Cromartie High School - The Movie (Hong Kong Version) VCD

As in the manga, the film's hero is Takashi Kamiyama (Suga Takatomi), an honors student who actually chooses to attend Cromartie High School, the worst school in all of Japan, based on some entirely noble, yet hilariously flawed premises. Like his manga predecessor, Kamiyama wants to turn the school around, attacking the project with a sincere sort of earnestness that is as charming as it is downright hilarious. But Kamiyama's got his work cut out for him, as he's surrounded not only by utter morons, but by a few untraditional students as well. There's the mute, perpetually shirtless Freddie Mercury look-alike named, appropriately enough, Freddie. A man of few - actually no - words, Freddie often pals around with a gorilla, who also attends classes at Cromartie High. And then there's the robot named Shinichi Mechazawa who doesn't realize that he's a robot. Oh, and he has a little brother. Still with me?

The film is constructed much like the manga - as a series of vignettes and comedy sketches, loosely connected to form an overall narrative, although to suggest that Cromartie High School has a unifying story or theme, one would have to make sense of the film's final act when a flying saucer lands, piloted by two gorilla-like aliens. Their mission? To take over the school and brainwash the already brain-dead populace into becoming Shaolin monk supersoldiers. Why? I'm not sure, but I almost snorted root beer out my nose when the 36th Chamber of Shaolin parody kicked in. Nevertheless, the responsibility falls on fish-out-of-water everyman Kamiyama to rouse up the troops - the snobby Hokuto (Noburo Kaneko), the ever-observant Hayashida (Mitsuki Koga), the nickname deprived, mother-resembling Maeda (Hiroshi Yamamoto), and the rest of the Cromartie gang - to fight off this intergalactic evil.

Although there are quite a few spot-on translations from manga to film, not everything in Sakigake! Cromartie High School made it to the big screen intact. Whereas a lot of the comic book's comedy relied on the discrepancy between the tough guy Crying Freeman-style depictions of the characters and their loony remarks, the film version cast doesn't look quite as fierce. Even so, there's an added layer of comedy to see a bunch of not-so-tough guys act like they are, only to undercut it with idiotic, even cowardly behavior. Again, the humor is tough to describe. Sometimes, even a wordless scene makes for comedy gold. Case in point: something as simple as how Freddie and the gorilla are reclining while watching TV can elicit a few belly laughs. Or when an obviously thirtysomething actor is introduced via title cards as a sixteen-year-old kid - hilarity ensues.

If, and that's a very big IF, some of what's been mentioned here appeals to you, then Sakigake! Cromartie High School could very well be your cup of tea. Although the film seems squarely aimed at diehard fans, I can see how the live action version, as weird and seemingly inaccessible as it may be, could serve as a primer for non-fans, converting newbies to the cause, or at the very least, convincing them to seek out the source material. And well it should since, as devotees of the series already know, Cromartie High School is deranged, deadpan comedy at its best.

Review By Calvin McMillin