Sakigake!! Otokojuku (Live Action Film)

Be A Man! Samurai School
Be A Man! Samurai School
Kanji	魁!!男塾
Romaji	Sakigake!! Otokojuku
Information
Form	Live Action
Year Released	January 26, 2008
Director	Tak Sakaguchi

Be A Man! Samurai School (魁!!男塾 Sakigake!! Otokojuku) is a live action film which premiered in January 26, 2008 in Fantasia Festival. Running for 110 minutes, it was the first film directed by Tak Sakaguchi.

Plot

The film roughly covers the beginning of the Sakigake!! Otokojuku manga up until the end of the Four Great Trials of Terror, with the following changes:

• Momo is introduced beating up a gang of thugs who assaulted a passing Hidemaro. This is likely a nod to the first chapter of Sakigake!! Otokojuku, when, during Otokojuku's straight line march, Momo breaks into a Yakuza base and defeats all of the Yakuza in it before resuming the march.
• Hidemaro's character is completely changed; he becomes a central character to the series, but as a relatively normal student looking up to Momo. His mother enrolled him into Otokojuku, citing his father's death as the cause of not enrolling and learning to become a man.
• Most characters in the series are not muscular, likely due to difficulty replicating the musculature of characters in the series.
• Toramaru is a regular student first seen running away from Otokojuku before he gets hit by a car, meets the woman driving the car, and shyly runs away while she looks at him admiringly.
• Togashi enters the oil bath challenge after being exposed for claiming that he wore the briefs, covering for Hidemaro. During the interrogation leading up to the oil bath, Toramaru claims that he is wearing nothing underneath his pants and is skipped to the next student in the sequence.
• Togashi receives a love letter from a girl who was told to date him as initiation into a girls' gang. Toramaru rushes to hit the girls, offended that the girl Togashi had dated was actually leading him on, but Togashi stops him, tells her that it was the best day of his life, and walks away, crying alone to himself until Momo finds him and leads him back to Otokojuku. This was likely inspired by the manga arc in which Togashi was conned into taking care of an old woman who pretended to believe that he was her dead son and pretended to own several million yen.
• Edogawa is replaced by the character Tange, who fills in his role, likely due to difficulty replicating Edogawa's size.
• As punishment for helping Hidemaro escape Otokojuku, Momo and Hidemaro are confined to solitary confinement, where Momo has to hold chains attached to a 500 kg weight to prevent it from crushing Hidemaro. This is likely inspired by Toramaru's introduction, where he is introduced keeping up a 500 kg weight.
• Date Omito receives his scars from undertaking the same trial as above. Like in the manga, he kills the instructor who scarred him, but Onihige expels him from the school.
• Momo, Togashi, and Toramaru are seen preparing for the Three Great Trials of Terror. Momo is seen practicing his swordsmanship and Toramaru is seen fighting a bear. Togashi is seen in front of his brother's grave before Onihige presents him his brother's dosu.
• J and Raiden are omitted from the film, likely due to difficulty introducing non-Asian characters in major roles in Japanese films. As a result, the Four Great Trials of Terror is titled the Three Great Trials of Terror.
• A muscular student is seen attempting to lift the flagpole and failing before Hidemaro attempts it. Hidemaro is additionally shown to have been bullied in his childhood, and this becomes motivation for him to attempt the flagpole. He is personally congratulated by Edajima after the Three Great Trials of Terror.
• Toramaru's fight with Gekkou happens before Togashi's fight with Hien and happens in a cave that is set to crumble after a certain time. Prior to Toramaru's fight with Gekkou, Gekkou punches apart a slab of rock and carves Toramaru's name into it in the manner of a gravestone. Toramaru responds by saying he is Christian.
• Momo helps Date off of their battleground after their battle.

External links

Official website.