I say contains spoilers as abundance of caution for a film roughly based on true history. If you want true history, see the excellent 2003 Canadian documentary Sleeping Tigers The Asahi Baseball Story by Jari Osborne. This film, like pre-TV old fashioned film making, is made for mass audience (specifically Japanese), and hence got some negative reviews from indie film buffs inclined toward films that never attract mass audience or any audience.
Unlike many new J-films this has good scriptwriting. Plus the subject could have resulted in a film with the tone of most other films / documentaries related to the internments of WW2.
This is a warm human drama reinforcing cultural, social and personal values much more than it is a baseball film. It shows its roots in the genre where great Japanese directors of the 20th century built their enduring reputations. Thus the slower pacing (long run time) and lingering views of setting (usually devoid of people). The cast doesn't speak much, a criticism by some reviewers, but absolutely correct in that Japanese men of the laboring class do not do a lot of talking. A glance or grunt will suffice except in a bar setting. After the film some viewers uncritically remarked it had hardly any subtitles. It doesn't require many subtitles which is a plus for me who does not understand Japanese.
The casting and acting is excellent, with the star Satoshi Tsumabuki creating character through distinctive walking style and his trademark facial expressions. After some 40 previous film appearances his screen persona will resonate more with Japanese domestic audience. Director Yuya Ishii has followed his last triumph The Great Passage by making the star a quiet shy man supported by a more actively boisterous Kazuya Kamanishi. Koichi Sato shows us a new kind of character versus his typical film roles. I read negative comments re most of the characters portray stereotypes. But what else to do in a film where these stories used to have runtime of 3 hours and intermission?
The sets were very supportive of the story and built the old fashioned way. While I found the Main Street too cluttered by the prop department, the house interiors were excellent in both scale and detail. I am an architect when not spending time on films, so sets and scale are vital to my film enjoyment. As usual Ishii has gotten the clutter and intimacy correct. Remember the Tokyo rooming house in The Great Passage?
I knocked the film down a point for the INCONGRUOUS J-pop music over the closing credits. I imagine it is sung by the supporting star who belongs to KAT-TUN group. This is one of the very very most annoying aspects of Japanese films where the producer finds it necessary to market some J-pop instead of having the composer reinforce our cinema experience. I have several J-films in my collection where I have to switch off the closing credits due to the badly chosen song that has nothing to do with the film subject. Toho is the most guilty in my opinion! If there are larger international intentions for this film, Toho must get rid of the J-pop and use more supportive thematic music. I have seen potential J-classics knocked out by the closing music. Don't we miss the old ones where the kanji for "the end" was all we saw before the screen went black? Now we find out who made the bento boxes for crew lunch.
At the world premiere in Vancouver there was apparently a rear cameo shot of the last surviving player if the VIFF trailer is correct. Old man sitting on a bench in pensive pose, it looked like the now aged Reggie reminiscing on pathos of life. So I was surprised not to see this at the US premiere.
Unlike many new J-films this has good scriptwriting. Plus the subject could have resulted in a film with the tone of most other films / documentaries related to the internments of WW2.
This is a warm human drama reinforcing cultural, social and personal values much more than it is a baseball film. It shows its roots in the genre where great Japanese directors of the 20th century built their enduring reputations. Thus the slower pacing (long run time) and lingering views of setting (usually devoid of people). The cast doesn't speak much, a criticism by some reviewers, but absolutely correct in that Japanese men of the laboring class do not do a lot of talking. A glance or grunt will suffice except in a bar setting. After the film some viewers uncritically remarked it had hardly any subtitles. It doesn't require many subtitles which is a plus for me who does not understand Japanese.
The casting and acting is excellent, with the star Satoshi Tsumabuki creating character through distinctive walking style and his trademark facial expressions. After some 40 previous film appearances his screen persona will resonate more with Japanese domestic audience. Director Yuya Ishii has followed his last triumph The Great Passage by making the star a quiet shy man supported by a more actively boisterous Kazuya Kamanishi. Koichi Sato shows us a new kind of character versus his typical film roles. I read negative comments re most of the characters portray stereotypes. But what else to do in a film where these stories used to have runtime of 3 hours and intermission?
The sets were very supportive of the story and built the old fashioned way. While I found the Main Street too cluttered by the prop department, the house interiors were excellent in both scale and detail. I am an architect when not spending time on films, so sets and scale are vital to my film enjoyment. As usual Ishii has gotten the clutter and intimacy correct. Remember the Tokyo rooming house in The Great Passage?
I knocked the film down a point for the INCONGRUOUS J-pop music over the closing credits. I imagine it is sung by the supporting star who belongs to KAT-TUN group. This is one of the very very most annoying aspects of Japanese films where the producer finds it necessary to market some J-pop instead of having the composer reinforce our cinema experience. I have several J-films in my collection where I have to switch off the closing credits due to the badly chosen song that has nothing to do with the film subject. Toho is the most guilty in my opinion! If there are larger international intentions for this film, Toho must get rid of the J-pop and use more supportive thematic music. I have seen potential J-classics knocked out by the closing music. Don't we miss the old ones where the kanji for "the end" was all we saw before the screen went black? Now we find out who made the bento boxes for crew lunch.
At the world premiere in Vancouver there was apparently a rear cameo shot of the last surviving player if the VIFF trailer is correct. Old man sitting on a bench in pensive pose, it looked like the now aged Reggie reminiscing on pathos of life. So I was surprised not to see this at the US premiere.