Several months after "Crows: Episode 0" trouble brews again when thugs known as "The Army of Killers" from rival high school Hosen Academy threaten Suzuran High aka the School of Crows.
The ruthless Hosen gang go after Suzuran alumni Sho Kawanishi after his released from reformatory for killing a Hosen member two years back. Kawanishi turns to his younger Suzuran gang members for protection. The Housen gang then seeks out right revenge on the entire Suzuran school, while in-fighting at Suzuran High makes them even more susceptible to the Housen threat. (asianwiki)
Geez, I've seen a large part of Oguri Shun's filmography and I don't even like the guy. But like it predecessor, this movie rocked! While in the first movie we get to know the guys, here everyone is established, and of course you can't help but like all the boys. They are mostly allies... mind you, not all of them. Kirishima (Daito Shunsuke) still refuses to be part of GPS; there is a kind of bromance (love-hate) between Izaki and Tokaji, and although Genji defeated Serizawa in the previous movie, Serizawa is not part of his gang. Genji still tries to defeat the undefeated Hayashida. But when a former student, Kawanishi, is threatened by the students of Hosen School, and foolishly, Genji gives the first punch in a non-violence pact, the thing transforms into a Suzuran vs. Hosen thing.
This movie may be a little more violent than the first one. First of all, there is a history of a murder of a Hosen student by the hand of a Suzuran student... with a knife, nonetheless. A former student from Suzuran, turned into a Hosen student, tries once to stab Genji. While our boys hang out at night, in different groups and places, they suddenly encounter gangs of Hosen and the fight begins. Tsutsumoto, part of Serizawa's gang, is beaten almost to death and has to be in hospital for 3 months.
So yeah, the movie is certainly more gory. There is a lot of blood, of bruises. It was exciting but at the same time, very distressing, each time a hundred of Suzuran's went against a thousand of Hosen. Black uniform against gray uniform. All fights were so well done! Looked all very natural, not like a dance but like an actual street fight. The final battle was epic, no doubt about it. And wasn't the new leader of Hosen school a nice guy, offering Genji that bottle of water? They boys may be sadist-masochist, but they were also nice people, including Narumi (who I just could not see as a bad guy at first... I first saw him in the dorama
Tokyo Bandwagon and he was so nice and polish.. so different from this role).
I still think that Serizawa and Izaki are like, the coolest guys ever. They don't need much dialogue. Both of them have an incredible presence in the movie. I love this actors (Yamada Takayuki and Takaoka Sousuke) and I definetely want to see more of them.
We get to see Ken again, although his role is not that important. Honestly, Kawanishi's part was like a filler (well, he is the reason the whole battle begins... and after that, he kinds of lose importance to the story so the whole Yakuza thing was almost like the scriptwriter improvised something else for him). If Ken and Kawanishi, after the first incident, were cut from the movie, it would not have been mattered at all.
Another scenes that I would not minded if they were cut or never filmed was the girls' scenes. First of all, Kuroki Meisa's role. I kind of hate her in the movie, and it is not because of her acting (ha, like she acts... all she does is sing a lame song and move her body) but because she is so irrelevant. She says like, 5 lines, and in the credits, she is more important than Izaki! Not fair at all. The other scene was with Kyoko-rin and Makise's date... I know it was added to have a comic part, but honestly, it was not that funny, and should have been cut.
Between the new guys, I like Kaneko Nobuaki as Narami. Looked like a punk but was nice and fair (he stopped the crazy guy to stab Genji, because that is not how things are done). Miura Haruma was a bit irrelevant, but he was the younger brother of the killed guy, and it gave the movie an opportunity to have a sequel. Ayano Go... Yikes, I dislike this guy. He has the face of a criminal (or he is a terrific actor and just made me dislike him in "Mother", where he plays the role of a child-abuser). I don't understand how people find him attractive... If I find him walking on the street, I will definitely cross to the other side. And people say Tanaka Koki has the face of a punk? Err, look at Ayano Go please. If at least he could cut that awful hair... When he was standing there under his umbrella, it was like watching Michael Jackson or something (with all due respect to the King of Pop). Thank God my dear Serizawa is the one in charge to kick his butt (and what a way to kick it!)
So besides the irrelevant parts, another scenes that needed NOT to be there and was a total waste of time, and annoyed the hell out of me, were the two songs: one of them by Kuroki Meisa. Please, why the need to add them? Were the producers paid so much money to promote these singers? It was like watching a commercial... we are forced to listen to this lame songs for 3 minutes minimum each, top. What a waste of film.
(why the hell was Kuroki Meisa cast??? Her role is so irrelevant...)
In summary, I love the sequel. What are the chances to have an AWESOME sequel? Barely, but this once succeeded. Besides, all the same actors are here again. Looking exactly the same... although Serizawa has longer hair and there were times where I thought I was watching Shibutani from K8...
Anyway highly recommended. My rating is
9/10 (Would have been a 10/10 if it wasn't for those 2 crappy video songs).
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