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Pictures of the sets and weapons from the filming of the live action Rurouni Kenshin are here.
And, of course, as neat as it is to see the sets, I'm far more curious about the actors themselves. And based on the characters, we'll probably be able to figure out what the script is like. For those unfamiliar with the Rurouni Kenshin manga, there are two major plotlines over 28 volumes. To do either one of them justice in the space of a standard 2 hour film will be spectacularly difficult. I wonder if there's a new story or adaptation of one of these plotlines in the works and how much say Nobuhiro Watsuki (the creator of the original manga itself) has had in the process. Regardless of the plotline, though, I think this movie's success is really going to come down to the actors, because if the characters are flawed, the whole exercise may seem pretty silly. RRK is a funny manga in parts, but it's meant as a fairly serious story. Its flaws largely come from the shounen manga conventions it embraces: ugly villains and crazily drawn-out fights against said ugly villains and their uglier-still henchpeople. If the script focuses exclusively on the battles and not on the character development, the movie will fail. It's all well and good to have fight scenes, but you need balance, and not just in the form of comic relief. To adapt the good mix that is the whole story of RRK will be tricky at best.
I'm also thinking about anime/manga adaptations of beloved classics. I recently had the misfortune to sit through the anime version of "Tales of Earthsea", and I never, ever thought I would say this of a Studio Ghibli film, but it was AWFUL. A terribly confusing plot mixed dull characters made for... well, I can think of all kinds of invectives to hurl, but I'm holding back because it's Ghibli, and the backgrounds were pretty. If you want to see pretty backgrounds and some dragon animation in the last five minutes, go for it. Otherwise, just don't even bother, especially if you love the Le Guin books. I haven't read them in years, and even I could tell they'd been mangled. Yeesh.
But then, I think of the live-action adaptations I've seen, like Onmyouji and Mushi-shi. Both of these movies kept what made the manga compelling, and in both cases, even pushed the envelope a bit, adding a little more background here, a little more action there (or, in the case of Onmyouji, a little more ritual dance combat here and there, for an overall effect of AWESOME!). While these films didn't have especially huge budgets, they succeeded because of a mix of good storytelling, acting, and script. I fervently hope the RRK movie is able to do what these two did, and not fall into the Tales of Earthsea trap.
And, of course, as neat as it is to see the sets, I'm far more curious about the actors themselves. And based on the characters, we'll probably be able to figure out what the script is like. For those unfamiliar with the Rurouni Kenshin manga, there are two major plotlines over 28 volumes. To do either one of them justice in the space of a standard 2 hour film will be spectacularly difficult. I wonder if there's a new story or adaptation of one of these plotlines in the works and how much say Nobuhiro Watsuki (the creator of the original manga itself) has had in the process. Regardless of the plotline, though, I think this movie's success is really going to come down to the actors, because if the characters are flawed, the whole exercise may seem pretty silly. RRK is a funny manga in parts, but it's meant as a fairly serious story. Its flaws largely come from the shounen manga conventions it embraces: ugly villains and crazily drawn-out fights against said ugly villains and their uglier-still henchpeople. If the script focuses exclusively on the battles and not on the character development, the movie will fail. It's all well and good to have fight scenes, but you need balance, and not just in the form of comic relief. To adapt the good mix that is the whole story of RRK will be tricky at best.
I'm also thinking about anime/manga adaptations of beloved classics. I recently had the misfortune to sit through the anime version of "Tales of Earthsea", and I never, ever thought I would say this of a Studio Ghibli film, but it was AWFUL. A terribly confusing plot mixed dull characters made for... well, I can think of all kinds of invectives to hurl, but I'm holding back because it's Ghibli, and the backgrounds were pretty. If you want to see pretty backgrounds and some dragon animation in the last five minutes, go for it. Otherwise, just don't even bother, especially if you love the Le Guin books. I haven't read them in years, and even I could tell they'd been mangled. Yeesh.
But then, I think of the live-action adaptations I've seen, like Onmyouji and Mushi-shi. Both of these movies kept what made the manga compelling, and in both cases, even pushed the envelope a bit, adding a little more background here, a little more action there (or, in the case of Onmyouji, a little more ritual dance combat here and there, for an overall effect of AWESOME!). While these films didn't have especially huge budgets, they succeeded because of a mix of good storytelling, acting, and script. I fervently hope the RRK movie is able to do what these two did, and not fall into the Tales of Earthsea trap.
