High&Low: The Worst X (2022)

Just a tad too much

Finally it's here after having waited years, the second part to the High&Low The Worst franchise. When I tell you that I was at the edge of my seat when this was announced! And it didn't..fully disappoint.

As usual the action was amazing, the acting was splendid especially from those having their acting debuts in such a physically demanding movie, and the cinematography never disappoints. The issue is the same though as it is with every movie that has a giant cast: it lacks in the story department.

With so many characters involved it is impossible to flesh out a proper arch or motivation for them which leads to a lot of times of me wondering why they were actually there. I cant help but compare it to Crows Zero (especially since this a Crows Zero universe CROSSover) which also had a big cast . Difference is the cast then was made up mostly by background characters rather than characters meant to have archs/enemies of their own so they could focus on the main conflict. I believe it is best to simply focus on less characters but build on them for a more compelling story.

I think this is where casting so many of your own artists, along with other prominent artists, becomes an issue since of course you want your people to all get to shine as much as possible and broaden their fan circle (sell some of that music along with it) while with actors you can solely put focus on the few characters actually needed.

I was genuinely disappionted with the premise of the movie as well as the motivation for our main "villain". Unless this is your first introduction into the Yankee genre you won't find anything new about the storyarch. I had also hoped to see some more of the cast we already know in the movie (aka Fujio's friends whom we also know from their small drama adaptation) instead of this many new and basically irrelevant characters.

Overall the story was lacking for the fault of cramming as much as possible of the big cast into the story and missing originality, but the action and acting definitely made up for it. As usual Kazuma as Fujio is a stellar character whom I love cheering for and his crew is definitely getting the attention they deserve. I will always love that they didn't go for the typical, edgy protagonist type you see the most in yankee media and instead chose to write Fujio as a sunshine with fists of steel.

If you are a jpop fan you will dedinitely love seeing all these familiar faces taking on these tough roles, which honestly is also a point of enjoyment for itself. Obviously if you are an action fan like me and simply enjoy watching people bashing some heads in that too is really fun. But if you are looking for a compelling and interesting storyarch to go along with all that, this is not the watch for you.

While I have rewatched the first movie several times, I merely find myself skipping through this one to my favorite few fights. I think that perfectly sums up my impression. It felt like many cool action scenes thrown in a pot while the story to connect it all felt like an afterthought.

Lastly of course the music was absolutely perfect, I immediately added some of the soundtrack to my playlist which was to be expected with so many LDH artists involved.

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Splendid as always

This movie aired at my local cinema and probably is still airing in several districts of my country. I am gonna give the review with as less as spoilers as I could.

Continuing the franchise of H&L, H&L The worst cross of course focussed on Oya boys since the worst series was meant to focus on Oya. As usual, the main theme of H&L is of course friendship-centered. And once again, as usual, the introduction for the new gang is perfectly cool and makes me swoon. I am not a NCTzen but I really love Yuta's acting. His eyes speak a lot. Along with other LDH boys, this movie is of course worth watching if you follow the previous series of this franchise. The thing that surprised me is Daichi Mikami as Lao is a professional fighter. Initially, I thought he was a new member of LDH.

For the OST, you have to admit that H&L franchise always provides superb OST that goes along with each gang and the situation. "Wings" is the made-by-heaven combination of 4 vocalists from 3 groups.

This movie won't let your expectation down at all. Worth watching as always!

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