" movie, Inoue definitely does not want to repeat himself, limited to directly filming the story in the manga.
Either don't shoot, if you want to shoot, shoot a new story.
Taking Miyagi Ryota as the protagonist and using the story of "Earrings" as a clue to shoot the missing "family drama" in the original work is the new direction Inoue found, and it is also the inspiration and driving force for his creation.
We note that the English name of the movie is "The First Slam Dunk", which literally translates to "The First Slam Dunk".
So, is there "The First" and "The Second", "The Third"...?
I believe that many people are now speculating whether there will be a sequel to the movie, and the family story of the "Five Tigers of Xiangbei" will be filmed again.
Pico said that these are grounded, and some netizens analyzed that Toei insisted on promoting the production of the "Slam Dunk" movie more than a decade ago.
Inoue Yuhiko's condition is that he wants to tell a new story for each of the "five tigers of northern Shonan", and he must start with Miyagi Ryota.
However, Toei did not have a bottom for Yuhiko Inoue to participate in the production of the film as a screenwriter and director.
After all, Inoue is a manga artist and has no previous experience directing movies, so it was too risky to give him the whole project.
After weighing the pros and cons, Toei finally gave the condition that he could do what Inoue wanted, but to join the battle of Shonobei VS Sanwang.
If the sources of netizens are accurate, then the box office explosion of the "Slam Dunk" movie is bound to push the project to continue.
We also have reason to look forward to "Akagi Den", "Mitsui Den", "Rukawa Den", "Sakuragi Den", and even see "Shonhoku VS Toyotama", "Autumn no Koku Body", "Winter Tryout"!
Four
Finally, let's go back to the movie itself and talk about whether the movie itself is "flawless."
As Yuhiko Inoue's film debut, there are still some regrets in the movie version of "Slam Dunk".
The transition and articulation between the scenes of "Miyagi Memories" and "Mountain King War" are slightly rusty, and the rhythm is not very good.
Due to the consideration of length control, in order to tell the story of Miyagi well, the game process of "Mountain King War" was still subtracted.
In the first half, Sakuragi and Mikio Kawada were in pairs, Jun Usumi encouraged Akagi, and Sakuragi said to Haruko: "I like it very much!" This time is not a lie! ”。
These important plots have been deleted, and it is inevitable to leave regrets.
In particular, the original heroine Haruko has been reduced to a soy sauce character who has almost no lines, which is really difficult for old fans who like her to accept.
This has also become the biggest regret of this movie version of "Slam Dunk".
But considering that we have waited for 27 years and finally seen the visualization of "Xiangbei VS Mountain King", these deficiencies seem insignificant.
Text/Pippi Film Editorial Department: Blood Dan Xin
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