I think it was in junior high school when I became exposed to jazz music for the first time. My music teacher, Mr. Leach, was into jazz, and when I was in Grade 9, he formed a jazz band. I was on 3^rd Trumpet. (Clearly, trumpet playing was not my forte but I enjoyed it nevertheless.) I remember performing in front of all the parents at graduation. We played Blood, Sweat & Tears’ “Spinning Wheel”, which is more pop than jazz but Mr. Leach tweaked it to give it a jazz feel, or at least we believed he did. I remember my mother’s only comment afterwards was that we were loud. As an adult, I would go to the jazz concerts at Ontario Place in Toronto every summer, often by myself as my friends were more interested in Elton John and Bruce Springsteen than in Chick Corea and Oscar Peterson. (Don’t get me wrong. I like Elton and Bruce too!)

Back then, there was talk that jazz was dying out but here we are, many years later, and jazz is still going strong. Its largest fan base in the world is in Japan, apparently, with Tokyo being at the center of the community, and Japanese musicians are now known to jazz lovers on both sides of the Pacific. Pianist Hiromi Uehara/上原 ひろみ is one of them. Her debut album in 2003, “Another Mind”, went gold (100,000 units sold) and it received the Recording Industry Association of Japan’s Jazz Album of the Year Award. It’s her music that you will hear in the new film, BLUE GIANT.

Adapted from the hugely popular manga series of the same name by Shinichi Ishizuka/石塚真一, BLUE GIANT tells the story of Dai Miyamoto (voiced by Yuki Yamada/山田 裕貴, SHOPLIFTERS, with his music performed by saxophonist Tomoaki Baba/智章馬場), who discovered jazz music while in high school and started learning how to play the tenor saxophone at the age of 15. With high school now behind him, he leaves his home in Sendai and heads to Tokyo with the goal of becoming the world’s greatest sax player. Crashing on the sofa of an acquaintance, Shunji Tamada (voiced by Amane Okayama/岡山 天音, ZERO: THE BRAVEST MONEY GAME, with his music performed by drummer Shun Ishiwaka/石若駿 of the band Millennium Parade), Dai begins to hit the city’s jazz clubs where he meets a young and talented pianist named Yukinori Sawabe (voiced by Shōtarō Mamiya/間宮 祥太朗, ZERO: THE BRAVEST MONEY GAME, with his music performed by Uehara). Dai convinces Yukinori to form a jazz combo but they need a drummer. Shunji decides to fill that role only he has less experience on the drums than Dai has on the sax. Nevertheless, the pair has unbridled enthusiasm and over the months ahead they improve to the point where the trio, who call themselves Jass, starts to gain a following. Their goal, though, is to play SoBlue, the best jazz club in Tokyo.

If you’re not into jazz music, BLUE GIANT is going to seem like two hours of hell. Fortunately, I am and I really enjoyed this movie, although I accept that it does have some shortcomings. My three friends, however, came out of the cinema with a very different opinion. Sure, they all were very appreciative of the animation, which becomes a kaleidoscope of colours and imagery that leap off the screen whenever the trio starts playing their instruments, but they didn’t much care for the full-on musical pieces. I can see their point in this regard. This isn’t a documentary about a jazz combo. It’s a film adaptation of a manga and it does go over the top on the numbers, so much so that 20 minutes could have easily been chopped from this film and it wouldn’t have been any worse for wear. It also doesn’t dive into what kind of jazz music Dai wants to play; only that jazz music excites him like nothing else does. I don’t think a jazz musician, even one as young and wide-eyed as Dai, would ever be that vague. I can forgive screenwriter Number 8 (aka Eito Namba) though. “8”, who served as editor and story director for the manga series, may have been keeping close to Ishizuka’s original story. Whatever the reason, the music is uplifting and people who do like that kind of jazz music will want to download the film’s soundtrack as soon as they get home from the cinema.

Back to the animation though, director Yuzuru Tachikawa/立川 譲 (MOB PSYCHO 100) employs rotoscoping to animate his characters when they’re performing and the transition from flat 2D to fully rendered CG can be very effective, again, if this is your thing. If it’s not, BLUE GIANT can seem like six highly animated music videos strung together by a fairly conventional story about a young man whose optimism is only matched by his ambition. Perhaps that was Tachikawa’s goal by making this film though — to put music to a story that was about a musician. If so, then I’d say “Mission accomplished.”

BLUE GIANT opens in Hong Kong on Thursday (August 31^st). Admittedly, this one’s only for fans of anime or jazz music. If you fall into either of those categories, you’re in for a real treat.

Thanks for reading but don’t be a lurker! If you liked what you just read, here are some suggestions:

Sign up to receive my movie reviews in your inbox automatically
Share this review on your Facebook page
Leave me a message telling me what you thought of my review or the film
Bookmark the site and visit often
Like my Howard For Film Facebook page
Watch my reviews on my YouTube page
Check out my Howard For Film magazine on Flipboard
Tell your friends about the site