Gintama (2017) Review

Gintama | Blu-ray & DVD (Well Go USA)

Director: Yuichi Fukuda
Cast: Shun Oguri, Masaki Suda, Kanna Hashimoto, Masaki Okada, Masami Nagasawa, Tsuyoshi Muro, Kankuro Nakamura, Yuya Yagira, Ryo Yoshizawa
Running Time: 130 min.

By Kelly Warner

It’s the age of the comic book movie in Hollywood. And though you can argue that there is an oversaturation of such films at the theatres, I don’t really think there’s much debate that the filmmakers have gotten better at making these movies. Likewise, Japan is going through a bit of a manga adaptation period. The cause for both film trends is partly that special effects have caught up with comic book storytelling, but perhaps mostly because a comic/manga adaptation is a reliably easy sell for a shrinking theatre audience. If I am allowed to follow this line of thought further and make another comparison, then I would say that Gintama may be the Japanese equivalent of Deadpool, not because of any similar themes or visuals, but for its shared interest in genre self-deprecation, meta humor, and fourth wall-shattering antics.

I’m not oblivious to anime and have enjoyed a handful of good shows and movies over the years. But Gintama, which was a manga before becoming a long-running anime series in 2005, completely slipped past my radar. When I sat down to watch and review the live-action adaptation, I did so with only the most basic understanding of what I was getting myself into (honestly, I just read that it had samurai in it and said, Sure, I’ll watch that). Um, it quickly became apparent that Gintama is… kind of weird. And though it tries to make itself relatable to new audiences (there’s even a moment where the characters note that longtime fans will undoubtedly have complaints so appealing to general audiences is a must), it’s not the easiest nut to crack.

We get a rundown of the Gintama universe’s history before jumping into the plot. Aliens came to Japan during the samurai period when Tokyo was still known as Edo, forever changing the country and making it a bizarre mix of tradition and modern tech at a rapid pace. There was a resistance to the alien invaders (known as Sky People), but the aliens proved victorious and formed an allegiance with the Edo government, forcing freedom fighters to work in the shadows. Now aliens walk the streets amongst us. Jaguar people. Fish people. Weirdo horned people. The aliens are treated as an elevated social class. And it’s here that I thought maybe Gintama was a sci-fi take on the post-war American occupation, with the huge leaps in tech and culture a thinly veiled look at the nation’s westernization. But that thought quickly vanished when the heroes go on a beetle hunt, encounter the 90% naked police chief covered in honey, an expressionless alien bird thing named Elizabeth who talks by holding up signs, and a cigarette smoking guy slathering mayonnaise onto trees. Uh, okay. You have my attention, Gintama.

The movie begins by throwing everything at the viewer that they can handle and then some. Then it restarts itself. There’s a moment when irritating little cartoon representations of the stars stop the movie, give us a brief rundown of ‘it’s a long story,’ and then joke about Warner Bros. lawyers before the WB logo shows up for the second time and the movie begins anew. It’s… something else. It’s also the moment when I think some viewers may decide they’ve seen enough and check out. This would be a shame, as the movie does settle down (just a bit) after the scattershot opening and a crowded first act.

It’s not all fun and games in Gintama. There’s a serial killer stalking the streets with a robotic sword that’s like something out of Soul Calibur. After the killer, who is known as Nizo the Butcher (Hirofumi Arai, Blood & Bones), strikes down a hero resistance fighter on the streets, it’s up to a group of friends who specialize in heroic odd jobs to track down the killer and bring him to justice. Among them is the white-haired rogue Gintoki (Shun Oguri, Lupin the 3rd), the blue-eyed alien girl with an addiction to ramen, Kagura (Kanna Hashimoto, I Wish), and the shy wannabe tough guy Shimura (Masaki Suda, Assassination Classroom). Their investigation leads them to a ship in the harbor and a group of extremists who plot to attack the city and overthrow the government.

The plot, once it gets going, is actually fairly well constructed. There’s a good deal of drama and action to accompany all the very Japanese comedy. A final showdown between Nizo, who becomes more and more like a Testsuo: The Iron Man monster as the film goes along, and the wounded Gintoki is over the top but not totally unfamiliar to fans of samurai action cinema. And the ensemble cast, which includes that alien bird thing named Elizabeth (played by Takayuki Yamada, of all people), give the audience some memorable scenes as conflicts come to a head.

It’s the comedy that won me over, however. There are many in-jokes for fans of the series and fans of popular anime that went right over my head (one gag with a Miyazaki character gave me a laugh, though), but it’s done with such madcap energy that you just gotta hold on and go with it. There’s physical comedy, sight gags, and no shortage of good lines. The actors are so into it. In addition to the main cast, supporting actors like Kankuro Nakamura, Ken Yasuda, and Masami Nagasawa all put in great work. But it’s Kanna Hashimoto and Jiro Sato who are the MVPs of the cast, each putting on comedic master classes that delighted me to no end.

Some of the comedy doesn’t work quite as well. In anime, there are a few frequent sight gags that you’ll see in almost every mainstream show; the bloody nose in a moment of embarrassment or in the company of hotness, the shock falls where one or many people hit the floor in an instant, and the slow-mo punch in the face for comedic effect. When these appear in animation, I accept them, because I feel the medium supports them. But they’re beginning to appear in live-action with groan-inducing results. Gintama uses the slow-mo punch gag a lot. Too much. And I tired of it long before the end.

Gintama is something like the halfway point in Japanese cinema where mainstream comic book entertainment meets WTF comedy. Writer/director Yuichi Fukuda made his name by crafting some of the weirdest comedies of the past decade or more, most notably the Hentai Kamen: Forbidden Super Hero films which feature a chiseled young man wearing fishnet stockings, a string bikini, and a pair of panties for a mask. Gintama is more mainstream and less pervy than those films, but still perhaps too strange an introduction for Japan’s peculiar brand of comedy.

I find Gintama a difficult film to rate as well as a difficult film to offer a general recommendation for. I liked it. But I also didn’t totally get it. Bigger fans of anime than myself will get a whole lot more out of it, as the film was clearly made with them in mind. (Fans of Gintama, I have no idea how you’ll feel. Maybe it’s a masterful adaptation, maybe it’s a bastardization. You be the judge.) All I know is that I had fun. It’s big, dumb, and strange. I just read that Gintama Part 2 is supposed to be on its way later this year and I am excited about the prospect of revisiting this anything-goes world of samurai, idiots, and aliens.

Kelly Warner’s Rating: 6.5/10