Nana (2005 movie)
Thu, Feb. 2nd, 2006 05:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceterThe movie is based on the first 4 volumes of Yazawa Ai's manga Nana, which is apparently hugely popular in Japan (it's also one of my favorite series, so I am very biased). One of the things that I love the most about the series is that it's about the friendship between two very different women with the same name, and that while there is a great deal of romance involved, the manga doesn't lose sight of that core friendship (or at least what I've read of it).
In case you haven't read the manga, the story is about Oosaki Nana, a punk rock singer, and Komatsu Nana, an entirely ordinary, somewhat ditzy, girl. The two meet on the train to Tokyo (Nana K. is going there to get a job and be with her boyfriend; Nana O. is pursuing her dreams of being a punk rock star), and eventually end up being roommates.
The movie is adapted almost verbatim from the manga; I recognize snippets of dialogue, and I'm pretty sure they're straight from the Japanese (from my very hazy recollection from reading it years and years ago). My favorite bits are the Nana's voiceovers, particularly the "Ne, Nana..." that Nana K. uses to address Nana O. in the voiceover. It's right from the manga, and I just love the connection between the two and Nana K.'s admiration, which is quite obvious from her voice.
The visuals are also amazing in that they very faithfully reproduce the manga. The window seat and table from the covers of volumes 1 and 2 look pretty much exactly the same, down to the wire details, as do all the outfits. Junko and Kyosuke also look like the stepped right out of the manga.
On the other hand, I had a hard time getting used to live, Japanese, 3D actors in place of Yazawa Ai's very stylized character designs, and while the casting is all around good, I miss the exaggerated SD forms of the characters. I especially miss Nana K.'s enormous smile and her scrunched up, crying face. I suspect most people still wouldn't like Nana K. in the movie, given the general reception from the manga, but I adore her selfishness and her puppy-like eagerness, and I love her very simple and very open devotion to her friends.
The actress playing Nana O. is incredibly skinny, so every time she showed up in a skimpy tank top (very often), I kept wanting to feed her. They also had two songs from Blast (Nana O's band) and one from Trapnest (the rival band) in the movie, but they sounded a little too generically J-Pop for two bands that seemed to adore the Sex Pistols.
Shin also looked too old, oh well. And Nobu looked different from what I thought... I think I was thrown off by his flat, non-spiky, non-blonde hair.
One of my quibbles with the movie was that it interspersed Nana O's flashbacks from vol. 1 throughout, but completely got rid of Nana K's flashbacks from the volume. It unbalanced the movie for me and didn't give Nana K any context, particularly in view of her later interactions with her boyfriend Shouji. Also, it meant that the main focus and drama of the movie was whether or not Nana O. and Ren would get back together.
While I like Nana O., my favorite part of the manga is the two Nanas, and so I dislike this weighting of the movie toward one of them. Nana K. does get development and a lengthy subplot in the movie, but I wish there were more about her need for a boyfriend and etc., which gets explored more in the manga. Without her half of vol. 1, she feels more like Nana O's friend instead of a lead character in and of herself.
The thing with the manga is that while it feels like Nana K. is completely passive while Shouji goes off and falls for Sachiko (one of the few romantic triangles that doesn't make me want to spork my eyes out), put in context of her half of vol. 1, it's character development. Junko says to Nana early on that Shouji isn't the kind of guy that will disappoint her, unlike Asano, but he does. And yes, Nana is a handful to take care of, but... oh, I hurt so much for her when she sees Shouji and Sachiko together.
And I miss being able to see her try to be strong; her reaction to Shouji's infidelity ("Iranai!" she says, "I don't want him!") and her quiet heartbreak is very different from how she dealt with Asano leaving for Tokyo. She misses Shouji and is hurt, yes, but there's an attempt to pull herself together that isn't there in the first volume. And I can't tell if I'm making up this difference, because it's been so long since I've read the manga. But not having Nana's litany of crushes and their ages and her often hilarious methods to get close to them makes her later romance with Shouji and the outcome less significant.
It also makes her much more passive. I can't quite voice why she feels less like a victim in the manga; it's not because she's portrayed to be more at fault, because one of my favorite things about the manga is how Yazawa shows how human everyone is, how prone to error they are. But the parallel with Asano, the breach of trust, all while she really is trying hard to make it in Tokyo, that's what I miss.
And the big climax of the movie is Nana O. and Ren getting back together, thanks in part to Nana K. So that plus the lack of Nana K.'s past makes Nana K. a much more static-feeling character. The director does try to end with Nana K., but it just doesn't feel the same.
In case you haven't read the manga, the story is about Oosaki Nana, a punk rock singer, and Komatsu Nana, an entirely ordinary, somewhat ditzy, girl. The two meet on the train to Tokyo (Nana K. is going there to get a job and be with her boyfriend; Nana O. is pursuing her dreams of being a punk rock star), and eventually end up being roommates.
The movie is adapted almost verbatim from the manga; I recognize snippets of dialogue, and I'm pretty sure they're straight from the Japanese (from my very hazy recollection from reading it years and years ago). My favorite bits are the Nana's voiceovers, particularly the "Ne, Nana..." that Nana K. uses to address Nana O. in the voiceover. It's right from the manga, and I just love the connection between the two and Nana K.'s admiration, which is quite obvious from her voice.
The visuals are also amazing in that they very faithfully reproduce the manga. The window seat and table from the covers of volumes 1 and 2 look pretty much exactly the same, down to the wire details, as do all the outfits. Junko and Kyosuke also look like the stepped right out of the manga.
On the other hand, I had a hard time getting used to live, Japanese, 3D actors in place of Yazawa Ai's very stylized character designs, and while the casting is all around good, I miss the exaggerated SD forms of the characters. I especially miss Nana K.'s enormous smile and her scrunched up, crying face. I suspect most people still wouldn't like Nana K. in the movie, given the general reception from the manga, but I adore her selfishness and her puppy-like eagerness, and I love her very simple and very open devotion to her friends.
The actress playing Nana O. is incredibly skinny, so every time she showed up in a skimpy tank top (very often), I kept wanting to feed her. They also had two songs from Blast (Nana O's band) and one from Trapnest (the rival band) in the movie, but they sounded a little too generically J-Pop for two bands that seemed to adore the Sex Pistols.
Shin also looked too old, oh well. And Nobu looked different from what I thought... I think I was thrown off by his flat, non-spiky, non-blonde hair.
One of my quibbles with the movie was that it interspersed Nana O's flashbacks from vol. 1 throughout, but completely got rid of Nana K's flashbacks from the volume. It unbalanced the movie for me and didn't give Nana K any context, particularly in view of her later interactions with her boyfriend Shouji. Also, it meant that the main focus and drama of the movie was whether or not Nana O. and Ren would get back together.
While I like Nana O., my favorite part of the manga is the two Nanas, and so I dislike this weighting of the movie toward one of them. Nana K. does get development and a lengthy subplot in the movie, but I wish there were more about her need for a boyfriend and etc., which gets explored more in the manga. Without her half of vol. 1, she feels more like Nana O's friend instead of a lead character in and of herself.
The thing with the manga is that while it feels like Nana K. is completely passive while Shouji goes off and falls for Sachiko (one of the few romantic triangles that doesn't make me want to spork my eyes out), put in context of her half of vol. 1, it's character development. Junko says to Nana early on that Shouji isn't the kind of guy that will disappoint her, unlike Asano, but he does. And yes, Nana is a handful to take care of, but... oh, I hurt so much for her when she sees Shouji and Sachiko together.
And I miss being able to see her try to be strong; her reaction to Shouji's infidelity ("Iranai!" she says, "I don't want him!") and her quiet heartbreak is very different from how she dealt with Asano leaving for Tokyo. She misses Shouji and is hurt, yes, but there's an attempt to pull herself together that isn't there in the first volume. And I can't tell if I'm making up this difference, because it's been so long since I've read the manga. But not having Nana's litany of crushes and their ages and her often hilarious methods to get close to them makes her later romance with Shouji and the outcome less significant.
It also makes her much more passive. I can't quite voice why she feels less like a victim in the manga; it's not because she's portrayed to be more at fault, because one of my favorite things about the manga is how Yazawa shows how human everyone is, how prone to error they are. But the parallel with Asano, the breach of trust, all while she really is trying hard to make it in Tokyo, that's what I miss.
And the big climax of the movie is Nana O. and Ren getting back together, thanks in part to Nana K. So that plus the lack of Nana K.'s past makes Nana K. a much more static-feeling character. The director does try to end with Nana K., but it just doesn't feel the same.
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Tue, Feb. 7th, 2006 06:56 pm (UTC)Also, I keep trying to write Nana fic, and yeah. It's been very difficult keeping them straight.
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Tue, Feb. 7th, 2006 07:30 pm (UTC)On the bright side, I found some videos online and finally managed (I think) to get the basic stitches down. We'll see how this goes...