To tell you the truth I don’t know why I picked up this movie but I bet it was something to do with Inoue Mao and Yuta Hiraoka rapping (but he never really did). Now seeing as how I watched this film bearing no LARGE expectations in mind I finished somewhat satisfied.
Main cast: Ishihara Hayato, Tasaku Emoto, Hiraoka Yuta, Inoue Mao
Genre: Comedy, somewhat Romance
Length: 117 mins
Released: 2006 Apr 22
Theme song: Walk on by ORANGE RANGE
And if you didn’t know, both are dudes
Synopsis
In the words of Toru, Yui is a wrestling freak, Tetsuo is a studying freak and Akira is just plain freak. After a performance by popular indies group Workaholic, Toru and his group of friends set out to start their own hip-hop group to score chicks. Toru also falls in love with Nagisa, a beautiful girl he saw swim in an aquarium.
Proper way to use a wrestler in a film
My Thoughts
The storyline fits in well with the mould of losers/ idiots/ underdogs try to succeed in a field that they have no previous knowledge in/ suck at (Water Boys, Swing Girls). Other than that template the movie also fits in with boy falls in love with hot, older girl he cannot reach but tries to anyway only finding that the girl right next to him was who he loved. Now just because the movie follows certain cliches it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s bad. Some of the movie is really predictable but I like the fact that 098 didn’t succeed when they first try, their progress during the film isn’t really evident and it’s a shock to see them perform so well during the end.
Toru meets Nagisa
Comedy is the main selling point of this movie and it certainly provides for quite a few chuckles. Most of this comedy is formed around the boys trying to master the art of rap and words like ‘taco’, ‘macho’ and ‘check it out yo’ are thrown around a lot. Some of the characters are quite wacky including the ex-sumo-wrestler man and Yui’s older sister. If comedy is what you’re looking for this movie sure has it and I can’t recall many times where it fell flat.
Workaholic’s live
Somewhere during the movie it develops into more of a romance type thing and in my opinion much of it was forced. I get the whole Nagisa/ Toru/ Yui thing but I seriously don’t get where the Tetsuo angle comes from. It may be just me but Nagisa was kind of cruel leading the poor boy on, it’s hard to believe that a 24 year old would show ‘interest’ in a 18 year old boy (shota lover?). None of this stuff is deep so you can probably overlook it. Other than plot flaws the characters end up quite undeveloped but seeing as how this is just a movie you could also overlook that. By the way Akira is AWESOME!
CHECK IT OUT YO!
As for the visual and aural aspects the movie is not WOW quality but I like the brightness of the rural town. ORANGE RANGE tracks are also there so that makes me happy :D, the song they played at the final concert was pretty damn good too (I think that’s them singing) but I don’t like the snippets of the Workaholic tracks we hear.
Final judgement
6 out of 10, a feel good comedy that won’t change your life but it does make 2 hours of it feel better.
BONUS!! BONUS!!
Walk on by ORANGE RANGE is the theme song so might as well share it.
For some reason I reallllly adore this movie. Such a feel good piece :D
I do agree that some of the romance felt a little off… Nagisa seems to have led Toru on without knowing… but how could she NOT notice. :S I guess she just thought him ‘cute’ and ‘funny’. Ah well.
I still have to watch this. It’s sitting patiently on my hard drive. I just have to find some time…
This movie cheered me up a lot.
I agree that the romance part of it was a little off. It could have been better if it developed better or if someone got together lol
I’m looking for the title of the song they sang in the end. I really like it D: I was wondering if you could tell me about it? :x
I loved the movie too but at the end of the day it was just a good 2 hours.
Looking for that song myself, I really liked it too ^^ can’t help you there but if I find it I’ll add it to this post.
actually…it is possible for Nagisa to have led Toru on without knowing…especially if he is younger..she may have just thought of him as a little brother? I recently made the same mistake..=(
i want to watch this but i dont know where to get it… :(
where did you guys rent this?
Ah I didn’t rent it, I downloaded it. You can do that or watch it from streaming sites :D
oh yea? sugoi! :)
what website did you use?
youtube?
Well I downloaded it but I’m pretty sure something like crunchyroll would have it
whoa! thanks a lot! :)
my girlfriend was an extra on this movie thats why i wanted to watch this.
thanks!
WOAH! Really? LOL, that’s pretty cool
Just watched this movie recently. Wasn’t expecting much either at first, but it does grow on you fairly quickly and the music is pretty catchy as well. I guess i picked this movie after watching worst by chance, although Ichihara Hayato didn’t do as good here, in my opinion. And who doesn’t like Inoue Mao. right
Liking your site by the way.