Kano (2014) Reviews

• Although the CGI is not perfect, after you watch the the movie you will understand why that is not a problem. It is definitely the best picture of the year.

  ycws172014-03-15

  Unlike MLB, where baseball has already been commercialized, KANO shows us the true spirit of the game. From the director of "Seediq", KANO takes us back to a time that playing ball was sacred. With a nearly perfect rhythm and strong story, the filmmakers have shown us how the spirit of baseball can turn players from three different races into one strong team. From every setting to the music of the movie, it is not hard to see they had put their hearts in to the film. This is a movie that can bring you tears of joy as well as warm your heart. The intensity of the games can make you cry and cheer. Most importantly, it's a movie that teaches you to never give up and fight to the end, no matter what the outcome is. Although the CGI is not perfect, after you watch the the movie you will understand why that is not a problem. It is definitely the best picture of the year.

• Even everyone who's NOT into baseball and/or Japanese movies, you have to see this movie!

  stefan24-326-4092122015-01-08

  The movie Kano (2014) is about the Taiwanese/Japanese baseball team who never won any baseball game, but their new manager is trying to live up their ultimate dream: play in the 'Koshien' stadium, where Japanese high school teams play finals in the national baseball league. Kano is an extraordinary movie that shows the true meaning of team spirit, friendship, and the original way how baseball (or any sport) SHOULD be played with team spirit, dedication and no commercialism. It shows the true life of a simple Taiwanese baseball team in high spirits. Friendship between teammates, love between families, love for the game. This makes one hell of a movie. A MUST SEE!

• Arena for Heroes - Kano for the World

  AkelaLoneWolf2014-04-17

  This is a very exciting and inspiring movie; it's more than baseball - it's about striving towards your goals no matter how impossible they seemed. The story was based on the historical fact that one legendary baseball team from Taiwan (at that time considered a province in Japan during the Occupation) made it to the Japanese national high school baseball championship Koshien. Some had criticized the director for his pro-Japanese sentiments and for portraying the Japanese rulers in a favorable light; I believe he was only trying to pay tribute to an amazing team with players of different ethnicities who worked towards their dream, dropping minor differences on the way. It will be an easy watch even if you don't know baseball (well somehow I managed to recall the theories taught in high school and was able to follow). Some lines are quite funny - "So Teacher Hamada was responsible for conning papayas while Coach Kondo did the part of conning us!"

• Deep and funny movie based on historical events

  chloe-683582018-03-27

  This movie seems to be about baseball but it is also about sports ethics, passion, dream, determination, friendship, and perhaps most importantly, overcoming racial barrier. Do not forget that this movie is made by a formal colony about its colonial period. Most of the lines were written in Japanese, but they included as many kinds of languages in Taiwan as possible. They found actors that have the same ethnicity as the roles they're playing. The lines are great, showing the spirit of the culture. It is a crude simplification to suggest that this is a nationalistic film. It's as if to say Black Panther is pan-black or whatever and ignore its significance in the history of cinema. This film is different things to different people. It uses a true historical event to speaks about the challenges of individuals, just in life in general, as a Japanese descent growing up in a colony, as the colonised or even an indigenous person in the colonial period, as a man who lost his dream but inspired by young people etc. So much more. If only the studio had more money, it would be able to have nice cgi as the American films and publicise around the world. Its message serves more than entertainment and speaks strong in the future as the former colonies are coming closer together with the former colonisers.

• If you give your 100%, the rest of the team will do the same.

  Reno-Rangan2016-03-24

  I have seen many historical-biopics from Hong Kong, China, Japan, Korea, but I don't know much of Taiwan history. In fact everything I learnt about the world was mostly through watching movies like this. It was not about war or the freedom fighters, but based on the real story of an under-performed multi-racial baseball team that hit a headline in the 1931 after qualifying to play in a championship. Baseball is not a widely popular in the world like football or cricket, except in a few countries. I have seen many baseball movies, but I never understood the game clearly. That never stopped me enjoying the inspiration, the player's passion towards the game and the entertainment it offered. This is not the best baseball movie I have ever seen, but definitely one of the best among them. I never heard this movie before, but once came to know, I was desperate to give it a try. Sets in when Taiwan was still under the Japanese colonial rule. A high school baseball team called Kano had never won a single game before receives a new strict disciplined coach from Japan. The team's fortune is about to change when the coach Kondo boosts his player's confidence by his method of training. With the initial struggle, they get to taste their first victory. Later the team head to Japan to represent the island in a big tournament. That brings to an end to the narration by revealing their underdog tag to winning the hearts of the fans in an unknown territory with their great consistence performances. "Don't think about winning. Think about not losing. Then you will have all the strength you need." An inspiring movie, about the self-confidence and hard work. But I had my disappointments as well with its exaggerated screen presentation. In the many parts, the sentimental cinematic overdose without the realistic appeal made me consider it is nothing less than a commercial film. You know, making the tight fist, teeth biting, sharp look, those things give the audience unnecessary goosebumps. Maybe if you're a native, it might give a patriotic uplift. Other than that I loved the background score, very pleasing camera work and the countryside location, good performances by all, very decent direction and overall a satisfying movie,. Historical subject means, there should always be some amount of graphics to recreate the past eras and this film had a weakness in that field, but those parts were totally ignorable which mostly comes in the backgrounds. I think 180 minutes is a too long for these days films. That's an achievement for you if you succeed watching without losing your focus. We can comfortably sit for that long for a commercial movie, because commercial films means entertainment, but this one was depicting the real story and for a sports movie it does not look good. I am saying that because of the third act and the ending. Knowing the history through a movie is good, better than learning in the school, but when it tumbles to meet the viewer's expectation, surely trouble arises. Because all the people are not the same to accept whatever the movie delivers, simultaneously being practical to original events is very essential. If it avoided those cinematic gimmicks, I would have considered it an unexpected masterpiece. I love this movie for being just a movie and historical account, but I expected more honest with the screen presentation. An a movie fanatic, I definitely recommend it, but personally, I let you decide yourself. Because the way it ends, most people easily get upset for spending 3 hours. 7/10