„Genji, fly!“ - A Crows Zero Review

Originalname:	クロ-ズ　ＺＥＲＯ | Kurozu zero
Also known as:	Crows: Episode 0
Release Date:	27. October 2007
Director:	Takashi Miike
Writer:	Hiroshi Takahashi, Shogo Muto
Cast:	Shun Oguri, Takayuki Yamada, Kyosuke Yabe, Sousuke Takaoka, Meisa Kuroki, Kenta Kiritani, Tsutomu Takahashi, Suzunosuke Tanaka

Plot

Oh. My. God. Where do I start? I mean, this thing can be explained in one sentence: The story of Genjis road to become the ultimate ruler of Suzuran High School.

But that’s not what I’m here for.

So Genji, a son of a Yakuza-boss, comes to Suzuran with the goal to become this school’s king. Suzuran is a boys school for delinquents, where the fist rules over the mind.

Genji beats up some Yakuza guys because they mistake him for Serizawa, Serizawa is currently in the hospital with his friend Tokio, who has a cerebral aneurysm but doesn’t want anybody to know including Serizawa who isn’t pleased about his friend lying to him. (Okay, plot where are you? Stop messing with me!)

Anyway Serizawa is the closest to become Suzurans king. And so Genji wants to battle him but in order to do that he has to gain more people and asks Ken, a Yakuza from a different group, for help. They gain companions and their classes with them: Chuta, Makise and Izaki.

Izaki gets someday beat up by one of Serizawas friends: Tokaji. Genji goes berserk mode and Makise quits the group. Genji talks to Ken and Ken encourages him to continue.

There is a boring love interest for Genji, called Ruka (I hate her btw). She gets kidnapped by Bandos biker gang (BBG xD) who did it under the command of Tokaji.

Genji fights the BBG (in the most awesome hideout ever!!! It has flames!!!) and they go rescue Ruka, who is “in another castle” (Toad’s greeting). There it is shown that Serizawa really didn’t know anything about all this. Ruka is rescued of course. (And believe me, when I say she shouldn’t be saved…)

Tokio prepares himself to go shirtless… Pardon, I mean “for the operation” and the others prepare to fight the epic fight (Rain? Check. Umbrellas? Check. Mud? Check. Epic scream? Check. Slow Mo? Check etc.)

At first, it doesn’t look good for the GPS, but the BBG decide to take Genji’s side and so Genji wins, Tokio survives and even Ken, who was to be shot because he refused to kill Genji, lives.

We leave with Genji fighting Rindaman.

Conlusion

Honestly, I remember the movie being more epic. When I first saw it (it was years ago), I thought: “Wow! Amazing! It’s awesome!” Nowadays, when I watch it, I think: “What? Genji can show emotions? He smiles? CRIES?”

I still like the movie, though. It is very over top. The story was adapted from a Manga and you really feel it like when they were playing Bowling/ Captain-Tsubasa-Soccer with this giant bowl and the human pins. Serizawa kicks it as if it was weighting nothing. Anyway, what happened to the pins? They were blown off the school’s roof.

What else can I say? The actors are awesome. Ah, wait. Ruka. I have to explain why I don’t like her. I think she is pretty useless. Just like Princess Peach. She’s just there to sing and to be kidnapped. Nothing more. But this isn’t that horrible. The biggest problem I have is THE song. OMFG. What did the director think? Ok, at the final battle it starts so awesome with that kickass theme (Track: Into the battle field) and you expect this awesome tune will continue. You’re like: “This will be one of the most epic fight scenes in cinema history.” But: In the middle of the fight, things suddenly start to change. They started to beat each other up with this song. You can’t beat someone up with this song. Simply isn’t possible. Imagine: You watch WWE and they suddenly play Westlife’s “The Rose”. It doesn’t work! The tension is gone. Back to this problem: I already said it. She shouldn’t have been rescued because if she hadn’t been rescued, she wouldn’t sing this song in the club.
But the rest of the soundtrack is really fitting for the mood of the movie.

Still I like this movie and I will watch it again. Shun Oguri is a great actor and I mostly love his work. So, if you like pretty men beating the hell out of each other or just love to watch amazing fight scenes, you should watch it.

BTW, congratulations to your wedding, Oguri-san. I’m very happy for you and I wish you all the best.