Fans of manga got a pleasant surprise today, when Apple released a 19-Minute Takashi Miike film on its Japanese YouTube channel (shown below).
The film, shot entirely on an iPhone 15 Pro, is an adaption of a story by well-known Japanese manga artist Osamu Tezuka …
Hollywood Reporter has the details.
Titled Midnight, the mini-movie is an adaptation of a lesser-known work by legendary Japanese manga artist Osamu Tezuka. Much of the film takes place in neon-lit Tokyo at night, including a thrilling car chase sequence — a deliberate exercise on Apple’s part to showcase their device’s video capture capabilities in low lighting […]
The story centers on a late-night taxi driver named “Midnight” played by popular Japanese actor Kento Kaku, who roams the streets of Tokyo offering help to those in need. The film follows Midnight as he comes to the aid of a young woman, played by Konatsu Kato, who is struggling to take over her recently deceased father’s truck-driving business while fighting off a nefarious local gang, led by an evil boss played by the acclaimed character actor Yukiyoshi Ozawa.
The film was commissioned by Apple to showcase the low-light video capabilities of the iPhone 15 Pro. Miike, who has created more than 100 feature films, said that the project was both an honor and a challenge.
“Mr. Tezuka is something of a god among manga artists so it was an honor to take on the challenge of expressing his work using only iPhone. As we were shooting, I naturally began to challenge myself to think about how we could make a work unique to iPhone, beyond the usual approach to a film. I truly felt that the iPhone has the power to do things that a conventional movie camera can’t.”
He praised Action Mode in particular, calling it a magical feature. This is one of the features which really impressed me when I tried it. He also loved the ability to change the focus point after shooting.
I hope that game-changing features like this that are impossible with regular photography equipment will be added more and more.
You can watch the film below.
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