Before I begin this review, I have to point out that I was born in Israel, and have lived in Israel all my life. I know first-hand what it’s like to live under constant threat of war. Very much like in the original film, people soon become Conditioned to Accept Horror and develop a sense of Black Comedy, exemplified in the beginning of the film, when a man jokingly said he was relieved his house was burnt down too, or it would’ve been awkward. (In Israel’s case, for example, the Second Intifáda produced a lot of Gallows Humor about suicide bombing.) Given that both the original novella and the film adaptation were made by people who’d lived in this state, it comes as no surprise, and it made the film very relatable.
Not so in this film. Everyone panics and everything is so damn somber, going unconvincingly in wooden acting through the motions of what people think a traumatic event looks like. It was jarring.
To add insult to injury, while in the original everyone’s Kansai Regional Accent was not commented on and used very matter-of-factly, in the adaptation it was EgregiouslyLampshaded: whenever someone said arigatou (the standard Japanese word for ‘thanks’), it followed with an almost ceremonial òòkínì (the obsolescent Kansai version). It was othering and ridiculing Kansai people and I found it very annoying.
Spare yourself the Live-Action Adaptation Perspective Flip.
Before I begin this review, I have to point out that I was born in Israel, and have lived in Israel all my life. I know first-hand what it’s like to live under constant threat of war. Very much like in the original film, people soon become Conditioned to Accept Horror and develop a sense of Black Comedy, exemplified in the beginning of the film, when a man jokingly said he was relieved his house was burnt down too, or it would’ve been awkward. (In Israel’s case, for example, the Second Intifáda produced a lot of Gallows Humor about suicide bombing.) Given that both the original novella and the film adaptation were made by people who’d lived in this state, it comes as no surprise, and it made the film very relatable.
Not so in this film. Everyone panics and everything is so damn somber, going unconvincingly in wooden acting through the motions of what people think a traumatic event looks like. It was jarring.
To add insult to injury, while in the original everyone’s Kansai Regional Accent was not commented on and used very matter-of-factly, in the adaptation it was Egregiously Lampshaded: whenever someone said arigatou
(the standard Japanese word for ‘thanks’), it followed with an almost ceremonial òòkínì
(the obsolescent Kansai version). It was othering and ridiculing Kansai people and I found it very annoying.
The final nail in the coffin (almost literally) was when the mother got an Adaptational Attractiveness from Bandage Mummy to Bandage Babe, in a rather revolting example of Beauty Is Never Tarnished. If they were going to show war as a Horrifying experience, this fucked it up big time, making everything not just unrealistic but smack of Unfortunate Implications.
That was the point I stopped watching, so now I highly recommend you never start.