I managed to catch the live action movie The Promised Neverland on its opening day in Japan. The original work is a manga which also has a TV anime adaptation. Season 1 of the anime series was shown on Fuji TV, and this live action movie was also produced under Fuji TV. Season 2 of the anime series will be showing on Fuji TV from January 2021.
Anyway, the movie basically covers the exact same storyline as Season 1. From Coney's departure, up till the great escape. I guess this is also to be expected, since both anime series and live action movie are being produced under Fuji TV. They probably want to avoid overlaps between the movie and the upcoming second season.
This post is not going to be a review, but more about my thoughts on the movie. Personally, I think this live action adaptation was okay. Not great. But not bad. There are many cases where live action adaptations fail, but this is not one of them. However, what prevents it from being great is the story. Live action adaptations usually work better when the story itself is more realistic in terms of human behaviour. Emma, Norman, and Ray, though, are not characters that you will actually find in the real world. They are very extreme characters. Which makes the movie a bit hard to accept when these characters are being portrayed by real people. I mean, when they appear as hand-drawn characters in manga and anime, it is easier to accept their extreme behaviours. But when you see a person in flesh and blood trying to do the same... it is harder to believe, and therefore harder to accept.
The movie covers the same story as the first season of the anime series,
which means you are trying to fit a 4-hour story into a 2-hour movie.
Obviously, this means certain portions are not given the same attention
as in the anime series. Especially the first part of the movie, which really skimmed over many
details since the real action is in the later part of the movie (the
escape). But it is the first part which provides the setting and the
context to understand the later part. Personally, I think the movie
managed to get most of the important parts in, but I really don't know
why Japanese live action movies seem to keep within 2 hours nowadays. If
they had devoted an extra 15 to 20 minutes to give expand on some of
the scenes, it would probably be easier to understand the overall story.
The cast was also another issue. The manga has characters below 12 years old. Trying to find child actors who can portray such extreme characters properly is a challenge, so I can understand the production staff changing the setting to 16 years old instead, and getting teenagers and young adults to play the lead roles. But it is the young age of the original characters that made the story so captivating. Raising that age makes it easier to find people to portray the characters, but it takes away an element of excitement from the overall story.
The disparity in acting skills was also somewhat distracting. Kitagawa Keiko is the perfect Isabella. Hamabe Minami is a good actress and she can play the role of Emma well... maybe too well. Emma's character is endearing because there is a small naive part of her, but I think Hamabe Minami overemphasises the character too much, and a naive 15 year old is no longer endearing; she looks plain childish instead. The rest of the cast are a bit too inexperienced to fully portray the complexities of their roles, although they did put full effort and I can see they have done their best.
But if anything, this show is worth watching just to see Kitagawa Keiko as Isabella. The perfect Mama. I don't think it is fair to say she is a perfect fit for Isabella. Maybe it is more accurate to say that Isabella seemed to have been created for her to portray. 😅
Anyway, it is in the theatres now, and better than some live action adaptation that I caught a couple of months back...
Last updated on 19 December 2020
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