The lack of dialogue and generally abstruse, esoteric narrative did make for a confusing watch at times, but I get the gist of it. Seems like this apartment complex might host a pocket dimension which keeps anyone who wanders into it trapped in a time paradox, simultaneously twisting their forms into monstrous beings that the victims themselves are unaware of. Additionally, I detected a sort of pervasive futility to the scenario, with every apparent step forward made by Tamahi in "escaping" the dimension either immediately resulting in failure, or letting hope build for a while before revealing a stinger scene with more horror imagery. And while I've only read the synopsis, it's obvious that the epilogue with the new uni student tenant renting out the same apartment complex sets this movie up a prequel for Aragne no Mushikago chronologically.
Noticeably choppy frame-rates during the first few minutes of the watch, but I adjusted to it quite quickly, to my surprise.
Also, could swear that Tamahi and Aki were about five seconds away from making out in that abandoned apartment room. Just me?
@Archean-Return I think that's a pretty fair assessment of the story. There's also another layer regarding Tamahi's choice, which basically seems to boil down to Tamahi having to choose either saving her friends at the cost of the World or saving the World at the cost of her friends. I've seen some people say it derives from certain buddhist beliefs regarding change but I don't know the validity of those takes (I believe the gist of it is that it follows the idea that change is inevitable, and Tamahi's attempts to hold on to the past is causing the trio more pain and suffering, when she finally accepts that change is inevitable, they are freed from the cycle and transcend into something greater than before)
Also I definitely agree that it seemed like Tamahi and Aki were moments away from kissing, in fact to add to that point; just after Tamahi encounters Aki in the clutches of the centipede, when she goes through another flashback type deal, we get a brief shot of what looks like two girls mouths, they're kissing though one has an inhuman tongue and is pushing it into the others mouth. I personally believe that this is representative of Aki kissing Tamahi.
If we tie this back into my earlier point about change, then we could argue that the change that Tamahi is so afraid of is the change of relationship, going from friends to lovers with Aki. Yuu, already having a boyfriend at the start of the movie is the first to "change" and become a new being, this spurs Aki into action (hence why we see the Monster Yuu pick up the Centipede, the monster that would transform Aki) Tamahi runs from her feelings, which is represented by the never-ending cycle of death and misery in the film, she's trying to find the way to preserve their friendship as it was until she finally accepts that things can't stay the same, starts dating Aki and "transforms" into a new being herself, finding that the change wasn't actually bad and now that she's stopped running, she can keep being with Aki and Yuu.
I'm probably reading way too much into this film and I'm sure there are millions of holes that can be poked into my reading of it but I can't get it out of my mind, I've just finished my second rewatch and I wanted to discuss my theories somewhere. |