Hanagatami

What I believe people should know before they decide to watch this is that it is long, the pace is slow, the imagery sometimes very confusing and there's some nudity (both male and female). There's also not much of a story. It's basically about a group of youths struggling with their relationships in the wake of WW2 (and by that I mean that each character has a strangely charged relationship with literally everyone else). That being said, it is a beautiful movie to look at. Many scenes are made to look like they were taken from old movies with overly saturated colours. Everyone acts as if in a daze which gives the whole movie a very dream-like atmosphere. In contrast to that you have the horrors of the looming war which feel completey out of place and all the more horrible.

I'm honestly not sure if I liked it or not. The length and pace made it a very hard watch for me, but in retrospect I do appreciate what it tried to achieve.

For the first 20 minutes or so I was pretty confused and maybe even frustrated. The style is very odd- there's lots of choppy editing, unrealistic special effects, and obvious green screen, but all so obvious it's clearly intentional.

To what purpose? I wasn't always sure. I guess the story is framed as a distant memory, so maybe to depict it in a strictly realistic sense would be unfaithful to that concept? Or maybe it's just Obayashi's style- I haven't seen enough of his other films to know for sure.

I will admit it does make for some striking images. There are some incredibly beautiful shots here and there, contrasted with others that look garish and ugly. Again: I know it's intentional. What that intention was? I wasn't always sure.

I'm often interested in stories about people coping with an imminent threat or war, and with most of this story set right before Japan got involved in WW2, this film is kind of one of those. It's not just about that, though. It's a long and ambitious film with a number of important characters and many themes explored. I can't unpack them all, but the fact there is so much going on does ensure that the long runtime of almost three hours is justified, and while the film was sometimes very confusing, it was never boring.

I will say the last 10 minutes are great, and those last couple of scenes tie the film together well, and give context to some of the things that bewildered me earlier in the film.

It's an experience watching this, for sure. I didn't love it, and sometimes found myself turned off by some of its out there decisions in regards to visuals and editing, but I have a great deal of respect for it.

The way it dealt with things like death, regret, and memories coming from an older director who was told he only had a few months to live at the time he made it also ensures its emotional resonance and power.