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rhymeSo I've just gotten back from seeing Gantz. I was kind of annoyed, because I had intended to arrive early, but I only ended up being about 20 minutes before the start. (Luckily, I still ended up with a decent seat because I went alone.) I missed most of the pre-show, but the trailers reminded me that I need to sit down and actually watch the taste of tea.
Actually, funny story: I happened to mention to my aunt that I was going to a Japanese movie tonight. I told her that it was an action movie, and that one of the leads was in a boy band.
"Is it a five-person band?" she asked me.
It turns out that my cousin's wife also likes Arashi. (We called my cousin to see if they could make it, but it was very short notice and they already had plans. But the fact that my aunt made the connection- she knew Arashi by name- was pretty impressive. It was because of this year's Red and White, and they usually don't even watch it.)
I haven't read Gantz in ages, but they seemed to do a fairly good job of adapting it to a movie. Several major plot elements were changed- but considering time limitations, they were changes that tended to make sense. I was kind of disappointed that they cut out the dog, but considering budget and logistical restrictions, it was a good move- especially if those suits cost $5k apiece.
(And I got my dose of OH LOOK, PUPPIES AND KITTENS IN GANTZ SUITS from tensai shimura doubutsuen, which featured PUPPIES and KITTENS in GANTZ SUITS and also very large and very small baby bunnies. My only complaint with that segment was that I thought there ought to have been less Nino playing with dogs and more Nino playing with kittens but 1) they were at some sort of puppy land and 2) I am obviously biased.)
The Onion kid was kind of creepy. (In a cute sort of way. I still feel sorry for it.) The tanaka alien design was kind of beautiful. (Probably my favorite alien. Seriously. Even with it's stupid 80's radio cassette player.)
Also, having been inside dimly lit museum rooms with lots of buddhist statues, I can personally attest to the fact that it is creepy. (Although not as creepy as the statues in the Asian/Pacific islander rooms that got even less traces of outside light. My Hobby: going to the Art Academy on weekdays and wandering around setting off all of the motion detectors.)
The dub was hilarious. Maybe they decided that no matter what they did, people weren't going to like it, so they might as well take the comedy option? The timing was off and the acting was horrible- kind of like the old Godzilla movies, though What's Up Tiger Lily? was what immediately came to mind.
That is to say it went straight through bad and right into kind of inspired.
Oh, and while they translated it as "Tama" (probably for brevity,) the location of the first mission clearly read "Ichinomiya." Adorable. ♥
Near the end, I was kind of questioning the movie logic, though. But we all know that questioning action movie logic is kind of a losing battle.
As for the interviews: if you consider the length of the plane ride, even if they managed to sleep, it was a very long day!
They went very well, in spite of the fact that a few of the questions were kind of stupid. I thought the MC was a little lame at first, but he wasn't terrible and he did have his moments. It was kind of clear that he wasn't used to MCing and he kind of came across as smarmy at times.
(Someone- on the staff, mind, as it was not a viewer submitted question- decided to ask them what they thought of their Oscar chances. It was a terrible waste of time- Matsuyama and Nino had to politely say a lot of nothing while everyone knew that their chances can best be described as slim to none.
Although Matsuyama said something about raising awareness of Japanese movies set in the present day. They didn't mention it, but a Japanese film won best Foreign Language last year and it was excellent. Seriously, people, you want to watch Departures.)
The translation of the interview was pretty good- Nino was funny and his translator (I mentally dubbed him "blond guy") preserved the humor well. They were both clearly amused, which was nice. The two of them seemed to get along well.
Matsuyama went on at length for everything- it was actually sort of adorable. His translator kind of looked like a Buddhist monk...well, he was kind of young, so maybe an acolyte. Except he also happened to be about a head taller than Matsuyama and wearing as suit.
It was fun to watch him fidget. (Matsuyama went on at length about everything. Without giving the translator a chance to let the audience know what was going on- and that's a lot of speech to memorize on the fly.)
All in all, it was a decent evening, even if I have an early shift tomorrow.
Actually, funny story: I happened to mention to my aunt that I was going to a Japanese movie tonight. I told her that it was an action movie, and that one of the leads was in a boy band.
"Is it a five-person band?" she asked me.
It turns out that my cousin's wife also likes Arashi. (We called my cousin to see if they could make it, but it was very short notice and they already had plans. But the fact that my aunt made the connection- she knew Arashi by name- was pretty impressive. It was because of this year's Red and White, and they usually don't even watch it.)
I haven't read Gantz in ages, but they seemed to do a fairly good job of adapting it to a movie. Several major plot elements were changed- but considering time limitations, they were changes that tended to make sense. I was kind of disappointed that they cut out the dog, but considering budget and logistical restrictions, it was a good move- especially if those suits cost $5k apiece.
(And I got my dose of OH LOOK, PUPPIES AND KITTENS IN GANTZ SUITS from tensai shimura doubutsuen, which featured PUPPIES and KITTENS in GANTZ SUITS and also very large and very small baby bunnies. My only complaint with that segment was that I thought there ought to have been less Nino playing with dogs and more Nino playing with kittens but 1) they were at some sort of puppy land and 2) I am obviously biased.)
The Onion kid was kind of creepy. (In a cute sort of way. I still feel sorry for it.) The tanaka alien design was kind of beautiful. (Probably my favorite alien. Seriously. Even with it's stupid 80's radio cassette player.)
Also, having been inside dimly lit museum rooms with lots of buddhist statues, I can personally attest to the fact that it is creepy. (Although not as creepy as the statues in the Asian/Pacific islander rooms that got even less traces of outside light. My Hobby: going to the Art Academy on weekdays and wandering around setting off all of the motion detectors.)
The dub was hilarious. Maybe they decided that no matter what they did, people weren't going to like it, so they might as well take the comedy option? The timing was off and the acting was horrible- kind of like the old Godzilla movies, though What's Up Tiger Lily? was what immediately came to mind.
That is to say it went straight through bad and right into kind of inspired.
Oh, and while they translated it as "Tama" (probably for brevity,) the location of the first mission clearly read "Ichinomiya." Adorable. ♥
Near the end, I was kind of questioning the movie logic, though. But we all know that questioning action movie logic is kind of a losing battle.
As for the interviews: if you consider the length of the plane ride, even if they managed to sleep, it was a very long day!
They went very well, in spite of the fact that a few of the questions were kind of stupid. I thought the MC was a little lame at first, but he wasn't terrible and he did have his moments. It was kind of clear that he wasn't used to MCing and he kind of came across as smarmy at times.
(Someone- on the staff, mind, as it was not a viewer submitted question- decided to ask them what they thought of their Oscar chances. It was a terrible waste of time- Matsuyama and Nino had to politely say a lot of nothing while everyone knew that their chances can best be described as slim to none.
Although Matsuyama said something about raising awareness of Japanese movies set in the present day. They didn't mention it, but a Japanese film won best Foreign Language last year and it was excellent. Seriously, people, you want to watch Departures.)
The translation of the interview was pretty good- Nino was funny and his translator (I mentally dubbed him "blond guy") preserved the humor well. They were both clearly amused, which was nice. The two of them seemed to get along well.
Matsuyama went on at length for everything- it was actually sort of adorable. His translator kind of looked like a Buddhist monk...well, he was kind of young, so maybe an acolyte. Except he also happened to be about a head taller than Matsuyama and wearing as suit.
It was fun to watch him fidget. (Matsuyama went on at length about everything. Without giving the translator a chance to let the audience know what was going on- and that's a lot of speech to memorize on the fly.)
All in all, it was a decent evening, even if I have an early shift tomorrow.
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Date: 2011-01-21 01:39 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-21 09:34 pm (UTC)Although the 'SO WHAT WAS NATSUNO LIKE 8D" bit was completely awesome. Mostly because they were running out of time and Kenichi had just told that lovely anecdote about how the naked scene was HER FIRST DAY OF FILMING ON HER FIRST FILM and then he goes into this bit about how unlike most Japanese girls, her body is actually very nicely balanced- you can totally tell when she was wearing her gantz suit. And you could totally tell that they wouldn't get a chance to get through all of that. ♥