Xparasite

The year is 1650. After the 30 year long war Sweden have settled down, and the upper class has gained a great deal of riches from this war. The then queen Kristina have dictated that every lord shall own the right to tax the farmers living in an area of one mile surrounding his homestead.

Amongst all this we find the little village of Brändebol in Småland, Sweden. Where the lord Barthold Klewen have dictated that since the farmers have failed to pay their unfair taxes it's is his god-given right to use them as servants at his great farmstead of Ubbetorp. The farmers of Brändebol gather around and swears to each other not to yield to this decree. The man in the center of attention among all these men are the farmer Ragnar Svedje. Who refuses to give up his living body to slavery and shame.

This is indeed a timeless tale of the little mans struggle to hold on to what is rightfully his. To fight on against impossible odds and never giving in to the oppressors. All that Vilhelm Moberg sums up in his ca 300 page long novel Rid Inatt. And this movie version of his masterpiece tells that tale exceptionally well. This indeed is a textbook example of how to make a movie based on a book. By sticking to the source material, altering things only when necessary. And I dare say even the alterations here is for the better. The ending of the book left me somewhat empty, but this just ties it all up so beautifully.

Then the credits rolled I just felt that this movie had left me with a message, not forced down my throat like some films tend to do, but with an inner wish to never give up what is mine, never let myself be trampled upon, and to always hold on to what I believe in. This needs to be seen by anyone who are interested in Swedish culture an heritage. Even if you just want to see a good movie this should be on your list. As a fan of Vilhelm Moberg's work as a whole, I was not disappointed. So go on and watch this as well, and remember. Freedom is not given. It must be taken.

I just don't get movies like this. Why make a movie based on a certain thing and then have such utter disrespect for that certain thing. Junji Ito is by far one of my favorite authors, and while Gyo is far from his best work it still was pretty good. It was Ito doing what he does best. Evoke an otherworldly feeling of terror and mixing that up with bizarre imagery.

While this movie has some elements from the manga it completely lacks the essence. The world wide chaos is somewhat there and some of the imagery really lives up to the manga. But for the most part I just get the feeling this is based on a badly told resume rather than the manga itself. Characthers that where not even in the manga are added. Now that wouldn't be a problem if they actually did something useful to flesh out the story, but no. They are a complete waste of space. Only there to fill out key elements of the manga where they didn't belong in the first place.

The characters that was in the manga are completely altered beyond recognition. Kaori and Tadashi even switch places in the chain of events that took place in the manga. Important pieces of the story are breezed over or just omitted. The sheer incompetence at work here just astounds me. As an adaption this fails miserably. Maybe you can enjoy it if you haven't read the manga. But as one who have I must say this one was just painful to watch. Some credit must be given to the animation witch at times is really great, apart from the cgi. I never was a fan of 3d animation.

The sense of total despair and hopelessness as the army of fish is slowly taking over human territory is there. I just wish they could have at least tried to follow the manga better. A total waste of time if you have read the source material. I give it 2/10 and that's being generous.