I’ve been a fan of the Black Jack series ever since I randomly watched though that Comcast on demand thing. After watching what was on there, which was about the first 4 episodes of the first series. Then I went though and started to download/find the series, and I found this movie. This was done around the same time of the 2006 series, which its updated style and such. I really had no clue what to expect when going into it, I had seen the other movie, just titled Black Jack: The Movie. What I got from this movie is that it is Black Jack lite, which isn’t a bad thing per say.
You know Black Jack is a badass when he uses a scalpel as a shrunken
What I really mean by Black Jack lite is that the movie while it has what all the other shows and movies have, it does brings the medical stuff to the backseat a bit. This is a double edged sword I think, it is good in the fact that it can bring in new people into this as a bit of testing the water to see if they would like the other stuff. The movie has a few action parts to break up the story and such and is just a real easy watch. In other shows there would be more focus to the operations and stuff like that, for there just doesn’t seem to be much focus on the operations and they happen very quickly. This brings us to the other side of the show, for older Black Jack fans this can be a small downside. After re-watching this to write this post I felt that it was just missing those crazy epic operations that happen in other shows. It is a trade off though, because it could have held down some pacing problems and would not been as good to bring new people into the Black Jack universe. In the end though this is my only gripe with the movie, and it is easily overlooked; just wanted to bring it up.
Anyway, for those who do not know about Black Jack; it is one of Osamu Tezuka’s works. It follows the story of a rouge unlicensed doctor known as Black Jack, he is know for 2 things; outrageous prices and being able to do just about any job. He is nothing short of a medical genius, and is even a kind hearted person to boot. So each plot is normally medical problem, find Black Jack, make Black Jack take the job, medical stuff, and then everyone is happy. Not the most complicated thing, but it works, because even if every episode or whatever is like that, it is always interesting to see how the medical problem is solved.
Would very much suck if you had Satan
The plot of this movie follows the normal steps for the most part. What breaks it apart is it is longer and more complicated. It starts off with a mall being bombed and Black Jack is let out of jail to go help with saving people. Right here he works his medical genius by saving a young boy trapped between rubble, by detaching an arm and leg to pull him out, then re-attaching them. Then it moves on to another job the doctor takes, again caused by this bomb and this one has some personal relation with because it reminds him of his trouble past. Though this brings in the rival of Black Jack, Dr. Kiriko also known as Death Incarnate. They happen to be working on the same person, the twist is that Dr. Kiriko specializes in killing people painlessly and Black Jack is against him for that and believes that people should be saved. After the conflict between them is resolved and Black Jack takes a bit of a side trip to get his equipment re-worked. While this does not seem important, it does a lot for the story and makes Black Jack question himself and what he does, and this comes back a few times throughout the movie.
Some time then passes and then he is meet by two people who come to his house. These people offer Black Jack a huge sum of money to save a person, but there are a few catches, he must be blindfolded and must keep things on the down low. He takes the job and then is taken off to Icarus island, an island where many bio tests were made and have created many strange creatures, mutated the plant life, and is the home to a horrible disease. Here Black Jack finds out that this group of people are the ones who set the bomb, and want to use this disease to get payback and Black Jack is there for finding a cure. So this brings in this conflict of this radical group and big corporation, which gets developed thought out the move. As the movie plays on it becomes more important Black Jack stops the horrible disease known as Satan and make sure it is not used for any means. This Satan is one horrible disease, they say it is a form of Anthrax, and the big ending blow it does is destroy the brain. Along the way there are many twists and turns to keep you guessing and wondering how Dr. Kiriko comes into it, since it is the two doctors of darkness.
I do not want to give much away to this, because one I want people to watch it so if I give detail and such it might make people not want to since I went though it, and some people do not like spoilers. Either way there is a lot of stuff that happens in this movie and in the end it all comes together to tie everything up.
Pro tip: Revolvers don't need to be reloaded, even though there are only 6 slots for bullets, it still shoots after that
In the end I very much so recommend this movie. I would use this to bring people into Black Jack and then have them take a look at the other series from here. With its ease of watch and good story line it is the perfect intro and brings a little more to the fans. So now would you kindly (yes I went for the Bioshock reference) go watch this movie.