[Review] 8Uppers Movie Review

Honestly speaking, I was not hoping much with this movie. 8Uppers (pronounced Pacchi Uppers) revolved around a group of kids who grew up in the same foster institution/house and becomes ‘Patchers’. Patchers are those who clean up after someone else’s mess or clean-up hit men. The summary of the story can be read here.

Seriously, if I was not a Kanjani8’s (Eito from here on) fan, I would have never watched this movie. It has the most clichéd plot and one of the most absurd settings in movie history. To be compared to Tarantino or even the Italian Job, this movie is not anywhere near the level of those movies.

The fighting scene is very stiff and very choreographed. Though it’s understandable since these actors are dancers as well and they feed themselves by singing and dancing since they were in their early teens. While the plot was mediocre, the acting of Kanjani8 too were well below my expectation. Seriously, for people who saw this movie as Yokoyama-san first introduction would not do him justice at all as he had done so many beautiful acting jobs before this one, one good example would be the ‘Quiz Show 2’. Shibutani-san had done a much much better job in his previous work such as ‘Arigatou, Okan’ as was Murakami-san. Maruyama, Yasuda, Nishikido and Okura too have a long list of great performances prior to this movie. Of course comparing between a stage show and a movie would be idiotic of me, but Eito has a better future acting as a stage actor rather than as a movie actor. Maybe Yokoyama, Nishikido and Okura also works as a television actor.

Obviously, I do not really like the movie, but I do like Eito and Nakamura Teppei. These two things are what made this movie bearable. The cinematography was short of amazing, as it captures the most interesting parts of the show almost perfectly. The lighting too were finely done as it has to complement both Nishikido-san and Yasuda-san who was really dark in this movie and also the ever fair Yokoyama-san. Somehow the lighting complemented both skin type and tone. The usage of Kansai-ben too caught my heart. Besides the mentioned above, the song and transition sound as well as soundtrack arrangement was beautiful (Note: Soundtrack review is done separately).

How should I put this? I would recommend this movie to Eito fans and addicts like me, to those would not mind watching predictable movie and see absurd fighting styles. Or else, this movie is just not at par with most other movie in the same genre that is available. Therefore, for the cinematography and shirtless Nishikido-kun, this movie shall get two and a half out of five (2.5/5).

That should cover it for now.

以上、

～iejaーちゃんでした。