"The First Slam Dunk" the quintessential sport's film.

Even though this was my first point of contact with the story created by Takehiko Inoue in 1990, I am surprised by the ability of "The first Slam Dunk" to immerse us in the Slam Dunk universe even if we are not very familiar with any of the pieces that make it up, becoming one of the most exciting sports movies I have seen in a very long time, worthy of being put on par with live action gems like Rush, or, one of my personal favorites, Challengers by Luca Guadagnino.

Directed by Takehiko himself, The First Slam Dunk is an animated film released in 2022, based on the aforementioned manga, while also being presented as a conclusion to the 90s anime adaptation that was unexpectedly canceled.

In the original series, we followed the story of a Japanese basketball team in the Shohoku High School, conformed by Hanamichi Sakuragi, Kaede Rukawa, Takenori Akagi, Hasashi Mitsui and Ryota Miyagi.

While the original series focused on Hanamichi's evolution into his basketball team after leaving his gangster past behind, The First Slam Dunk has a slightly different approach, showing the story of Miyagi, a short young man considered one of the best point guards in Kanagawa Prefecture. In The First Slam Dunk we delve into the past of Ryota, who had to take care of his mother and younger sister after losing his father and older brother (Sota) at a very young age.

Although Ryota is far from having the physique and skills of his brother, he finds in sports and his family a reason to get ahead, training throughout his life to become one of the best players in the entire country.

The First Slam Dunk is built around one of the most important confrontations of his young career, against the interscholastic champions of Sannoh Kogyo High School, a perfect opportunity for Shohoku to prove his worth.

This game is interspersed with various flashbacks that help to recontextualize what we are seeing on the court, showing us Ryota's painful past as well as the way in which the dynamic was built with his teammates.

Beyond the simplicity of its premise (We must recognize that it is not the first nor will it be the last film that will revolve around an important game), the magic of The First Slam Dunk lies in how well it is executed, not only because of the emotional nature of its flashbacks (which, I repeat, work very well even if we are not familiar with the anime or manga), but because of the brilliant way in which the tension of its central confrontation is built, perfectly capturing the most beautiful elements of basketball as a sport.

Its animation is brutal, the use of music is always very successful, and despite having a duration of more than two hours at no time does it become heavy. A brilliant film.

Score taken from my Letterboxd account.