Josuke
(Jojo) Higashikata is a lot like Fonzie. He has the hair, but he can easily top
Fonzarelli’s finger snap. Jojo smashes things up and then put them back
together again with the help of his avatar-like “stand.” “Stand-wielding” is
similar to the powers of the secret sub-species in the manga-based films Ajin: Demi-Human and Tokyo Ghoul, but Jojo’s franchise got
there first, predating the other two by twenty-some years. Genre auteur Takashi
Miike finally gives the series the live-action treatment in Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable
(trailer
here),
which screens during this year’s Sitges Film Festival.
Jojo
is the big man on campus in the fictional seaside town of Morioh. The powers of
his stand certainly help, but it is mostly due to his hair. He certainly makes
quite an impression on starry-eyed transfer student Koichi Hirose. In fact, he
hardly notices his assigned study partner, Yukako Yamagishi, which shows highly
questionable priorities.
Regardless,
Hirose often happens to be around when Jojo uses his powers, but it is all an
impossible blur to make out for anyone who is not a stand-user themselves. As
it happens, there are many stand-users in town, including Jojo’s long lost
nephew (who is old enough to be his uncle) Jotaro Kujo. In their case,
stand-wielding is a family thing. However, the sinister Keicho Nijimura has a
bow-and-arrow that converts average civilians into stand-wielders. Angelo
Katagiri has been recently turned, but he already feels like he has a grudge to
settle with Jojo and his family.
In
many ways, Bizarre Adventure follows
a roughly similar narrative to Ajin: Demi-Human and Tokyo Ghoul, but,
on one hand, the stakes are considerably lower, while on the other, Jojo’s characters are much more fully fleshed
out. It is rather amusing to watch Kento Yamazaki strut about as Jojo, making
like everything makes perfect sense. He also develops some sweet and ultimately
rather poignant chemistry with his police officer grandfather, Ryohei Higashikata,
played with genuine warmth and dignity by Jun Kunimura.
Ryunosuke
Kamiki’s Hirose is so appealingly earnest and guileless, it is hard to believe
he is a teenager. Nana Komatsu is sadly under-utilized as Yamagishi, but the
closing scenes coyly imply she will have a larger role to play in a promised
sequel. Takayuki Yamada gets his creepy Doug Jones on as Katagiri, but Masaki
Okada’s Nijimura is a bit bland for a stand-wielding super-villain.
Kunimura
and Yamazaki are nice together, but much of the “Bizarre” narrative feels
familiar. Still, Miike ushers us into a compelling fantasy world—very much like
our own, but different in strange and idiosyncratic ways. Recommended for established
Miike and Jojo fans, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is
Unbreakable screens this Friday (10/12), during Sitges.
