Bankúbá no Asahi

Beautiful costumes, even more beautiful sets. Those two things were really fancy. The acting was also very decent, but where I was surprised by the shoddy acting were the Canadians, because usually in Japanese affairs, foreigners are not well acted, portrayed. I can't complain here. Maybe only Kamenashi, he didn't impress me much. But the pace of the story... the 132 minutes felt more like a whole morning. At times there were such boring-slow-uninteresting passages that I had to go read what was going on in the world. I also felt that for how long the film was, there was little focus on the characters – and there were so many! I think it would have been better to give proper attention to one, Reggie (and his family), played by Tsumabuki Satoshi, or to divide the attention more between three players at most. But it just kind of weirdly jumped back and forth. I understand the intent, it was enough to hint at it and one immediately understood what was going on and why a character was, for example, acting or behaving the way they were, but it just wasn't enough for me. It could have used more depth. I didn't really enjoy the suspense of the fights either; not that I minded it in any extreme way, but if you're expecting a lot of thrilling fights, you'll be disappointed, this just isn't a sports movie. The sports here are just the lubricant to drive the film forward. Tsumabuki, however, always played perfectly when things went right. Proper shock and calm even though his heart was pounding with excitement. So I really liked how quietly the boys always took some success or failure. There’s always posing, but here... pleasantly refreshing. A Japanese suggestive film about the misery and brilliance of Japanese immigrants in Canada playing baseball. Despite the sometimes sleepy pace, just barely 4 stars. (2015.08.05)