News culture The best film of 2023 comes to us from Japan: Christopher Nolan and Ghibli couldn’t do anything about it
With a score of 100% on the aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, this feature film was unanimously celebrated worldwide.
This year the biggest names in the industry rocked our cinemas. We of course remember this legendary day shared by Barbie and Oppenheimer, the last two of Greta Gerwig and Christopher Nolan. We were even treated to a new feature film from Martin Scorsese: Killers of the Flower Moon. But despite these behemoths on the big screen, it was a completely different film that captured the hearts of the press and received a perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes. The First Slam Dunk hit theaters last summer and is an adaptation of the cult manga set 27 years after the end of the basic series.
For non-experts, Slam Dunk is a pillar of sports manga. More than 100 million copies have been sold worldwide and is still one of the most popular manga in Japan today, right behind the cult manga One Piece. The plot revolves around Hanamachi Sakuragi, a pseudo-criminal who likes to pretend to be a tough guy and enters high school in the hope of meeting the woman of his life. To seduce the beautiful Aruko Hakagi, he joins the establishment’s basketball club. Rest assured, the first slam dunk follows a completely different protagonist to open the door for newcomers. You don’t have to have read the manga to enjoy this highly acclaimed feature film.
Shohoku’s point guard, Ryota Miyagi, always plays smart and lightning fast, getting around opponents while maintaining his composure. Ryota was born and raised in Okinawa. He had an older brother who was three years older than him. Following in the footsteps of the latter, a famous local player, Ryota also became addicted to basketball at a young age. In his second year of high school, Ryota was part of the Shohoku High School basketball team alongside Sakuragi, Rukawa, Akagi and Mitsui and competed in the national inter-high school championship. Now they face the defending champions, the players from Sannoh Kogyo – Allociné High School.
100% by Rotten Tomatoes
In Japan, its country of origin, the film was a real hit, remaining the undisputed leader there for eight weeks and even easily beating the last part of Avatar. “The First Slam Dunk” is now in the top 10 of the top 10 highest-grossing animated films of all time, and the reviews suggest it deserves it. On the aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, He is simply entitled to the perfect average of 100% based on 41 reviews on the press site
A certain level of excitement comes from the voice actors’ performances, but one cannot ignore the visual style, cinematography and direction that make the first Slam Dunk just as exciting as the last – Elements of Madness
The First Slam Dunk is a very entertaining film that will particularly appeal to fans of sports anime and the series in question, while containing elements that will also appeal to other audiences, in an overall excellent title – Asian Movie Pulse
