Nov 24, 2024
You may be reading this review to decide whether it's worth watching the previous four films to get to this one. No, I wouldn't recommend it. This is the worst of all five.
The non-linear structure of this story may lead you to think there's something important being said, something profound and intelligent that can only be conveyed with this kind of structure. But as it is with the entire Kara no Kyoukai series of films, the only reason this isn't chronological is to trick you. To fool you into not thinking logically about what's being said and shown in each scene. You feel control being
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wrestled away from you and naturally you think to yourself "Ah, I see. I'm not supposed to understand this yet. This will all make sense later." This doesn't happen. You can, as I did, perfectly understand this film the first time you watch it. The only purpose this structure actually serves is for Touko's twist, and even then it does it in a completely idiotic way.
The film hints at this twist by the continuity of cars parked outside the apartment complex. Touko arrives first in a red car. The film shows her opening the car door and cuts to a shot of Touko's back as she walks towards the apartments with only her red car in the foreground. Cut to a wide shot of three cars parked bumper to bumper. A red car, a light grey car, and another red car. Later on, Kotukou and Enjou are driving to the apartments in a grey car. As they pull up it cuts to a shot of Touko arriving in a red car, this time showing her parking behind a grey car and a red car. It then shows a slow-motion closeup of Touko exiting the car and then the same shot of her walking towards the apartments. Cut again to a wide shot of the three cars. Kotukou and Enjou then arrive in the grey car and it cuts to a wide shot of only two cars, the grey car parked behind a red car. A little while later after Kotukou gets beaten by Alba we are replayed the three shots of Touko arriving in the third car. This seems like a perfectly good technique to trick the audience, hardly anyone would notice. But think about it. The only way this twist can work is if both Toukos are driving the exact same car, and wearing the exact same clothes. Otherwise the audience would notice straight away it's two different scenes. We as the audience suspend disbelief when characters wear the same clothes in every scene. What this movie tells us is that the characters in this universe have Homer Simpson's wardrobe. She simply chooses to wear the exact same outfit every day and has (at least) two of the same sports cars in her garage. Even Homer didn't go that far. No wonder she was broke in movie 3! It's not as if there's some advantage to dressing her puppet up in the same clothes. Maybe she thinks if she arrives in a different outfit Araya won't recognize her like Clark Kent or he'll forgot she died. Playing with Taijitu all day weakens the mind I guess.
This twist sums up the entirety of these five movies. On the surface what might seem clever is actually moronic. What might seem meaningful is actually shallow. What seemingly makes sense is actually nonsensical. Let me remind you, the only reason this movie is structured this way is because of this twist, and this is just a small taste of this movie's problems. I haven't even talked about the dialogue because the storytelling of this one is so bad that the worst part of the first four movies isn't the biggest problem here, but I already covered the dialogue in my review of the 3rd movie. There is no depth in Kara no Kyoukai. People see a series that has good visuals with characters who pay lip service to philosophical concepts, wrapped inside a non-linear structure making it seem different and artistic and that's good enough for them to think it's "deep". Kara no Kyoukai isn't confusing because it's elaborate and intelligent. It's confusing because the plot literally doesn't make sense. It's confusing because the dialogue is idiotic. It's confusing because it makes you wonder what other people see in it that makes them think it isn't obviously terrible.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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