The First Slam Dunk

For those who know Takehiko Inoue, the author of the manga, he is definitely not the kind of person who likes to repeat what he did in the past. To him, his work on Slam Dunk is done 25y ago. He declined so many times to reboot the manga. When I heard that a movie on Slam Dunk was in production, I didn't expect him to be the director of this movie but the guy is such a perfectionist and he wanted it to be done in his way so he took the challenge, So it's his first movie and what a movie!

On an artistic level, there is a perfect balance between the 3D actions and the painting styles of the original manga. It gives you feeling that you are really in a basketball game. The whole movie is very detail oriented, I found that truly amazing technically. Bravo to the director and his team on that. The music gave the dynamic to the movie, it was a perfect fit.

For those who know the scenario of the original manga, even though the outcome is the same, it was not the copy paste of the original manga. You will discover the same facts under a total different angle and some additional stories which make the movie very consistent. I like the way how Takehiko Inoue described relationships between some characters. That was done in a very elegant way, never too much, quite inline with the Japanese culture.

One of the main reasons why the original manga is legendary is because the whole story was very inspiring for teenagers with a lot of stories that can be seen as life lessons. Besides the characters have strong charisma but stay very real. If you never read the manga, this movie is a good start to discover it.