Based on the manga by Ken Wakui, which is also an ongoing anime series by Liden Films, “Tokyo Revengers” brings together two rather popular concepts, those of high school gangs and time travel, in a rather impressive package that has already sold around 1.66 million tickets, earning over 2.25 billion yen (~US$20.4 million), 1 month after its premiere on July 10, 2021 .
“Tokyo Revengers” is screening at Fantasia International Film Festival
As the film begins, a naked, tattooed yakuza is bloodied and terrorized by a new breed of sharp-dressed gangsters in a luxury car. The Tokyo Manji Gang is flexing its muscle, and a furious conflict within the underworld is in motion. The focus then changes completely, towards Takemichi Hanagaki, a 26-year-old freeter with no hope in life, who learns one day that his middle school ex-girlfriend, Hinata Tachibana, as well as her younger brother Naoto, are killed during the aforementioned incident. Later that day, a shocked Takemichi is pushed in front of a train, but instead of dying, he teleports exactly 12 years into the past to 2005. Takemichi relives his middle school years, and after revealing to Naoto that Hinata will die, he is suddenly transported back to the present, creating a time paradox where Naoto survives and is now a detective. Naoto deduces that Takemichi is able to travel back 12 years when they hold hands. Using his knowledge from the future, the young man vows to save Hinata, but in order to do so, he has to change the past of Tokyo Manji Gang also, while in the process, he finds himself being friendly with the leader, Mikey Sano and his second-in-command, Draken. As he learns more about them, he also realizes that every change he makes in the past, also has repercussions to the future, while his relationship with the gang leaders puts his connection with Naoto to strain.
Tsutomu Hanabusa is one of those Japanese directors, like Takashi Miike and Keishi Ohtomo, who has specialized in this type of adaptation, with his prowess being quite visible in “Tokyo Revengers”, both in context and in cinematic terms. To begin with, the presentation of going back in time to change the present is one of the best ever to appear in a movie, particularly since Hanabusa manages to make it appear logical, without any ridiculous hyperboles, even in this sci-fi setting. Furthermore, through these elements, the concepts of friendship, love, regret, second chance, and the way small choices can actually affect the whole lives of people, are rather well communicated, even if through a subtle, secondary approach.
As the story unfolds however, it becomes clear that the focus here is on action, which in this case, is particularly brutal, since the majority of fights seem rather imbalanced, with the difference in power between the ones fighting being quite evident, an element that is intensified by the fact that Takemichi is a genuine weakling, constantly getting beaten. Both the choreography and Tomo Ezaki's cinematography during those scenes are top-notch, although the scene where both elements find their apogee is the gang feud, where, additionally, Hanabusa's ability of directing many actors simultaneously on screen comes to the fore in the most impressive way.
On the other hand, the gags and the silliness, frequent elements of these kinds of films, are not missing from here, although Hanabusa has kept them to a minimum. The romance aspect is also a bit underdeveloped, but, on the other hand, both these aspects function quite well as a relief from all the violence, while the second also allows the viewer to enjoy the delightful Mio Imada who plays Hinata.
Talking about the acting, Hanabusa draws an excellent performance from Takumi Kitamura in the role of Takemichi, who manages to play the loser, the cool guy, the desperate and the resolved with equal prowess, while also retaining a relative sense of measure that is anything but frequent in similar productions. Furthermore, Ryo Yoshizawa as Mickey and Yuki Yamada as Draken are excellent in their parts, looking almost always intensely cool, in a way, though, that stresses the moments they are not, even more.
“Tokyo Revengers” is not completely void from all the issues anime adaptations seem to suffer, but Hanabusa has managed to keep them on a more than tolerable level, while, at the same time, presenting a film that thrives due to its characters and action scenes.
