Recently released by Sars Fansubs, the story of Megumi Noda continues with this – the first of two cinema releases. Well, I say the story of Megumi Noda, but this film focuses mostly on Chiaki-senpai, the conductor. All of the major plot points revolve around him with Nodame supplying light relief every now and again.
The broad physical comedy and over-acting are still in place. Now computer graphics are sometimes used to emphasise the more manga-esque moments, but there are also some bits where the use of dummies is not hidden at all, which nicely undermines the seriousness of the classical soundtrack, the Parisian location and the general big-budget feel as well as making some of the comedy violence more palatable.
The story is nothing new (Chiaki turns around the fortunes of a failing orchestra), and it is held up by a healthy chunk of flashback footage from the TV series. Being the first of two films, the ending can't be called satisfactory, leaving all the loose ends to be tied up during the sequel, but when it's funny, it's funny, and when it's serious, it's serious. And when it's over-the-top, it's pretty much absurd, but that's part of the charm, isn't it?
Plus, the audience's reaction to hearing a classical piece of music is still the same every time. I wonder if there are people in Japan who think that in Europe you're not allowed to applaud at classical concerts until someone stands up and shouts “bravo”.
I thought the Europe specials were better handled than the film, but still Nodame cracks me up. I did miss all the other characters, though - Eita and Masami being a couple of them ;P
ReplyDeleteYeah, Juri was underused in this episode. And when they couldn't find a percussionist, I did wonder if "by an amazing coincidence" Masami was going to turn up. But he didn't.
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