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Jul 5, 2018
By gesture of a wing, the world is created. It is a multitude of love and peace. And man is just a seed in a bigger world who can create using his imagination. And all is good. The earth is rich. But the man is rich in wishes. And soon man finds desire and the peace is threatened. His inner peace. To desire is to conquer. To love is to give freedom. To desire is to be a slave. Of one’s imagination. Of one’s mind. But desire brings death. And nightmares. And the Light-Bringer is burning in the sky. And destruction comes to bring the
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end. And the beginning.
The world imagined by Naoyuki Tsuji consists in creating a new mythology over the existing one but using the same known archetypes. The most important aspect of this piece of art is that it has a sense of inner peace, a humility in the face of a changing nature, but also a dignity in front of it. The surreal imagery almost does not matter. Because on a first watch, this might be getting your attention, but afterward, it feels natural, like pieces from a puzzle. Even the mature content who symbolizes the male conquering of earth can be strange but needed.
The thing that feels less creative is the choosing of these symbols and the overall meaning of the story, Tsuji’s vision being noteworthy, but too common these days. The surrealism, in the end, feels sentimental and for this reason lacks the power to "be alive", to transcend the paper. It reminded me of a comic by Chester Brown, "Ed the Happy Clown", a piece of random surreal narrative for the ones with a stronger taste.
"Tsuji’s method involves drawing with charcoal on paper, photographing the result, erasing the plate and redrawing the next frame. The aftermath is that the each frame carries a trace of the previous and, consequently, the film chronicles its own history, its own making. The outcome is closer to sand animation than traditional drawing."
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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May 26, 2018
Known today for award-winning animations like "Inaka Isha" or "Atama Yama", Koji Yamamura proved his talent from his very first short film, "Suisei". A very immersive work of art from him because without noticing, it can transport you above and beneath the surface of a world made with only layers of clay and 'fragments' of light. The technique of claymation and the colors used are reminiscent of the brilliant Russian animator Yuriy Norshteyn, and because the form was not perfected (we could say at the time Mr. Yamamura lacked a style) the film has a "rough" beauty of a first work, but a beautiful work
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nonetheless.
The following are taken from an interview conducted by the BFI talking retrospectively to Mr. Yamamura about his works. Enjoy:
"This was my university graduation project, shot on 16mm. The film was inspired by M.C. Escher’s print Three Worlds, which depicts a large pool in autumn in which you can see a large fish under the surface, leaves floating on top and the reflections of trees, although you can’t see the trees themselves. In my film, a man looks at his reflection in a pond, then throws an apple into the water, breaking its surface, before beginning to imagine how he looks from the perspective of the fish beneath.
I often play with the idea of reflections in my films – how we only know ourselves from our own subjective positions, even when we’re looking in a mirror. We never really get a sense of how we look or act from an outside perspective. We only exist in our own minds. You can see this in the opening scene of Mt. Head, when we look at the main character for quite some time before we realise he is actually looking at himself in the mirror.
My other major inspiration was the Indian animator Ishu Patel’s film Afterlife (1978), made for the National Film Board (NFB) of Canada. He was a jury member for the first Hiroshima International Animation Film Festival in 1985. After seeing his films I really wanted to make my own experimental and artistic animations like this. "
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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May 20, 2018
"The story of Mr. Sorry" begins on a strange note with a bizarre game show in which the audience and the viewers are supposed to vote and provide a Guilty or Not Guilty verdict... on a suspect spider in a glass box. This trial looks like any modern day reality show even with two containers named "To Kill or Not To Kill". With this premise settled it is very hard to not see the black comedy, but then, using flashbacks we find the life of Mr. Sorry, a timid man working for an ear cleaning company to collect the funds necessary to find his
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beloved older sister, who has gone missing.
The plot mentioned before works in conformity with the titular character, offering him an easy to understand objective and a bit of characterization. We could say the character almost does not matter, but his interaction with others soon starts to reveal more intrigue. His life seems pretty bland until a science experiment was conducted on him without his knowledge by the company where he works. Long story short, he shrinks so much that he is able to reach every crevice of the client's ear due to his size. The interesting thing that happens is soon Sorry finds that he can gain access to people’s unconscious, this incident determining the appearance of some surrealistic scenes.
More important is that this is the beginning of some social commentary, the minds of people like cosmopolitan socialites, politicians, bodybuilders, businessmen reveal darker aspects of human desire. Even if it can be a little bit cliché, the movie satirizes these characters but also reveals personal aspects of Mr. Sorry. A journey of self-discovery can reveal also the dark side of one's personality.
With a little over an hour runtime, the anime sometimes might seem poorly paced and even if the characters are very simple in their desires you want more from them. Even Mr. Sorry, in the end, seems like a lost cause who achieved nothing but being a guide in a different world. It might seem appropriate, one description of the movie that I liked being "it’s sort of a Kafka's <<Metamorphosis>>, Korean version". The movie is well put together considering the fact that five Korean directors made it. If you can get over the rough animation and some intentionally ugly character designs, you can discover "an uneven unique, sensory experiment which won't be to everyone's taste".
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Apr 20, 2018
Starting in the same manner like the Italian movie "La Dolce Vita" (in this case with a representation of God flown by three helicopters), "Jubilee " is like the title says, a party showing the life under the threads of time.
Practically, in under 5 minutes, we are shown in a surreal manner a bunch of characters, from the "mechanic boy" who needs a clear objective in life or a bureaucratic mosquito who steps on other people things to a fish-woman with two many fish-masks and a salaryman who reminds us of "Mt. Head" character design. These characters interact with ease, one loves another
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and sometimes one gets pissed off of another, but these things are trivial in the scheme of time, so they pass naturally like in the real world.
The anime music video doesn't have a bigger message apart from the acceptance with ease of world interaction which is itself subjugated, like all things, by Chronos, the god of time. One can get stuck in it or one can see the bigger picture and be at peace with oneself. The music composed by Kazuyoshi Nakamura really helps emphasize that feeling. For some, it reminds of the early 2000's Beck. And if you're having a good time wouldn't you, like the poet, feel:
"When I say to the Moment flying;
'Linger a while -- thou art so fair!
Then bind me in thy bonds undying,
And my final ruin I will bear!" Goethe
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Mar 29, 2018
Helmut Herbst, a director talks about this experimental movie and explains some of its techniques in this video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EliFauneu_E], the prominent influence being of Tanaami's childhood war episode in which he did see flashes of light reflected in his grandmother's fish tank. He was watching from his underground shelter and the goldfish in the tank reflected the bright light of flames and the orange light of the sky lit by bombs.
Really poetic considering the times but the work doesn't really capture the essence of war, especially in this era, but on the other hand, translating this work as psychedelic nonsense is also showing a
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lack of skill. Looking at the artist's life we could say it is his relationship over the years with his motif and how he translates this in art (in later videos he draws female faces like goldfish), but even this lacks a real comprehension. Also, with his high-framed images, he really tries to enter his audience's subconscious and maybe if you're high you could see in this how a flying goldfish created the universe.
Overall, it's your typical Tanaami work, with buried sexual imagery, weird sound and music juxtaposed with his inner world. No real surrealism, but more looking at oneself with postmodern eyes. At 82 as this year, he still has expositions and his art is still blooming. And don't worry, it will not induce a weird fetish for goldfish.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Dec 20, 2016
This thirteen-episode series deals with some of the darker aspects of teenage psychology and sexuality. Kasuga is a shy middle school student who’s an avid reader, his favorite book being Baudelaire’s "Les Fleurs du Mal". One day he notices the girl he loves from a safe distance, Saeki, has left her gym uniform at school. He has loved this girl for a long time but had never been able to act upon it. In a fit of juvenile impulse, he steals the uniform.
"Flowers of Evil" was filmed using rotoscoping, the technique of animating over pre-recorded footage. This brings a sense of natural movement to an
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animated world. The contrast between movement and the mores tilted, traditionally rendered backgrounds presents an air of surreal isolation. Being out of place with your world is something most teenagers feel, and this technique brings that emotion to the story in almost every scene.
It’s a tale of youthful perversion and manipulation, the turmoils of growing up with such confusing desires and how the world will see them. The animation expertly conveys that confusion, showing characters so fundamentally at-odds with the world around them. All of them are well-developed, and who they start off as in the beginning of the series is not how they end up as.
Not one of the main characters is an angel, or (in some cases) even a halfway nice person. But it also helps making them easy to relate to. "Flowers of Evil" is not afraid to show the creeps, the perverts, the snobs, the depressing, and the unpleasant. It shows school life exactly for what it really is; a dark, depressing, and at times even scary part of one's life.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Dec 14, 2016
The skies are their everything – a mother and a father, love and hate, life and death. And they are the "Kildren" – eternally young pilot/killer-children created to operate fighter planes and wage an endless war for the amusement of adults who lead a “normal life” in bogus peace.
Their world – reminiscent of Europe from the WWII period and run by big, shady corporations – is conceived by Hiroshi Mori in the first book of the same name which chronologically presents the ending of a five-novel saga. According to the original author, it is not easy to adapt, yet one gets the impression that both
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Oshii and his screenwriter Chihiro Itō (who debuted with a wonderful, yet cheesily titled melodrama Crying Out Love in the Center of the World) have no difficulties.
Deliberately (some might say, lethargically) paced, this philosophical "fantasy" mirrors our own frustrating reality of trial and error, as it explores the themes of conflicts, memories, perception, identity and maturing (yet never aging). A masterful blend of the experienced direction, distinctive, somewhat "austere" character design, photorealistic CGI animation and Kawai’s quietly hypnotic score results in a striking piece of art which is both an eye-candy and a soul-food.
Deprived of joy, the characters are treated as if they were made of flesh and blood, not of lines and colors, as their existential anxiety and dilemmas evoke an atmosphere of spellbinding melancholy and hushed mystery. Don’t let yourself be fooled by the dogfight at the beginning – even though it is not the only action sequence, "The Sky Crawlers" takes more of a contemplative approach and demands an audience’s patience.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Dec 3, 2016
A belated, yet remarkable directorial debut for the producer Akio Nishizawa is an award-winning historical drama set in the Meiji era and adopted from Kazuo Daijō’s novel. Its story revolves around a young man, Nitaro, who loses his eyesight at the age of eight and later becomes the creator of Tsugaru-shamisen style, through many tribulations and by virtue of his perseverance.
In portraying Nitaro’s zeal and the vanity of his competitors, Nishizawa demonstrates a keen sense of humanity and characterization, as well as the clarity of expression. Simultaneously, he represents the Japanese society of the time – class distinctions, the extent of Western influence and the
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clash between the modern and the traditional – whereby he achieves a perfect balance of form and style.
Intoxicating, touching, mystical and ethereal melodies of a "three-stringed guitar" are performed by the shamisen virtuoso Hiromitsu Agatsuma, so "Nitaboh" is the anime that should not only be seen, but intently listened to as well. Its soundscapes establish a Zen-like atmosphere complemented by the calming imagery of the semi-realistic character design and beautifully painted backgrounds.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Nov 11, 2016
Idiosyncratic and unfairly forgotten, a six-part OVA "Gosenzosama Banbanzai!" (literally, "Long Live the Ancestors!") belongs to the most experimental period in Oshii’s career. Told in the form of a loony play, this farcical tragicomedy revolves around the Yomota family: a teenage boy, Inumaru, his father Kinekuni and his mother Tamiko.
Their normal life starts to collapse after the arrival of a mysterious girl, Maroko, who claims to be Inumaru’s granddaughter from the future. Even though she has a hereditary star-shaped birthmark on her buttock, Tamiko refuses to acknowledge her as Yomota. So, she leaves her husband and son, and hires a private detective, Bannai Tatara, to
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reveal the true identity of the uninvited guest.
Driven by self-irony and absurd, slapstick humor, a twisted, paradoxical story is directed in the vein of the French New Wave masters, with a short metaphorical mockumentary in which different kinds of birds and humans are compared, at the beginning of each episode.
An otherwise linear narrative rooted in its own logic is deconstructed, as Oshii plays with both the characters’ and the audience’s expectations. However, his anarchic shenanigans are not meaningless and they do follow some rules – no matter how strange it may sound.
Utterly aware of the fact they are nothing but marionettes controlled by a merciless puppeteer, the protagonists still try to manipulate the events in order to turn the situation to their own advantage. Occasionally, they burst into “karaoke soliloquies” under the spotlight – and not only figuratively speaking. With the most essential props and the minimalist backdrops on one hand and medium-related "deviations" on the other, "Gosenzosama Banbanzai!" is simultaneously stagey and filmic.
After all this spectacle you are left wandering through this labyrinth of ideas, hoping to find the answer to a question asked since the beggining of human life: "Who are you, only a puppet?"
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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