Kurosaki Ichigo – any average high school student with orange hair and brown eyes who happens to be a spirit medium. Yes, our favorite Bleach series is again unleashed upon the audience, this time as a film adaptation. A number of classic mangas’ live action adaptations have failed to impress, save for a few, one of them being the more recent Liverleaf, which illustrates at least a flicker of hope in a very dark tunnel.
And now shonen fans all over the world are in for treat. The rags to riches story is being directed by Shinsuke Sato, also known for directing infamous manga adaptations such as Gantz and ‘I Am a Hero’, and the barrel chested young up and coming star Sota Fukushi as Ichigo, this has the hallmarks of a winner. Bleach is in part adapted from the Agent of the Shinigami (or otherwise known as The Substitute) story arc in the manga series and revolves around Ichigo Kurosaki and his body guard Rukia Kuchiki played by Hana Sugisaki. These characteristics have been adapted (a bit forcefully) to a more or less auxiliary plot as a kind of synthesis.
The first arc took up the original story of seven manga volumes and even though the movie has only a run time of 108 minutes, it had managed to zip through the story at a fair pace. Sadly, the new plot also overtakes most of the segments which are supposed to be taken from the manga. For example, there is a scene where Ichigo saves a child from a Hollow, an attacking demon like spirit. In the original, he manages to beat the Hollow and poses all cool for the camera. In this case, the injury is introduced to him within the appended scene and he is presented looking petty instead of what had been presented injustice.
There are many such instances. For example, Uryu Ishida, who was very touchy in regard to intellect, has grown muscles and lost temper with the introduction of this additional character. The Joe character and that of Orihime Inoue and Yasutora “Chad” Sado do raise the level of the storyline but do not do enough to advance the plot. Through the alteration of such famous scenes into any other that one holds, character actions have begun to contradict each other. Why rework such scenes from the manga, and rework them in such a manner that it is inappropriate to put them in? The characters are carried away by a movie which is not entire incorporating new and some old designs loosely held together by muscle power.
The conclusion is yet another disappointment. We do not need to reveal more details but one can feel the emotional vacuum that this eliciting narrative was culminating to the much anticipated climax. Psycho-partners are a major selling point to the Bleach movie, among them Yuji Shimomura with expectation that action swordfights shall be thrilling because of his experience as one of the foremost stunt coordinators in Japan.
Even though the actor’s character has few scenes that include him bashing his huge sword on a big monster and having fun out of it, very minimal such scenes are available in ahu3r. Doing a cut here is easy, and adding some stunt fights is more challenging. Though one might expect as much from a long film such as this one, however, very few action sequences are present.
There is also a misunderstanding of pacing in the action as there are very fast cuts and small action shots that one would grapple to know what exactly is happening. I had expected more variations and more apparently different shots rather than chaotic fast action shots. This saying suggests that people take on various activities without really excelling in any of them. Is it the case that director Sato wished to replicate the manga or come up with a new narrative? An action порно fresh out of the Mall or a relationship between the characters? Instead of attempting to combine all and sundry, it seems Bleach would have performed better in an action movie with an uncomplicated original plot. That’s why it is necessary to keep faith with the history but not be too much attached to it.
A film based on a work has its own plusses too. Costumes and art direction are splendid, the images are never cheap, and those Hollows resembling Japanese oni demons and youkai spirits are simply awesome. The forgone covers and acting come out best. Thin but muscular Fukushi has jeweled more Ichiogo, while Rukia who is aristocrat family made is also good, Sugisaki. The most disappointing casting of I’d say the entire film is that of guitar-playing antagonist Byakuya Kuchiki played by style-grooming Miyavi. The rest of the supports impress too even in minor roles, like Saotome Taichi whose mumbles as Renji Abarai pass great violence yet beauty.
When I watched Ichigo duel with Renji, it was a terrific and cinematographic clothes duel, marked by Saotome’s grace, and of course the other young actor s bravado. This highlight is well worth watching.
The Verdict
In fact, Claims is a coarse movie indeed. It is rather the way to try to repeat what was already done in the source manga and at the same time build a different plot that fails on of those, while the action is plain boringag. Crusoe would surely hate that. It would make sense even if you do not relish in tearing Spritfd down. You think, all the nitty gritty details that a viewer would otherwise care to pick, are absent. But scattered here and there are brilliant spots – not to forget, its laughs out loud cast – that makes it a worthwhile viewing.
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