The First Slam Dunk (2022)

The First Slam Dunk (2022). 2h 4m | PG-13

“I gave this movie a 9/10 but to be honest, big part of the score goes to the original Slam Dunk manga, which is a legend, and big part of my youth growing up.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI seriously thought it was an April fool joke when I read 2 years ago Inoue-san announced he was going to make a movie version of slam dunk. And Iu0026#39;ve been looking forward to this then, and it did not disappoint.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe biggest headache for Inoue-san was probably how could he re-tell such a classic story, which the fans must have re-read hundreds or even thousands of times by now, without making the movie redundant and unnecessary. And heu0026#39;s made some really smart choices here. The smartest choice of all, imo, is to re-tell the Sannon battle from Miyagiu0026#39;s perspective, and adding a lot of backdrop stories.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAnd manga fans get to re-live the Shohoku – Sannon battle with new backdrop stories, and re-live all the monumental touching moments in the story. And for fans like me, the 2 hours in the theatre felt like re-watching my first love right in front of my eyes years later, feeling like itu0026#39;s just happening for the first time.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe movie is not without flaw. I think for people who have not watched the original manga, the movie will feel pretty choppy. The editing would feel awkward. Especially in the Mitsui story. That would feel so incomplete and even a lot of u0026quot;WTHu0026quot; moments. Or likewise when Sakuraki saw flashbacks from his past when he was injured. But maybe there isnu0026#39;t a flawless way to re-tell a 31 books manga (or even the Sannon battle is like 4-5 books?) in a 2 hours movie.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWhich is not to say new audience cannot enjoy this movie, but this would simply be a good sports movie to those not being familiar with the original manga. For the fans though, this is an amazing movie.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI can only hope Inoue-san would come up with the Second slam dunk, the third slam dunk, the forth slam dunk …. but hopefully it wonu0026#39;t take another 26 years.”