DESPERATELY NEEDED MORE RUNTIME
Introduction:
Demon City is an action-packed revenge storyline based on a manga series, "Oni-goroshi" by Kawabe Masamichi. The original manga is still being published with 15 volumes already out in Japan. Due to it having no English translation, I'm unaware of how much of the manga they adapted, neither on how much they skipped. So, this review will be purely based on my opinion regarding this movie and not on it being an adaptation.
Story:
The story desperately needed more character development. Due to the restriction of the runtime, we hardly got to know any of the characters (even the protagonist Sakata Shuhei), their morals, emotions, feelings, goals, or even what drives them to do what they do. So, when these characters die, we as watchers feel nothing but emptiness, as we can neither relate to the pain of the ones they left behind, neither feel sad for the one that left. The story also had a lot of pacing issues, since the story spans decades (the main story spans less of a time period) and trying to cover a whole lot of developments in the story within a given time, leaves less time to give importance to a few minor yet important details that actually let the viewer take somewhat of a fresh breath.
Acting:
The acting in this movie was fairly decent. All of the actors did an amazing job at portraying their characters, especially Ikuta Toma (portrayed the protagonist). Ikuta Toma shined in the action sequences, the choreography, and every little movement he did just made looked so good on the screen. Also, the chosen weapon of the protagonist is really so good and the scene with the elevator where is sitting on the body (the one on the cover) looked dope as hell.
Direction:
The director did an amazing job with the action sequences and made it look so good on the screen. The action sequences are the only good thing that this movie has. The cinematography was also somewhat decent. Other than that, the director fumbled in everything else including the pacing and the character development.
Music:
The music was good, just nothing special that would stand out on its own to me.
Enjoyment:
This movie is somewhat enjoyable due to its excellent action sequences. It was the case for me at least.
Verdict:
It's not something extremely good or something that you have to watch but if you wanna watch it, just know that the only good things are the action sequences and if you were to only look at the action sequences, it's a decent watch.
Demon City is an action-packed revenge storyline based on a manga series, "Oni-goroshi" by Kawabe Masamichi. The original manga is still being published with 15 volumes already out in Japan. Due to it having no English translation, I'm unaware of how much of the manga they adapted, neither on how much they skipped. So, this review will be purely based on my opinion regarding this movie and not on it being an adaptation.
Story:
The story desperately needed more character development. Due to the restriction of the runtime, we hardly got to know any of the characters (even the protagonist Sakata Shuhei), their morals, emotions, feelings, goals, or even what drives them to do what they do. So, when these characters die, we as watchers feel nothing but emptiness, as we can neither relate to the pain of the ones they left behind, neither feel sad for the one that left. The story also had a lot of pacing issues, since the story spans decades (the main story spans less of a time period) and trying to cover a whole lot of developments in the story within a given time, leaves less time to give importance to a few minor yet important details that actually let the viewer take somewhat of a fresh breath.
Acting:
The acting in this movie was fairly decent. All of the actors did an amazing job at portraying their characters, especially Ikuta Toma (portrayed the protagonist). Ikuta Toma shined in the action sequences, the choreography, and every little movement he did just made looked so good on the screen. Also, the chosen weapon of the protagonist is really so good and the scene with the elevator where is sitting on the body (the one on the cover) looked dope as hell.
Direction:
The director did an amazing job with the action sequences and made it look so good on the screen. The action sequences are the only good thing that this movie has. The cinematography was also somewhat decent. Other than that, the director fumbled in everything else including the pacing and the character development.
Music:
The music was good, just nothing special that would stand out on its own to me.
Enjoyment:
This movie is somewhat enjoyable due to its excellent action sequences. It was the case for me at least.
Verdict:
It's not something extremely good or something that you have to watch but if you wanna watch it, just know that the only good things are the action sequences and if you were to only look at the action sequences, it's a decent watch.
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