I'm familiar with Gintama(AKA Silver Light) the manga. I read about maybe one or two chapters of volume one before I lost interest and tossed it away. The manga must have been somewhat popular in Japan if an anime was made followed by a live action film. A cast of Oguri Shun, Suda Masaki, Okada Masaki, and Yoshizawa Ryo was enough for my ears to become perked up by the mention of this film(What the hell am I, A damn cat!?). Fukuda Yuichi directed the film since he was the original creator of the manga while Sorachi Hideaki wrote the script for the film. Many Japanese new outlets called the film the next biggest success in live action movie history since Attack on Titan as the film had record breaking numbers during it's first week release in Japan. Chinese audiences also took very well to the film during it's release in China.
A man known as the world's dumbest samurai carries around a sword in a world that is ruled by aliens that banned all use of swords. In this world, he and his friends take on odd jobs assigned to them by the city folk. Two jobs soon come their way that turns their easy going lives upside down.
This whole film is similar to a spoof of another actual film. Spoof is a term that is used to define a work that is based off another work but makes fun of that work. If you didn't know that this film was a comedy, Gintama reminds you in the opening of the film before you can go any farther. It's really one of the wackiest films to come out of Japan in 2017. I don't remember how funny the manga was(it's been awhile since I picked up the manga.) but the film plays a fine line between being hilarious and being a samurai action epic. There's many times when you can't take the seriousness of certain events seriously because the film loves to make all the characters fall flat on their faces so much. The plot does try it's hand at different dramatics then does find a stable ground to function these two genres together. This was really thanks to the flashy action sequences that get viewers sitting up in their seat to pay more attention to what's going on. Then there's the key components of a solid background story for the characters and the world that they inhabit. I found myself wanting to learn more about the world inside the story of Gintama only because the plot sets up the story in a parallel world that's feudal day Japan who uses modern day technology surprisingly. The comedy presented in the film is actually funny for those who get the jokes too. The film's script uses a lot of references to other manga. Even having the characters mention that they knew that they were in a live action adaptation of a manga[INSERT ME LAUGHING]. Everything felt tied in together tight by the time the film got to it's conclusion. The action coexists with the laughing evenly for a high energy film that doesn't show signs of slowing down. I caught that shade that was thrown at Attack on Titan's live action adaption toward the beginning of this film…. They tried it and I caught it. I don't miss the art of throwing shade baby!
I wasn't completely familiar with the character Gintoki and even I knew that Shun was meant to play this role. His actions, mannerisms, all of his being just felt right for the role. He's pretty much the reason I decided to watch this film. The goofy activities of Gintoki's daily life was refreshing to watch. He's a very untraditional character that's seen by others in negative and positive lights. Shun's smile while he was in character gets me laughing every time I see it. Suda Masaki had to have woke up in character because this guy can play comedic characters in his sleep. I've seen him play jokesters so much in other productions that I wasn't too excited to see him here once I found out the film was kind of a comedy. Must be hard acting with a big white dog that you can't see until the film was finished though. The rest of the cast do their part in making this film be received well too. I was happy to see that the director gave so many up and coming actors and actresses chances to be apart of this film. It was nice to see Nanao and Yoshizawa Ryo get parts that gave them more screen time unlike their other roles. Okada Masaki was just in the film Nanimono(Somebody) before getting a role in this film which is a somewhat bigger role so I was happy for him too. All the characters had wacky qualities except for maybe one of two of them. They all need to find some clown suits and join the damn circus.
Filming on location was different sets made by the crew. Can someone tell me why the special effects when a person would hit another person then they would fly back, looked like the Kamehameha move that Goku did from Dragon Ball Z? That was the funnest thing ever to me. Every time I saw that effect, I wanted to scream, KAMEHAMEHA!!!!! The fighting sequences were produced well for the most part. Some of the costumes for the aliens did look sort of cheap…… That lion head costume wasn't cutting it man……
Gintama was a hot mess of a film….. in a good way. This film turned disfunction into satisfaction with it's funny flare and action packed storyline. While I don't think this film is a masterpiece, I do believe that it's charm lies in the qualities that would normally make you not like a film. I'll be waiting for a part 2 to come out sometime this year.
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| UNTIL NEXT TIME FOLKS! |
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