Takehiko Inoue with “First Slam Dunk” shows us that in addition to being an exceptional “mangaka” he is a very skilled director and screenwriter, truly a unique and complete artist. If you like sports, a must-see movie.
– The film deals with the story of the basketball match between the Shohoku – high school team made up of real “outsiders”, i.e. quarrelsome, problematic kids with complicated personal stories, who for various reasons are considered losers for the company – against the team called Sannoh which vice versa embodies the ideal of perfection and whose members are talented, educated, dedicated to basketball and in two words winning and invincible.
– Anyone who has read the manga knows perfectly the road that led to this game and the past of every Shohoku player, except one, Myagi Riota. The latter, in fact, in the manga, is the character whose past is known least. Inoue intelligently makes him the protagonist and exploits his story (which we will relive through flashbacks) to present to those unfamiliar with the Slam Dunk universe every player who makes up the starting quintet of the team, explaining, moreover, the reasons that allow us to define this as “the match”. For myself, this narrative technique is perfect for making the product enjoyable for everyone, both for those who have read every single table and for all those who don’t have the slightest idea of who the Shohoku guys are;
– Animation chapter: as an Anime fan, the sight of the Trailer scared me a little, the use of CGI made me turn up my nose. Skepticism vanishes almost immediately, in fact the level of animations and shots is sublime. Takehiko Inoue manages to recreate his style and make it animated and it is absolutely not a foregone conclusion. There are some scenes that dazzle for their attention to detail and their complexity;
– “The First Slam Dunk” is a hymn to basketball, to sport, to revenge, to how much a team, teammates or a game can be a precious lifeline for those who feel alone in life for one reason or another , abandoned or defeated by it. In every frame of the film, the director conveys his infinite passion for basketball to the viewer and one is almost transported to the parquet to play the game in person, each with their own desire for redemption. “Will you take me shopping for a basketball tomorrow?” this is the sentence said by a child sitting next to me at the cinema addressing his grandfather and so, what else to add to this? In some ways, for those who are children today, this film could be what Space Jam was for us 30-year-olds.