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| The scenery was beautiful. Although I didn't really connect to the main character. He just seemed too good, working without complaint and not even much variation in expression as far as I could tell. Doing things like working at this new place without acting like he thought about his family at all. |
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| This movie was not what I was expecting, and honestly I didn't really understand it. The animation was fantastic and imo the strongest part of the film. Butori was a bit of a bland main character, he just went through life accepting everything that came along (like 50% of his dialog is hai / yes sir xD). The story itself confused me. I watched the first 20 minutes and it was nice. But then his parents just up and leave and are never mentioned again. What actually happened? Then there is his sister, who was taken by the cat spirit, or whatever it is suppose to represent. Who supposedly wished to be taken away. But what happened to her, what exactly was the world that Butori kept visiting in his dreams? Was it some sort of symblism of the afterlife, and her wish was to be free from hunger, so she was taken? Or was it something else. I know Japan has a lot of interesting culture about gods and demons I never really understand, but what was this actually suppose to be? And then the ending, he was taken by the cat spirit to the volcano and somehow he blew it up and saved the land, and supposedly died in the process. I am sure this is suppose to be deep and open, but I am an idiot and need at least a little bit of explanation. So for what it was worth, it was a nice, relaxing film. But if anyone could enlighten an idiot like me on what actually happened, I would appreciate it :3. |
"When everyone else is about to give up, the fighter who becomes the role model, is the true Leader."  |
TehWhiteTiger said: Ditto. |
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| The art and animation was quite good but I didn't get it what's the point of his story. Giving back something to the world? Sacrifice? o_O I've encountered other Kenji Miyazawa animated adaptation works like Taneyamagahara no Yoru, Cello Hiki no Gauche and Kaze no Matasaburou, and I'm starting to think those anime don't like me or something. Yup it's just me! LOL Maybe I'll try Night on the Galactic Railroad next some time in the future. >_< 7/10 for the art and animation. I didn't care much about the story, I guess I'll just move on... |
| You see there's no need to wonder where your god is, Coz he's right here! ...and he's fresh out of mercy. |
| I can only assume that his parents died when they went out in the cold and then his sister..and the spirit cat took her because it was "her time", or something like that.. As simple as I tell as to what happened in this movie @_@ The main character though...yeah. I could not connect with him at all. He was far to bland. Just blindly went along with everything at the drop of a hat. Meh, I had hoped for better, but oh well, at least it was pretty lol |
| The art was really nice but I wasn't a too huge fan of the story but well it was decent all by all! |
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| I have no idea what i've just watched. But it was good looking. |
| I thought the parents abandoned the kids... and whatever happen to Neri!? That was such... a weird movie. Neri should have died rather than been kidnapped. Budori never really bothered to look for her... Who was the wizard? What happen to Budori at the end, exactly? Budori was so bland... I'm suspecting the wizard is a personification of death or something. I'm confused. :( |
| This was really confusing up to the end. Which made it boring for a while. But I think it's worth it at the end. SPOILER ALERT. So, his sister is dead. I was also confused up until the end because he kept going back and forth between a weird blue world with flying cats and weird looking guys, where he asks about his sister, and the "normal" world where he doesn't seem to care about her. The last time he goes to the blue world, the "judge" cat says that he's guilty of coming here without permission, several times, and for some reason he keeps ending up here. That's an indication that it's another world. The judge also says Budori's sister came here out of her free will. And at the end, when Budori meets the judge, it's when he thought that he'd sacrifice his life to save people from the cold. Then the judge appears, saying he "called him", but Budori refutes actually calling him directly. So : at the beginning of the movie, his sister wished to sacrifice herself to save her brother and everyone from starvation. The judge came to grant her wish, taking her life as a price, as she secretly wished. She died. The blue world is the Afterlife, the "World of the Dead" (either that, or an "inner world" of Budori as some review mentions). Everyone is dead in there. Like Giovanni in Night on the Galactic Railroad, for some reason he's the only living person to have access to the world of the dead. That's it. His sister has been long dead, and he seems to have understood this in the real world (since he never once asks for her sister when he's in the "real" world), but whenever he goes to that other world he keeps asking everyone about her, so maybe it's his inner fight to come to terms with the fact that his sister is dead. At the end of the movie, like his sister, he decides to sacrifice his life to save others, because he's been helped by so many people in his life. He will be a nobody who helped people in silence, just like in the poem that's repeated several times in the movie, and only us, the viewers, know his story. Miyazawa Kenji seems to love making works about self-sacrifice... For the parents we don't know anything though. But they're probably dead in the cold and abandonned the kids. I gotta agree that up until the end when we realize that the two worlds are different and that his family has been long dead, it's kinda boring because it's SO confusing. What kept me going was the absolutely stunning animation (seriously, it's among the best background and special effects artwork I've ever seen in an animated movie). But when I'm at the end, I think it's worth it. Might rewatch it now that I understand what it's all about, so I can actually watch it without thinking "wait, what the hell is going on again...". |
ZacksFairAug 7, 2016 1:56 AM
| Damn this movie sucked like really sucked. I don't understand how people can honestly say it's a good movie it really isn't then again I haven't read the original source so maybe it really is good but from what I saw it sucked. I thought I was going to get a story about a brother and sister trying to survive and find a new place they can call home but no after the 20 maybe 30 minute mark it went all over the place with no real consistency (unless you ignore or skip the weird moments). The main character... budori... he... ugh... he is the embodiment of the "phrase go with the flow" what I mean is after he falls unconscious he wakes up in this bizarre world with flying cats and suddenly this big fatass tells him to get to work or he can't eat and instead of asking where he is or happened he just does what he's told. After that moment is over he ends up at the bottom of the mountain where he encounters yet another fatass who tells him to work for him and live with him and his family which he does. Clearly some time had past because the people began to know him as the helper not only that but he's pretty much considered their son by the way they treated him. Now we get to the next disaster a drought and eventually it gets so bad they tell budori they can't pay him so they tell him he has to go and find a better life which was nice but you see that budori doesn't want to leave but he has to. Now we get into the weird stuff the yokai town which is not only weird but also has a stop motion moment for no reason and it looks completely out of place but none of that matters because budori is looking for his sister which he just so happened to remember he has even though he didn't mention her for almost 2 years while living with his new family. Don't worry though because it was all just a dream. Welcome to the weird clockworks town that's a mix of several different cities but mostly Europe. Now let's go to school because I read a book and I like the author and he just so happens to be teaching at the school I'm looking for. Alright let's watch budori sneak into a classroom and learn from this crazy talking teacher, afterwards let's watch him get a job and work for yet another fatass but at least this one looks like a hamster. At this point we're just watching him learn about volcanoes and how he's reallly good at understanding how they work. This goes on for year's they even say (in narration) he's happy with his job and his life and keep in mind we're more than halfway through the movie and still don't know what happened to his sister. Of course now we get a scene with the guy who took his sister but the only true piece of info we got is that he is a judge and budori has been trespassing into this world. other than that we get nothing no information on budori's sister or what this world is and why budori can only visit this world in his sleep. Suddenly we get the storm that started it all times ten and the only possible way to stop it is by forcing a volcano blow up but no one wants to take that risk. More time passes by and it seems that all hope is lost what is budori to do? He basically prays he would give up his life if it meant saving everybody else and then he shows up the judge and at this point I realized he was a representation of death and that budori's little sister was dead which I kinda suspected before the judge originally appeared at the beginning that caused alot of the confusion in the first place. Now we get to the ending where budori gives up his life for the sake of others but unfortunately the way most of this movie was handled just left me with so much confusion and unanswered questions. Then I rewatched it and skipped all the confusing parts and belive it or not the movie came out completely boring and budori came off as an incredibly uninteresting, bland, and just not really worthy of main character status.I feel like they could have handled the confusing parts a little better or at the very least give budori a little more character instead of just this kid who does what he's told. Another thing that really bothered me was that neither of the two families (which endured the harsh climate for over a year), not once did it ever occur to them to just move to a new location. I believe if they changed the weird moment's to more darker moments this would have made for a great movie. For example after the sister died instead of the judge appearing out of nowhere, budori could have tried to save her by trying to find a doctor that could help only to realize that it's too late. Another thing they could have added would be finding the body of his deceased father or and this is meesed up finding out that his mother hung herself but that would not make for a good kids movie. |
| You better watch the original (1994) movie than this furry-filled drug trip. It's much more meaningful and closes all the plot threads properly. |
Chipp12Jun 11, 2023 4:21 AM
| What the hell did I just watch?! I liked the city.. great fantasy setting. Also a silent protagonist would have somehow had personality than the main that we got. |
James_xenoAug 2, 2023 12:46 PM
| Even more disappointing than Galactic Railroad. I thought the beginning was great, and when the parents disappeared and the sister was starving, I was ready for some Grave of the Fireflies-type struggling. Then that cat spirit came out of nowhere and the movie went off the rails. I agree with the main problem that Budori is nothing but a robot. Practically emotionless, passionless, and does nothing but say "yes" and follow directions. Maybe this was supposed to be some kind of indoctrination for kids: shut up and do what your told. So what was the point? Just man/cat vs. nature/climate change? Other movies have done it better. Hard work pays off? All we saw was Budori stumble from one opportunity to another with very little "earned." Everything just fell into his lap. Unless this was simply another allegory for "God works in mysterious ways" and "God has a purpose for everyone." Self-sacrifice? He just did what he was told to do until the very end, and even then it was the mystical cat spirit who saved the day somehow. The art and soundtrack were good, especially the main theme, but the story was slow and uninteresting. 6 cataclysmic catastrophes /10 |
| "You can't decide the future, but I'm going to re-educate you in the past!" - Erna Kurtz |
| Budori basically fought off his fate until he could figure what was going wrong in the world and what he could do fix it. The events he partakes in after coming down the mountain are him taking his second chance to put things right, escaping like the silk worm for a life that would ultimately be doomed. Once he finds the solution he sacrifices himself for it and basically returns to his family in death, a fate he's been connected to ever since the famine. I watched this film years and years ago and it confused me greatly, randomly today I decided to rewatch it and honestly I'm still not a huge fan of how abstract it is but the above is my completely off the cuff guess at what happened. Honestly I could be way off the mark. |
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