Ace Attorney

Gyakuten saiban

Japan

2012

134 Min

Color

2.35:1

Japanese

Currently 3.7/5 Stars.
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SCR Takeharu Sakurai, Yukiko Ohguchi

CAST Hiroki Narimiya, Mirei Kiritani, Takumi Saitô, Rei Dan, Shunsuke Daitô, Ryo Ishibashi, Akira Emoto, Kimiko Yo, Akiyoshi Nakao

SOUND Kenji Shibazaki

Rotterdam (Spectrum), !F Istanbul (Hit Films)

Synopsis

Takashi Miike has a reputation for dark, violent films. So it was a surprise when he announced he would be adapting a light-hearted Nintendo game (Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney). But he proves capable of pulling this off. A funny, comic-strip-like, charming film.

Takashi Miike made a film adaptation of the popular Nintendo game Ace Attorney, about the young, rather clumsy lawyer Phoenix Wright, who was also the protagonist of the first three Capcom games. Wright, assisted by old school friends Miles Edgeworth and Larry Butz, has to win several court cases in this story in order to solve a 15-year-old mystery.

Among all the comedy and sci-fi gadgets of the lawyers, the film provides a caricature of the show-business character of Japanese law. Through the immense pressure on the legal system, in the near future of Ace Attorney a case will only be allowed to last three days before the judge takes a decision. Under the enormous pressure of time, it is increasingly important for lawyers to intimidate the other party and give a smooth presentation, even though they say that success is determined by strong evidence. Miike’s typical cartoon style, combined with dynamic game visuals, results in a playful crossover between live-action, game and manga.

Director

Takashi Miike

A contemporary of such noted film experimentalists as Tetsuo: The Iron Man [1989, maverick Japanese workhorse director Takashi Miike became one of the most talked about filmmakers in the international festival circuit. Despite the derailed manic energy of the aforementioned films, it was the stark relationship drama turned sadistic nightmare Audition that found the director receiving increasing international exposure. Audition succeeded in pulling the rug from under viewers as it turned the age-old image of the submissive Japanese female on its head with a shocking and nearly unbearable finale that had many horrified viewers shell-shocked. Born in Osaka, Japan, in 1960, Miike spent his childhood growing up in Osaka, where he eventually opted to study filmmaking at the Yokohama Academy of Visual Arts. Inspired more by Bruce Lee than Seijun Suzuki, Miike’s distinctive style came more as a result of not studying the traditional rules of filmmaking than a conscious attempt to break them… read more

A contemporary of such noted film experimentalists as Tetsuo: The Iron Man [1989, maverick Japanese workhorse director Takashi Miike became one of the most talked about filmmakers in the international festival circuit. Despite the derailed manic energy of the aforementioned films, it was the stark relationship drama turned sadistic nightmare Audition that found the director receiving increasing international exposure. Audition succeeded in pulling the rug from under viewers as it turned the age-old image of the submissive Japanese female on its head with a shocking and nearly unbearable finale that had many horrified viewers shell-shocked. Born in Osaka, Japan, in 1960, Miike spent his childhood growing up in Osaka, where he eventually opted to study filmmaking at the Yokohama Academy of Visual Arts. Inspired more by Bruce Lee than Seijun Suzuki, Miike’s distinctive style came more as a result of not studying the traditional rules of filmmaking than a conscious attempt to break them.

Miike views himself more as an arranger than an author, and his willingness to let a film develop on its own path and constant encouragement of actors and other crew members to flex their creative muscles has resulted in some of the most dynamic films of the last decade. His refusal to succumb to the traditional temptation to produce a film that will please the masses has also been a key factor in the development of his distinctive style, and further refusal to bend to widely accepted narrative structure has earned him both harsh critics and a fiercely loyal fan base. Miike’s films are also frequently targeted for their excessive and often gratuitous violence, though the director sites that the inherent honesty in that violence is more sincere than what he feels is his contemporaries’ romantic misrepresentation of current culture, viewing cinema as an important outlet for such images. Following his directorial debut in 1991, Miike turned out an exhausting 24 films (including two television miniseries) between 1999 and 2002, confirming his status as one of the busiest directors in world cinema. And though Miike may not be a household name, the release of such enticingly quirky and curious efforts as the comedy/musical/horror The Happiness of the Katakuris hints at big things in store for the tireless auteur.

(From http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=2:235203~T1)

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