I should be more skeptical of the upcoming live-action The Flowers Of Evil Film, I really should. However, everything I’ve seen so far makes me think this film really just might the mark. Of course, the involvement of the celebrated screen-writer Mari Okada goes a long way in letting me think maybe the movie will be worth watching. When the first teaser came out, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I thought it got right. Now that we have a full 90-second trailer, I’m even further swayed towards being excited for this unbelievable The Flowers Of Evil live-action.
If you’ve never watched nor read The Flowers Of Evil, and trust me you absolutely have to do both, know it’s not a story for the faint of heart. It follows Kasuga, a bookwormish kid with a superiority complex who has a crush on the prettiest nicest girl in class, and Nakamura, a girl who rejects everything about the world around her who catches Kasuga giving in to a particularly inappropriate temptation. What follows is an absolute whirlwind of a tale that puts everything about the human condition on display, raw and bleeding, holding nothing back.
Now, I’m not exaggerating in the slightest when I say The Flowers Of Evil is my favorite manga of all time and the controversial anime is the best tv series of the decade on its own merits. This new live-action film has some big shoes to fill and I can probably count the number of really good live-action film adaptations of anime and manga, Japanese or American, on one hand. However as I said before, I’m hopeful. I doubt this’ll be the best movie ever but if it gets that core, unique, and ambivalent affect of the series right, I’ll be happy.
The live-action The Flowers Of Evil written by Mari Okada hits Japanese theaters September 27.