Inuyashiki

Finally a Manga movie done right. The build up of the characters is done right. The plot is meaningful and shows the two sides of the coin of having powers. Inu not the usual Hero u see in every movie and Hiro(ironically) the guy who choose the wrong path. Hoping to see more in the upcoming sequel. Kinda sad about not seeing the Yakuza "arch" hoping to see it in the upcoimng movie. There is yet to come. For every fan of manga out there you must check this out. And for the fans of Hero genre this is a must see so you can make the difference of the usual movies you have seen also when people die there is blod.

I was surprised by this movie. It was a great action movie, with a sci fi basis. The best part of it was the creation of the evil character. We could see the premisses of his evilness, but the events that followed sealed the deal. The good guy was a surprise as well. He was an unexpected hero as he had a difficult life as well, but he choose the other path. Other than that, the performances were really good and the CGI were decent enough. So, 8 out of 10.

After watching the trailer, reading the sypnosis and checking out the poster, I didn't expect much, but boy, was I surprised by how good and gripping it was. Despite a few far-fetched concepts, which you shouldn't think too much about, I was blown away by the story, the twists and especially how it was told. I especially liked how some of the most tense moments were some of the smaller ones, such as whether the "bad" guy would "shoot" or not, or how far he would go. Despite some great grandiose music at time, the director often knew when to cut off music to improve such moments.

The storytelling was no doubt helped by tremendous acting performances from the leads, the older man (Inuyashiki Ichiro) and the young man (Shishigami Hiro) who develop powers. I was made to feel sympathy for the kind but disrespected Inuyashiki even though he sometimes emoted too much in action scenes. I felt the menace from the usually stoic young man who sometimes showed glimpses of genuine emotion. Even felt sympathy for him sometimes. Those characters had depth, had a progression and were played so well. Even the secondary characters, such as the young man's best friend and the older man's daughter, were played believably and well. I'm often taken out of Japanese films by "exagerated" acting but such was not the case here.

As I was watching, I was struck that perhaps this wasn't a very expensive film after all, not because it looked cheap, but because there was a certain reserve used as for when and how to show special effects (witness the shooting, the analysis power and the use of screens). It probably worked in its favour as it showed story and directing ingenuity. The special effects were otherwise excellent, especially the creepy transformations and the spectacular final showdown worthy of a Hollywood blockbuster. I've seen a ton of "superhero" movies, and I'm not even sure Inuyashiki would qualify as one, but the American ones could certainly learn something from it in terms of characters, suspense, sincerity and storytelling. For me, this film was refreshing, heartfelt and exhilirating despite a few silly elements. Bravo!

This is way better than some other else Japan comic based movie like full metal alchemist. The story behind shishikami is really far better than expected, sometime you even forget that there is another protagonist, who is also good by the way but less impressive than shishikami. However, this movie lacked some music when building the character depth making some part not persuasive enough. Anyway, this movie has good protagonist and side characters, and really good plot which makes everything make sense but was even not in the comic. Still worth watching.

I would say this is better than 85% of the stuff coming out from Marvel. Good backstory and character development. Not just mindless action and tiresome "jokes" which make a farce out of everything.