Gintama

I caught this movie on a flight from the UK to Hong Kong. I am not an anime fan at all but spent a majority of my life in Japan. This movie was initially a time filler for me but I soon started to realise just how well played out the story is. It is often difficult to capture the essence of Japanese humour when it is interpreted into English as the basis of our humour is different. The translators of this movie have done such an amazing job and to read how the Japanese is interpreted I felt myself was unable to stop laughing. It is a brilliant movie that captures all of the neat things that are Japanese but manages to preserve them in the translation. I recommend you watch it, its a great movie!

My watching this movie was for a very strange reason - my public library has it and it is on BluRay, and there were zero requests. So I thought, "What the heck, I'll give it a try."

There is an audience for this type of movie but it definitely isn't me. In I suppose what is typical of Japanese movies of this sort we see lots of histrionics, very loud and animated characters speaking very rapidly and enthusiastically. For me I found it pretty much unwatchable.

Having neither read the manga nor seen the anime, I rate this purely on the movie itself. Some parts of the movie are fascinating, some parts ridiculous (as I suppose was intended) and it jumps the shark regularly. I didn't find anything it it that made it stand out above other movies. Unless one is really into boogar picking and flicking, this is a mixed-impression flick that isn't serious enough to make a good story, nor is it funny enough to be a good satire film. I didn't find it boring, but neither was I enthralled. As solid a 5-star film as I've seen. Good CGI, and fairly good directing. The music was severely over-the-top and in places over-rode the film itself (which is never forgivable). That about sums it up.

Lets get this straight, 1. Live action anime adaptations are terrible and 2. foreign films don't score high on western rating sites. Now that is out of the way, The movie totally breaks statement 1 by not doing what most live actions tend to do, which is change the story and are able to summarize their cast by understanding the genre this movie is as well as the audience members that have come to watch. So if youre looking for a decent live action anime adaptation this movie exceeds it.

Gintama is a so-called jidaigeki action comedy film based upon the popular manga series of the same name. I would rather categorize the movie as steampunk comedy. It combines elements of feudal Japan such as clothing and dwellings of that era as well as the terminology of the capital being refered to as Edo and the presence of samurai and ronin with science-fiction elements such as the presence of aliens, flying ships and sophisticated weapons. This mixture makes for a colourful, entertaining and vivid movie even though characters and stories are completely exaggerated and make me think of the slapstick comedy genre. The story takes place in Edo where aliens have taken control after defeating a group of rebellious samurai. Gintoki Sakata is one of the surviving ronin and is doing odd jobs with former waiter Shinpachi and the vivid Kagura. They are asked to find a powerful sword that was apparently stolen and which seems to be used by a mysterious serial killer who assassinates ronin. These incidents seem to be related to sinister ronin Shinsuke Takasugi who has gathered a group of fierce followers on a flying ship and who pretends to desire to challenge the aliens who defeated his comrades and him. Gintoki Sakata must arrest the pitiless serial killer, face his former comrade and retrieve the dangerous sword before it causes any more damage.

There are numerous things that make this live-action film adaptation highly entertaining. First of all, the franchise's eclectic universe is fascinating to watch as it always comes around with new creative surprises. When the main characters are looking for a valuable royal beetle in a forest, we get introduced to characters covering themselves in honey, smearing mayonnaise on a tree and disguising themselves as giant beetle to catch the mysterious insect. If that description makes you shake your head in disbelief, expect plenty of scenes like this one in the movie. The characters are equally intriguing and I particularly liked some of the female characters like the agile, colourful and eccentric protagonist Kagura with her orange hair and soft skin or the brutal, emotional and loyal antagonist Matako Kijima with her two revolvers that always seem to miss their target. There isn't one single boring, predictable or stereotypical character in this movie which is positively exceptional. The movie's pace is as vivid as its universe and truly entertaining from start to finish.

There are also a few downsides here and there. The most obvious offender is the story which is truly over the top but often lacking background information, for example about the strange aliens controling Edo. It's also somewhat confusing, frustrating and random that seemingly deceased characters suddenly come back to life in vague circumstances and appear out of nowhere at the right moment. It seems obvious to me that this franchise doesn't take adversity, coherency and scriptwriting seriously at all. As colourful as the characters are, some of them can become quite annoying after a while like megalomaniac swordsmith Murata Tetsuya who always shouts because of a hearing problem or cabaret hostess Shimura Tae who seems to be obsessed with controlling Gintoki Sakata as much as she possibly can. One also has to address the typically Japanese humor which will please those familiar with it while it might rather confuse those unfamiliar with it. The movie had a few great laughs, especially in the beginning of the story, but sometimes dwelled on these elements for too long and lost momentum in the process.

Gintama offers light-hearted entertainment for colourful, creative and juvenile spirits and is a very welcome change from movies that take themselves overtly seriously and try to teach their audience a lesson. This diversified, vivid and unique steampunk comedy potpourri is an unusual experience and best enjoyed with your friends when you're in a good mood and ready to switch your brain off. This memorable film is highly recommended to fans of Japanese culture. Since I'm not familiar with the source material, I can't comment upon any comparisons but I certainly enjoyed the wild ride and would watch this film again.