Film Name: 灌篮高手 / The First Slam Dunk
Slam Dunk” this work has influenced several generations, for the domestic countless 80, 90 later said, about the “Slam Dunk” story to tell on 10 days and 10 nights can not be finished, which explains the “Slam Dunk” film version (The First Slam Dunk) why it can get more than 115 million of pre-sale box office. the early hours of April 20, I also I went to see the premiere of the film with my old arms and legs, to recharge my memory and keep company with my youth – if many boys fell in love with basketball because of Slam Dunk back then, then I, on the other hand, fell in love with anime because of Slam Dunk.
After watching the film, I had mixed feelings: it’s definitely a good film, even better than I expected, but it’s not a film that will satisfy the “feelings” that most people remember (pure anime fans, or those who know less about the manga and its author, the worse the feeling will be), because Yuuhiko Inoue has largely recast the story, not only changing the protagonist, but also changing the tone and colour of the work. Not only did he change the protagonist, but also the colour and tone of the work, so it could be treated as a brand new stand-alone work if you disregarded the connections based on the original. While the Slam Dunk anime of the 1990s was about the youthful fervour of talented young men and sportsmen, the Slam Dunk film of the 1920s flips the lens to the B-side, where in addition to youthful fervour, there is also pain and suffering, growth and reconciliation, and a wider, more authentic world.
[Pre-game alert: spoilers below].
The main part of the film, and what most viewers are most concerned about, is “Shonboku vs King of the Hill Industries”, and how effective this match is directly related to the quality of the film – on this point, you can rest assured. The film did not change the process and details of the match, but chose to present it in a way and focus close to the reality of the match, i.e. to record it with more real-time and realistic footage.
For example, after the opening game, the two sides cut each other a dozen points, from Miyagi and Sakuragi’s quick surprise attack, to Fukatsu’s unhurried counterattack, to Mitsui’s handful of consecutive three-pointers, the film has adopted the focus of an isotropic reality basketball game, there are not many close-ups, there is not a variety of off-court audience reaction, only dribbling, passing, scoring, fast-paced, immersive, and contributes to the manga and reading a completely different experience. It is important to know that comics and films are different carriers of expression. The former uses static drawings to show dynamic beauty while still taking into account other aspects, while animated films use dynamics to present 100% dynamic beauty. By giving full play to its own advantages, the film, in addition to providing a sense of freshness, has also upgraded the game’s level and richness – in the second half of the key portrayal of the King’s full-court press defence has become more oppressive, Sakuragi Hanamichi’s breakthrough looks more spiritual, Sawakita moments, countdown to read the seconds to the goal, and other replicas of the manga’s famous scene is even more exciting. scenes, is even more exciting.
In addition, the film cuts out many of the flashbacks, flashforwards, and supporting character scenes, making the narrative smoother and the schedule tighter. For example, after Akagi’s loss to Ohkawada, there is no more live teaching of fish columns peeling radishes, replaced by negative villainy and mockery of weak seniors. This treatment not only eliminates the need to draw branch lines, but also echoes the memories of Akagi and Miyagi’s new additions, which is a masterstroke in terms of structural design and narrative pacing. As for Slam Dunk’s CG style, I think it looks very natural. As for some viewers’ obsession with the traditional 2D hand-drawn style, it’s not really necessary, not to mention the workload that will explode, and that kind of style doesn’t suit the film’s bias towards realism and the pursuit of dynamic and precise flavour, and, in fact, if it weren’t for this CG technology, the film would have been a great success. Waiting for this set of CG technology, Inoue will not even agree to make a film version of …… the excellent content of the competition is briefly mentioned, then come to talk about the film’s biggest change, but also the focus of the most controversial and poorly reviewed: the protagonist point of view and the structure of the story is placed on Miyagi Ryota.
Among the “Shonboku Five”, Miyagi is the one with the least ink – Sakuragi Hanamichi has the aura of a protagonist and is a tireless athletic genius, Rukawa Maple is amazingly strong and is committed to pursuing the goal of becoming the “No.1 high school student in Japan “Sanjou has the return of the prodigal son, “Coach, I want to play basketball”, and never give up the three-point whirlwind, Akagi Goken also has the dream of dominating the country and the trials of Fukasawa University of Physical Education – only Miyagi Ryoichi has the least amount of labels and stories. story the least. Of course, the film chose Miyagi as its protagonist not out of compensation, but because his positioning and persona fit better with the themes that Yuuhiko Inoue wanted to tell, and his relatively ambiguous background of identity lent itself better to re-creation. When he serialised the Slam Dunk manga in JUMP, Inoue was only in his twenties, young and unique, and there was nothing wrong with taking the pure genius Sakuragi Hanamichi as the protagonist; but now Inoue is over 55 years old, and after half a lifetime of precipitation, he has turned his sights on the “inconspicuous” and more mundane Miyagi Ryota. Miyagi is the Shonboku team’s point guard, is the whole team to start the attack of the core, but also the biggest victory over the mountain king industry in the battle behind the scenes, but he is also the five tigers in the most suppressed (facing Fukatsu Issei), the least publicity of a person, conscientious, indispensable, difficult to show the great, the weight of the front …… Remove the aura of all kinds of, but it is most likely to attract the general public, the most important thing. Miyagi is instead the character that resonates most with the average person.
The film completes the story of Miyagi Ryota: the family grew up in Okinawa, the father died early, the 12-year-old brother Souta pulled his 9-year-old brother Ryota shoulder to protect his mother, but Souta soon died in a shipwreck (the same fishing guy, learn Sendo in the shore fishing on land, but have to take a boat to go out to the sea fishing …), heartbroken mother decided to take the only remaining children to move to Kanagawa! The story is actually very uninspired. The story is actually very un-Dunker Jack, and even rather gloomy – the young Miyagi always blames his brother’s death on his own quick-witted curses, and often has to bear the brunt of his mother’s favouritism, “kissing the eldest son and neglecting the second”. The young Miyagi always blamed his brother’s death on his own quick-witted curses, and often had to bear the burden of his mother’s “favouritism to the eldest son and neglect to the second son”, and even the game of basketball could not escape the shadow of the talented player Souta. …… Basketball is both an emotional link between Miyagi and his brother, and a spiritual support when he is trapped in remorse and self-reproach, so he likes to play and at the same time always be depressed. But that’s what highlights Miyagi’s growth before and after the national tournament, and the preciousness of his and his mother’s reconciliation with each other and with each other. Slam Dunk is not only about the bloodshed on the court, but also about life off the court, which is a new meaning that the film gives to itself.
For those who have read Yuuhiko Inoue’s short manga “Earrings”, you will find that the film is based on the same setup, such as his brother’s death from sea fishing and a secret base in a cave by the sea. In addition, the film is a continuation of a part of the “canonical final story”, “10 Days After”, and pays homage to the fact that Inoue and Shibunsha funded a scholarship for a young Japanese basketball player to study in the United States. The film also pays tribute to Inoue and Jiyoshi’s sponsorship of scholarships for Japanese basketball players to study in the US. This is a reflection of why many viewers were dissatisfied with the film – the youthfulness and sentimentality that many people remember may not be the same as the sentimentality that the original author, Yuuhiko Inoue, had in mind. Most people’s warm memories of Slam Dunk stay in the 101 episodes of the TV version of the anime before the National Competition, and relatively few people have read the manga, and even fewer have been paying attention to Yuuhiko Inoue……. And Inoue, who has always been pursuing excellence, was not very happy with the anime version of the adaptation, which was of uneven quality, not to mention that he didn’t agree to Producing the animation of the national competition, even the manga he chose to end abruptly after the climax, nowadays Inoue Yuuhiko, not only a manga artist, but also an artist and cultivator of immortality …… Slam Dunk film’s original work, screenwriting and directing are all taken care of by Inoue, he will not be in the TV version of the animation on the basis of the frying of cold rice, or not, to do it, to do a brand-new! do it, or he’ll do a whole new film.
So what the audience sees is, in a sense, a reconstruction of Slam Dunk, with an ultra-dynamic restoration of the manga, a more complex and entangled relationship between Miyagi and Mitsui, a note on the legacy of Akagi and Miyagi’s two old and new team captains, a clearer understanding between Sakuragi and Rukawa, a metamorphosis of Sawakita’s Eiji after his ups and downs, and an extraordinary experience of a “mortal” Miyagi Ryota’s transformation into an “extraordinary” person. Miyagi Ryota’s journey towards the “extraordinary”.
Unfortunately, Inoue’s obsession with telling new stories does not have a positive impact:
Miyagi’s life and upbringing, along with the accompanying flashbacks and interludes, somewhat disrupt the pace of the game, and the two don’t create the desired tension;
In addition, Miyagi’s story does not fit well with the tone of the match, Shonboku vs. King of the Hill Industry’s keywords are blood, flying and miracles, and most of the highlights belong to the remaining four tigers, while Miyagi’s keywords for the main line are blood, sprinting and self-consistency. Although this new perspective has merit, such as Miyagi’s cocooning when he breaks through the dangerous breakthroughs is very energetic, but to regurgitate a match destined to be glittering in a master’s tone is always less meta. that’s always a little less meta and pungent.
For me, this little regret is irrelevant, the film version of Slam Dunk is perfect enough, it satisfies a sentiment I haven’t forgotten in over two decades, and serves up a new story that is good enough to stand on its own, and the pursuit of a dream is never going to stop.
“Pops, when was your era of glory, the All-Japan era? And I, it’s now!”
Now we can add to that line “There is a past, there is a present, and there is a future.”
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