Director: Katsuyuki Motohiro

Starring: Mackenyu, Haruma Miura, Ken’ichi Matsuyama, Shoudai Fukuyama

Primary genre: Action

Secondary genre: Thriller

Another day, another semi decent manga adaptation. Catering exclusively to Japanese tastes, this “Back to the Future” (1985) inspired tale of a time travelled school back in the brutal time of Japan’s 16th century bears a central intriguing concept.

Starting out quite ominously and in brutal fashion, none is spared from a full on assault (or massacre) by evil soldiers. Fingers are cut off, skulls are opened and blood flows in every possible direction drenching the school halls and rooms red. It is an impactful scene translating well on screen the unfolding chaos of the confused students who have not the fainted idea of what is happening and why. It also serves besides being a nail biting sequence as a platform to introduce several manga-ish characters, each one carrying a unique set of skills that can be used to somehow defend themselves from the onslaught; karate, fencing and kendo are among the most highly effective ones but in a clever twist, sportsmanship can prove useful too whether it is rugby, archery or baseball.

Competently made, “Brave” has a problem though when the characters talk. In a running time of just 2 hours, most of them barely register Their obvious visual cues - the fencer keeps playing with his hair, the boxer has only one glove for some reason, etc - is what makes the audience to remember the what first and the who later on. Although there seems to be an abundance of more interesting individuals to take the lead mantle, we are stuck with the charismatic Mackenyu (“Rurouni Kenshin: The Final“ (2021), “Rurouni Kenshin: The Beginning“ (2021), “One Piece” (2023)), the son of the great Sonny Chiba who can excel in action beats but overall is stuck in a thankless role for no reason. The audience has absolutely no idea why everyone is rallying behind him as we see he is nothing more than a coward, not a particularly smart person and he neither has an interesting personality to begin with. He is as blunt as they come but the pretty face has to get all the attention.

Being a Japanese flick that aims for the teen masses, it ticks every box of OTT characteristics you would expect; characters crying in the middle of human carnage (especially female ones), last minute hesitations that cause the death of others, the capable girl who is stoically in love with the lead and follows him around for no other reason, a villain lacking an explanation of why or how besides a smug boy visage and more.

If you have seen any other adaptation of the same caliber, then this text book storytelling that does not take at all advantage of its clever and as we see at the beginning violent premise. After a fantastic opening act under the cool sounds of Yuugo Kanno, the film suddenly stops, stretching its various plot holes and impossibilities without a care in the world gearing up towards a finale that resembles more “Battle Royale: Requiem” (2003) than “Battle Royale” (2000) where human action figures die very fast to make way for the inevitable confrontation.

“Brave” recovers some momentum during its final good vs evil skirmish with superb choreography but the bluntness of its lead in combination with superficial characterization and a barrage of unnecessary flashbacks of things the audience already knows puts “Brave” in the awkward position of half baked entertainment. You will get some sort of enjoyment but once the credits start rolling, you would wish to see Zemeckis sci-fi adventure instead for far memorable cinematic results.

+Excellent opening act

+…and final duel

+Interesting premise

+Great main lead

-…on a thankless role

-Lacks interesting proceedings

-…or depth to any of its characters