Man, I sure do have a talent for picking movies with attempted rape in them, that's the second time today. Anyway, much like life Mind Game doesn't good until we meet God. But seriously, the beginning parts of the movie didn't really work for me, honestly the attempted rape scene made me pretty uncomfortable and furthered my already growing dislike of Nishi. Nishi had a lot of bouts of unlikability tbh, it really bothered me how often they tried to escape without alerting Gramps. If Gramps had a name I didn't catch it. And the only notable visual styles was the live-action inserts, which were amusing but that really only helped the movie not be just ugly.
But once Nishi is dead, everything picks up. We see more of the artistic shifts and experimental visuals take place, the concept behind God's constantly shifting design is brilliant and fantastically executed. And once Nishi is brought to life, it's just an adrenaline line of insanity, fantastic mental cutaways (I loved the shot of him seeing that car trick in theatre, because while he loved it you also see somebody else get up and leave the theatre because of it). And that the liberating sense of taking life in whatever direction you want is swallowed by a whale. I honestly didn't expect the rest of the movie to take place in the whale, but I think this is where the movie became the strongest, the most interesting and despite that limited setting (which is interesting on it's own mind you) it only grew more visually bolder in it's art-style and animation.
Needless to say, my enjoyment from this movie mostly came from the visuals. That's not to knock the story itself mind game you, they're fine but what engaged me was the visuals. My favourite style was probably Nishi's manga idea about the crew eating poop. And I do admit that occasionally these lengthy forays do last a little long, I thought the sex one went on too long, the one with the kids meeting Robin Nishi was completely dull (the the race bit was fun), and the first dance montage when they decided to enjoy being in the whale had moments that certainly dragged though I think the penis jump-rope gag salvaged that for me. Even the climactic run scene may have gone on a bit too long but that is still one of the strongest climaxes in a movie I've seen so I can't criticize it too much.
The ending I think works but I'll be honest it definitely confused me. The thing I believe Nishi texts at the beginning and end really compliment each-other, like during the beginning and ending train sequence one of the only differences is what Nishi types in the cellphone. The first time was something along the lines of "Your life is the result of your choices" whereas the last is "The story never ends", which yeah those work together. Cause you're always making choices, and the ending the movie with a montage of previous choices made (the recap part) and future possibilities depending on your choices, that makes sense, that's a good message. The only thing that can prevent your choices, is your death, staying in the whale. But again, I was confused when I saw it, I definitely caught the text message difference by myself, I'm proud of that, but I needed to look online to find out that the end montage was suppose to be a showcase of future possibilities and from there I connected the dots on how those fit together. And I do hope it wasn't suppose to just be in the Yakuza guys mind, but I guess it doesn't entirely change things.
Based on my old rating system, this would've gotten a 7.4, and as I get further away from it it does feel more like a 7/10 me. But that is because of my critical brain and just how much my enjoyment sort of hinged on the visual style, like maybe on a re-watch I'll end up giving it a 7 but it'd be disingenuous to give it less than a 8 now because I had so much fun watching this movie once it got going. Definitely my favourite Yuasa film that I've seen so far, even if I think Lu Over the Wall has stronger plotting & thematics or Ride Your Wave has better character writings & emotional moments, there are plenty of anime out there where I can get that fix. Something like Mind Game animation variance, that's a rare commodity. 8/10. |