is a 2019 Japanese

musical film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the Character (arts), characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, but in some cases, they serv ...

distributed by

Shochiku is a Japanese entertainment company. Founded in 1895, it initially managed '' kabuki'' theaters in Kyoto; in 1914, it also acquired ownership of the Kabuki-za theater in Tokyo. In 1920, Shochiku entered the film production industry and establis ...

, a film version of

musical theatre Musical theatre is a form of theatre, theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, ...

Boys A boy is a young male human. The term is commonly used for a child or an adolescent. When a male human reaches adulthood, he is usually described as a man. Definition, etymology, and use According to the ''Merriam-Webster Dictionary'', a boy ...

'' which has been running since 1969. The film Director is

Katsuhide Motoki is a Japanese film director and producer. Filmography Director Film * ''Tenamonya Sōsha'' (1998) * '' Tsuribaka Nisshi Eleven'' (2000) * '' Tsuribaka Nisshi 12: Shijō Saidai no Yukyū Kyūka'' (2001) * '' Tsuribaka Nisshi 13: Hama-chan Kiki ...

screenwriter A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter, scribe, or scenarist) is a person who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting. These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television ...

by Katsumi Ishikawa, and

executive producer Executive producer (EP) is one of the top positions in the production of media. Depending on the medium, the executive producer may be concerned with management accounting or associated with legal issues (like copyrights or royalties). In film ...

Johnny Kitagawa John Hiromu Kitagawa (Japanese name ; October 23, 1931 – July 9, 2019), known professionally as , was a Japanese business magnate, promoter, record producer. He was best known as the founder of Johnny & Associates, a talent agency for numerous ...

Overview

This production is an adaptation of musical theatre ''Boys'', which has been staged since 1969 and is based on the

musical theater Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, moveme ...

that has been performed mainly by young trainees starring in the show before their debut since it was revived in 2010 with

Kis-My-Ft2 is a six-member Japanese boy band under Starto Entertainment. They are known for their performances on roller skates. The group is named after one letter of each member's initials and after "the anecdote that tap dancer Gregory Hines kissed t ...

and

A.B.C-Z is a five-member Japanese boy band under Starto Entertainment. The group's former name was A.B.C., which stands for Acrobat Boys Club. It was changed to A.B.C-Z after Ryosuke Hashimoto was moved to the group from J.J.Express in 2008. Due to the ...

in the lead roles. In this production, the

red Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–750 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a seconda ...

team was performed by

SixTones is a Japanese idol boy band formed by Smile-Up (formerly known as Johnny & Associates) in 2015. The group was previously a sub-unit of Johnny & Associates' pre-debut trainee group Johnny's Jr. SixTones made their official debut on January 22, ...

, the

blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB color model, RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB color model, RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between Violet (color), violet and cyan on the optical spe ...

team by

Snow Man Snow Man is a Japanese idol boy band under Starto Entertainment. The group's activities focused on acrobats and stage play. Snow Man made their official debut on January 22, 2020, at the same time as SixTones. The groups' simultaneous debut ma ...

, and the

black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

team by

Kansai The or the lies in the southern-central region of Japan's main island Honshū. The region includes the prefectures of Nara, Wakayama, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyōgo and Shiga, often also Mie, sometimes Fukui, Tokushima and Tottori. The metropoli ...

trainees such as Daigo Nishihata and Koji Mukai. Since this is a

, song and dance are woven throughout. At the end of the film, there is a gorgeous musical show time where all the trainees perform and dance.

Story

The setting is a

Nara The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an independent agency of the United States government within the executive branch, charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It is also task ...

juvenile prison, 2012.

Orphan An orphan is a child whose parents have died, are unknown, or have permanently abandoned them. It can also refer to a child who has lost only one parent, as the Hebrew language, Hebrew translation, for example, is "fatherless". In some languages ...

Jun (

Taiga Kyomoto , is a Japanese idol, singer, actor, and talento. He is a member of the boy group SixTones under Starto Entertainment, formerly known as Johnny & Associates. Background Kyomoto comes from a prominent family of entertainers. His father is actor, ...

) has come to prison newly accused of beating and injuring a hoodlum. In the prison, the boys in the red team and the blue team fight each other every day. The boys in the black team look at the two bickering teams with amusement. Jun is assigned to the red team and shares a room with Joe (

Jesse Jesse may refer to: People * Jesse (biblical figure), father of David in the Bible * Jesse (given name), including a list of people * Jesse (surname), a list of people Music * ''Jesse'' (album), a 2003 album by Jesse Powell * "Jesse" (s ...

), the leader of the red team, and Egao ( Yugo Kochi). Joe and Kota (Hikaru Iwamoto), the leader of the blue team, are rivals who fight each other whenever they see each other. Joe's mother was seriously ill. Blue Team Tusk (Tatsuya Fukazawa) had a wife and was about to give birth. At first, Jun is closed-minded, but as he comes into contact with Joe, a reliable man with a strong personality, and Egao, a kind man, he gradually develops a sense of camaraderie and friendship with them. One day, a new

prison guard A prison officer (PO) or corrections officer (CO), also known as a correctional law enforcement officer or less formally as a prison guard, is a uniformed law enforcement official responsible for the custody, supervision, safety, and regulation ...

chief, Nakabayashi (

You Yokoyama is a Japanese idol and singer, member of Super Eight (previously known as Kanjani Eight), which is under the management of Johnny & Associates. His image color in the group is black. Career Yokoyama entered Johnny's on Christmas 1996 where ...

), arrives. He was once beaten by the boys in the prison and has a disability in one of his legs. Nakabayashi begins to dominate the boys with cruelty and harshness. The atmosphere in the prison worsens, and the boys, thinking of their families and friends, plan to escape from prison.

Production

Development

According to producer Hiroyuki Saito,

had produced a film about the

trainees since 2013, and the theater department of Shochiku approached him with the idea of making a film of this piece as well. However, there was an opinion that the stage work should remain on stage, and it did not happen right away. 2017 came and Saito heard that the former Nara Prison was going to be renovated and turned into a hotel. Kitagawa and he agreed that it would be the perfect place to shoot this work, so they contacted

Ministry of justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice, is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...

and went to visit, and the talk of making a film became a reality. At the time, the stage version of ''

'' included a war story, but Saito did not include it in the film version because he felt that the war-related parts could not be depicted in a half-hearted manner. War is still happening today, and if it is to be depicted, it must be placed at the center of the story. This time, however, he was more concerned with the world in which the boys of today's Japan live and work. The

tire swing A swing is a seat or platform, suspended from chains, ropes, or bars, on which one or more people can swing back and forth for enjoyment or relaxation. Swings are a common piece of equipment at children's playgrounds and may also be found in yard ...

in the film was inherited from a setting from the 1960s and 1970s, when the

Four Leaves was a Japanese boy band A boy band is a vocal group consisting of young male singers, usually in their Teenage, teenage years or in their twenties at the time of formation. Generally, boy bands perform love songs marketed towards girls and ...

starred in the theatre. For the show scene in the latter half of the film, Kitagawa proposed the development of "rebirth," and the film was created based on this proposal. Director

said that when he first received the offer, he was concerned about whether it could really be made into a movie, but he was

curious Curiosity (from Latin , from "careful, diligent, curious", akin to "care") is a quality related to inquisitive thinking, such as exploration, investigation, and learning, evident in humans and other animals. Curiosity helps human development, ...

because it was a stage piece that Kitagawa had been doing for 50 years. He said that the staff spent two months preparing for the 8-minute, one-cut musical scene at the beginning of the film, and he was surprised that the performers learned the

choreography Choreography is the art of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which Motion (physics), motion or Visual appearance, form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A chor ...

so quickly.

Filming

The former

Prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol, penitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, or remand center, is a facility where Prisoner, people are Imprisonment, imprisoned under the authority of the State (polity), state ...

is one of the five major prisons built during the

Meiji Era The was an Japanese era name, era of History of Japan, Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868, to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feu ...

in Japan and was designated as an Important Cultural Property in 2017. When Kitagawa heard that the facility was to be renovated into a

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...

, he thought, "If this is the place, we can film the real ''Boys''" and coordinated with various agencies, which led to the filming of the movie. This was the first time a film was shot at the former Nara Prison. Filming took place from February 2018. On some snowy days, it was so cold that Jesse had to wear about 20 hand warmers on his body for the filming. Cast member Daigo Nishihata also filmed in a spring setting during the cold weather, wearing a half sleeve outfit. Hokuto Matsumura said, “It was very cold during the shoot, but I think that's why I was able to act out the reality of spending time in a real prison." Yugo Kochi, who is not good at dancing, was under tremendous pressure not to fail in the 8-minute musical scene at the beginning of the film, as he was to appear around the 7-minute mark, but he was able to finish the filming in one take without failure.

Reception

Release

It was released in 158 theaters nationwide in Japan on March 29, 2019, and ranked 8th in the nationwide movie attendance ranking on March 30 and 31. It ranked first in the Pia Movie First Day Satisfaction Ranking. At the suggestion of Johnny Kitagawa, an experimental experiment entitled "Movie and Demonstration" was held exclusively at Marunouchi Piccadilly, where performers appeared at random and gave live performances for a total of 34 times over a 10-day period from March 29 to April 7, the day the movie was released, the number of applications reached 1.1 million for the 30,000 seats in the auditorium. In addition, from April 13, cheering goods and penlights were allowed to be brought to the screening, and on April 15, a total of 53 members of trainees performed the song at the “Encore Screening of 'Ninja Drones?' Movie and Demonstration” held at Marunouchi Piccadilly, which was shown at 155 theaters nationwide through live viewing. It was shown via live viewing. The film was entered in the Panorama section of the 9th

Beijing International Film Festival The Beijing International Film Festival (), abbreviated BJIFF, is a film festival in Beijing, China. Founded in 2011, along with the Shanghai International Film Festival, it is one of China's two biggest film festivals. The festival is one of ...

, which opened on April 13, 2019, and Jesse took the stage on April 14 at the China Film Archive for a screening with a stage greeting, representing the cast, and also gave a speech in

Mandarin Chinese Mandarin ( ; zh, s=, t=, p=Guānhuà, l=Mandarin (bureaucrat), officials' speech) is the largest branch of the Sinitic languages. Mandarin varieties are spoken by 70 percent of all Chinese speakers over a large geographical area that stretch ...

. 600 tickets sold out in 2 minutes after they went on sale. As executive producer Johnny Kitagawa passed away on July 9, 2019, the film was screened again on August 16 of the same year as a memorial screening. The film grossed $758,772 at the opening and $2,791,948 overall.

Critical reception

The official page of

, the production company, says, "This film is serious, but all cast sing and dance! It is neither a

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

nor an

Indian film The cinema of India, consisting of motion pictures made by the Indian film industry, has had a large effect on world cinema since the second half of the 20th century. Indian cinema is made up of various film industries, each focused on pr ...

." As can be seen from its introduction, the film received mixed reviews after its release. Writer Kaeru Inaka analyzes that with Johnny Kitagawa as the

, he would have had a stronger authority over the film than the director Motoki. The film is set in a juvenile prison, but the content is old-fashioned and reminds one of the Showa era, lacking in reality, and he criticizes the use of

dialogue Dialogue (sometimes spelled dialog in American and British English spelling differences, American English) is a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people, and a literature, literary and theatrical form that depicts suc ...

and reminiscences to explain everything, which is not cinematic. He also said that the musical parts were only used to make use of the actors' coolness, rather than to attract a sense of unity. Blogger Yuzu also said that the film's setting was old-fashioned and that it was impossible for it to be in 2012. She analyzed the film as a visualization of Johnny Kitagawa's indelible scene of his childhood, assuming that it was set in Japan about 50 years ago, when juvenile crimes were common. However, she said that the gorgeous show featuring all the trainees at the end of the film was worth seeing. RealSound Editor Yui Sato said that it would be

nonsense Nonsense is a form of communication, via speech, writing, or any other formal logic system, that lacks any coherent meaning. In ordinary usage, nonsense is sometimes synonymous with absurdity or the ridiculous. Many poets, novelists and songwri ...

to review this work by saying that the story is not coherent or that the direction is not right, and analyzed it as a typical Johnny's work that depicts the momentary beauty and preciousness of boys who will gradually become adults. She said that each episode is sudden and rough, and it is difficult to understand everything on the first viewing, but it is a work that makes one want to watch it again to understand it better. In particular, he noted that the three main characters played by

, and Hikaru Iwamoto were fascinating and worthy of attention.

Cast/Staff

Cast

*Red team **

from SixTones as Joe (N°112) **

from SixTones as Jun (N°264) ** Yugo Kochi from SixTones as Egao (N°18) **Juri Tanaka from SixTones as Information broker (N°482) ** Hokuto Matsumura from SixTones as Daiken (N°391) ** Shintaro Morimoto from SixTones as Hiroto (N°7) *Blue team **Hikaru Iwamoto from Snow Man as Kota (N°501) **Tatsuya Fukazawa from Snow Man as Tasuku (N°55): His wife is about to give birth. **Shota Watanabe from Snow Man as Ryou (N°189) **Ryohei Abe from Snow Man as Host (N°131) **Ryota Miyadate from Snow Man as Shunsoku (N°66) ** Daisuke Sakuma from Snow Man as Maru (N°9) *Black team ** Daigo Nishihata as Sumitani (N°16) ** Koji Mukai as Tatsuya (N°240) **Ryuta Muro as Kenta (N°91) ** Yoshinori Masakado as Shogo (N°305) **Ken Kojima as Masaki(N°11) *Kaito Miyachika as Hayato: A boy who was Jun's best friend. *Shota Totsuka as Miyazaki: Child welfare worker in charge of Jun. *

as Nakabayashi

Staff

*Executive Producer :

*Director :

*Screenplay : Katsumi Ishikawa *Script Cooperation: Namio Kawanami, Kenji Takami *Music: Masahiro Hasegawa *Photography: Yasuhiko Minamino *Lighting: Toshinori Egawa *Art Director: Daisuke Sue *Sound Recording: Kazuhiro Kurihara, Satoru Matsumoto *Editing: Isao Kawase (J.S.E.) *Assistant Director: Masanori Inoue *Choreography: Sanche *Special Cooperation:

Ministry of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice, is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...

*Planning Cooperation: J.S.E. *Distribution:

*Production Production:

Shochiku Studio is a Japanese film and production studio company of Shochiku Group, which has been producing movies and dramas for roughly a century, being the second-oldest motion picture company in Japan. The company has production bases in Kyoto and Tokyo ...

*Production: ''Ninja Drones'' Film Partners (Shochiku, J Storm)

References

External links

*
''Ninja Drones (Boys)''
- Shochiku (in Japanese)
Movie ''Boys'' Special Edition
-

Starto Entertainment is a Japanese entertainment company that provides artist management services established on October 17, 2023. The president is Atsushi Fukuda. Many of the groups and artists formerly affiliated with Johnny & Associates belong to this company. ...

*{{YouTube, MAW-kx9ncQ4, Teaser (in Japanese) 2019 films 2010s dance films Films set in prison Japanese musical films Films set in Japan Films set in Nara Prefecture