crows zero

[doug maverick]

i should maybe put this on the miike thread if it gets merged its cool. so i saw this film last night(special thanks to SLL, for hooking me up with the "copy") so ok here we go:


the film centers around genji takaya and his aim to take over suzuran high school from its current leader tamao serizawa and his one time junior high school pal, tokio tatsukawa. i gotta say i liked this film, it was funny and the action was brutal, there was some corny moments like when the love interest is suppose to sing an RnB song but really its just pop music dont know if they know the difference in japan but the whole singing bit was kinda corny and pointless. the other thing is the character tokio had a brain hemorrhage which again served no purpose in the context of the story. but the film was still good, i could nit pick and over analyze(just remember the first four letters in analyze is anal, so when you over analyze your being an a$$) but this movie was not made for that, actually it was very much like the korean film volcano high except that no teachers got involved and nobody had powers. there were alot of kick ass moments in this film and i would recommend it. only thing is i wish i was a teenager when this film came out i would have loved this film i would have been going crazy for it, probably dressing like the characters in it. but now at 25 its just kinda juvenile but still cool to watch, my palate is a little more sophisticated(i blame film school personally). anyway check this one out, im going to pick up the sequal once it comes out here.

[Shaolinlueb]

volcano high was kinda garbage compared to this.

what i liked is that when they fought, they fought. not have dbz like battles.

yeah if i was in highschool i would have gone around owning people like genji.

believe it or not wish serizawa won. but this film was bad ass. definetly one of miike's better works.

not done on cheap film either.

[doug maverick]

well thats one thing i liked about that fight. you didnt know who was gonna when. the actors where acting the fights.

[brothernumber9]

I got this one late last year. I agree, better than Volcano High. The final fight was a bit too choppy for me and included too much of the slow-mo sequences, but I like the simplified kinda story. A micro-cosm of the triad world inside of a highschool, each group fighting for supremacy. If they make a sequel, I'll watch it. The "freshman" group should get their turn, they had some wild looking characters that looked intriguing. Although the movie was full of holes, the actors were very characteristic of how I would imagine them to be in an anime, which I liked.

[doug maverick]

actually miike has made a sequel, dont know if its out yet thou. but looking forward to seing this one.

[GeneChing]

I mentioned it on the Miike thread (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showpost.php?p=929931&postcount=14).

[Violent Designs]

Crows Zero II . . . . is out.

[brothernumber9]

nice. Hopefully won't be too long before the DVD comes out w/subs.

[doug maverick]

was gonna give this its own thread but then decided its best just to consolidate it within this already established crows thread....ok so crows 0 2 was just as good as the first one which is a surprise its been my experience that asian sequels tend to suck compared to the original, but this one was **** good.


so all the characters from the first one are back, the second literally picks up where the first one left off with our hero genji trying to conquer the school brick house rendaman, to no effect he gets his ass handed to him. we then see the former antagonist of the film now a supporting charater sirazawa and his faction.... the film then goes to a man being let out of jail and then into a grave yard we find out that this guy use to lead susaran and he lead them in a war against a rival school, only he played dirty and pulled a knife and murdered the other leader, and was kicked out of school and sent to jail. when he gets out the rival school wants pay back which triggers the entire movie. i wont spoil it for you guys but you should pick it up but you need to watch the first one so you know all the players.

[brothernumber9]

nice. I just got the DVD on Saturday but haven't watched it yet, although I'm not positive the one I bought has english subs. Either way, I'm anxious to watch it now, especailly since the word is that it is decent.

[brothernumber9]

Saw it the other day. The film was pleasingly just like the first one. I just like the "cool" vibe of all the characters. Beatdowns throughout the movie and some funny stuff.
At first I was a little disappointed by the lack of focus on the freshman class, they had some wild looking dudes in the first film, but at the end, was glad that they left an opening for another sequel potentially between the freshman from Suzuran and the other one from Housen.
The movie's action is a little remeniscent of all the old SImon Yam movies from the nineties, with all the massive brawls and little-to-no-need of flashy martial arts choreography, less all the machetes and pipes and baseball bats.