Nana

I saw this on an AA flight back from Japan and have to say it was a pretty enjoyable flick, so much so that I'll request netflix to carry it if/when it comes out on DVD so I can watch it with my wife.

It behooves me to add a bit of context, unlike quite a few of the people here, I've never read the manga, so for me this was a standalone movie with no preconceptions of what the characters should look/act like. I thought they were reasonably developed, interesting characters with good amount of depth.

My only real issue (as is frequently the case) is the manner in which they subtitled this movie. It's hard for me to ignore the subtitles if they're there, and worse, when they are poorly done then I spend an irritating amount of time interrupting myself mentally, thinking "Wait a second, that is not at all what (s)he said". This may just be my problem but it's definitely irritating. At the same time, they were not so drastically different that they significantly changed the feeling of the whole movie, which is frequently a complaint heard about English language movies with Japanese subtitles.

An IMDbian recommended this and underlined that it is an adaptation of a popular "shoujo manga" (girlie/chick comics). The NANA sensation can be compared with the craze caused by Densha otoko (Train Man) in Japan. Even the American girls find time to flip through it. Well, as the last page of chick comics said goodbye to me some twenty years ago, and my old bones cannot hold much dross energy for punk or rock n' roll music after work, sorry, not much interest shed in the first place. Besides, Nana was never heard to me. Just that the very last rental ticket was idling so I grabbed the VCD without much expectation... but it turned out to be a delightful surprise.

The names of the two Nanas and their room 707 are very interesting. "Seven" in Japanese is pronounced as "na-na", a universal lucky number. Two Nanas live together in a "na-na-tse-row(zero)-na-na" room, they rob all the luck of the world! The family names of the Nanas exhibit tellingly their characters. Nana KOMATSU, the traditional Nana who only longs for getting married was born with a last name means "a small (ko) pine tree (matsu)". Imagine a tiny pine tree in a traditional Japanese still and quiet landscape painting, not a grand view, right? And the modern Nana, Nana OZAKI who is independent and strong enough to brave any storms in her life, is given by Heaven a grandiose label, "a huge (o) mountain summit (zaki)". Comically, Mount Everest sprang from my head when I made the analogy. Their names are so self-explanatory, so graphic, so vivid.

Two namesakes of paradoxical personalities live under the same lucky-lucky roof in harmony, both traditional and modern qualities exist, fuse inside one body (Room 707) without causing any conflict. On the contrary, they are helping and inspiring each other. They happily found each other. That is the ideal of the original author Ai Yazawa: the attitude, the attribute, the bearing, the idiosyncrasy of 21st century Japanese feminism (woman figure).

While watching it and laughing at the lousy English lyrics of the loud songs, I remembered two other movies: "La double vie de Véronique", which is right now stirring a little hot talk in town intriguingly. (It really beats me a lot why it suddenly becomes so popular in its second coming after its first screening in 1991???) Two identical Weronika/Véronique live their separate lives in France and Poland. She came across/found her so accidentally in a commotion and they got connected in a mystic way. They are actually searching for each other and found though a little late.

Another is Ingmar Bergman's Persona. Destruction, selfishness, atrocity, tragedy... are fitting negative words to depict this one, though. Elisabeth Vogler ("Vogler" -- Old German "Bird-catcher") a self-made-mute actress (Liv Ullmann) who so determinedly and cruelly wills to divorce herself from the pain of her own existence/façade which she has been playing for a long time and is now fed up with. She transfers absolutely her "self" (identity) on to Alma ("Alma" -- Spanish "Soul") a nurse (Bibi Andersson), who somehow envies her, and causes her collapse. The actress tries so hard to dump forcefully the pain she dislikes onto a weaker partner to make her like herself. A stronger "her" tortures the weaker "her" inside a dead quiet remote country house.

And how wonderful it is to see the 22-year-old Ryuhei Matsuda (bass guitarist Ren) has grown into fuller manhood and has shrugged off the enigmatic androgynous air he displayed in Gohatto (1999). (Gosh! He looks like neither boy nor girl... though with an enticing face.) Another good discovery.

The present day Japanese women are struggling with the pulling forces of the traditional and the modern feminist values, some may have found it, some still groping, some in the mid-way of a tunnel, some in a cul-de-sac. May every Japanese woman's identity be successfully located so as to achieve an inner "harmony", a pillar idea of the Japanese society and culture.

Two very different 20 year old women meet on a train to Tokyo. Other than the fact they're both named Nana, they have very different pasts and personalities. Despite this, they're destined to become very big parts of each other's lives. 

Based on the very popular anime and manga of the same name, this is a fun adaption. The musical aspects of the story are kept, and are as nearly as important to the story as the relationship between the two Nana's. Speaking of, the actresses chosen to play the two title characters are great, and the story is as interesting for guys as it is the girls who are the original audience.

NANA was a good movie, I liked it. Obviously it's more recommended for people who are already familiar with the source material, but even NANA newbies should enjoy this.

Nana may suffer from being a condensed version of an expansive Manga universe, but it also knows exactly how much time to spend on individual plots strands. Nana is a coming of age, female friendship film that handles immature and young emotions with absolute maturity. The most impressive aspect was creating a relationship between one of the protagonists boyfriends and another girl. It easily could have made him a villain, but instead took an unbiased look at how the relationship came to be. Luckily, for a film focused on bands, the music is relatively good. Nakashima and Miyazaki both inhabit their roles well and build up a believable friendship. Highly enjoyable, even if it doesn't quite feel complete.

As far as manga animations go Nana is a success and, despite my rule against sequels, I am going to watch Nana 2 next.

Two girls who could not be any different find companionship, friendship and enduring love. Differences are ignored and left by the roadside as the two come together and stand shoulder-to-shoulder. It is cool and fun. The music is handled well, as well as the emotional turbulence. The music is billed as punk, but is real just pop rock.

The girls are so cute and thin. It is great to see slim and healthy girls not being hated on by other girls. it is sad, but true. I guess Japan is a different story. Still, one has nice hair and the other one has a masculine short bob.

One last thing: if you rent an apartment on the seventh floor and there are no elevators you are clearly telling your parents 'do not visit.' lol