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Review
by
Kevin Ma: |
When an American audience
thinks of a comic book (OK, graphic novel) adaptations,
they think of superheroes and epic fantasy battles.
However, comic book adaptations in Japan are a different
animal altogether. With possibly the largest comic
book industry in the world, comics in Japan target
all kinds of audiences - the young, the old, males,
females. If you have spending power in Japan, there'll
likely be a comic book targeted for you.
If you happen to be a Japanese
teenage girl, one of your favorite comics may be NANA,
the story of the trials and tribulations faced by
two girls with the same name, but incredibly different
personalities. As the best-selling Shojo ("young
girls" in Japanese) comic of all time in Japan,
NANA has spawned 15 manga volumes (and counting)
with a combined sales of 22 million copies, tons of
licensed merchandise, and even a tribute CD featuring
Japan's biggest artists. Like all things in Japanese
mainstream culture, when a comic hits that kind of
success, someone will eventually adopt it into a feature
film. In this case, it's Japanese TV network TBS,
who produced the 2005 feature film version of NANA.
Skipping much of the
introduction of the first volume of the comic, NANA
jumps straight into the beginning of the second volume
with the chance meeting of the protagonists: Nana
Osaki (recording artist Mika Nakashima), a mysterious
and independent punk rocker from a snowy Northern
town, and Nana Komatsu (Aoi Miyazaki), a typical Japanese
girl who, as Nana O describes, is "cute, fluffy,
and a hell of a handful." The two meet on a snowy
train ride to Tokyo as they are both going to Tokyo
to pursue their dreams: a life as a rock star for
Nana O, and a life with boyfriend Shoji for Nana K.
By coincidence, they end up living together and become
best friends as they go through everyday problems
like Shoji's new attraction towards a classmate/coworker
and Nana O's inescapable past with ex-boyfriend Ren,
who's now a guitarist with a hugely popular pop group.
Anyone looking for a
lesbian bond, tentacles, or ninjas can stay clear
of NANA. Director Kentaro Otani (Thirty
Lies or So) and screenwriter Taeko Asano stick
closely to the source material, literally recreating
frames of the comics (think Sin City without
the CGI) to tell a ordinary story about how two seemingly
different people who come together to fight life's
difficulties. The result is a film that'll make both
fans and newcomers happy, because it doesn't deviate
much from manga, and it also proves accessible to
the uninitiated.
However, like any mainstream
work (especially one adapted from well-known source
material), NANA is also extremely calculated,
with Otani taking a safe road with both his visual
style (going for a plain white and gray palate) and
his script, which wraps everything up in a nice little
bow, while also opening things up for a sequel. The
film seems to be done with such a careful blueprint
that there's even theme music for the flashbacks involving
Nana O and Ren. Instead of setting up the characters
to induce sympathy, Otani expects these characters
to be so well-known that audiences should automatically
relate to them from the first frame. Sometimes NANA
can be frustrating for newcomers, as it occasionally
feels like it's only going through the motions of
its episodic structure, rather than trying to engage
audiences in any type of emotional experience.
Thankfully, there are the
performances. Casting Mika Nakashima was inspired
casting, as her off-screen persona of a mysteriously
quiet artist matches the manga character perfectly.
Meanwhile, Aoi Miyazaki, even with the less meaty
role of Nana K, captures the Nana K's innocence and
naiveté from the manga perfectly. The chemistry
between the two actresses is the driving force for
NANA, keeping the audience engaged as the two
Nanas leap from the pages of the manga and onto the
screen as living, breathing characters. The supporting
players are also competent, except for the deadpan
Ryuhei Matsuda as the elusive and charming Ren. His
character is supposed to exude a charm that keeps
Nana O running back to him, but Matsuda seems to have
confused an emotionless face for suaveness.
While a comic books such
as NANA would not be considered ideal for adaptation
into a feature film by American standards, the intention
of the finished product is very much the same: to
start up a successful film franchise that will keep
established fans happy while also attracting new ones.
NANA met theatrical success by earning over
US$35 million in Japan, becoming one of the biggest
hits of 2005, but attempts to continue the franchise
have so far failed. A planned 11-episode TV series
failed to launch when the lead actress dropped out,
and plans for a sequel have also sputtered with both
actresses refusing to return. That's unfortunate,
because even though NANA is as safe as commercial
films get, it's also every bit as successful, entertaining,
and engaging as well. NANA may not be one of
the best films of 2005, but it's one of the most successful
comic adaptations in recent memory. (Kevin Ma 2006)
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