The First Slam Dunk

A high school basketball team faces the strongest side in the country. The game runs almost in real time, with the childhood of one of the players cut in between. That is the film's decision: it does not centre the manga's main character but another player, one who lost his older brother. The narrative thus rearranges a story everyone knows. The basketball combines hand drawing with computer animation, the players' movement taken from motion capture. Takehiko Inoue, who wrote the manga, directed the film and wrote the script himself. It did enormous business in Japan. Before watching: it is open to newcomers, but what the game means lands far harder for those who followed the series. The closing scene also carries a separate charge for anyone who finished the manga.