MovieChat Forums > Sento Yosei Yukikaze (2002) Discussion > The movie is going to be an abomination.

The movie is going to be an abomination.

posted 11 years ago by shenzhka
2 replies | jump to latest

Hey guys. I posted this on the Yukikaze film board as well, but it bears repeating here.

http://insidemovies.ew.com/2013/04/15/casting-net-cruise-upton/

"Tom Cruise is attached to star in an adaptation of Chohel Kamayashi’s Japanese sci-fi series Yukikaze. In the first book, when a porthole to another dimension opens up over Antarctica, hostile aliens (known as the JAM) start pouring through and a special combat force is created to force the JAM back through the porthole. The story revolves around Second Lieutenant Rei Fukai, who must travel solo through the passageway to gather as much information on the JAM as he can. “Yukikaze” refers to the call sign for his fighter plane, his only companion."

First of all, they spelled the book's author's name wrong. It's not "CHOHEL," it's "CHOHEI."

Secondly... it's about Rei Fukai going in ALONE through the Passageway during the initial JAM invasion with Yukikaze as his robot buddy?

Oh, no. In the original story (both the book and anime), the JAM invasion happened 33 years before the events of the plot. It's background material. It doesn't matter.

The original plot (moreso the novel, the anime butchered a lot of things) had many important themes and debates that are shockingly contemporary, considering it was written in 1984. These themes include:

1. The use of unmanned aerial vehicles and artificial intelligences in war and whether or not that will render the human element of war obsolete.
2. A long-term war being fought in a very remote location, so remote that most people in the world have forgotten about it or don't consider it important to them at all. In addition, the war has no real goals or any end in sight. Am I talking about the fictional war in Yukikaze, or am I talking about the current American-led war in Afghanistan? Kambayashi may have been drawing off of the Soviet military's experience in Afghanistan, but it's shockingly appropriate for the War on Terror today.
3. Just how different are humans from AI? The main character of the novel/anime, Rei Fukai, is so emotionally stunted and his social skills so crippled that he seems more machine than man. It almost makes Yukikaze, who thinks literally and communicates using set phrases from a command line display, warmer in comparison.
4. A truly ALIEN adversary. We know almost nothing about the JAM. We don't even know if they are machine or living beings since the only things humanity sees of them are their war materiel and they seem unable to communicate with humans. The JAM are frightening and intimidating because it does seem as if it is completely impossible for us to understand them, and for them to understand us. (Though I'm told the third novel, "UNBROKEN ARROW" elaborates more on the JAM, however it has not been translated and brought to America unfortunately).

Instead of focusing on the above themes, if they stick with the plot summary I quoted above, then Hollywood is gonna turn this into an Independence Day/Top Gun hybrid that'll end with Tom Cruise blowing up the JAM Death Star and whooping at the top of his lungs as he flies out of a fireball with Yukikaze making some ridiculous joke.

Good God.

[–] 11 years ago

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[–] zerokiryu534 10 years ago

I agree. Although I have not read the novel (but I plan on buying it this week), I have read All You Need Is Kill, which was a fantastic book, but the movie... It looks like it's going to be butchered. Poor choice of actors, I personally don't care for the design of the Jackets... They just change too much of the material. Way too much. I know its to be expected from a movie adaptation, but my biggest disappointment is the name change. I don't believe that the author, Sakurazaka Hiroshi, is shown as much respect than what he really deserves. You've changed the material enough, but really? Was the name change necessary?
Anyway, I just have a feeling in my bones that the live-action adaptation of Yukikaze is going to be bad. And why Tom Cruise, don't get me wrong, I appreciate his work, but he's just too old for this. I mean, the main character in All You Need Is Kill is what? Twenty? And how old is Tom Cruise?
Bring in some younger actors... Good ones at that. Not the ones you see in comedies or flicks or teenage movies. The characters in these movies need to be taken seriously, and those actors won't cut it.

In other words, save these movie adaptations for a producer and director who've read the material and can make a movie that adheres to what the book was meant to be.