MovieChat Forums > 20-seiki shônen: Honkaku kagaku bôken eiga (2008) Discussion > rant. (spoilers for the ending)

rant. (spoilers for the ending)

posted 15 years ago by ashogo
9 replies | jump to latest

The movie was a decent one, and as far as adaptations go it was above average. It's got one of the biggest budgets in japanese film history, a huge cast of famous actors, and a faithful adaptation of the storyline (so far).

but that ending! With the cg work and all the cash they spent I expected the city rampage and Kenji's death to be the most dramatic and intense scene in the movie, but what did they do to the bloody soundtrack?! All throughout the scene there is some generic heavy guitar solo running in the background, making the whole thing feel like some cheap action flick. Even after the explosion and Kenji's death, this blaring guitar continues.

hey guess what-someone. just. died! It was completely out of place and ruined the scene for me. Music can make or break a movie and in this case it definitely broke it. It didn't help that most of the gang didn't seem particularly upset about the death.

[–] n107 15 years ago

I just finished watching the movie last night and I, too, had a problem with the ending. It did seem as if, after taking the time to do everything meticulously throughout the entire movie, the climax was rushed and barely elaborated on.

I do have my own question, since I have yet to read the manga (which I plan to start soon): why was the explosion at the end so big? The bomb Kenji planted certainly didn't look that powerful and even if it was, why'd he only set the timer for 3 minutes. He wouldn't have gotten very far in that time. Was it part of the trap? Will it be explained in part 2 or 3? If it will be explained later, there's no need to answer me, but if it was just a huge exaggeration I'd like to know.

[–] toomobut 15 years ago

i wonder me too, i had read the manga (german) years ago and have not such an explusion in my mind .
the tnt was only big enogh to stop that thing, but that i seem all were dead :)

the later story part will file the 3 minutes but the exlpsion was too big .

it seems a cinema effect the autor said in that british version he had cange saome things , like the friend, but two films to go.

[–] sandy1297 15 years ago

I do have my own question, since I have yet to read the manga (which I plan to start soon): why was the explosion at the end so big? The bomb Kenji planted certainly didn't look that powerful and even if it was, why'd he only set the timer for 3 minutes. He wouldn't have gotten very far in that time. Was it part of the trap? Will it be explained in part 2 or 3? If it will be explained later, there's no need to answer me, but if it was just a huge exaggeration I'd like to know.
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its not explained in the movie (guess there's not enough time)
but in the manga, it is hinted in the story line and shown just before the explosion that the 'robot' is nuclear powered

there's even a scene in the manga where the prime minister of Japan cancel the order to attack the robot after he saw the nuclear sign on it

[–] toomobut 15 years ago

i have qick look in the book 1-12 i have sadly not found the exactly iew of the explusion, , the nuke symbol was only for defend the robot against the millitary if the hit it the nuke could go up.
so i think they change someting for the movie,or the friend blows up random buldings for the explusion. but in the manga it was not so big.

[–] werdnahall 14 years ago

Yeah, the ending sucked, imo. There was no explanation for the nuclear-sized explosion (even if the robot was nuclear powered, it wouldn't just go off like a nuclear bomb). What bothered me even more though was that Kenji made no attempt to get out of there, so entranced, we're supposed to think, by the possibility of learning Friend's identity. And if it was a nuke-sized detonation, how did Friend not die too? Then again, there were believability slips all throughout the movie (e.g. a bunch of crazed cultists getting stopped in their tracks by one aggressively barking yellow lab). I guess, though, marring a fairly interesting concept with believability issues, directorial miscues, and sketchy acting is a bit of a manga-movie tradition.

[–] xxsilverrevolverxx 14 years ago

Uhm...Wasn't that a giant bomb in front of the robot? Like...that's the impression I got. It looked like an upside-down nuclear missile.

Just saying. Even if in the comic book everything alludes to the robot itself being nuclear, that doesn't mean they didn't change the scene for the film.

Thoughts?

"If you mess with the King's Queens, you better watch your Ace, Jack."

[–] jacquesf-1 14 years ago

Just watched the movie... I haven’t read the manga and have yet to see the other two, but I took it that Friend had set up a nuke within the robot so that it would go off together with Kenji’s TNT, thus killing everybody.

But then again, that’s just what I thought it was, I may be wrong.

As for Friend getting killed as well, as I said, I haven’t read the manga nor seen the other movies but I figure, there may be many people behind the mask...

BTW, awesome movie imho, totally sucked me in from beginning till end!

[–] troika19 14 years ago

The Trilogy is a decent adaption (though I think some things from the Manga simply didn't come across very well on screen) of a superb Manga but that explosion was rediculous.

It was hard enough buying into Kenji's survival in the Manga but in the films it was impossible to buy into anyones survival and honestly I think the film makers just wanted to show off their budget and if a Holywood adaption had used the same ending it would have rightly been ripped apart by the majority.

[–] plutomani 10 years ago

Some of these things are elaborated on in the third movie. Friend and his minions foresaw Kenji's actions and deactivated his bomb. They had already rigged the robot with one hellishly powerful unit which was the one that caused the havoc. All the destruction would just make it easier to condemn Kenji and his gang as evil terrorists.

As for the soundtrack, I agree it did seem a bit off at first, but this kind of practice doesn't seem that unusual in Japanese movies/series. I reminded me of the music in FLCL which had the same kind of guitar-based feedback in dramatic scenes.