- Last OnlineMar 29, 2014 1:01 PM
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Jan 30, 2014
What happened?
This is the question I had asked myself after watching the superb Cowboy Bebop television series. It ended on a high, with a shootout that puts Spaghetti Westerns to shame and rode to one of my all time favourite anime with one of the most original premise in years.
So why did this movie not succeed my expectations? The new setting was brilliant, unforced and wonderfully animated. The soundtrack as always is the wet dream of precocious and pretentious teenagers alike.
Yet the story and characters were just flawed. I could forgive the somewhat muted interactions in the TV series because most of it
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would come together at some point but nothing happened! Nothing pivotal and/or significant bar introducing a new villain who suffered from an inferiority complex compared to the more calm, collected and menacing, Vicious.
Spike literally adhered to everything we expect from a heavily noir-inspired protagonist and the rest of characters did not get enough screen time to develop profoundly in any shape. There was no new character arcs that I could connect with and nothing here for the audience to generally get pumped/or invested in.
Which is a shame, because outside of the predictable story and characters, the rest could have been condensed into another classic cowboy bebop episode. And that is what seems to have happened here, a setting was blown up with filler content, meretricious drama and more clocking for time as it finally decided Spike should have his confrontation with the villain.
The mild disappointment is the disappointment that stings the most. A shame because I regard the TV shows to be a triumphant success in dragging people unaccustomed to the eccentricities of anime to fully appreciate the quirks in them. Better luck next time.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jan 18, 2014
Stories about homeless people are some of the least explored works in anime. Tokyo Godfather is a lot about the lives these people live and the frequent problems they encounter.
Someone once called 'Tokyo Godfathers' the Tarantino of anime. The reason being the script-writing isn't just above par, it's nigh on perfect. It's tonally well made. The lines are delivered with a great appreciation and sensitivity for the situation the people find themselves in. It is equal parts funny and heart achingly sweet and sad. I could list plenty of reasons why it so well written but that would be spoil the surprises that this
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film packs. I am so glad this film exists. A complete oddball of a film yet one that is endlessly entertaining.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Jan 18, 2014
Makoto Shinkai is the new kid on the block when concerning hip new animation. Having made introspective films like the 5 centimetres per second and the somewhat confusing but equally well animated 'The Place promised in our early days', its fair to say that Shinkai is becoming a great animator in his own right.
'The children who chase lost voices from deep below' however is probably going to sit alongside 'the place promised in our early days' for great animation but an ultimately, frustrating story.
The film's premise and overall tone is loss and dealing with loss. The recurring motif of people's desperation to find new
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space to fill the void of the lost one is good but the character dialogue lets it down. This is actually a common criticism of most of Shinkai's works. He does best when focusing on a few characters taking out supernatural elements that do nothing but trivialize the notion of loss to begin with. The exposition heavy writing also defeats the purpose of a film to show instead of telling.That doesn't mean I don't want comic relief or some light heart to offset the tone but the jarring contrast in this case is the archetypal grizzled man's heart is cracked by a naive girl's views. That isn't a bad genre trait but here it does nothing to actually advance the plot.
Couple that with some dry exposition to reveal character motivations and you have a somewhat flimsy plot to justify exploring a pretty cool place. Sadly the supernatural world they visit is heavily Miyazaki inspired. Scarily so. Although no one animates a shadow or grass as good as Shinkai does, so kudos to that.
My advice? Watch the far better 'Laputa in the sky' or if your a Shinkai fan, watch 'The Garden of Words' or his painfully-becoming apparent masterpiece, '5 centimetres per second'.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jan 7, 2014
I'll be honest here. I'm not a big fan of romanticized, revisionist historical animation. And when I mean romanticized; I mean to the fullest extent of the word and any other derivation of its definition.
Samurai X: Trust and Betrayal's story concerns itself with a cold blooded and skillful retainer of a rising Shogun. There's some political intrigue yet most of it will require some extensive background knowledge of the era but its main focus is on the retainer's realization of his actions and how he has lost his way despite his original, noble intentions of saving people.
Most of this comes from a woman
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who he is initially cold to, but slowly cracks his stalwart emotional wall. Sadly the contrast between the extreme violence and the rather feeble attempts at building a romance comes across as idealized, convenient (given some of the plot arcs that follow on) and frankly pathetic given in how the relationship develops from dialogue that is frequent to long awkward pauses, cold stares and tone-deaf writing. I do hope that this is not the writer's idea of a romance because most of the story concerns it.
The dissonance also grows stronger given the violence is not used as a metaphor to say anything meaningful about violence. It's violence for violence's sake. It's not dispassionate, it's not in any way juxtaposed with the romance to illustrate the different sides of life that are integral to a society, it is perfunctorily added for the sake of 'oohs' and 'aahs' as opposed to 'that's grim, this guy is a dick'. In other words the violence isn't used to distance the audience from the character. It is heavily stylized, connoting the actions as graceful and admirable rather than his internal conflict.
One could argue that this story is that of redemption but you would need something to redeem yourself for. Amir in Kite Runner had to redeem himself for his betrayal, John Marston had to redeem himself for being a nuisance to America's industrialists and the swordsman here is redeeming himself for killing people? That motivation is so unbelievably hollow and atypical that it dredges the tone for the whole film.
If there is one saving grace to this for me, it would have to be the rather fluid artistic direction. Bar the obvious visual spectacle, this is like watching Spartacus, flashy but ultimately piffle.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Jan 6, 2014
Based on a semi-autobiographical book by author Akiyuki Nosaka and adapted by Isao Takahata into an animated film.
The plot is fairly simple, two people make their journey across war torn Japan to survive starvation, bombing etc.
Part of why war is so affecting is it's in-discrimination in picking targets. So when a teenage brother and his child sister are struggling to survive in a war that they're slowly losing and painfully being decayed by the horrors they are witnessing, it is obvious there is no easy answer to the question of war and the nature of dropping bombs on civilian targets. The dwindling resources and
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the fragmented hope is a genre convention in war-tragedies but its depiction here is heart-wrenching.
I cannot utter a word to cover the brilliance in which it conveys the oncoming tragedy. To do so, would be spoiling the magic of the film given its actual plot is fairly (yet tragically) predictable. This is not a film for obvious reasons that comes with a light recommendation.
Like Schindler's list or Apocalyse Now, this is the kind of film you'll see once but will have it forever embedded in your mind. It is the work of a great director and animators who have worked tirelessly to make a film that isn't just about 'war is bad'. Like Waltz with Bashir, it considers the viewpoint of an outsider rather than an active participator.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Jan 6, 2014
Whilst Whisper of the Heart and From Up on Poppy Hill are perfectly well made anime focusing on the overblown melodrama of being a teenager riding on hormonal changes, they are both somewhat idealistic. That doesn't mean they are unrealistic, but they are broad in scope and failing to match the simplicity of Ocean Waves which is almost pedestrian in respect.
Ocean Waves is nothing special and in many ways won't ever transcend or subvert or go beyond borrowing tropes from its genre conventions. But for those reasons; its unpretentious illustration of a simple love story is what makes it worth watching. There is nothing
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to it, it begins fairly simply in media res and ends fairly simply.
I've been told there's a second part to the book it is adapted from but honestly, what does it matter? There is much melodrama in this as well as stupidity, impulsive decisions and more made by characters that anyone can relate to but its willingness to stick to its core is what makes it watchable over the Ghibli works I've mentioned.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jan 6, 2014
Planetes, oh Planetes. I watched this on a whim and boy was I blown away. The short answer is: yes, this is a film about garbage collectors in space but it is also a story worth listening to nonetheless.
It is a story that follows the journey of several characters as they struggle to reconnect with the past, the present and the future. Like most (good) anime, the characters are all flawed, they all have problems and bouts of depression. Yet it is these moments, where the quality of writing truly shines to acutely keep me interested in these fictional characters' hopes and dreams. Their
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internal stream of consciousness and their external relationships.
It's all beautifully animated and doesn't rely much on dry exposition to move the story forward. Like good films, it frequently shows more than it tells. It also does help that the sometimes wacky humour takes the edge off some of the melodrama but it's the deftly paced and well handled character arcs, interactions and development that makes this show one of the best character driven dramas around. Here the characters drive the narrative, not arbitrary events.
In many ways, it is also a parable about the rising gap between the poor and the rich, it is particularly damning of artificial borders, racism, wage slavery and corporate culture and many other themes I may have forgotten to list. It is broad in scope yet limited in how it handles them, even though I congratulate it for giving these issues a voice, at the least.
If I had any reservations, it would perhaps be the final arc that hinges a cliffhanger constantly at the end of each episode but the resolution far outweighs the slightly ostentatious final part.
Nevertheless, it is the various depictions of moral quandaries placed in front of the remarkably realistic characters that truly elevates this space drama from the norm. A touching story and an understated, brilliant ending. Planetes has it all.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Jan 6, 2014
I must confess, this is the first anime film that got me back into watching anime. After almost a 7 year hiatus from watching anime, Spirited Away reeled me into what is, quite possibly the greatest Miyazaki film ever made. It is difficult to imagine the impact this film has had on culture all around the world. The first anime nominated for an Oscar is one hell of an achievement. It is difficult to praise this film without waxing lyrically but being my favourite film, I guess I cannot offer any meaningful criticisms of the film because there wasn't any for me.
Perhaps to the uninitiated
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for this film, the best I can say is the sheer imagination that Miyazaki is capable of conjuring. From the unsettling characters at the bathhouse to the almost Steinbeck-esque portrayal of people moving on with their lives on a simple train journey is breathless. The attention to detail easily puts most films (anime or otherwise) to shame. The degree at which they go to animate seemingly trivial actions like putting on a shoe is fascinating.
One could say, 'this is polish, nothing new' and I'd have to argue that Spirited Away is new, it invigorates so many things that directors do by deliberately shying away from the norm. The dialogue is pitch perfect, the writing and the animation is acutely aware of the audience's reactions and frequently subverts our expectations. Do you expect a lamp with a glove for a leg bouncing all the way to the train station to act as a guide? It is the surreal, dream-like experience that completely absorbs you.
For the whole 2 hours, this film will transport you to someplace entirely and I'd say it does what anime has uniquely done better than their American contemporaries. That unique thing is something that you'll understand when you've reached the credits.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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