"What did you say about my hair?"
In terms of live actions, you could do worse than Miike Takashi's 2017 remake of this popular manga/anime season. The special effects are quite decent, the costumes don't look too low-budget, the storyline is, for the most part, faithful to its source material, and it may be worth watching just for the ensemble cast alone. But despite some interesting alterations by Miike- the decision to film in an old Spanish town, of all places, and the portrayal of Stands as cybernetic ghosts- this film is just dull. Unless a director is shooting for a 'so bad it's good' type of comedy, it seems difficult to make a genuinely good live-action out of a source material that isn't grounded in reality- JJBA being a key example. Miike didn't capture the playful and dare I say 'bizarre' nature of the source material, opting instead for a hardboiled action movie with fantasy elements. As a result, the costumes and dialogues are, for want of a better word, cringe despite the best efforts of the notable cast. Theres simply no way that the lanky Yamazaki could have portrayed an ultra-buff 16 year old half-Japanese teen, and despite his short stature the 20-something Kamiki was about 20 centimetres too tall and 8 years too old to play Koichi. The film also drags and stagnates during key moments, which just seems counterintuitive to the energetic, fast-paced source material. With the film's lack of financial success, there won't be a second part. Which is a shame because I would've liked to see Yoshikage Kira and Shigechi in LA form.Was this review helpful to you?
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Not for Non-JoJo fans
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable is the 4th manga in the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series. It ran from 1992-95 while the anime adaptation was in 2016. I mention this for a few reasons. One: I don't remember very many details so what was omitted or added, is lost to me. Two, while the JoJo's have their own stories, there is a running theme, which is not explained in each installment. Therefore, those that know nothing about the world of JoJo, will lack a fundamental understanding of what's going on. Truly, I don't understand why they chose Diamond Is Unbreakable to adapt as opposed to one of the previous manga installments.Ok on to this movie! In an exclamation... eh!
It was dull. Not the content, the film quality which is the exact opposite of the JoJo world. I have been complaining about the dullness color of Japanese film for decades. There's no reason for it. I don't know why they film through colored lenses that make their movies almost sepia toned. Their movies look cheap. There are few films that works well with this poorly accepted technique. Movies from 30 years ago have better film quality than J movies today. Only a select few producers and/or directors are afforded the budget or maybe just the ok to actually have color. Miike is usually one. So I'm surprised that JoJo is dull, especially since the anime and manga colors are so bright. What I find perplexing is that J dramas don't have this trapping. It's very weird. They probably should've adapted JoJo as a tv series as they did Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan, a spinoff of Diamond is Unbreakable.
Even the costumes were lacking. Josuke's school uniform should have had a hint of blue or purple. I did appreciate that the Josuke wig had purple/blue tones to it. Koichi's hair should have been grey or blonde (I honestly don't remember).
Usually, I talk about music at the end with 1 or 2 lines, but the music in the move was unbelievably disappointing. One thing that the animes have is killer music. If they couldn't use the one of the themes from the anime, Miike should've used energetic music throughout. And why for God's sake did they film the one JoJo that was set in Japan, in a European city? Of all the anime adaptations they screw up and don't film in a Euro looking town (or the desert), they take one set in Japan to Europe. WTF?!? Might as well had filmed the 5th JoJo who is Italian. To sum up the production, disappointing. Disappointing for Takeshi Miike. Par for the course for any other director.
What was good?
From what I can remember the adaptation of the story was good. There was no mistaking Jotaro (the previous and most popular JoJo) or Josuke. I was shocked to see Iseya as Jotaro, but he's one of Miike's go to actors and probably the only one that speaks English with virtually no accent. Yamazaki Kento is a cutey and was a great Josuke. He believably played an unbelievable character. While Koichi didn't look like Koichi, Kamiki Ryunosuke played him perfectly. He was definitely Koichi. Same with Mackenyu's Okuyasu. He was a perfectly dumb guy with a good heart. I would love to see the end of the story with this trio's friendship. Plus, they're damn easy on the eyes. Of course the vets like Kunimara Jun and Iseya were great as were the rest of the cast. The special effects were pretty good, too. I like the depiction of the Stands, especially Star Platinum.
Re-watch is at a 0. I rarely re-watch anything, but never say never. By Hollywood standards, the movie bombed, but in actuality in japan it didn't. It's grossed over 920 million yen (roughly $620,000), which is common for most shounen adaptations (Ruroni Kenshin being a large exception). If they do a part 2 (please pick up the pacing), I may skim to remember what was covered in part 1, which, if I'm being honest, wasn't much.
So, would I recommend this? Nah. I definitely wouldn't recommend this to anyone who doesn't have a foundation or at least some knowledge of the story. The script sticks to the manga/anime in that it does not explain what you should already know from previous installments or seasons. If you're a diehard JoJo-ster like myself, you don't care if I recommend this or not, you know you're gonna watch it. Everyone in between? Eh! Go watch the anime.
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