![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
After spending the last 1.5 hours googling, I've ended up using this picture that I dug up from a post back in 2009...
砂糖的側臉跟小龜還是那微妙的百分之七十相似度，剩下的百分之十像愛拔醬、另百分之十像木村大神、最後的百分之十結合了東亞Ｎ名偶像……
佐藤健 --> Satou Takeru --> 佐藤 ＝ 砂糖 (same pronunciation in Japanese)
I first knew Takeru from Bloody Monday (a decent thriller about terrorism and electronic espionage by the way, in the way that only the Japanese can do it) as Miura Haruma's plain but loyal friend. He had some forgettable roles in shoujo adaptations including Mei-chan no Shitsuji (a terrible drama even though it had three of the hottest male Japanese actors of the time) and the pathetic Q ten or whatever its name was. The next most memorable role was as the young pianist prodigy in Mr Brain, who was framed for murder because he was conveniently afflicted by anterograde amnesia. Not much acting was involved. He just had to sit in front of the piano in a blood-drenched white shirt and stare blankly ahead as orchestral music plucked at your heart strings.
Before I get started, let me say that I do like Takeru. As much as I enjoy Japanese dramas, I'd be the first to admit that good actors are hard to come by in J-dora, and Takeru isn't one of them. The verdict, without trying to be kind, would be that he's decent and unoffensive, in that he's never completely ruined a character for me.
Now, let's backtrack a bit to the part where I said good actors are hard to come by. The actors and actresses that lead the Rurouni Kenshin movies are all well-known people, sitting somewhere between A and B-list. Takeru himself aside, Takei Emi (Kaoru) and Aoi Yuu (Takani Megumi) are both amongst the most popular actresses of their generation. Eguchi Yusuke (Saitou Hajime), Fujiwara Tatsuya (Shishio), Kamiki Ryuunosuke (Seta Soujirou), Ayano Gou and Fukuyama Masaharu are all various degrees of famous to really famous. But apart from the heavy weights like Fukuyama and Eguchi, not many of them are...well, excellent actors. Except maybe Kamiki. I have a soft spot for Kamiki's acting but I keep getting distracted by his girly face...
After that long-winded introduction, what I mean to say is that this is a very well-scripted and well-directed movie, with good casting choices for actors who are tonally correct for the characters, and some decently choreographed action and raw stunts.
The Japanese entertainment industry is no stranger to adapting manga, just as Hollywood is now no stranger to adapting superhero comics or teenage novels. The experience is what gives Japan surprisingly watchable adaptations like Gantz and MW (examples chosen not because they're good, but because the source material is difficult/controversial to begin with).
Rurouni Kenshin the manga is given to contrivances and cliches, but boiled down to its essence it's a beautiful tragedy. A child recruited into fighting the unseen side of a civil war - for five years in his teens, Kenshin assassinated his own countrymen in the hopes that it would create peace. As much as I don't like Tomoe, she's an indelible part of Kenshin's existence and conviction. Just as the scars signify, he had destroyed his chance at happiness when he took up that sword as Hitokiri Battousai. He lived in a war, and the only person to walk into his heart had done so out of vengeance - and though she came to reciprocate his love, she died at his hands and as a direct consequence of what "Battousai" means.
To leave that out of the movie did injustice to Tomoe and Kenshin. Satou Takeru is a great deal younger than Kenshin (Kenshin was 28-29 when he first appeared, Satou was 23), and his Kenshin also feels younger, less convinced, and less wise - though I don't think Satou is to blame for it. Satou carries the scenes remarkably well - suitably withdrawn in the ruminative scenes, convincingly fierce in the explosive scenes. The only thing missing is Kenshin's characteristic pretence at being clumsy and dumb. It's probably the part I liked most about manga Kenshin, that he had matured into a man after 10 years of wandering, and he had made enough peace with himself that he can smile and laugh and play like an idiot.
The other part that doesn't gel is his interaction with Kaoru. To start with and for better or worse, Takei's Kaoru is completely unrecognisable from who she is in the manga. It feels like movie Kenshin needed Kaoru's reassurance that his path is correct, which shouldn't be the case. Movie Kaoru doesn't have the original's incredible strength and courage. What she gave Kenshin was innocence - which is an entirely different thing altogether.
To move on to what the movie did do well, though, there was plenty. It took the best from several manga arcs (or rather, several mini-arcs in the Tokyo arc) and condensed it to a lean, entertaining story. It trimmed down excess characters and storylines, and the fighting was less linear and more believable. None of that typical shounen one-on-one fight with long commentary and each chapter ending with a new scary technique that is swiftly defused in the next chapter...finally resulting in a one-hit K.O. after 5 chapters of wasting time. Which, in real world terms, means that you've gone through one fight of a 10-fight boss arc after FIVE WEEKS of waiting for Shounen Jump to publish. Kenshin's winning techniques in the movie are bland but I would rather bland than silly CG effects with glowing lights, which apparently is what Asian martial arts is all about these days *eye roll*.
I liked that it removed some of the character involved. As much as I liked Aoshi, I felt his part was fulfilled equally well by Saitou Hajime. I was especially glad that they forced Yahiko to stay with Kaoru, because I've always been annoyed by having that kid go around with Kenshin on dangerous rescue missions where he just gets in the way. I liked that it was a reflective film, that fighting and suspense wasn't the dominating part of it although there was enough to bring up the pace.
The best way to enjoy this movie is as a standalone - not that you can't appreciate it as a fan of Rurouni Kenshin, but rather that it's a well-written adaptation, not a faithful translation across media. It's tonally very different, but equally poignant in what it says about those who are left to live in the aftermath of war - in particular a war where culture and traditions and values have been torn down. There's good reason why the Meiji era features so prominently in Japanese pop culture, because what happened then defined Japan now, but there's a great sense of sadness for the young men (and occasionally women) who killed each other because they were on opposite sides of a cultural war - who all wanted the same thing, and that was for Japan to be the greatest nation it could be.
And personally, I like Satou's contemplative Kenshin a lot better than the socially bipolar Kenshin of the manga.
砂糖的側臉跟小龜還是那微妙的百分之七十相似度，剩下的百分之十像愛拔醬、另百分之十像木村大神、最後的百分之十結合了東亞Ｎ名偶像……
佐藤健 --> Satou Takeru --> 佐藤 ＝ 砂糖 (same pronunciation in Japanese)
I first knew Takeru from Bloody Monday (a decent thriller about terrorism and electronic espionage by the way, in the way that only the Japanese can do it) as Miura Haruma's plain but loyal friend. He had some forgettable roles in shoujo adaptations including Mei-chan no Shitsuji (a terrible drama even though it had three of the hottest male Japanese actors of the time) and the pathetic Q ten or whatever its name was. The next most memorable role was as the young pianist prodigy in Mr Brain, who was framed for murder because he was conveniently afflicted by anterograde amnesia. Not much acting was involved. He just had to sit in front of the piano in a blood-drenched white shirt and stare blankly ahead as orchestral music plucked at your heart strings.
Before I get started, let me say that I do like Takeru. As much as I enjoy Japanese dramas, I'd be the first to admit that good actors are hard to come by in J-dora, and Takeru isn't one of them. The verdict, without trying to be kind, would be that he's decent and unoffensive, in that he's never completely ruined a character for me.
Now, let's backtrack a bit to the part where I said good actors are hard to come by. The actors and actresses that lead the Rurouni Kenshin movies are all well-known people, sitting somewhere between A and B-list. Takeru himself aside, Takei Emi (Kaoru) and Aoi Yuu (Takani Megumi) are both amongst the most popular actresses of their generation. Eguchi Yusuke (Saitou Hajime), Fujiwara Tatsuya (Shishio), Kamiki Ryuunosuke (Seta Soujirou), Ayano Gou and Fukuyama Masaharu are all various degrees of famous to really famous. But apart from the heavy weights like Fukuyama and Eguchi, not many of them are...well, excellent actors. Except maybe Kamiki. I have a soft spot for Kamiki's acting but I keep getting distracted by his girly face...
After that long-winded introduction, what I mean to say is that this is a very well-scripted and well-directed movie, with good casting choices for actors who are tonally correct for the characters, and some decently choreographed action and raw stunts.
The Japanese entertainment industry is no stranger to adapting manga, just as Hollywood is now no stranger to adapting superhero comics or teenage novels. The experience is what gives Japan surprisingly watchable adaptations like Gantz and MW (examples chosen not because they're good, but because the source material is difficult/controversial to begin with).
Rurouni Kenshin the manga is given to contrivances and cliches, but boiled down to its essence it's a beautiful tragedy. A child recruited into fighting the unseen side of a civil war - for five years in his teens, Kenshin assassinated his own countrymen in the hopes that it would create peace. As much as I don't like Tomoe, she's an indelible part of Kenshin's existence and conviction. Just as the scars signify, he had destroyed his chance at happiness when he took up that sword as Hitokiri Battousai. He lived in a war, and the only person to walk into his heart had done so out of vengeance - and though she came to reciprocate his love, she died at his hands and as a direct consequence of what "Battousai" means.
To leave that out of the movie did injustice to Tomoe and Kenshin. Satou Takeru is a great deal younger than Kenshin (Kenshin was 28-29 when he first appeared, Satou was 23), and his Kenshin also feels younger, less convinced, and less wise - though I don't think Satou is to blame for it. Satou carries the scenes remarkably well - suitably withdrawn in the ruminative scenes, convincingly fierce in the explosive scenes. The only thing missing is Kenshin's characteristic pretence at being clumsy and dumb. It's probably the part I liked most about manga Kenshin, that he had matured into a man after 10 years of wandering, and he had made enough peace with himself that he can smile and laugh and play like an idiot.
The other part that doesn't gel is his interaction with Kaoru. To start with and for better or worse, Takei's Kaoru is completely unrecognisable from who she is in the manga. It feels like movie Kenshin needed Kaoru's reassurance that his path is correct, which shouldn't be the case. Movie Kaoru doesn't have the original's incredible strength and courage. What she gave Kenshin was innocence - which is an entirely different thing altogether.
To move on to what the movie did do well, though, there was plenty. It took the best from several manga arcs (or rather, several mini-arcs in the Tokyo arc) and condensed it to a lean, entertaining story. It trimmed down excess characters and storylines, and the fighting was less linear and more believable. None of that typical shounen one-on-one fight with long commentary and each chapter ending with a new scary technique that is swiftly defused in the next chapter...finally resulting in a one-hit K.O. after 5 chapters of wasting time. Which, in real world terms, means that you've gone through one fight of a 10-fight boss arc after FIVE WEEKS of waiting for Shounen Jump to publish. Kenshin's winning techniques in the movie are bland but I would rather bland than silly CG effects with glowing lights, which apparently is what Asian martial arts is all about these days *eye roll*.
I liked that it removed some of the character involved. As much as I liked Aoshi, I felt his part was fulfilled equally well by Saitou Hajime. I was especially glad that they forced Yahiko to stay with Kaoru, because I've always been annoyed by having that kid go around with Kenshin on dangerous rescue missions where he just gets in the way. I liked that it was a reflective film, that fighting and suspense wasn't the dominating part of it although there was enough to bring up the pace.
The best way to enjoy this movie is as a standalone - not that you can't appreciate it as a fan of Rurouni Kenshin, but rather that it's a well-written adaptation, not a faithful translation across media. It's tonally very different, but equally poignant in what it says about those who are left to live in the aftermath of war - in particular a war where culture and traditions and values have been torn down. There's good reason why the Meiji era features so prominently in Japanese pop culture, because what happened then defined Japan now, but there's a great sense of sadness for the young men (and occasionally women) who killed each other because they were on opposite sides of a cultural war - who all wanted the same thing, and that was for Japan to be the greatest nation it could be.
And personally, I like Satou's contemplative Kenshin a lot better than the socially bipolar Kenshin of the manga.
