aka Fullmetal Alchemist: The Full Alchemy
(Hagane no Renkinjutsushi: Kanketsu-hen: Saigo no Rensei)
Japan. 2022.
Crew
Director – Fumihiko Sori, Screenplay – Takeshi Miyamoto & Fumihiko Sori, Based on the Manga Fullmetal Alchemist Created by Hiromu Arakawa, Producer – Yumiko Yoshihara, Photography – Keiji Hashimoto, Music – Reiji Kitasato, Yasuhiro Maeda & Tetsuya Takahashi, Visual Effects Supervisor – Hideto Uehara, Production Design – Takeshi Shimizu. Production Company – Square Enix.
Cast
Ryosuke Yamada (Edward Elric), Senyo Uchino (Van Hohenheim/Father), Keisuke Watanabe (Prince Ling Yao), Tsubasa Honda (Winry Rockbell), Mackenyu Arata (Scar), Kanata Hongo (Envy), Dean Fujioka (Colonel Roy Mustang), Hiroshi Tachi (President Fuhrer King Bradley), Monroe Ron (May Chang), Shinji Uchiyama (Gluttony), Kokoro Terada (Selim Bradley), Chaka Kuriyama (Major General Olivia Armstrong), Shinya Owada (Lieutenant General Raven), Yuina Kuroshima (Lan Fan), Misako Renbutsu (Riza Hawkeye), Fuji Yamamoto (Major Alex Louis Armstrong), Tomomi Maruyama (Captain Buccaneer), Haruhi Ryoga (Izumi Curtis), Yukie Nakama (Trisha Elric)
Plot
The Elric brothers and their allies set out to take on the forces of the Homunculus army that have taken over many of the key positions in the Amestris military and government. They come up against Father, the former Dwarf in the Flask, who has the same body as the brothers’ father Van Hohenheim. The Xingian prince Ling Yao willingly offers up his body to take the homunculus Greed inside, although once he does proves defiant against the Homunculi. The secrets of fusing alchemy and Xingian techniques are found in the notes left by Scar’s brothers. However, it becomes an epic battle to stop Father from turning the entire country into a giant conjuring circle so that he might attain the powers of a god.
Fullmetal Alchemist started life as a manga, created by female artist Hiromu Arakawa and ran between 2001 and 2010 in Monthly Shonen Gangan magazine. The saga centres around brothers Edward and Alphonse Elric whose failed ventures into forbidden magic in their search for the Philosopher’s Stone has had disastrous side effects with Edward having lost his leg and arm and Alphonse had his soul transferred into a suit of armour. They are employed as State Alchemists where they come up against a number of nemeses, the chief among which is the homunculi who embody the Seven Deadly Sins and are led by Father who plans to turn the country into a giant alchemical Philosopher’s Stone.
The manga emerged onto screens with an anime tv series adaptation with Fullmetal Alchemist (2003-4), which lasted for 52 episodes, a follow-up series Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (2009-10) and two animated films Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shamballa (2005) and Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos (2011). This was followed by the live-action film adaptation Fullmetal Alchemist (2017) and then two sequels with Fullmetal Alchemist: The Revenge of Scar (2022) and Final Transmutation here. Both sequels were made for Netflix and released one month apart. Director Fumihko Sori and most of the cast from the first film return. I enjoyed both of the sequels more so than I did the 2017 live-action film as they seemed far more at home with the mythology of the manga/anime.
Final Transmutation is the longest of the three Fullmetal Alchemist live-action films, running to 142 minutes. As with The Revenge of Scar, the pace of the film is slower than you would get in a Western film – a Hollywood version would undoubtedly pump up the action element. For the first hour, there is hardly anything in the way of action – a couple of minor sequences – nevertheless the film remains absorbing due to its focus on story and the characters.
Scar (Mackenyu Arata) conjures alchemy
The Revenge of Scar ended on a great cliffhanger with Edward, Scar and Envy being swallowed by the homunculus Gluttony; Final Transmutation quickly resolves the issue within the first fifteen minutes with a handwave of magic spells and then gets onto its own story. The new plot aims for epic places with the Elric brothers and assorted allies coming together to battle the nemesis of the homunculi who are slowly infiltrating the government, along with the lead homunculus Father who has stolen the likeness of the brothers’ father (Senyo Uchino). This follows the storyline of the original manga and arrives at the same conclusion and wrap-up of the saga that the story did.
The film arrives at a range of battles, both magical and sword that are satisfyingly epic in size. The scenes with Father turning the entire country into the points of an alchemical circle and then reaching up to take the power of the gods have something epically Lovecraftian to it. The film has a long epilogue where all of the characters head off to their happy fate and the two brothers are finally returned to their bodies.
Director Fumihiko Sori had previously made the SF anime Vexille (2007), the live-action Ichi (2008) about a blind swordswoman, the SF anime Orbital (2009), the live-action fantasy film Dragon Age: Dawn of the Seeker (2012), and Hakkenden (2024).
