Although many people were skeptical about its quality, the live-action One Piece movie is receiving a lot of praise after its release.
After a series of failed film adaptation projects, Hollywood continues to try One Piece – one of the most famous Japanese comic books. When this information was first announced, many fans were hesitant about the quality of this project.
The work of artist Eiichiro Oda possesses an “epic” action-adventure scenario, with a large number of characters, a series of extremely unique fantasy lands and a story that spans 26 years. hasn’t come to an end yet.
However, upon its release, the live-action version immediately climbed to the top of global views, receiving a “rain” of praise from audiences and critics with an impressive Rotten Tomatoes score of 83%.
When a popular comic or cartoon series is made into a live-action movie, fans often have the same question: Does it follow the spirit of the original? This is always the biggest challenge for the crew when they want to turn these imaginary worlds into a more realistic version.
Audiences want to see characters that make them feel familiar from their appearance, costumes and personalities or experience magical lands and places recreated by cinematography technology.
The appeal of One Piece already lies in the famous comic book, with 106 volumes released and sales of more than 516 million copies worldwide. Filmmakers Matt Owens and Steven Maeda were imbued with that spirit when they took on the task of adapting One Piece.
They understand that to be successful, they must start from the original materials of the original work. That is also the reason why the team decided to invite author Eiichiro Oda to directly participate in the production process.
The story of One Piece season 1 spans from Luffy’s childhood until he creates his own pirate gang and becomes a wanted man with a bounty of 30,000,000 belly. The script is distilled from details from the first 95 chapters of the comic, focusing on Luffy’s journey in the East Blue Sea.
Turning 95 chapters into 8 episodes forced the crew to be creative and change some characters and details. This also makes the pace of the live-action version happen quite quickly compared to the original and some of the developed details are not really reasonable. However, basically, the producer sticks quite closely to the original comic book.
It can be seen that the participation of author Eiichiro Oda and the production team’s love for the One Piece brand helped the film be made meticulously and meticulously. Even the most demanding fans of the manga can easily see the positive points from this adaptation project.
The brightest points the film crew brought to the screen were the touching stories about the main characters’ pasts. The 8 episodes let viewers relive the important milestones of the main character when recruiting the first members for his Straw Hat pirates, Zoro (Mackenyu Maeda), Nami (Emily Rudd), respectively. , Usopp (Jacob Romero Gibson) and Sanji (Taz Skyler).
In the original story, Luffy dreams of becoming a pirate because he sees it as a way to help him feel free. In the live-action version, this spirit is also clearly shown in 8 episodes. Although the members of the Straw Hat crew have different starting points, they all have in common that they are girls and boys who desire to pursue their poetic and pure dreams.
Even though they all have many shortcomings, they are still good people, aiming to help others and always seeking freedom both physically and mentally. On that journey, Luffy and his teammates found each other and became a strong family.
It can be said that casting is one of the important factors that help create the success of this film. The members of the Straw Hat pirates all seem to have stepped out of a comic book, with appearances and personalities that make viewers feel extremely familiar.
It could be Luffy’s cheerfulness, the cold and careless look of Nami, Zoro or the cheeky, humorous but brave personalities of Usopp and Sanji. Supporting characters such as marine Koby, Yonko Shanks, chef Zeff or Hawk-Eyes Shichibukai all made a certain impression with their appearances.
One Piece is truly a blockbuster, with a budget said to be up to 18 million USD (about 433.5 billion VND) per episode. With a rich budget, the crew really built an extremely impressive fantasy world.
Many of the scenes in the movie, such as the Going Merry ship or Garp’s restaurant, were built for real instead of using green screens and CGI. Costumes and makeup are done extremely meticulously. The audience can see that very small details such as Koby’s hair color, Zoro’s earrings, and Hawk Eyes’ beard are all made exactly like the comic version.
Even though the series has sales of more than 516 million copies, the fact that the story has been told through 106 episodes over the past 26 years somewhat makes it difficult for the One Piece brand to reach new generations of audiences.
The live-action version helps the journey of Luffy and his teammates be recreated in a completely new format, with updates more suitable for the times.
If I had to choose a difference between the live-action version and the comic book, the recent film is told in a more serious and darker way, limiting many humorous and humorous details compared to the original. Before the series debuted, a lot of curiosity was about the character Sanji – who was an extremely girl-loving guy in the original.
There have been many opinions that these personalities are no longer suitable for contemporary society, especially when brought to the screen. The audience can easily see that the crew actively reduced Sanji’s “goat blood” in the live-action version. This somewhat makes the character less humorous compared to the comic but shows more respect for women.
These small changes can help the One Piece brand bring a lot of newness to the audience. Basically, it’s rare for fans to expect a live-action series to surpass the quality of the original.
The interesting point is that the film can become a new way to help audiences who have never known One Piece become acquainted with this fantasy world filled with fascinating things.
One Piece live-action may not be a masterpiece among comic book adaptation projects. However, with the meticulousness and diligence of the crew, fans of the brand can breathe a sigh of relief and enjoy the movie without experiencing too much discomfort. With eye-catching images, engaging music, the project is rich in entertainment and is another choice for viewers to access this fascinating comic series.
