Quick Review #124: TANG (movie)

Title: TANG / タング　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

Rating: 3 / 10

Recommended for: 

For those who are fans of Ninomiya Kazunari and like to watch a light science fiction story set in the futuristic era

* Potential spoilers ahead!

* I have not read the original novel "Robot in the Garden".

Liked:

- As this movie was primarily focused on Ken (Ninomiya) and the robot Tang, you should be pretty satisfied with seeing a lot of Nino here. I also liked his interaction with Mitsushima Hikari who played his wife here. The acting from the both of them really helped to make this movie a lot more bearable for me at least. 

While Tang the robot didn't strike me as very endearing at first, it did grow on me over time as the film progressed which strangely enough, mirrored how Ken felt towards it. In this sense, I have to give the movie credit for making me feel this way.

Disliked: 

- The biggest issue I had was with the story which was predictable and quite uneventful. I do not know if the movie followed the original novel closely but the film felt pretty draggy at many junctures. The CG was a bit too much and overwhelming to show the futuristic vibe of the story. Moreover, the mad scientist part felt like an unwelcome distraction to me.

- The other problem was that the story did not delve deep enough into the characters to make me empathize with them or understand their actions. For starters, Ken's reluctance and inability to make decisions wasn't explained properly to justify his behaviour when faced with his own father's medical emergency. While I understood that he didn't want to continue being a doctor after his indecisiveness supposedly played a part in his father's death, the reason for this character trait wasn't addressed at all. There must have been something that triggered his lack of confidence in himself prior to that incident with his father but sad to say, the movie didn't give me this answer. And for his wife to bear with his downward spiral and loss of motivation in his life seemingly for an extended period of time, I would have appreciated a bit more insight into their relationship that could explain why she still tolerated this until she finally snapped.

- Despite having a pretty good lineup especially the three actresses Mitsushima, Nao and Ichikawa Mikako, I felt that they didn't get the opportunity to show their acting chops which was a great pity.