MovieChat Forums > GTO: Great Teacher Onizuka (1998) Discussion > bad directing + reasonable writing and g...

bad directing + reasonable writing and good acting....

posted 19 years ago by junk_project44
5 replies | jump to latest

...could have made a GU-REA-TO show. (subject space was too short :P)

First of all: keep in mind this is the board for the LIVE action series, not the anime

I've finally seen this series after loving the anime and must say i am somewhat underwhelmed.
The drama did get to me at times, but that was because of very good acting (the part where miyabi finally acknowledges Onizuka as her teacher was very intense, a lot more so than in the anime)

The series has a lot of ups, and some downs. the problem is that the biggest down is the directing, which literally devestates the series.

I'm not yet comparing it to the anime, i'm just going to state the pros and cons (in my opinion)

cons:
- horrible horrible directing: some situations just seem forced and you can tell by the actors not allways knowing how to react.
some scenes are badly done and don't make much sense (some because of shabby writing, but mostly the way they were shot.)
there were so many times when I just wanted to quit, because to be honest, only the last 3-4 episodes felt "good" to me and were touching enough to do make me care a lot about this series.
The bad directing is what makes it feel a lot more unreal and which really makes it hard to care for the series.
- the whole "boycot" thing which just kept dragging on and became quite a bore in the end
- Onizuka NEVER teaches. :P
- Seriously bad directing.
- At times it seemed every episode had to end with a dramatic moment and Onizuka laughing (where after something else happened most of the time :p), so I did feel they went out of there way to create 'dramatic moments' that were unnecessary. (ie: burning of the books)

pros:
- A completely new version of GTO! without betraying the original GTO.
- GOOD acting, This series isn't the GTO-manga or anime and Onizuka is somewhat different from it aswell. Takashi Sorimachi gives his own version of Eikichi Onizuka, he IS Onizuka. in all there was not a lot of 'bad acting' but you could see that some of the characters were not completely themselves in certain scenes.
(I recall the scene in the first episode where the two students walk in to take pictures... Onizuka just sat there looking uncomfortable and almost non responsive, very unlike his character).
- reasonable writing: some scenes just seemed 'wrong'. hanging yoshiko over the balcon, telling an insecure girl to STOP school and take a risk that could possibly ruin her life, burning those books,... it just felt wrong (especially traumatising a 17-year old boy...)
- Comedy: not exagerated, but well implemented most of the time.
- Gu-rea-to touching music which was what truely made the dramatic scense so 'touching'

now, compared to the anime there are some things I liked better in the anime, and some in the LA series, and some that were done great in both series.

cons:
- Onizuka DOESN'T seem to care about his students as much as in the anime. while in the anime he allways stated to want to become a teacher because he wants to become the greatest teacher in japan, to be a teacher that crosses the student-teacher bridge and to be a teacher that cares for his students and will be there for them no matter what.
I found the LA Onizuka's "I wanted to become a teacher because i love school" extremely lame. We do see him caring for his students, but he seems to be caring a lot more for himself.
- I got less the feeling that Onizuka was somebody that could accomplish anything if he set his mind to it.
- not enough Onizuka-student moments. I really missed those Onizuka-Murai moments. I love how the actor that portraid murai handled it, but i still miss onizuka messing with his students :P especially murai
- some scenes felt more intense in the anime-series (like the 'bashing of the wall' scene felt a lot more real/intense in the anime). I do blame this on bad directing though.
- the cowardly director vs the determined woman in GTO-anime.

pros:
- How they merged certain characters together (like kikuchi and kanzaki) flawlessly creating new characters that still fitted good in the series.
- Changing certain characters to make them more "real" like the gym-teacher who was a completely different character. same with fuytsuki, her relationship with Onizuka is a lot more interesting in this series.
- The merging of storylines creating new situations. (sometimes poorly executed though)
- The entire class finally backing Onizuka and getting together to save Onizuka/the school
- The drama, the goddamned touching drama togehter with the music that sometimes really got to me. (and here i was thinking you guys were *beep* >_>)

So mostly the bad directing made the series a lot less enjoyable for me. Around half of the series i wanted to give up but i am glad i didn't. (i'm a sucker for such emotional drama >_>)
Though i'll never show anyone this series, because i know they won't get it or get past the "unreal" feel of it all.

a few last questions though:
1) is "kissing" in japan taboo?
Because in almost all anime i've seen they just imply 'love' and never show anything. The only two anime where i can honestly remember a girl and a boy kissing was 3x3 eyes and it was a shot from very far making it impossible to see it and city hunter (one in the entire series). I even remember Love hina ending three times with the main characters confessing their feelings (and taking it back in the next installment >_>) and even at the very end nothing they never even shared a kiss.
So since in the anime the feelings between Onizuka and Fuyutsuki are only implied (they never even got together) I was finally expecting to see more, to see a couple kissing. But yet again, nothing. Only in the Drama Special we find out they slept together, but that's about it.

2) how did this series do in japan :P i heard the series finale was the most watched event on television ever but don't know about that.

3) why does the drama special end so suddenly? it ends with onizuka being on the phone >_> but why?
does it continue in the movie? (haven't seen it yet because it's supposed to be bad)

I apologize for any crappy benglish (belgian english :P)
___________
http://www.imoscar.com
Daddy Horny Michael :'(

[–] kzarog 18 years ago

I mostly agree with your points, especially with the directing. But most of the times the LA series had more "emotion" than the anime.

as for your questions:

1) Kissing is very rare in Japanese TV. All the time I have been in Japan, I only saw maybe one or two kisses on television.

2) I also heard the same, but I don't know if it referred to the LA or the anime

3) It is meant to say that Onizuka from now on would have to take "missions" in difficult classrooms. He says: "Hokkaido?!" which is the northest large island out of the four consisting Japan. As for the movie, it's bad.

[–] slashersam016 18 years ago

What Do You Expect Hollywood Special Effects?! come on its an asian/japanese film for me this is a magnificent film.

[–] ssj3brian 18 years ago

GTFO. This series was great. 'Nuff said.

[–] FilmGeekWannabe 18 years ago

you forgot

Pro:
POISON

[–] jmhimara 11 years ago

This is the second time I reply to this post but for some reason my first one isn't showing (so I apologize if this is a repeated post)...

I agree with most of your pros and cons, but overall I don't think the directing was as bad as you say. If anything the parts that appear bad are mostly due to bad writing than bad directing. Of course the directing wasn't excellent but I think it was okay for a tv-show. Those amazing drama moments and realistic characters that you mention should be credited to the director (at least 50%)....

Of course the writing wasn't bad (just like you say) but at some parts it could have been a lot better. I think the compression of the entire series in only 12 was ultimately a downgrading factor and had more cons than pros...

The other factor - which makes the directing appear bad - was the limited budget. According to a japanese kid at my school (big manga fan), the budget for this show was extremely small, even for japanese standards (Which I assume to be much lower than US or european)...Less money means bad special effects and bad stunts, but most importantly it means less time available to make the show - and I believe that was the major factor that contributed to the show not being GU-REA-TO!! also I think if they had more money they would have made more episodes which would have solved many other problems

To answer your second question, the show did extremely well in japan, when it wasn't really expected to. According to my japanese friend again, the LA show was the main reason that GTO became so famous outside the manga community. It was also the success of this LA that lead to the creation of the Anime (the anime was made after the LA)

Bottom line is that, just like you say, the show is worth watching but could have been a lot greater, however the problem wasn't as much the directing as you say. Trust me if you watch the 2012 version, the old one is way way better. The new one they made now sucks!!