Beck

I haven't seen the anime, so I won't compare. I almost didn't recognize Satō Takeru here (after all, he looked completely different in Rookies and his personality was different too) and I'm glad for that. I'd say it's also good that we didn't hear him sing, but it was still disappointing. I'm not particularly literate when it comes to sound (singing here). I had a lot of trouble with Beck's musical style at first, but it got better over time, I started to sway to the beat and enjoy it (maybe they were improving by leaps and bounds, who knows, I'm a bit wooden at this and I can't tell that much). I'm not a fan of Hiro, I've never thought of him as anything more than a pretty face, but there was a moment here where he convinced me he was an actor, too. He just convinced me at the moment and I don't know why, it hit me in the gut. That simple scene where he says "Sh-sh-shit". Interesting. I was looking forward to seeing Mukai, but I didn't get much of him, plus the blonde hair doesn't suit him well (so much for the reason I watched the movie, I guess...). I fell in love with Shiori here (I've seen her before in A Little Princess and The Witch Trial, where I remembered her as a pretty face, nothing more, but here she just made it to my list of favorite actresses), her character wasn't annoying at all, on the contrary very cute. On the whole, the film flowed pleasantly, yet the running time was a bit long for my taste. But it was good. EDIT. 26 May 2015: I'm lowering my rating; I watched it today for the second time in 4 years and discovered that, even though it's not a bad movie, it definitely doesn't deserve 4 stars. Oddly enough, what bothered me there the most was how everyone was so blown away by Koyuki's voice, which the viewer couldn't even hear, that they completely forgot they were at a rock concert. A nice musical film full of pretty faces. Well. (2011.03.10)