Finally got some time to sit down and write my thoughts for the 3-hour movie on 13 Feb 2021. It was meant to be on screen for a limited period of 2 weeks, but they decided to extend the period until 31 March 2021 at TOHO Cinemas Hibiya located at Tokyo Midtown. Details are updated here.
They also start to sell the movie pamphlet on 19 Feb 2021. You can purchase from the online site. Each person is limited to 2 units of this item.
I went back to read my previous post, and realised I totally misunderstood that the movie was the “Eternal” version but it is actually the full show meant to be shown on stage in 2020.
TOHO Cinemas Hibiya
While the movie is showing across many movie theatres, I deliberately selected the one at TOHO Cinemas Hibiya because of the size of the movie theatre. Considering it’s a 3-hour show, it’s important to make sure I was seated at a comfortable seat, comfortable range from the screen. Even with the COVID-19 emergency state of declaration, the theatre was full house on a Saturday afternoon.
Sense of “Live Performance”
Like what was mentioned in the report on the first day, they made full use of the fact that this is a movie and tried to give the audience different angles of the show. Using crane and drone cameras, it was really exciting to see the show from a different angle.
Some favourite scenes
My personal favourite is watching the battle scenes in such a close-up manner. You get to understand where Koichi is hoping the audience will focus on in this performance. In the theatre version, the audience is free to focus on where they want, and seriously this scene is an art where you have more than 20 people trying to “fight” in such a cheoregrahed manner. Of course we don’t get to rewind and watch any of the parts during a live show and during this movie.
The last part of Act 1 is also where you get to see Koichi rolling down the stairs from the side. Because this is a movie, there is no break time between Act 1 and Act 2 too. They did a really nice connection with the orchestra to start Act 2 as well.
Some of my favourite dance performances like “Solitary” and “Yoru no Umi” are also those scenes that will never go wrong. No matter from which angle, they are always beautiful with the music, dance, and lights.
The “Live” feel
Koichi mentioned somewhere that he hopes that the audience will clap and respond during the movie as well, so we have some audience clapping at the exact spots, similar to when we are watching the stage version. Everyone did gave a nice applause at the end, minus the standing ovation.
Overall
Like how they have announced the Blu-ray/DVD release of the movie for Takizawa Kabuki ZERO 2020 The Movie, I’m really hoping they will release the same for this movie too so that I can rewind and loop my favourite scenes!
Thank you Koichi, SHOCK cast and company for this movie experience!
