No Singing Teapots Allowed, Thankyou. June 26, 2009
Posted by ghostof82 in : Film General , add a commentLike most people my first experience of animé was Akira. At the time, the film was simply astonishing. Animated features were in decline in the West, the glory days of Disney decades gone. Akira was vibrant and lush; visually it was as arresting as Star Wars had been back in 1977. It was also dark, violent and somewhat ambiguous, a far cry from traditional Western animation. Indeed, while Disney saw a revival for animated features, it was tempered by being family-orientated, children-friendly fare, falling into a routine of musical numbers and comedy.
Even the triumphant rise of Pixar was betrayed by a lack of adult sensibilities. I realise the whole success of Pixar was predicated by its core family-friendly values in its films, but this formulae became somewhat stale as the years passed. While the visuals and presentation became ever more sophisticated the actual text was pretty standard. While The Incredibles, Ratatouille and Wall-E broke that trend somewhat, it was tempered by the knowledge that The Incredibles was a comic SuperHero movie, Ratatouille had talking rats for heroes and Wall-E, after its daring first act, lost its nerve and dropped back to the routine. After making adult-friendly kids movies, they seem yet to progress to kid-friendly adult movies, which is probably as far as they will ever go. Pixar is like any other American studio, limited by being foremost a business where success is judged primarily by box-office, and so need to appeal to the widest demographic. The animation art-form is capable of presenting us an adult Best-Picture, but unlikely to ever get the opportunity.
Japanese animation, or animé, is inherently more of a niche artform/business, and even when it breaks into the mainstream in the West it is nowhere near with the impact of a conventional Western release. This is also one of its strengths and appeal; it still feels somewhat underground. But much of it is hopelessly juvenile, with excesses of titillation, giant robots, strange creatures, but that doesn’t interest me so is way under my radar- the animé I keep an eye out for is the more thoughtful material, that attempts at adult themes.
So what follows is a list of my favourite animé… while most, if not all, will be familiar, perhaps a few titles won’t be and might encourage someone to give them a try.
1)Jin-Roh (1998). Frankly, this is not just my favourite animé, its also one of my favourite films, period. It’s a fascinating, adult film, set in an alternative-reality Japan several years after the Second World War, something of a dystopian vision of a fragmented society. It is also a kind of adult fable of the story of Little Red Riding Hood. It begins at night, when para-military police fight to contain a rioting populace, and one of the armoured police, Kazuki Fuse, confronts a young girl who, rather than be captured by him, blows herself up infront of him. Devastated by what happened and his sense of guilt over the young girls suicide, Fuse tries to discover who she was, why she was working as a courier for terrorists. His investigations find him increasingly mired by the political machinations of conflicting ministries and administrations, with several twists in the detailed narrative. It’s a story about dehumanisation and failed redemption. The animation is fluid and precise, and was I believe one of the last wholly hand-drawn animated features in Japan. The music is achingly beautiful.
If this were a live-action film, it would no doubt be taken much more seriously and have far wider impact in the west, where it’s animated status precludes it from people who would likely find it satisfying and rewarding if they were to give it a try. I think the film represents the pinnacle of what an animated film can achieve, and for me is the benchmark by what all should be judged. There are no space battles, no singing, no robots, no gore, no demons/creatures, it’s an honest, heart-felt film of ordinary people, and one of the saddest animated films you will ever see. Jin-Roh is simply magnificent.
2) Millennium Actress (2001). This is an emotionally-charged film, telling the story of the life of an actress and the blurring of the fictional world of her movies and the reality we live in. Ourselves and the characters in the film fall into the movies that the actress made. It is also the story of unrequited love, of searching for what was lost, perhaps the innocence of herself and that of Japan, as the story progresses across a thousand years of Japanese history in the form of the films she appeared in. Throughout her life she is in a quest for a lost love and she never really finds it, but never gives up. It’s a testament to the indomitable human spirit, at once supremely uplifting and unbearably sad.
Doesn’t sound like an ordinary animated movie does it? There is a passion and zest for life in every frame of this film. Anybody who loves the history and mythology of movies will fall in love with this film. The music is beautiful. It’s an art-house movie in animation guise. Have a hanky with you though, because if you ‘buy’ into it, this film can be a heartbreaker at the end.
- Coming next- Tekkonkinkreet…
Lovecraft’s Dagon (2001) June 10, 2009
Posted by ghostof82 in : Film General , 5 commentsH.P.Lovecraft has had something of a bum deal as far as movies based on his stories are concerned. Looking at the films based on his stories, you’d be forgiven for thinking he was some kind of hack horror/comedy writer, whereas in truth he was one of the most highly-regarded pulp fiction writers of his day, whose dark, moody tales still strike a chord in modern readers. Infact, for my money his horror fiction is equal if not superior to what passes as modern horror.
The problem with movie adaptations of his work is that they go the easy route and transpose them to modern times, which just doesn’t work. The tales are turn-of-the-century, 1920s horror, of a wholly different world and people to what we are now. You wouldn’t modernise Sherlock Holmes into a womanising 2009 detective (well, maybe Hollywood would…) but thats what has been done with Lovecraft’s characters and places. What I’m saying is that a Lovecraft adaptation shot in the style of Road To Perdition with art direction by H R Giger, would be a fascinating and likely scary movie. As it is though, we’ve been stuck with low-budget, unambitious films that play up the gore and laughs to the detriment of the source material. Even the most popular, critically-successful films, like Re-Animator, owe little to the original stories.
In some ways, the first half of Alien was the best Lovecraft film ever made. I remember a perceptive review commenting on how Lovecraft’s fiction had the Elder Gods from the Outer Dark here on Earth, with Ridley Scott’s Alien showing mankind actually venturing out to the Elder Gods, as the Alien planetoid, the derelict, Space Jockey and the eggs are just pure Lovecraftian horror. It was probably unintentional on Ridley Scott’s part, but the slow pace, the humorless mood of the film, and the sense of the humans lost in a totally alien environment always remind me of Lovecraft.
Adaptations of actual Lovecraft stories have generally been standard low-budget horror flicks though, complete with busty babes and teenage heroics, with lots of gore and humour, all the antithesis of what Lovecraft’s fiction was all about. Dagon was a pleasant surprise though, even if it continued the trend for limited budgets and modern-day settings. Actually based on a few Lovecraft stories, particularly The Shadow Over Innsmouth, it’s an effective horror film with quite a few creepy moments and, for the most part, some restraint regards the gore. The scariest element of Lovecraft’s fiction was the sense of mood, and unseen horror, working with the readers imagination, which of course doesn’t transfer so well to the current trend for graphic horror. The Spanish locale is suitably strange, something no American coastal village could ever manage nowadays, and likewise the mostly European cast look odd and unusual, perfectly otherworldly and Lovecraftian. It isn’t perfect, but it certainly seems relatively faithful to Lovecraft’s themes of Dark Elder Gods and mankind lost in a mad uncaring universe.
So while I’m waiting for David Fincher to direct a faithful, well-budgeted adaptation of The Case Of Charles Dexter Ward, Dagon remains something of a minor gem and for me the most successful Lovecraft adaptation yet. I’d heartily recommend it to anyone familiar with Lovecraft’s fiction and for the rest of you, well, it’s certainly superior to most of the formulaic torture porn that passes for horror movies these days.
Watchmen UK DVD/Blu-ray… June 3, 2009
Posted by ghostof82 in : Film General , 3 comments…will be theatrical cut only, so will NOT include the 25-minute-longer Directors Cut released in America, or indeed the Maximum Movie Mode of the Stateside Blu-Ray disc. It’s like the dark early days of DVD region-coding when the UK got shafted by inferior DVD releases for the first few years of the format. Up to now we haven’t seen much of this with Blu-Ray but here we go: the Watchmensituation evidently is due to the film being financed by two studios who split distribution territories. And Paramount don’t think we’d be interested in the DC over here. Or maybe they think we will double-dip by buying the standard version now and the DC nearer Christmas. Sorry boys, my double-dipping days are over, I was burned by DVD one time too many.
I must say I’m very disappointed- all Paramount are doing is losing sales, as I won’t be buying what I consider to be inferior product. If the US Warner release is (as usual) region-free I’ll import instead but I wonder if Warner will be pressured to put coding on their release. Just means I won’t bother at all. Oh well, regardless, this nonsense beggers belief and I’d love to hear Paramount’s explanation for their decision. I have no idea what the difference in the cuts is beyond the running time, but as its a Directors Cut it would by definition appear to be the definitive, purer version. I was very curious about the Maximum Movie Mode too, I like PiP commentary features and expect the Watchmen disc to be very interesting.
This reminds me of the news of the Lord Of The Rings films being released on BD this Autumn, but in theatrical cuts only. I much prefer the longer versions (most people do), so I’m afraid thats a no-sale for me too.