Nana (2005)

I love this movie so much

The Worst Film Ever

Pretty Good

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Two very different 20 year old women meet on a train to Tokyo. Other than the fact they're both named Nana, they have very different pasts and personalities. Despite this, they're destined to become very big parts of each other's lives. Based on the very popular anime and manga of the same name, this is a fun adaption. The musical aspects of the story are kept, and are as nearly as important to the story as the relationship between the two Nana's. Speaking of, the actresses chosen to play the two title characters are great, and the story is as interesting for guys as it is the girls who are the original audience. NANA was a good movie, I liked it. Obviously it's more recommended for people who are already familiar with the source material, but even NANA newbies should enjoy this.

My curiosity was piqued when I saw many of the DVDs on sale at various shops recently, so was actually wondering what the movie's all about, until I chanced upon a copy (Special Edition too) at the Esplanade Library. In giving it a shot, I'm pleasantly surprised, at the story it told, as well as the eye-candy available of course.It contains an extremely strong story of friendship, of love and the falling out of, adapted from a popular Japanese manga of the same name, by Ai Yazawa. You might liken it to Feel 100%, as it touches on life, romantic love, and friends. This is the story with a theme primarily centered on Fate, of how two strangers sharing the same name Nana, be the same age, come to meet one night on a train to Tokyo for their own personal reasons, and how they grow to be best friends. The two girls can be so different from each other, one being a kawaii (cute) bimbo, while the other is a rock chick (which I thought was in the mould of Garbage's Shirley Manson) with her own rock band called Black Stones.While the narrative is forward moving for Nana Komatsu (Aoi Miyazaki), in following her objective to be in Tokyo with her boyfriend Shoji (Yuuta Hiraoka), Nana Osaki (Mika Nakashima, a real life singer) is in the city to try and achieve her big break for the band. However, flashbacks and the slow revelation of Osaki's backstory too revealed a romantic tangle she had with an ex-band member Ren Honjou (Ryuhei Matsuda), who now plays for a successful outfit called TRAPNEST.It's an account of the two Nana's romantic relationships with the guys in their lives, and how they encourage and support each other through turbulent times during the relationships. While Nana Osaki may be kawaii, her clingy puppy dog attitude may put some guys off, who might prefer the more confident Nana Osaki. But pride too is an obstacle, as I know from personal experience how two very ambitious persons can stumble unwittingly, and perhaps reluctantly sacrifice love for personal career.Before you dismiss this as a chick flick, I'd like to say I would think otherwise. It may look like one, but it's tremendously well made, with a well paced narrative. Perhaps having the manga serve as a source provided for richer characterization of the leads. The two actresses who play both Nanas too couldn't contrast each other perfectly, and all in all, it's a very pleasing, despite the down moments in the story, movie to watch.By the way, the sequel has already been filmed, and is pending a year end release. I don't suppose we'll get the opportunity to see it in the theatres here, so will have to cross my fingers for a quick DVD release.This Code 3 DVD Special Edition by Panorama Entertainment comes with 2 discs. The first contains the movie and a full length commentary by director Kentaro Otami as well as the two lead actresses Mika Nakashima and Aio Miyazaki. Listening to them during the commentary, they revealed which shots were kept close to the manga source, and which had to be changed for reasons ranging from aesthetics to form. No worries though, as the commentary comes with subtitles as well, in both English (though there were some grammar/tense issues with "shotted") and Chinese. Audio comes in a Dolby Digital 5.1, which allows for a truly rock-concert like atmosphere during scenes when the bands perform.The second disc is the feature disc, consisting of Making of NANA,(33mins 25s), follows the production from the 15-16 Jan 05 when filming began, including the director and cast interviews, as well as deleted scenes (filmed but not used in the movie) - Premiere Screening in Japan, 7 July (for obvious reasons) 2005 (3mins 10s), in Rippongi, with the director and major casts sharing their thoughts on the movie and of the characters they play. - Stage Appearance in Japan, 3 Sep 2005, (3mins 55s) with the director and major casts sharing their thoughts of the movie again. - Asia Premiere in Hong Kong, on 2 Oct 2005 (4mins), with a press conference attended by director Kentaro Otani, Mika Nakashima and Ryuhei Matsuda, and the attendance at the premiere screening complete with a cosplay contest. - Four theatrical trailers, without subtitles (Runtimes of 1min 48s, 30s, 20s, 34s) - Four TV Spots, without subtitles (Runtimes of 17s, 17s, 30s, 17s)

I loved this movie both Nana's were awesome! I love the rocker Nana! ^ ^ i love her. my idol. RN...did not except him to look like that no bu didn't impress me that much i read the manger the manger no bu is better sh J and all those other people are OK for their parts...HM....yeah even tho i didn't get it that much it was quite understandable cause of the manger >< love it! i just wished that it had English subtitles! T_T yeah... should make another movie that comes out from an anime i mean a manger. It was the best of the best. yeah i'm talking like this cause of the stupid spelling thing a lopper.. yes this should be 10 lines sigh

Although it came well-recommended, I had already read and disliked the author's work on the terrible series Paradise Kiss, so I was reluctant, however popular the Nana movie ended up being. As I watched it, my worst fears were realized as Paradise Kiss replayed itself in my mind: few likable characters, in this case a scant single character at the end of the movie, who is the most abused of them all and never manages to set that right; ridiculously and needlessly angst circumstances that never quite unfold believably; a miserable setting that makes you wish yourself far, far away from it instead of wanting to become a part of it; and overall too much diddling around and wasting time with useless things that don't add anything to the plot. This movie could've been an hour shorter and lost nothing.Add to this incoherent editing that make the plot even more difficult to follow -- it's as convoluted and confusing as they get, with people doing things for no real reason, or no actual explained reason -- and some of the most prefab, manufactured music I've ever heard in a film, and you have a formula for disaster. I found myself often wondering how the crew managed to make time seem to pass so slowly, and how on earth they managed to find actors willing to flush their personalities down the toilet to portray some of the most insipid, unsympathetic characters ever to parade across the screen. To boot, most of them are so sickly thin and cardboard, both in appearance and acting, that you'll probably end up stopping the film to go get something to eat out of sheer pity for the bone-skinny actresses chosen to play the lead parts. Really healthy message to send out there, to something that will be seen by countless young girls I'm sure. Not that I'd want to be any of the characters, if I myself were a young girl. The real message of this film is that nice people finish last, and that you might as well throw away your dreams, a direct slap in the face to what you could tell it was trying to give as a message. I have no time for films with that kind of outlook.It's two hours of your life that you'll never get back. You'd do better to spend it with a bad movie that knows it's bad, rather than one like this that apparently thinks it's the best thing to hit the screen. As things are, I can only hope never to hear "Glamorous Sky" or any of the pop machine terrors cranked out by "Trapnest" again; too much of the film is spent on Trapnest's awful concert, bringing it to a standstill for at least twenty minutes! This kind of amateurish film-making really deserves no place in formal cinema, and certainly not with its budget. It's a classic case of someone not reining in a director who decided to milk his budget for all it was worth.