Movie / DVD [MOVIE] Documentary of AKB48: The Time Has Come (14/07/04)

"The time has come"......LOL. The subjects of this documentary are still playing out! Yuko hasn't graduated yet and the new teams have yet to debut; this is rushed. Usually a film takes months to edit, but somehow they're going to capture everything and tell a story by July?

Whatever, I just hope they give us some real thoughts and insights of the members and staff about Yuko's graduation and the shuffle. I can't stand the conservative-monitored-script reading-like fashion of most interviews.

 

The main focus should be about Yuko, but i'm pretty sure it'll include things on Mayu and last year's election. Considering that the election is before the date it comes out, we might see some behind the scenes action

 

I think the schedule was to feauture Yuko's graduation as the end of a chapter and the kohai taking the lead, but with the concert cancelled and being postponed until June... well, they just have to wait until then.
They still have a month between Yuko's graduation, the election and the release. It's plenty of time to edit that part, if the rest of the documentary is complete.

 

I think I ranted about this before and was somewhat relieved when they didn't announce a new documentary in their usual Feb/Mar timeframe.

With how much television coverage they get (albeit this year was more sparse than last), most of the things that we'll see in the Documentary would've been shown on TV, youtube, or other media outlets.

They didn't really have much to show with the preview; it's definitely a work in progress. Sadly, this will most likely be the one I don't see on opening night.

 

^ They never showed so many important things though like the new Team 4 rebirth and promotions... and the old Team 4 reactions... I think we've only seen tiny bits here and there. I'm still waiting to see the HKT48 shuffle in its entirety. Also, all the backstage stuff too. And even though it totally sux for Yuko... her graduation delay is probably going to make the end of this documentary more dramatic and interesting to watch.

 

I was hoping this was Yuko, but... nope. Acchan again.


if the video does not show watch the video here

I really don't get why they won't let her go. >_<

 

She's almost like Michael Jordan in terms of them having left indelible marks in their respective fields.

 

i'm happy with it if they decide to show us the MC of Acchan in Sapporo with Takamina and Miichan...
never found those and only read about it...

 

The doc was announced after Yuko was scheduled to make her final appearance on June 2nd (obviously its pushed back further due to the concert cancellation). And can they really tell the whole story about the shuffle if the new teams are still debuting? There's a lot of footage to weed through. I don't think a month is enough time, even if it's only for Yuko's part.

 

Exactly what is the documentary about? Is it all being told from management's perspective, whether or not they made good decisions? Is it about how the girls were affected by dai-senpai graduations? About Sasshi's meteoric rise or the push of the youngest generations? They all seem to me (aside from Sasshi's win) like they can't complete the narrative until around after sousenkyo.

In regards to the new stages, wouldn't it be interesting to hear them talk about what they think of joining a team with this member or that member? They won't get to know some members until they start working together, so we're going to need a bit more than song and dance with the cliche "ganbarimasu". Yuko's graduation storyline they could finish sooner. Get all the interviews now and throw in cuts of concert footage from her actual final performances.

I'm no documentarian, but if making a documentary is anything similar to making any other film, a month a ridiculous. Typical films edit for several months, close to a year even after all the shooting has been completed. It's possible you could have an idea of how a particular story is being told up until the final shootings, only to flip the narrative because the story has changed (for example the documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop).

Whatever the storylines, I just hope it's insightful and honest. I can't stand everyone saying the same rhetoric. Even if it puts a member in a bad light, authenticity is better when it comes to docs.

 

OMG!! Of course I would love it as well . I would definitely wait for this moment.


On the contrary to everyone here, I`m kinda happy (but sad at same time coz they cant "Let Acchan Go!" ) that they kinda include Acchan with the poster or her back. But if anything, last year`s or years back`s documentary kinda shows that the documentary itself might not be what the trailer or poster suggests. But I`m still hoping more Atsumina or Acchan moment or 1st gen momen, even if it`s just for a second.

IMO, if Shinobu documentary was totally excluded, this documentary is lacking an exact direction (if I based on the trailer alone). Of course there are lots to cover (i.e Yuko`s graduation, new gens, sasshi wins election), but whether Takahashi Eiki can sum it up coherently to match into one direction/theme is another story. I mean unofficial documentary to me seems to be more coherent and focused compared to the official one (they seems to jump awkwardly from one scene to other scene). I kinda wish AKS would try a different director for their next documentary, not that Takahashi Eiki is bad at all. But I really wish a different "flavour" of documentary


Just a short review for last year`s documentary, the trailer is much more exciting than the actual documentary lol

 

And yet at the end of No Flower' none of the KKS they asked wanted to be like Acchan... they all mostly picked Mayuyu, Yuko and Kojiharu I think. IMHO Yuko's absence will be felt waaaaaay more than Acchan's absence ever will.

 

^ They said they didn't say her name cause she had left, so they were giving names of the still-back-then members.
Heck, at the beginning of the documentary some is talking about backdancing for Maeda and seeing how shining she was lol

 

Don't worry, I don't

If you told a story out of context, I'd say you lied. The extreme example would be like those satirical cuts where you chop up a whole speech to get someone to say what you want them to say (if you watch the Daily Show you might know what I'm talking about).

 

I think that's the point @unwanted is making though. Telling a story out of context is not a lie by definition, though it is still deceit.

Much like statistics, in making a documentary, you can use only accurate, true information and the end result will still not be a correct picture of what actually occurred, even if you are trying. I was a film making student, and the task of reporting honestly is more difficult than you might think. It is literally impossible to report on something completely, so you have to pick highlights of the most important moments and just hope that they represent the situation they were pulled from. However, you have the disadvantage; since you're so close to the source material, what seems to be straightforward to you won't be to an outsider (the viewer).

What it boils down to is that making an accurate documentary is extraordinarily difficult, and when the 'documentary' is made by people with a vested interest in making a profit, there's even less of a chance that that's what you'll get.

From what I saw from the trailer, it looks like there will be focus on a number of things and that's actually a good thing. If anything, that makes it more authentic. Real life is rarely 'coherent and focused', if I can borrow a previous poster's words, as to fit into a convenient narrative.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that these 'documentaries' that we've gotten are less documentaries and more heavily edited, promotional, behind the scenes films.

 

Documentarians aren't quite journalists, but they're sort of similarly held to a higher standard. It seems to me like they have an unwritten code of ethics (or maybe it is written, I dunno). We trust them to be as subjectively objective as possible (obviously they have an agenda but we want them to be unbiased in doing so, not force things but let them come naturally).

Like journalists, documentarians shouldn't be the star of the show. So hopefully all this behind the scenes stuff will prove interesting enough to merit the whole project. I'll buy this movie if it's just behind the scenes because I'm just generally interested anyway. But I rather they not call it a "documentary".

About the only thing I'm really interested in behind the scenes is in management decisions, especially with things like shuffles and who centers the singles....but that likely won't happen

 

i think aki-p should get the guys from the bbc panorama show to do the documentary about the girls. it would be sensational

 

really curious about this documentary, for HKT fans, i think haruppi's part is the most wanted one.

 

Honestly, if you want a truly honest documentary of what really goes on behind the scenes and between idols and between idols and management...the only way to do it would be for a media network to get a spy into the idol system for a few years and pay her to produce a documentary. AKB will of course produce fan bait...sensibly they would not want show things that would truly shock or concern people.

 

^ IDK... in No Flower' there were a lot of uncomfortable scenes that involved scandal girls IMO. But I doubt they will even mention Miichan's scandal in this one since that one was way more radioactive than Sasshi's, Ayarin's, Naachan's or Yuka's scandal. But I don't really want to know what's behind the scenes... when I watch an AKB48 documentary... I just want to be entertained and inspired by the illusion of what goes on behind the scenes.

Oh yes! I knew they couldn't do a new documentary without highlighting Sasshi's triumph at Sousenkyo... in the previous trailer they didn't even show it at all I think. And man... watching sad Yuko totally makes me feel like crying too.