So now I want to talk about RRR, a Telugu-languaged Indian film that is recently blowing up the Indian movie charts and is achieving a surprising level of international attention around the world.
It is also Anime as fuck. Let me put it this way: In the opening moments a British police officer by the name of Ram is tasked to go into a crowd of rioting civilians in order to arrest one dude from a sea of thousands. This fucking Chad, without skipping a beat, removes his hat, grabs a baton, fucking leaps over the guard railing and squares off AGAINST THE ENTIRE RIOTING MOB, delivering blows, breaking limbs and fingers along the way. To get to one man. And this fucking guy--he does it. Bloodied and bruised, he drags this man back into the british compound, simply splashes water on his GLORIOUS MUSTACHE, and resumes his post. The entire mob, quakes in his presence and quickly disperses.
This all happens in the first 10 minutes of a just over three hour action film. And if you think what I just described is nuts--you ain't seen nothing yet. I've already seen this movie twice, but its only the second time that I noticed the extreme similarities between RRR and action shounen: Characters literally power up by screaming and flexing their massive muscles, guys are literally picking up motorcycles and throwing them at enemies, and the two central characters experience a fire-forged bond of friendship and manliness that rivals the best of any shounen relationship. This shit is fucking anime because it understands exactly why we love anime: it's both over-the-top and ridiculous while also being sincere anshell. And oh man, this movie, for as goofy as it is, takes it self, super-duper seriously. I've seen just enough south asian epics to know that audiences pretty much expect this stuff. It's why an American adaptation of DB--or any anime for that matter--can't work because us Americans demand a sheen of self-irony to accept ridiculous stuff. It's the constant winking and nodding in MCU movies that, at the end of the day, all of this is stupid. There is none of that in this movie: it expects you to accept everything at face-value. And if you can do that, you're looking at what is easily one of the best action scenes I've seen in years. I'm talking about taking the best of Wuxia and mixing it with the brutality of The Raid films--and it works.
Honestly, this is really just an excuse for me to talk about this movie. But yeah, if someone's going to do a Dragon Ball movie--this is how you do it.
