Film Review : Live Action Inuyashiki - Superhero Flick That Everybody Missed But Actually Good!

Talking about superheroes flick, everybody must be reminded by the giants made by DC or Marvel with their ever growing cinematic universe. This week however, a live action adaptation of a manga created by Hiroya Oku, Inuyashiki, came to the nearby cinemas in Indonesia and exceeded all of my expectation. Yet, this adaptation is somehow overshadowed by another movie that came at the same time (it's Mission Impossible) and left with only two shows per day. And for me, this movie needs more attention as it is very great and could stand alongside Hollywood movies with its greatness.

For the note, I have already read the manga of this adaptation and of course, watched its anime adaptation. And thank god, they did not make that Armageddon part in the very end of the manga into this adaptation. While content wise, a film or movie adaptation must tried their best to squeeze an entire manga to only around two or three hours duration and the best thing they could do is by removing several parts of the manga and they did a very good job selecting which parts they needed to remove. They knew their own limit and use their limit to remove parts they did not need.

Focusing on the movie's story, I really like of how they made us feel a sympathy towards our main villain Hiro. He was raised by a single mother who had divorced. It was very clear that Hiro loves her mother so much that he had a hint of hating his father because he left him and his mother in a poor condition. He murdered people so he could release his pent up feeling and yet he still felt regret while his mother terrorized by media who push her to the edge. The wrongdoing of his method is very clear, instead of blaming himself, he blamed the community for driving anyone he loves to the edge and to the danger. While I think he was wrong, a side of me said that he was doing that because he lost everything he loves by the force of someone else, not by the force of nature. He just want everyone to feel the pain they caused to him.

In other side, the hero, Inuyashiki, have a great doubt within himself that is would anyone cry for him if he's dead? All of his family resent him as he sometimes made wrong decision for his family and of course his old looks. Even when Hiro asked him what his family have given him, he still could not answer him properly. But he said that he felt alive and human when he was able to save somebody and wished that he could save his family, too. Just like Hiro, Inuyashiki loves his family so much that he would do anything to save them and ensure their safety.

This two sides of coin leads us to the major theme here. Fight for someone or somebody you love. The villain and the hero have same goal yet they were going to achieve it in very different way. This is why I think this is a superhero flick that should be on radar for someone who loves heroism and everything like that. While I won't show this movie to kids because of a very gore representation of blood, I would definitely show this movie to my parents especially my dad.

And yeah, Japan definitely had improved their way on working in their CG animation. I still remembered faintly the CG animation of Attack on Titan live action and for me, it was like they were trying so hard on somewhere that was not on their reach yet and they failed to live that expectation. Inuyashiki, however, made their way into a great CG animation by knowing their technology limitation and not pushed themselves too much and too far. I love how they animate Inuyashiki and Hiro's robotic transformation. I am going to say, it reminded me with that transformation effect in Transformers movies and I really love that kind of sequences.

Soundtrack? I would say even it is not that remarkable, it is still epic enough to accompany Inuyashiki's epic quick action sequences in the climax. It is something that fits into the movie but not fit enough to be an everyday listening because it was unremarkable.

Overall, I would recommend this movie to watch while it lasts in the cinemas near you. With a bad timing of release and their competitor in the cinemas are highly anticipated movies, I'm not sure how many weeks or even days this movie will lasts in the cinemas. This is a superhero flick that you should watch soon.