Mangaka Sui Ishida’s Tokyo Ghoul is a property I’ve always wanted to immerse myself in. I haven’t, if only for the lack of means up to this point.
Essentially, the new Tokyo Ghoul “S” movie is my first exposure to the world created for the pages of Weekly Shonen Jump and the subsequent anime that followed. I love action horror stories, and that Kentaro Hagiwara’s own live-action adaptation was a thing in 2017.
That particular bit of viewing for me is still on hold. For now, it’s go time with Tokyo Ghoul “S”, from Kazuhiko Hiramaki and Takuya Kawasaki, first timers at the helm of a major Japanese production. An exotic vista of Tokyo’s alluring midnight views mingle myriads of black and purples in its hypnotic mix of neon-lit calm just minutes before we witness our first victim whose eyeballs are consumed by a man who calls himself “Gourmet”.
The exposition of Tokyo Ghoul “S” then carries over as we reconvene with Ken Kaneki (Masataka Kubota) a half-human ghoul who chooses to resist eating people as a means of sustenance. Attending university, he also works part time at Anteiku Cafè with Toka (Maika Yamamoto), a world-weary ghoul exasperated with the notion of a social life with humans. This particular aspect of the film recurs throughout as we witness Toka struggle to tolerate the one human friend she has constantly offering an olive branch, and Kaneki coping with his “new normal” whilst not fully into observing his ghoulish powers much.
Little does Kaneki know that a vexatious ghoul in Tokyo’s Ward 20 by the name of Shu Tsukiyama (Shota Matsuda) has a new craving after strolling into Anteiku one day and getting a whiff of Kaneki. For Tsukiyama, normally delicious meals soon become a tiresome chore – a bygone delicacy that bare no measure in equal when it comes to Kaneki’s insatiable aroma.
Mild-mannered Kaneki doesn’t see past his façade as he’s consistently roped in by Tsukiyama whose sinster plot involves much more than friendly banter over books and fine dining. That plot point begins unraveling in the first of two major scuffles between Kaneki and Tsukiyama who then reveals himself as “Gourmet”, followed by a moment of narrow escape for Kaneki.
The major lynchpin of the story by this end pertains to the question of how far one might to step up to the plate for the people they cherish. The world of Tokyo Ghoul “S” is quite a doozy from there as it’s one where despite the obscurity and overt secrecy of the ghouls’ inner circles away from judgemental eyes of mere mortals, some, if not few, are pretty accomodating.
It’s an inroads to subject matter that culminates a stoic tale of self-acceptance, and knowing when you’re seen as more than a mere monster. It’s a point of reflection here for Toka whose vulnerability becomes her own personal mirror, and it’s quite emotive and gripping from a solid performance by Yamamoto.
Kubota’s re-emergence as Kaneki is a welcome one in my book. With Kaneki being a highly physical character, the actor showcases gravitas in his acting that amicably strengthens his performability. The actor-to-stunt performance ratio between doubles is a mystery to me, but the action is certainly one of the best aspects about the film for anyone who enjoys high-flying action and fisticuffs with ample visual effects.
Matsuda’s portrayal of the menacing Tsukiyama is the impressive driving force of this narrative. His character bares traces of Jack Nicholson’s Joker from Tim Burton’s Batman and the derangement of Gary Oldman’s Stansfield from Leon: The Professional, which I admire. A lot.
Several characters from the first film will make their return; from what I’ve heard and the opinions therein, Hagiwara’s film was a blast, while any seldom critical views of the film came my way.
For this, and at the very least, Tokyo Ghoul “S” should bode feasibly well for fans of live-action mangas and animes. I gather as much that some fans will have their reasons to nitpick, though I’m of the opinion that we’re definitely better off than we were ten years ago in this department…
We really do deserve a better Dragon Ball movie than that.