Forum - View topicREVIEW: Rurouni Kenshin Part I: Origins BD+DVD
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MarshalBanana
 Posts: 5500 |
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I've never been able to get used to live action dub overs.
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Raebo101
 Posts: 813 |
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^ I said the same thing. But then I watched the first Attack on Titan live-action film in English and I really enjoyed the performances. I guess it helps to already be accostemed to the English dub voices from the anime before watching the film.
Micah Solusod got to live his dream of playing Himura Kenshin, so that's cool!  I'll probably watch this film in Japanese, though.
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Jetstream2
 Posts: 32 |
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I'll never understand why someone would watch a Live-Action film in anything other than its original language. It just looks and sounds so wrong...and this is coming from someone that enjoys English dubs of Anime.
It's too bad the rights of the Anime have to be in the hands of Aniplex. If the rights to the Anime belonged to any other company besides Aniplex, it surely would have gotten a re-release on DVD or Blu-ray by now. Thanks a lot Aniplex for letting your older titles stay out-of-print indefinitely 
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11586 |
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Battousai the Killsword?
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KutovoiAnton
 Posts: 958 Location: Vladimir, Russia |
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Well, sometimes, when original acting is bad, dub might fix it. For example, a lot of Russians won't really understand critique of Hayden Christensen's acting in Star Wars prequels, because they watched the movies in the dub. Also, obviously, no one is going to put a foreign movie on the TV or in the theaters without dub. Whether they are good (Disney ones, for example) or a bad ones (Suiside Squad wasn't a good movie, but the dub REALLY didn't help it) is another question. Although when I watch movies at home I definitely will stick to the original track. |
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xchampion
 Posts: 370 Location: Idaho Falls, Idaho |
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The ones worth watching were the cheesy dubbed kungfu movies that would air on Saturday afternoons when I grew up. Kung pow did a great job spoofing them. I watch a lot of asian cinema and I can't stand dub, yet I almost exclusively watch anime dubs. I don't find it that weird that actually. |
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zztop
Posts: 650 |
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I find the Kenshin movies to be one of the better Japanese-produced live action adaptations of manga/anime titles, especially considering the track record of said movies (cheesy, poor acting, comparatively low budgets etc) .
However, I do agree with the reviewer's statement that there's a certain flatness to Kenshin's directing, especially the cinematography. The movies lack a general epic sweeping views establishing shots of Meiji Tokyo, in favour of camera closeups of scenery, which I think hurts the cinematography in this regard. Compare to say, the set designs and sweeping views of scenes of Meiji Tokyo in Hollywood's The Last Samurai and I think the difference is apparent. http://www.harryottodesign.com/uploads/3/4/4/9/34497467/4782141_orig.jpg?423 I understand Kenshin's USD20mil budget pales compared to Samurai's USD140mil budget, and Samurai sacrificed authenticity for epicness. However, it make me wonder if there's a lack of Hollywood level fimmaking techniques in Japan that are being missed out on by Japan's film industry, especially since their neighbours like China and Korea are starting to pick up/woo Hollywood methods to their side. |
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jr240483
 Posts: 4447 Location: New York City,New York,USA |
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no kidding. i am basically a dub only person, but "touma" as kenshin? no thanks. this is one dub version funi should have outsourced and had the original bang zoom cast to reprise their roles. at least it wasnt an anime remake otherwise it might have been worse for some of the dub haters out there. |
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kakoishii
Posts: 741 |
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It might be an aesthetics difference when it comes to cultural sensibilities, but in general, I feel like the money difference is what disallows most Japanese anime adaptations to be less than stellar. Unfortunately, Japan does not have the money hole that is Hollywood in the US to draw from when producing movies, and many of their live action adaptations have suffered for it due to not having the money to shell out for decent looks SFX. For that reason, despite the fact that some of Kenshin's scenes may have lacked a little more cinematic depth, I think it helped that the material overall doesn't require much in the way of SFX and thus they could spend their money in other areas to make the movie feel authentic such as the beautiful sword fighting choreography (some of the best, if not the best I've seen). That said at a 20 million budget, boy did they spend every dime very wisely and they were able to stretch it far. |
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zztop
Posts: 650 |
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Good points, I forgot about Hollywood's (and also China's) big pockets. That said, I wonder if the problem could be overcome if Japan's film industry tried going into co-productions with the West to access their resources, like what China's doing with Hollywood right now with movies like The Great Wall. For example, Hollywood contributes budget, SFX, advanced set construction and advice, Japan provides the (skilled) directors, actors, base cinematography etc. (In Kenshin's case, SFX would mostly be needed to generate CG views of Meiji Tokyo and integrate them seamlessly with real-life sets.) That said, I did like some of the movie's touches, like platform-shoe Kanryu. It really emphasises him as a small, petty man who thinks he's bigger than he really is. |
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DangerMouse
Posts: 3993 |
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That would have been cool. It was actually pretty cool with AoT since it was the existing cast even though live-action is the one time I don't usually watch dubs despite similarly being a big dub watcher/fan. Oh neat, that's pretty cool jr240483, that he'd been a Kenshin fan.
Agreed. I only really watched it on TV and never picked it up but it's still a classic and one that had some importance and impact here, It's crazy that it's out of print with no sign of coming back. The others would have kept something like it in print if they had had it or made it known that it'd be back if possible, and perhaps even given it another DVD release to tide over if a Japanese blu-ray is still some time off, since some more older shows are getting announced for it all the time, like recently Gun x Sword (I hope Funi can bring that over since they rescued the show, that was a cool show). |
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