Sato Shinsuke's highly anticipated big-budget, live-action adaptation of Oku Hiroya's hugely popular Japanese comic/manga series "Gantz" is an engaging, glossy and outstanding high-octane, popcorn action movie with imaginative and stellar visual effects. While fanboys will appreciate Sato's faithful interpretation of the manga, Toho does a great disservice by only releasing a disappointingly dubbed version outside of Japan. The dry, disengaging and monotone voice acting dampens an otherwise terrific movie experience.
As mentioned "Gantz" is a currently on-going comic series in the weekly publication "Young Jump" by talented artist/writer Oku Hiroya. Oku's story takes elements from a variety of sources including the seminal Japanese "jidaigeki" drama "Hissatsu Shigotonin" (AKA Sure Death), movies such as "Men In Black" and "Alien" and Takami Koshun's landmark novel "Battle Royale" among others to give us perhaps one of the most interesting sci-fi stories to come out in a while.
"Gantz" begins with the tragic deaths of childhood friends Kurono Kei (played by JPop boyband "Arashi" member Ninomiya Kazunari)and Kato Masaru (played by "Death Notes" star Matsuyama Kenichi) who die trying to save a passenger who had fallen onto some subway rail tracks.
Although they get hit by an express subway train, they find themselves miraculously alive in a mysterious Tokyo apartment room amidst other strangers who had befallen similar tragic and accidental deaths. In the center of the room is a gigantic metallic sphere with a digital screen display and various compartments which house an assortment of advanced and hi-tech weaponry.
Among the other "contestants" in the room include the mysterious and sadistic High School senior Nishi Joichiro (played by Prince of Tennis/Nana 2's Hongo Kanata), the buxom and pixie-haired Kishimoto Kei (portrayed by the gorgeous Natsuna) who had committed suicide after breaking up with her cheating boyfriend, and recently laid-off "salary man/office worker" Suzuki Yoshikazu (portrayed by Tetsuro and Kamen Rider The Next star Taguchi 'Tomorrow').
The metallic sphere (who calls itself Gantz) informs the assembled contestants that they need to hunt down various alien invaders (disguised either as humans or other objects) in order to earn points. Once 100 points are accumulated and won by any individual contestant, they may choose to either (1) erase their memory and return to normal life or (2) resurrect any of the other contestants who had previously died in a "mission".
Thus begins the epic adventure of these individuals as they play the game to win their freedom and to resurrect their fallen comrades in arms.
Oku's fascinating world of Gantz is recreated in loving detail by Sato's amazing direction and vision. It helps that Screenwriter Watanabe Yûsuke does an admirable job of condensing and streamlining Oku's original multi-volume story to give us a good introduction and look at the primary characters that are involved. While there are some sub-plots that don't quite work, for instance the budding relationship between Kurono and his college classmate, manga Otaku Kojima Tae (played by cute Yoshitaka Yuriko) I thought it was a bit much and didn't really add to the character development (although in the manga it is better done). "Gantz's" strength however is definitely in the superb visual effects which are eye-catching and nicely done. In particular, the various weapons used by the contestants (the Gantz powersuits, X-Guns etc.) look amazing and the alien effects are spectacular.
It's hard to really critique the original character acting as the English dubbing actors really sour the performances. I'm not sure if there was a general disinterest in the material or perhaps not a clear understanding of the story but one can tell just from the monotone and often lethargic voice-overs that the actors were probably just reading lines.
As good as "Gantz" was, ultimately it was merely a big tease for the sequel which is scheduled for later in the year. As with the recent trilogy "21st Century Boys" or even the final chapter of "Harry Potter", "Gantz" felt like an elaborate setup for the next film which promises to be even better than this film.
I wish some of the other elements of the manga could be brought into the movie as in the manga we get quite a spectrum of interesting alien "hordes" that get hunted (some of the aliens disguise themselves as various mythological entities and deities). It does get touched upon somewhat in this film (particularly at the end).
While wishful thinking, I hope that Hollywood does not remake this film as Sato has delivered a perfectly good movie that could probably do well abroad in a subtitled version. Yet, knowing the arrogance of Hollywood producers it's probably only a matter of time before an eventual "American" version comes out. Let's just hope they at least they give due credit to Oku for delivering one of the most exciting sci-fi comics in a long while and to Sato for capturing that excitement in this film. Let's also hope that Toho does not dub the 2nd film as I believe "Gantz" and the performances of its principal cast (Ninomiya, Matsuyama, Natsuna, Hongo) deserve better treatment.
As mentioned "Gantz" is a currently on-going comic series in the weekly publication "Young Jump" by talented artist/writer Oku Hiroya. Oku's story takes elements from a variety of sources including the seminal Japanese "jidaigeki" drama "Hissatsu Shigotonin" (AKA Sure Death), movies such as "Men In Black" and "Alien" and Takami Koshun's landmark novel "Battle Royale" among others to give us perhaps one of the most interesting sci-fi stories to come out in a while.
"Gantz" begins with the tragic deaths of childhood friends Kurono Kei (played by JPop boyband "Arashi" member Ninomiya Kazunari)and Kato Masaru (played by "Death Notes" star Matsuyama Kenichi) who die trying to save a passenger who had fallen onto some subway rail tracks.
Although they get hit by an express subway train, they find themselves miraculously alive in a mysterious Tokyo apartment room amidst other strangers who had befallen similar tragic and accidental deaths. In the center of the room is a gigantic metallic sphere with a digital screen display and various compartments which house an assortment of advanced and hi-tech weaponry.
Among the other "contestants" in the room include the mysterious and sadistic High School senior Nishi Joichiro (played by Prince of Tennis/Nana 2's Hongo Kanata), the buxom and pixie-haired Kishimoto Kei (portrayed by the gorgeous Natsuna) who had committed suicide after breaking up with her cheating boyfriend, and recently laid-off "salary man/office worker" Suzuki Yoshikazu (portrayed by Tetsuro and Kamen Rider The Next star Taguchi 'Tomorrow').
The metallic sphere (who calls itself Gantz) informs the assembled contestants that they need to hunt down various alien invaders (disguised either as humans or other objects) in order to earn points. Once 100 points are accumulated and won by any individual contestant, they may choose to either (1) erase their memory and return to normal life or (2) resurrect any of the other contestants who had previously died in a "mission".
Thus begins the epic adventure of these individuals as they play the game to win their freedom and to resurrect their fallen comrades in arms.
Oku's fascinating world of Gantz is recreated in loving detail by Sato's amazing direction and vision. It helps that Screenwriter Watanabe Yûsuke does an admirable job of condensing and streamlining Oku's original multi-volume story to give us a good introduction and look at the primary characters that are involved. While there are some sub-plots that don't quite work, for instance the budding relationship between Kurono and his college classmate, manga Otaku Kojima Tae (played by cute Yoshitaka Yuriko) I thought it was a bit much and didn't really add to the character development (although in the manga it is better done). "Gantz's" strength however is definitely in the superb visual effects which are eye-catching and nicely done. In particular, the various weapons used by the contestants (the Gantz powersuits, X-Guns etc.) look amazing and the alien effects are spectacular.
It's hard to really critique the original character acting as the English dubbing actors really sour the performances. I'm not sure if there was a general disinterest in the material or perhaps not a clear understanding of the story but one can tell just from the monotone and often lethargic voice-overs that the actors were probably just reading lines.
As good as "Gantz" was, ultimately it was merely a big tease for the sequel which is scheduled for later in the year. As with the recent trilogy "21st Century Boys" or even the final chapter of "Harry Potter", "Gantz" felt like an elaborate setup for the next film which promises to be even better than this film.
I wish some of the other elements of the manga could be brought into the movie as in the manga we get quite a spectrum of interesting alien "hordes" that get hunted (some of the aliens disguise themselves as various mythological entities and deities). It does get touched upon somewhat in this film (particularly at the end).
While wishful thinking, I hope that Hollywood does not remake this film as Sato has delivered a perfectly good movie that could probably do well abroad in a subtitled version. Yet, knowing the arrogance of Hollywood producers it's probably only a matter of time before an eventual "American" version comes out. Let's just hope they at least they give due credit to Oku for delivering one of the most exciting sci-fi comics in a long while and to Sato for capturing that excitement in this film. Let's also hope that Toho does not dub the 2nd film as I believe "Gantz" and the performances of its principal cast (Ninomiya, Matsuyama, Natsuna, Hongo) deserve better treatment.