What is the Fullmetal Alchemist live action film?
Warner Bros. Japan released a live action Fullmetal Alchemist film on December 1, 2017, directed by Fumihiko Sori, a filmmaker known for effects driven work such as Ping Pong and the space epic of To. Ryosuke Yamada of Hey! Say! JUMP played Edward Elric, Tsubasa Honda played Winry Rockbell, and Alphonse appeared as a fully computer generated suit of armor voiced, as in the anime, by Rie Kugimiya, a casting choice that underlined the production's anime loyalties.
The film compresses the manga's opening movement, the search for the Philosopher's Stone through Liore, the Tucker tragedy and the military's homunculus shadow, into a single two hour arc. Compressing a story famous for its patience into one film forced hard choices: major characters arrive as cameos, subplots merge, and the ending invents a confrontation sized for a finale. Reviewers in Japan and abroad split sharply, praising the effects work on Alphonse and the automail while finding the plotting rushed.
Commercially it opened at number one in Japan and earned roughly 1.1 billion yen domestically, respectable rather than spectacular, and its international life came through Netflix, which streamed it worldwide in 2018 as a Netflix branded release in many territories. For most Western fans the Netflix window was their only theatrical substitute, and the film's reputation settled there as a curiosity rather than a gateway.
The story was eventually completed on screen: in 2022 two sequels, The Avenger Scar and The Final Transmutation, released a month apart in Japanese cinemas, adapted the manga's remaining arcs including Scar's campaign and the Promised Day, with Mackenyu as Scar. The pair closed the live action project as a trilogy in shape if not in marketing, and gave the adaptation the manga's actual ending, something the 2017 film alone could not.
Physical releases in Japan included standard and premium Blu-ray editions with production documentaries, while the English market received the first film mainly through streaming. As a collectible the Japanese premium editions, with their bonus discs and packaging, are the versions that circulate among fans; as an adaptation, the trilogy is best approached as a highlight reel performed by a committed cast.
