Category: Film

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Film Reviews

April and the Extraordinary World Review

In a very different 1941 France, a teenage girl named April looks for clues about her missing parents, two of the many scientists who have mysteriously disappeared over the course of 70 years.

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I didn’t know much about April and the Extraordinary World ahead of time, but the steampunk aspects, animation style and strong reviews piqued my interest. What I found was a fantastic adventure that built logically and gradually from an initial twist, like all great science fiction. April’s journey is a joy to tag along with, complimenting a tense dramatic underlying story with the perfect touches of humor.  There are some cliched elements towards the end, but even they fit beautifully into the overall narrative.

Equally impressive to the story are the evocative visuals that bring April’s tale to life. She inhabits an incredibly imaginative and realized steampunk world, which is just overflowing with inspired and unique designs.

I adore movies that impart a true sense of wonder, and April and the Extraordinary World has it in spades. This French movie is reminiscent of some of the great Japanese animated features I’ve seen, and an easy recommendation for any animation and/or steampunk fans.

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Anime Film Reviews

Colorful Review

A recently departed soul is stopped on the way to what lies beyond and is given an opportunity for reformation. The soul wakes up in the body of suicide victim Makoto and must use its existence in Makoto’s life to remember the secret of the great sin it committed in its previous life and to determine why Makoto committed suicide.

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Colorful is a deep, thought-provoking work of art that examines several of the difficult truths of life via the details of everyday, mundane existence. The characters are more tragic for how genuine and flawed they seem, and realistic struggles are given clarity through the lens of “Makoto”‘s supernatural situation. The lasting effect of past mistakes is merely one of the important themes layered throughout. This was hard to watch in parts, but all the more powerful and real for it.

The animation is incredible and every bit the equal to the story. The backgrounds evoke Japan wonderfully and shine particularly during the countryside scenes. The characters match the style perfectly and are suitably expressive in facial expressions, body language, etc.

Colorful is a fantastic movie and it’s heart-wrenching, perceptive narrative well worth experiencing for yourself.

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Film

“You people. If there isn’t a movie about it, it’s not worth knowing, is it?”

Alan-Rickman

I’d love to be able to point to the exact moment Alan Rickman became my favorite actor, but there isn’t one. I loved him as the formidable Hans Gruber in Die Hard when I was in my teens and over time the more I saw him the more impressed I became until he was at the top of the list without me consciously realizing it.

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He’s best known as Serverus Snape from the Harry Potter movies (and was excellent in them),  but it was earlier and smaller movies of his that made the biggest impact on me, often because of his incredible comedic ability. From the dry wit of Metatron in Dogma to the life-worn, frustrated Spock analogue in Galaxy Quest to a wonderfully subdued portrayal of Stephen Spurrier in Bottle Shock Rickman always brought the perfect balance to his characters and made them feel real while making the audience laugh.

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My personal favorite memory of Rickman is being lucky enough to see him live on broadway in Seminar, a fantastic play about a somewhat washed up author teaching a group of wannabe writers a thing or ten. It was an engaging play that provided intriguing characters while giving little glimpses into the process of writing commercially. The entire cast was excellent, but of course Rickman was the centerpiece and he was mesmerizing as expected. It’s a special treat to see great actors perform live, and that performance is one I’ll never forget.

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Rest in Peace Alan. We’ll miss you.

 

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Comics Film Reviews

Not Your Traditional Heroes

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Justice League: Gods and Monsters is the latest DC animated movie, and opens with a vision of a dying Krypton where a familiar villain interrupts a last ditch effort to save the species and contributes his own genetic material to the child’s makeup. With General Zod now the biological father of Superman, the world is a vastly different place. Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman still fight what they see as evil but their ideals, identities, and even their very nature, are a far cry from what we’re used to.

I wasn’t sure what to expect going in, but I really enjoyed Gods and Monsters. The key is that tribute was paid to the ideas and characters being borrowed but they let the reimagining go where it needed to to tell a good story. This is not a what-if adventure where one small thing is change an the effects are examined. The tweaks to Superman’s origin are just the beginning, and in some ways are the least drastic of the changes in store. Some extremely important characters, concepts, etc. one would expect to see are nowhere to be found, because they wouldn’t have fit. I like the focus shown and the commitment to embracing this universe and this story instead of letting things balloon out of hand. There are cameos and nods to familiar faces and they’re well done, serving as nice nods for those who catch them without being intrusive.

There are strong themes of responsibility and nature vs nurture woven into the story without slowing down the action or getting preachy. The flashbacks break up the flow a bit, but they are interesting and allow us to really understand what’s driving these new versions of our heroes so it’s well worth the slight pacing issues. The animation has a sleek look, and is appropriate for the atmosphere and style of the tale. And I have to admit watching harder edged versions of familiar characters was captivating.

JL: Gods and Monsters is another great movie from DC’s animated catalogue.

PS – The special features discuss numerous classic alternate reality stories from DC comics as well as the inspiration and ideas behind Gods an Monsters, and were a nice little treat after watching the film.

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Film Japan

Japan Cuts 2015 Retrospective part 3

Earlier this week I shared thoughts on the 6 movies I saw during Japan Society’s annual Japan Cuts Film Festival for 2015. For this last entry about the festival I’m focusing on the other event I attended: the Experimental Spotlight.

Mono No Aware x [+]

This event was interesting in that in some sense it began several weeks before the festival started. On June 21 Mono No Aware and the Japan Society presented a workshop in which 20 participants created (very) short films using direct filmmaking techniques to manipulate 16mm “found footage” of documentaries about Japan. The films produced in this workshop opened the program, and were interesting in their variety and approaches despite using the same techniques, and in showing what can be done in such a short period of time.

The remainder of the program was even more fascinating in its diversity. RELAY presented an incredibly unique moving image view of an even more unique subject in the form of artist Ei Wada playing music on repurposed television sets. The imaginative Koropokkuru used puppetry and other techniques to convey Japanese folklore through manipulation of inanimate objects. Emblem manipulated the conversion of video to film to create a narrative out out of research footage. Louis Armstrong Obon played with pacing and atmosphere rather than visuals or technique, presenting almost a documentary style feature with great atmosphere and impact. sound of a million insects, light of a thousand stars was mesmerizing to watch, and became even more intriguing when the method behind the film was revealed at the end.

Varying manipulations of light were featured in the remaining 3 films. Stella Nova conveyed the life of a star through constant colorful manipulations and explosions, Emaki/Light was a dance of abstract black and white images produced by direct drawing on film pairing with harsh sporadic piano notes, and UB HOUSE Experience in Material No.52 was a brilliant and creepy presentation of moving shadows and bursts of light.

While I’ll admit some of the pieces seemed longer than they needed to be, everything was interesting and at least in some part captivating. The contrast of all the chosen shorts and topics covered really made this shine. This spotlight is a welcome addition to Japan Cuts and I hope we’ll see more of it next year.

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And that concludes my experience at Japan Cuts 2015. I had a wonderful time and hope to attend even more of it next year. I encourage anyone who’s even remotely interested to check it out in 2016 as well as the other events Japan Society’s Film Program has in between.

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Comics Film

Onward to Civil War

Ant-Man was another thoroughly enjoyable entry in the Marvel cinematic universe. Scott Lang is a likable, engaging lead and in general Marvel’s ability to weave “second string” characters into the larger narrative and make it all compelling is quite impressive. With Captain America: Civil War coming up we’re left with several interesting questions and possibilities open.

**Warning: the remainder of this entry will contain SPOILERS for the after credits scene from Ant-Man, previous Marvel movies (including Age of Ultron) and the Civil War comic.**

The Civil War comic book story centered around a philosophical divide among heroes regarding a government mandate to register the identities of all super-powered individuals. The central figures in the conflict are Iron Man on the pro side Captain America against. All signs have pointed to a variation of this basic set up carrying over into CA: Civil War, and Cap’s mention of “the accords” in the Ant-Man post credits scene continues to support this conclusion. The scene is also very interesting as it indicates a major lingering thread from CA: Winter Soldier, Cap and Falcon tracking down Bucky, has occurred off-screen. This is likely to become more common going forward as the number of characters and story lines grow and there isn’t enough room to delve into everything in detail. It worked well here and left the bulk of the “important parts” of the plot on the table for the future.

The idea of a character who’s always trying to do the right thing deciding that doesn’t always mean playing by the rules coming to a head with another who’s know for doing his own thing who has realized the need to strive for a greater good is fantastic. With all the potential here and an established comic story to build off of, two big questions jump out at me going into CA: Civil War:

1) How will the battle lines be drawn?

This is the obvious one. With so many characters confirmed for the movie that it’s being colloquially referred to as “Avengers 2.5,” the question of which side each will take looms. Falcon, Ant-Man and Bucky seem a lock for Cap, with no real indication of Iron Man’s allies yet. I’d guess Vision and War Machine, which would create a conflict since they’re on the Cap-lead Avengers team. I see Black Widow being caught in the middle. Spider-Man sides with Stark in the comic, but he’s only in for a cameo so we might just see him in general action rather than “lining up” during the conflict. Not sure on the rest.

A side question here is how much physical conflict there will be among the heroes. I’m sure there’ll be skirmishes, but I think a pitched, focused battle directly between Cap and Iron Man could be more dramatic than a full blown battle trying to fit everyone in.

2) How close to the comic will they stick?

**SPOILER REMINDER** Ok, what I really mean here is “are they going to kill Cap and have Bucky take over?” I can see it happening, and seeds have definitely been planted both within the movies and with production hints like contract lengths. It also would be a major shake up to lead us into the next phase of Marvel movies. The biggest drawback I can see is the resulting lack of Steve Rogers Cap in Infinity War, which looks based on a story that took place long before Civil War. Still, they have a pretty good track record with tweaking details in their adaptations and ending up with excellent, logical stories that retain the fell of the original while working in the universe they’re creating. We’ll see.

So the Marvel movie machine is sill chugging along with a lot of momentum. Very excited to see what’s next and how they answer the above questions when CA: Civil War arrives next spring.

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Film Japan

Japan Cuts 2015 Retrospective part 2

Yesterday I shared thoughts on 3 of the movies I saw during Japan Society’s annual Japan Cuts Film Festival for 2015: Makeup Room, Strayer’s Chronicle, and 100 Yen Love. Here’s a look at the other 3.

The Voice of Water

This movie has haunted me for days and I still don’t know quite what I think of it. A charismatic charlatan acting as head priestess of a manufactured, business-like cult starts to crack from the pressure of continued success, and things get worse from there despite her attempts to be more genuine. The carefully constructed plot progression and pacing build tension and an increasingly desperate atmosphere masterfully, but I found some of the story choices unsettling beyond what I think was needed. There’s a lot to process in every layer of the movie: the characters’ actions and their results, the motivations behind those actions, and the thematic statements and criticisms the story is making about society. Strong performances from the central cast and key supporting characters keep it all anchored. I can’t say for certain I liked it, but The Voice of Water is a powerful film that’s well worth watching for all it has to say, whether you end up agreeing or not.

The Light Shines Only There

This was my second favorite film in a festival packed with fantastic movies (just a tiny bit behind Makeup Room). It’s a love story about two thoroughly broken people reeling from unfortunate and disturbing events out of their control. All of the characters are struggling with some sort of personal demons, with varying levels of success. It’s the pitch perfect performances of everyone in the cast that keeps it all relatable and engrossing. Themes and events get quite dark and are hard to watch in parts, but it all fit the story and nothing felt out of place or gratuitous (no matter how much I wanted to yell at the screen sometimes). A unique, phenomenal film overall.

Sanchu Uprising: Voices at Dawn

The closing film of this year’s festival had been highly recommended to me, but I didn’t really know anything about it going into the screening. It centers on a farmer uprising in 1726 in the face of impossible taxes. It turns into the bloodiest such uprising in history. But the focus of the movie is more on the pressure and difficult choices of the individuals caught up in the uprising, particularly a coward who isn’t sure it’s worth the risk. Besides the interesting choice of scope and subject within the premise, Sanchu Uprising distinguishes itself with several stylistic choices unusual for its genre, including jazz touches to the soundtrack and an animated sequence.

It’s an interesting movie and while I had some doubts along the way I think it came together extremely well by the end. It wasn’t an unanimous opinion though, as several audience members had rather pointed (but valid) questions for the director during the q&a after the film about his choices. The director was thoughtful with his answers and open to criticism, which made the discussion fascinating. A perfect way to end the festival.

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So this completes my thoughts on the 6 films I saw during Japan Cuts. I will have one more blog entry on the festival, covering the other event I attended – the Experimental Shorts Showcase.

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Film Japan

Japan Cuts 2015 Retrospective part 1

Japan Society’s annual Japan Cuts Film Festival for 2015 ran from July 9th to July 19th. It featured a wide variety of engrossing movies and was a great event overall. I attended 7 of the 29 showings, including US premiers and spotlight screenings with directors, actresses, etc as special guests to introduce their movies and participate in q&as afterwards.

Here’s a look at a few of them.

Makeup Room

An amazingly funny low budget movie about the making of a low budget movie. Set entirely in a single room, the makeup room for a porn shoot, Kei Morikawa’s minimalist endeavor takes full advantage of his experience in the industry, actual adult video actresses, and a brilliant performance from non-AV actress Aki Morita as the makeup artist to create a unique comedy with touches of authenticity and drama. The sex is always just off-screen, but the consequences of each scene bounce hilariously back to the room we’re stuck in. It’s a close call, but this was my favorite of the festival.

Strayer’s Chronicle

One of the few films this year to venture into science fiction, Strayer’s Chronicle features two groups of young adults who were experimented on as children resulting in special powers with dangerous side-effects. The premise itself isn’t terribly original, but I found the execution refreshingly different. This was not the full blown action movie a lot of the audience seemed to expect, and opinions seemed very mixed as the theater emptied. However I enjoyed it for what it was and found the foreboding atmosphere, conflicted characters and moral questions raised made up for the plot not being as tight as it could have been. This was another win for me.

100 Yen Love

Sakura Ando received the festival’s Cut Above Award for Outstanding Performance in Film directly before this screening, and it’s easy to see why. Her startling yet logical transformation from unmotivated slob to driven boxer was amazing to watch and 100% believable. There were small pieces of the plot that bothered me, but overall the movie worked wonderfully and Ando’s powerful performance more than compensated for any small missteps. The q&a after the movie with Ando was both informative and fun, as she was clearly excited to be there and her energy was contagious.

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I’ll continue with the rest of the films I saw later this week.