Brave Gunjyo Senki is a pretty solid live-action adaptation.

 

This blog post is a tribute to the late, great actor Haruma Miura. Miura-san had become one of the actors whose work I would seek out and knowing that he was in it, it'd be almost a certainty that I'd enjoy it. After he died, it was incredibly difficult to watch his works as the pain and sorrow of his loss was heavy. In fact, I put off watching his last work, the posthumously released live-action adaptation of Brave Gunjyo Senki for quite some time, a couple of years in fact. Well, I finally watched the movie and I have to say that it was a sad and yet well made movie which brought an emotional response from me. 

In modern times at a rather prestigious high school, a senior student by the name of Rui Fuwa suddenly disappears. One year later as the students all take part in their various club activities, lightning strikes the school grounds and in particular, a strange rock that resides within the school centre. That lightning strike is swiftly followed by the appearance of samurai belonging to Nobunaga Oda's clan and are led by the mysterious Yanada. The samurai slaughter a great number of students before taking a small number as hostages. Dejected, the students bury the dead and mourn their losses before Motoyasu Matsudaira, the future Ieyasu Tokugawa appears and makes a deal with the archery clubs Aoi Nishino. Aoi's deal involves attacking Maruno Fort and in turn, rescuing the hostages after Matsudaira encourages him. 

The concept of Gunjyo Senki is rather fascinating. I love the idea of a whole school being sent back in time and the science clubs attempts to explain how lightning hitting the rock makes the time travel occur is quite interesting and well done, even if I don't believe it'd work like that. The use of the Sengoku Jidai is un as it's a fun time period which I have studied previously myself and so, seeing depictions of famous historical figures such as Hideyoshi Toyotomi, Ieyasu Tokugawa and Nobunaga Oda is always intriguing. What Gunjyo Senki does well is differentiating itself from other time travel stories by not having Nobunaga Oda as the heroic Sengoku Jidai period figure, which is a refreshing change. 

One of the main issues with having the whole school be sent back in time is the abundance of main characters that are left even with a large number of students being murdered. The reason this is a problem is due to the limited amount of time one has when crafting a movie as it limits the amount of character development that can be shown on screen. This was the case for Gunjyo Senki with Aoi and Haruka Sena getting the most development and even then, there could have been more. 

Despite the limited development they had, the characters still managed to gain an emotional response from me due to some really hard hitting scenes. One scene in particular that was hard not to emote at was the scene in which Tetsuo Takahashi, the captain of the school's American Football team, tears up at the thought of not being able to thank his mother one more time for the food she made him. The others chime in with little snippets of their lives in the future as well and they all ball their eyes out. What makes this hit even harder is the fact that the students are using arts of war that were used in the Sengoku Jidai such as Kendo and Karate, for the first time as they were originally intended to be. It's little touches like this that really make the deaths of the students much more emotional. 

Katsuyuki Motohiro's direction was superb for the movie. He got the most out of the actors and worked incredibly hard to make the condensed version of the manga work and be coherent. I thought that the script from Masahiro Yamaura and Toru Yamamoto was pretty tight and worked well for a movie, even if I'd have liked to see what they could do with a TV series a bit more to allow for more details to be brought in. Motohiro used a wide variety of shot types with a lot of dynamic fluidity in the moving camera shots. Rarely was the camera completely static with it moving around scenes and it made for a rather pleasant viewing experience. My favourite shot is towards the latter part of the movie with Aoi practicing with the fallen Kouta's bokken. The wide angle shot with the sunset in the background is majestic. 

The camerawork is also really good in the action sequences. Everything is clear and precisely framed as the camera moves around following the action. I love the shots that focus on the sword and spear as Aoi and Yanada face off, the way the weapons glean in the sunlight is beautiful. Also, the contrast between the bright sun of the climatic battle and the miserable cloud filled, grey skied opening slaughter really set different tones and serve a purpose. The choreography itself is pretty solid, especially in the final showdown between Aoi and Yanada. The usage of the various school sports teams equipment and the science clubs gadgets was rather fun. Besides the climatic showdown, I loved the teamwork between Yuta Naruse's fencing and Ren Sagara's karate as well as Toshiaki's one gloved boxing. Although, I do question just how effective an American Football's charge would be against opponents with naginatas and swords. 

In his final movie role, Haruma Miura showcased his tremendous talent. He made Motoyasu Matsudaira a very likable figure and his friendship/mentorship with Aoi was one of the highlights of the movie. His pep talk that he gives Aoi as he sees the latter grieving is a beautiful scene as he encourages the archer to fight. His performance was poignant and moving, and he managed to be sincere and convincing. 

Mackenyu was pretty good as the leading man, Nishino Aoi. His character arc is pretty much fast tracked by the limits of the movie's runtime, but it still manages to pull off a solid change in his mentality as he finds the strength to fight. He annoyed me in the first half of the movie with his inability to shoot arrows as his friends were being murdered, something which I grow tired of in protagonists pretty swiftly, but thankfully he grows a pair. Mackenyu's martial arts abilities were put to good use in his climatic showdown with Yanada. I'm a sucker for romantic undertones and close friendships and I loved the developed dynamic between Aoi and Haruka. I smiled when Haruka came back to aid Aoi against Yanada and their closeness worked in part due to the great chemistry between Mackenyu and Hirona Yamazaki. Their scenes at the end of the movie got to me. 

Nobuyuki Suzuki was excellent in his limited screen time as Aoi and Haruka's good friend, the kendo expert, Kouta Matsumoto. His heroic nature contrasted well with Aoi's reluctance to act and I enjoyed Haruka pointing out the differences between them being that Kouta is an idealist, whilst Aoi is a realist. He made for a great false protagonist and I was saddened by his death, even if it was heroic.

I wish I could list every single cast member as I thought they all did a really neat job of making what little material they had to work with meaningful. 

Overall, Brave: Gunjyo Senki is a really solid movie and a decent adaptation of Masaki Kasahara's excellent 17 volume manga. I would absolutely recommend it to action movie fans, Sengoku Jidai enthusiasts and fans of time travel stories. Haruma Miura fans would also enjoy seeing the piece of history that is his final, brilliant performance.