THE PRINCE OF TENNIS
More Wacky Sports Action: Tennis No Oujisama
Takeshi Konomi's 'The Prince of Tennis' manga has produced a half-hour weekly radio show, over 100 music CDs, several games, musicals, tons of merchandise and now a live action movie. It was gonna come sooner or later. As always, this review is for the sake of the movie and references to the manga will be avoided, which is fine seeing that I've never read the comic. Prince of Tennis is another casual sports movie that, like many of its cousins of this genre in Asia, is chalk full of law defying physics in the name of manga action. Indeed, you'll see a little Shaolin Soccer here, some Ping Pong there and a dash of shallow drama a la Waterboys. While these movies were delightfully quirky and mildly captivating, POT (as it now will be referred to as) lacks the charm and humor that made the former enjoyable. This sports flick is also devoid of the sportsman's life lesson of "perseverance pays", a common cliché present in some form or another in other sports movies. "Talent triumphs over hard work" maybe? In any case, there are great special effects and some good, standard sports battles/rivalries, but take those out and it's a bit of a bore.
12 year old tennis prodigy Ryoma Echizen is pulled from his studies in America and transfered to Seishun Gakuen, known for its tennis club and talented athletes. While Ryoma regularly practices with his father (played by Goro Kishitani), who is a master of the sport himself, he tries to secure a spot on the school team to play in the regional championships. As he spars with his teammates, Ryoma takes notice of some special tennis playing abilities unique to each person. Ryoma immediately assimilates these talents and quickly proves himself to be a worthy, but cocky, member of the regular team.
Something that would have made POT so much more enjoyable is closer attention to its character development. A glaring oversight that was somewhat crippling. There's an abundance of tennis action (some of it ho-hum) and testosterone fueled staring contests that could have been cut to accommodate these characterizations. Some background on Ryoma's time in America, or the deal with his King-Of-Tennis-father would have been nice. The central focus of the movie is on tennis prodigy Ryoma but the portrayal of his sportsmanship and comradarie towards his circle of teammates and rivals is a bit repulsive. He's basically a cocky little brat throughout the whole movie. It was a bit off putting and pointless so don't expect something very uplifting or triumphant here. Also, his relationship between him and his father is portrayed as an endearing love, but this portrayal felt sloppy and last minute. The same goes for a possible love interest that's introduced to Ryoma but gets lost in the haphazard script. But if you're a fan of POT, view it with some fun in mind and don't take these faults as seriously as I do, then by all means enjoy. For the crowd not in the know, you can see it if you don't have anything else to pick out, casually enjoying the gravity defying tennis antics. For you diehard mangaphiles out there, view (or edit) POT's wikipedia entry for any deviations from the manga.
Director: Yuichi Abe
Genre: Sports Action
Year: 2006
Rating: 6/8
On DVD at HKFlix.com (Japanese Version)
Tags:
5-6 Rating,
Action,
Goro Kishitani,
Manga,
Sports,
Yuichi Abe
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