Directed by Yu Suzuki 90mins. Sega/Tokuma (In English with Japanese subtitles)
After a while of getting ready for school and picking up books for classes, I finally settled down for an hour and a half to watch Shenmue The Movie. The movie is based on Shenmue's first game Chapter 1: Yokosuka, part of a sixteen part series that begins in 1986 with Ryo Hazuki witnessing the murder of his father Iwao at the hand of Lan Di, the mysterious and deadly leader of the Chinese Mafia group known as ChiYoMen. Lan Di has also taken a strange relic known as the Dragon Mirror. Ryo swears revenge against Lan Di and begins a quest to bring justice to his father. But as his adventure begins, he will discover a destiny which he cannot yet imagine.
I really loved the game because it brought the nostalgia of 80's games like River City Ransom and Double Dragon or the manga Rokudenshi Blues and even the Rock-A-Billy punk rock look from that era, back. But I was a little disappointed by how the movie went. Certain music and settings moved with a pace that wasn't easy to immerse yourself in like the game. But than again, the movie did feel like a movie. Things looked like there was a shot list and set up to feel like a story.
On the technical side, Shenmue has a few flaws. One is, in at least 2 places in the movie, it will slow down like in a game. Another is that the movie will use the Free Battle and Free Quest portions of the game for fight scenes or when Ryo opens doors and sneaks into places. This looks silly and is disconcerting, its like watching clips from a videogame as opposed to cinematic footage.
Though the feeling of those early games is still there, it is not quite the way I had hoped for. On the other hand, Yu Suzuki, who created Shenmue and many classic simulation games, has made a direct adaptation (And is know doing a Shenmue 2 movie.) that other game developers, who want to expand their games into films, must be envious of. The movie is also a good starter point for those who want to play Shenmue 2 (There is a 13 minute digest movie on the Dreamcast version but who knows if it'll still be on XBOX), which in my opinion, is a far greater game in terms of adventure and spectacle. I recommend the movie to fans of the game, but I think people unfamiliar with the game might find it worthwhile.
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