| I really enjoyed the first
Nana
(2005) film, as is evidenced from my review.
To me, that film provided a decent story,
engaging characters, and plenty of catchy
tunes, all based around Ai Yazawa's extremely
popular manga series. The first film made
enough money that a sequel was quickly put
into production with the same director, Kentaro
Otani, albeit with a few changes. This time
around Otani also wrote the screenplay, replacing
Taeko Asano who wrote the first film, and
several casting changes were made—most
crucially, Yui Ichikawa replacing Aoi Miyazaki
as Nana Komatsu, aka "Hachi." Suffice
it to say, Nana 2 was not particularly
successful monetarily speaking, and has received
a thrashing from fans of the first film and
the critics alike. Nevertheless, I remained
relatively optimistic, and recently had the
opportunity to sit down and make acquaintance
with the spurned sequel sibling due to the
magic of Netflix. My opinion coming off the
end is that the movie is considerably better
than the critics give it credit for, although
I certainly understand much of the disappointment.
Still, let's not get ahead of ourselves.
Nana 2 takes place directly
after the events of the first film. Nana Osaki
(portrayed again by pop-star Mika Nakashima),
head singer of the as-yet-unsigned rock band
Black Stones, has made it back together with
her boyfriend Ren (Nobuo Kyo, replacing Nana's
Ryuhei Matsuda), while "Hachi" (Zebraman's
Yui Ichikawa), Nana's roommate and best friend,
is now single, and desperately lonely. To
make matters worse, Hachi gets fired from
her job after being berated by her boss, and
is at an all time low, feeling left out and
worthless next to what she sees as the spectacular
life of the rock star that Nana aspires to
become. Thus, when the studly drummer from
the wildly popular rock band Trapnest, Takumi
(Check
it Out, Yo!'s Tetsuji Tamayama), takes
an interest in her, Hachi immediately clings
to him as a pleasurable escape, going with
him to a fancy hotel and spending therein
a night of passion (though the audience never
sees this). Now, Hachi knows Takumi is a playboy,
and she also knows she is just setting herself
up to be hurt, and badly, so she doesn't tell
anyone of her little tryst, hiding it from
her roommate and all of her friends. Nana,
meanwhile, finally gets the Black Stones signed
to a record deal, thus throwing her life into
a whirlwind of busyness and publicity, further
pulling her away from her friendship with
Hachi. Suffice it to say that it is Hachi
who has the stormiest emotions; she breaks
up with Takumi and starts going out with the
much kinder, goofier Nobu (Hiroki Narimiya,
from Azumi),
the Black Stones' guitarist and song-scribe.
When it turns out Hachi is pregnant and she
doesn't know who the father is, her life and
her friendship with Nana becomes thrown into
terrible turmoil, and what she should do next
seems very unclear.
The plot of Nana 2 is
considerably more melancholic than the original,
and the relationships are more strained as
deceptions and confusions mount. There is
a lot of plot detail to cover here, mostly
involving Hachi and her relational snafu,
and sometimes character motivations can become
cloudy, although I could follow the action
easily for the most part, even without having
read the comics. Once again, the main characters
are complex—most especially Hachi and
her web of conflicting emotions and duties.
Unfortunately, because of the heavy focus
on Hachi and her love triangle, Nana Osaki
gets less attention, and a number of important
characters from the original movie are either
excised entirely, or rate what amounts to
a cameo appearance. There is a strong reason
for that plot choice—Hachi's relationships
are more relevant and deserve the attention
they get, especially considering it was Nana's
plot that took some precedence in the original.
Hachi's tale would have been impossible to
handle with multiple side stories unless it
was spread over several movies; screenwriter/director
Otani seems to have done the best he could
have with the material, and once again I came
away impressed, and here is why:
Nana 2 doesn't try to
oversimplify Hachi's relationships, like a
lot of chick flicks might do. In the love
triangle, neither Takumi nor Nobu is villainized
so as to make for easy solutions. Both have
their faults, and Hachi's final choice isn't
necessarily obvious. Also:
In Nana 2, actions have
consequences. When Hachi or Nana makes a choice
in their lives, it deeply affects them and
their relationships. One reason I don't like
a lot of chick flicks is that they present
these idealized relationships or shallow,
sexualized partners wherein the attraction
makes little sense, and the choices the lovers
make don't affect their lives—except
when they "fall in love" with the
perfect man/woman and live happily ever after.
In Nana 2, Hachi's desperately emotional
sleepover with Takumi results in pregnancy
and changes her life forever, and even when
she goes out with the more noble Nobu, her
motivations are definitely mixed. Nana's relationship
with Ren also becomes more complicated, affecting
her chances at "making it" as a
band. In Nana 2, there is no happily
ever after, merely happy as they can be with
the circumstances, living with the mistakes
they've made and pressing forward as best
they can. As a major recurring theme in the
film states blatantly, a dream coming true
doesn't equate with happiness. Sometimes,
dreams can make things worse.
Much like with the first film,
the acting is of variable quality, but mostly
strong. Mika Nakashima actually surprised
me here as Nana; she is not a professional
actor, and her performance in the first film
was sometimes weakened by her stilted delivery.
It's amazing how she has matured; though she
doesn't have as much screen time here, she
embodies the awkward position Nana Osaki has
as Hachi's close friend in a time of emotional
upheaval, and deliver's the most convincing
crying in the entire film.
Of course, the biggest weight
is on Yui Ichikawa as Hachi, both because
she is replacing Aoi Miyazaki, who many fans
loved, and because her part is so central
to the film's narrative, more so than any
other character. I believe that her recasting,
as well as the recasting of Ren and Shin,
turned off a number of viewers and likely
inspired more hate than most other aspects
of the film. It's hard to get used to new
faces, new voices, and new personalities taking
over familiar, well-loved roles. Thus, any
flaws in the new actor's performance, or even
perceived flaws, become even more pronounced
to fans who wanted to see their favorite character
portrayed by that former familiar face. Let's
get this straight right here: Yui Ichikawa
is not bad as Hachi. She is not Aoi Miyazaki,
and her take on the character is different—less
"pink and pretty" and more "emotionally
vulnerable"—but it is also, in
my opinion from what I have read of the comics,
truer to Ai Yazawa's original conception of
Hachi. Miyazaki, wonderful as she was, portrayed
Hachi as a bubbly, somewhat dopey girlie girl,
entranced by romance, but essentially virginal.
Ichikawa's Hachi is slightly less dopey, but
just as boy-crazy, except now she is also
(as in the comic) very much open to sexual
encounters. She doesn't sparkle like Miyazaki,
but she doesn't have to. This isn't a sparkly
movie.
On the other hand, I would
be going too far in Ichikawa's defense if
I said her performance was flawless. It is
a decent performance, and she gives it her
best, but the role calls for a range of emotional
expression that was simply beyond Ichikawa's
skill level at that time, particularly in
some of the more weepy scenes. In fact, there
are moments when she comes across as downright
bland. I would never want to say she did badly,
but neither was she exceptional, which, to
some fans, equals condemnation.
Hachi's love interests, both
actors returning from Nana, fulfill their
roles competently. Tetsuji Tamayama, as Hachi's
celebrity crush Takumi, portrays the rocker's
emotional distance and surprising maturity
well, throwing his money around and possessing
remarkable insight, but never quite understanding
how to be sensitive to a woman's needs. Hiroki
Narimiya, as the songwriter Nobu from Nana's
band, is something of a cheerful bleeding
heart, fiercely loyal, but indecisive; he
is easily likable.
Other than Hachi, two more
characters are portrayed by new actors in
Nana 2: Nana's boyfriend Ren, and Black
Stones' 15-year-old bassist Shin. In the original
film, Ren was portrayed by Cutie Honey's
Ryuhei Matsuda, and his part was very significant;
in Nana 2, Matsuda is replaced by Nobuo
Kyo, and his part is very small, popping up
occasionally as someone for Nana to run to.
Basically, Kyo's biggest impression as Ren
is that he looks different from Matsuda. His
part isn't big enough for anything more.
Shin is different. At first
I didn't like that Kanata Hongo (who played
the eponymous The Prince of Tennis
that same year) replaced Kenichi Matsuyama,
who must have been very busy portraying L
in TWO Death Note movies in 2006. I
like Matsuyama; his presence on-screen is
enjoyable to me. But Hongo actually performed
just as well as the overly mature teenager
Shin. Hongo has an earnestness that translates
well to the screen, and eventually I couldn't
help but accept him as a decent substitute.
Other characters, like Hachi's
friend Junko and her boyfriend, barely even
appear, but it's probably just as well. They
were sacrificed for economy, which was essential
in producing this movie. Otherwise the film
would have been three hours long, or split
into two parts. Considering what this movie
is, the narrative choices made work in its
favor.
Musically, Nana 2 is
a step down from the original. Though the
sequel has some new songs both from Mika Nakashima
as Nana and Yuna Ito as Reira, none of them
are quite as memorable as what we had in the
first film, and one of Nakashima's songs is
actually grating. Ito is quite the songbird,
though, and I enjoyed her work here, even
if it may not have been as good as what she
did in the first movie. On the other hand,
Nana 2 also doesn't linger overly long
on the concerts, which was a minor problem
from the first film. Other than the pop songs,
though, the soundtrack is surprisingly silent
most of the time, making some of the emotionally
arresting sequences stark and, for me, more
arresting, and relegating the soft instrumental
themes to occasional, more subtle use. Unfortunately,
though, these instrumental themes are completely
forgettable, and they certainly exited my
brain shortly after the movie was finished.
Nana 2 is harshly criticized
by many, and unfairly so. I felt the screenwriter
deftly edited the material into a manageable
level for the purposes of the movie medium
while still maintaining a decent level of
character complexity and thematic interest,
which is no small feat. True, the casting
changes were unfortunate, and the story could
have been even better in a longer treatment,
but I felt Nana 2 succeeded in portraying
a complicated, relational story far better
than some other manga adaptations, such as
the abysmal Honey and Clover. I may
be in the minority, but my opinion is that
Nana 2 is a worthy sequel to the original,
even with its flaws.
|
(3.5/5)