Title: BECK – The Movie aka BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad
Genre: Drama
Director: Yukihiko Tsutsumi
Format: Movie; 144 minutes.
Date: 4 Sep 2010

Synopsis: 14-year old Tanaka Yuki, or “Koyuki” as his friends call him, feels that something important is missing in his life. He yearns to be as free as a bird, living life the way he wants without anyone pushing him around and telling him what to do. One day, he witnesses a group of Caucasian hooligans bullying a helpless dog. As Koyuki tries in vain to save the dog, a mysterious man shows up and threatens the group at gunpoint to leave them alone. The man is Minami Ryuusuke, a Japanese talented guitar player from the United States, and he instantly become friends with Koyuki after the incident. Koyuki follows Ryuusuke to his jamming place where he meets the world of indie rock for the first time and realizes his true calling.

The Highlights
Duration: Too long; a discouraging indication of the movie’s direction style.
Story: Way too many events crammed into one movie, some of which are unnecessary.
Casting: They look the part, but their characters and acting are terrible and unnatural.
Chemistry: None; the presence of some characters are questionable.
Events: Exposition overshadows good narrative when it shouldn’t.
Live-action adaptations: My impression towards them has become more cynical.

Judging from the 144-minute length, I had a sinking feeling that BECK would do what Kimi ni Todoke did: try to condense a full-length series worth of content into a single movie. The latter screwed itself up by having horrible pacing and putting too much on its plate, and not to my surprise, BECK ends up having the same outcome. In fact, it’s even worse than I feared for another reason: the movie shatters the positive image of BECK, its manga regarded as one of the best examples of the shounen genre and anime being one of my favorite shows by Madhouse Studios. It may have shoddy animation and an inconclusive ending, but it exemplified what a well-written coming-of-age story should be like. Unfortunately, director Tsutsumi Yukihiko, who previously worked on the otherwise decent 20th Century Boys live-action trilogy, failed to capture the true essence of the original material and has created perhaps the worst live-action adaptation I’ve ever watched.

The characters account for the biggest downfall of BECK. Appearance-wise, the cast looks decently suitable for their respective roles: Mizushima Hiro has the appropriately cocky look as band leader Ryuusuke, the doe-eyed Satoh Takeru fits Koyuki’s boyishness and Kiritani Kenta looks like he’s born for his role as the wild rapping frontman Chiba. However, looking their part is only superficial and it can only do so much when their character revamps are awfully jarring. Instead of being unapproachable and aloof, Ryuusuke is a rather conflicted character that stands on the border between goofiness and angst. Koyuki lacks the charisma of the underdog who rises to the challenge and wins it. Maho is a flower pot whose personality is too cute for one who is supposedly edgy and capricious. Saku and his love interest Hiromi are actually more creepy than likable, especially the way the former meets Koyuki in the story. Speaking of Hiromi, I don’t even understand why she is even in the storyline. All the character interactions lack realistic chemistry. Lastly, topping off the bad characterization is the cast’s acting which, for most parts, is unnatural and amateurish.

As mentioned earlier, BECK‘s execution is heavily compromised by the sheer number of events, which is excessive for a movie. It’s a terrible idea to condense 26 episodes worth of content from the anime into such a format; as a result, hasty transitions from one event to another becomes inevitable and development for almost every character loses credibility. Unnecessary subplots ruin the pot too: the relationship between Koyuki and Maho feels needless, Saku’s love interest serves no purpose, and Ryuusuke’s background story is a flimsy excuse to give the plot some direction. Furthermore, exposition seems to overshadow good narrative: events take place and things happen only for the sake of plot development, and they are executed without attention being paid to solid storytelling. A good story involves exposition being weaved with narrative, and BECK overlooks something so fundamental.

If possible, I would like to ask the director just one question: “what is the point of your movie?”. I really want to know this because BECK‘s identity straddles between a piss-poor loyalty product and a half-assed liberal adaptation. Regardless of its identity though, the plot lacks substance, the story is a mess, the cast is an even bigger mess, the acting is cheesy and the music is substandard for a story that is full of real-life music influences. Worst of all, every time Koyuki gets behind the microphone and begins singing, the screen is deliberately replaced by arbitrary scenery, which is a pathetic (and laughable) attempt at depicting how good he is at it. The only saving grace for BECK are Chiba’s juvenile antics and the one-on-one guitar lessons between Koyuki and Saitou. Other than that, this movie is a shame in light of its previous and more superior adaptations. Just stick with the manga and anime, and forget about even approaching this movie with a ten-foot pole.

The Rating: 3

Reviewed by: AC