I recently saw that crazy bomb again RRR. Among the many things that have been said and that we have said about SS Rajamouli’s great film which last year took home two statuettes at the 2023 Sylvester Awards (best director and best smash-and-grab scene), the aspect that captured it more than others my interest is that the way he has of exaggerating without stopping is indeed of an enviable and deadly indifference, but above all it is sincere.
I like to sell RRR to those who don’t know it as the film that excites Hollywood so much, because it resembles many things that Hollywood did many decades ago and that people now dream of being able to do. Because there is a real breath, a foment, a rhythm in the narration of this action adventure with History with a capital S in the background which really takes on the tones of the epic, and these tones are never interrupted by winks or jokes damn to be ironic/lighten up.
RRR he never takes the piss out of you.
There are no moments in which he nudges the audience while laughing.
He never calls the viewer into question by whispering: «See what stuff? Eheheh, how crazy are we, huh?
No, no, no.
RRR he drives straight like a locomotive and does everything to make Raju and Bheem’s story a legend, the most epic thing ever told.
And as we have seen, when I say “everything”, I really mean EVERYTHING.
OF EVERYTHING-EVERYTHING
Then there is another aspect, always linked to his way of exaggerating, which drives me crazy and is the other phrase I use to sell RRR to those who don’t know it: it’s the closest thing to my idea of a live action adaptation of a crazy ass Japanese anime/manga.
Rajamouli’s way of directing all the actors, how he always manages to make them convincing in whatever incredible thing they do and how he manages to insert all this into a frame of highly studied shots, virtuous but always clear and symmetrical, which explode with colors and details, is exactly the kind of cheeky but firm-handed locura that I would have liked to see in many recent live action manga or successful anime.
Do you understand where I’m going with this? Yes, come on, you understand. But don’t worry, I’m not that much of an asshole to compare RRR with the live action of CityHunter we’re telling you about today, it would be too petty a move. It was just to tell you that for me the right approach to use in these cases is that of the Rajamoulis (but also the Wrights and the Vaughns) rather than that of the René Ferrettis who clock in, go on autopilot and have a good first round.
And today’s surprise is that after so much inadmissible shit, this umpteenth attempt to transpose a famous anime/manga into live action at least tries to have the right approach, it tries to be crazy, it is dismayed, it is indignant, it is committed… but then throws in the towel with great dignity?
We’ll find out after the theme song!
If you have even just browsed the manga by Tsukasa Hōjō or caught a television broadcast of the anime produced by Sunrise, you will know that CityHunter it’s sort of Miami Vice but with Tokyo instead of Miami and instead of having Sonny Crockett here we have Ryo Saeba, who together with Kaori Makimura, sister of his late partner, fight crime down in the city as private investigators. For his live action adaptation, Yûichi Satô starts from the origins, his film tells us how Ryo and Kaori met, what is behind the death of Kaori’s brother and through this story the investigative couple will eventually form who we know.
Now, I’ve never seen anything about Satô (and I bet you haven’t either) but by combing through his IMDb profile what I discovered is that he’s not exactly clueless when it comes to adapting a manga. She had already done this at least twice before CityHunter: with Poison Berry in My Brain and with Kasane: Beauty and Fate, which if you take a look at their respective trailers (here and here) just to understand what they’re made of, you’ll agree with me that Satô is a good craftsman, someone who manages to move easily from one genre to another, with a particular predilection for things that are a little crazy. And if they aren’t good enough, he seems like the type who puts a lot of effort into making sure they are. Or at least he tries.
All this to tell you that maybe Satô won’t be Rajamouli, he doesn’t even see him appearing on the horizon (damn it, I promised I wouldn’t make petty comparisons, oh well, I’ve said it now), but with his CityHunter tries to restore on the screen that carelessness made up of faces, screams and very lascivious behavior typical of a lot of Japanese television animation from the 1980s. Ryo Saeba in the manga and in the anime is an unscrupulous pussy sufferer, he behaves towards women in an inadmissible way today more than yesterday and the comedy would arise from the fact that due to his annoying behavior in the end he never manages to get laid . But he wasn’t alone: Master Roshi of Dragon Ball it was like that, Happosai of Ranma ½ he was like that and obviously Lupine III was like that. I could make such a long list of characters like this. Satô decides not to completely give up this characteristic of Ryo, sure, it softens her a little but the fact that this idiot no longer understands shit when he sees cleavage is there, and Satô manages to bring this very old thing into 2024 in the funniest and least cringe-friendly way possible. And here it must be said that Ryohei Suzuki’s interpretation helped a lot.
“Present!”
The time has come to put together the pieces of a very interesting career: Suzuki exploded in Japan in 2013 with the crazy Hentai Kamen (please watch the trailer), worked with Takashi Miike in The Lion Standing in the Wind and in The Mole Song: Final (which we also covered) and was also once Inspector Zenigata. I discovered it in 2014 with the crazy Tokyo Tribe of that crazy genius that is Sion Sono (one who if you ask me would deserve a serious study on our part, for now we’ll be satisfied with this handful of reviews) and already there we could see his great ability to go full Nicolas Cage. This CityHunter it is undoubtedly one of his best performances, in some moments Suzuki really seems to have come out of an anime and goes from the most exaggerated coolness to the most screaming ridiculousness.
It doesn’t fit into either category here, but I was really hoping to find a frame from this scene
In some moments though. In others no, in others it’s just cringe. But it’s not his fault.
It’s the fault of the fact that we’re still talking about a platform blockbuster and so no matter how hard Satô tries and Suzuki turns out to be good and convincing, there are obstacles that probably not even a Rajamouli would be able to get around, which is why we need a Ferretti to stop your nose and take the day home. Watching CityHunter the feeling that a good film could have been made is constant because the desire was there, but damn if the plot leaves you with nothing and goes nowhere; if the fights could have been truly spectacular with a little more time to better prepare those choreographies and those editing connections, instead of making the impression of a discount Edgar Wright; if in certain moments you want to chase the manga at all costs and you don’t realize that certain shots, certain expressions simply don’t work in real cinema, they’re just embarrassing.
And damn if this lazy and unimaginative way of doing things for products like this has pissed me off.
We were so close…
In short, to conclude: this live action by CityHunter it’s not that bad, we’ve certainly seen worse and at least it tries to be different. But it’s a long way from here to saying that I would watch it again.
And now, since by the time I’m writing this last line it’s quite late, I’m going to bed dreaming of Ryohei Suzuki playing the villain in an SS Rajamouli film.
Streaming quotas:
«But look, Rajamouli with 30,000 lire does it better, eh»
Terrence Maverick, i400calci.com
>> IMDb | Trailer
PS: this film won’t be unforgettable but I’ll leave it up to you to decide if it’s better or worse than the live action with Jackie Chan from 1993, perfect for the The strangest ones column that we keep on Twitch:
And finally: ENDING CODE!
