30. Tokyo Ghoul (Tôkyô gûru); movie review

TOKYO GHOUL (TOKYO GURU)
Cert 15
120 mins
BBFC advice: Contains strong language and gory images

Kentarô Hagiwara's Tokyo Ghoul prompted me to muse on how many times adapting a cartoon to a real-life movie actually works.
It certainly didn't in the Ghost In The Shell re-make with Scarlett Johansson which was released last year.
Tokyo Ghoul engages much more but that might be down to its basic story being less complex.
True, the audience has to get its collective head around the idea that some humans in the community may be monsters in disguise but once that is accepted it is pretty much plain sailing.
Masataka Kubota plays Ken Kaneki, a shy and stuttering student, who finally plucks up the courage to ask out a girl (Yū Aoi ) on whom he has a crush.
Unfortunately, after a pleasant evening out, it emerges that she is a ghoul, shows off her four spiked tails, spears him and leaves him for dead.
In the same incident, she is killed and, in order to save his life, surgeons, not realising she was a ghoul, transplant her organs into him.
I know, I know, who knew they would be a match but let's not get hung up on technicalities.
Anyway, following the operation, the nice Kaneki is more ghoul than man and is faced with having to eat human flesh and blood in order to survive.
Much of the movie surrounds his mental agony over his new diet and also focuses on him trying to keep his secret from his human friends while, at the same time, striving for acceptance among the ghoul community.
The latter becomes particularly important when two ghoul hunters (Nobuyuki Suzuki and Yo Oizumi) set about the latter's destruction.
There are myriad moral messages bubbling under the surface of Tokyo Ghoul - notably surrounding place in society and interaction with those who are different.
But I doubt that these will prey too long on the minds of its fans.
They will simply bathe in the action and, on the whole, that is pretty compelling.

Reasons to watch: a superior adaptation of anime to live action
Reasons to avoid: there is a lot of fantasy violence

Laughs: none
Jumps: two
Vomit: yes
Nudity: none
Overall rating: 7.5/10

Director's quote - Kentarô Hagiwara: " I felt a lot of empathy for Kaneki’s conflict. Is it worth living if it means committing a taboo and losing your human dignity?"

The big question: What prompted the cinema obsession with bloodsuckers?

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