Miss Hokusai

Miss Hokusai is a "slice of life" animation, it portrays the characters' at their daily lives in briskly light mood. It may set in one of the most romanticized eras, yet it's mostly a few short stories about artists, especially the heroine Oei, woven together. This is a tribute to Japanese classic painting ukiyo-e, the tumultuous time told in different light and appreciation of the artists themselves.

Oei is the daughter of talented painter Hokusai, who has a knack for painting herself. She can be crude at times, but she gives of warm subtle kindness, especially with her drawings. There's no great dilemma or adventure, although it presents a few strange mysteries. The animation is more of a method to appreciate the art as it changes constantly when the characters do narrative or monologue.

It uses classic touches on the tales, which can seem supernatural yet bizarrely fitting for that particular era. The setting is made with great care, details like the street corner or dimmed room with faint light of candles provide fine atmosphere for these characters to play in. Occasionally, they would talk in vague words, it's not a drama where people yell at each other frequently, there's a restrained on their mannerisms.

Miss Hokusai is a nice homage to early art works, celebrated by modern Japanese animation, it's quaint, unimposing and warmly colorful.

We meet O-Ei, grown daughter of the famous Japanese painter Hokusai. She has a younger sister, O-Nao, who is blind. (O-Ei's name was actually Katsushka Ōi, but it also appears as "O-Ei".) Hokusai is depicted as a gruff, single-minded man, living in his studio, apart from his wife and children. The blind young sister is invented - as is most of the rest of the story. But she plays a very important part.

There are great moments here. One incredibly beautiful moment occurs near the end of the film. And of course, there's a delightful scene involving his most famous print, "The Great Wave off Kanagawa".

The animation is beautifully done, in typical Japanese fashion. Not as beautifully as Miyazaki, but still, good.

The story covers a lot of ground, including the Japanese form of erotic art (shunga). Part of that thread involves an important plot element.

The musical score is very Western and modern, which could be a little off-putting. As the credits went by, I saw one of the song titles given in Spanish!.

It's a movie that keeps you involved, and doesn't let you nod off.

PS: Keep your eyes on the little dog that shows up at the beginning.

It's 1814 Edo, Japan. Tetsuzo is a famous painter. He lives with his daughter O-Ei. She also paints but he often critiques her work harshly. Zenjiro is a hanger-on, a former samurai who turned to painting. O-Ei hates Zenjiro's inferior work and ridicules him as Zen Zero. She often visits her blind half-sister O-Nao who lives with her mother and Tetsuzo rarely visits due to his aversion of the sick.

This evokes a time and place. It paints two great characters. The plot is episodic in nature and I would like more in terms of plot development. I love the woman haunted by O-Ei's painting. There are great bits of a story. I don't know if O-Ei's character development is enough. I am intrigued by her visit to the brothel but it comes to nothing. In the end, she marries but it's left to a postscript text. The script needs a plot development rewrite. It paints a beautiful picture but the picture doesn't really move. Does she become a great artist? Does she find true love? Does sex release her artistry? Is she gay? Does death give her art new depths? There are so many questions but this movie is reluctant to answer them.

American films are a shallow, inane mess. That's why people go see foreign films at art houses. They want to feel good about themselves, and they want to look good to others. Miss Hokusai probably isn't playing in theaters anymore. But if it was, it's a great place to take a date if you want to impress them with your amazing and elitist tastes.

I'm not one for typical anime. And of the other anime-ish films that were big in America - Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, etc. - I guess I kind of liked them, but I'm not sure why, other than I'm supposed to like them, and it's good and right to like them. Agree, NPR crowd?

Well. Miss Hokusai is a film critic's dream. As soon as I saw it playing at my local college town theatre, I already knew it got 100% from Metacritic and consistent red tomatoes on Rotten Tomatoes. Film critics' tastes are extremely predictable. The more pretentious and experimental a film, the more it merits 5 stars, or 10 stars, or whatever's the highest rating of X publication or website.

Why Miss Hokusai gets rave reviews from critics:

-It's Japanese anime-ish, and critics and TED lecture fans alike all salivate for those.

-It has - gasp! - LBGT in there, and it's not even implied or subdued!!

-I don't know what the f--- it's about, but it sure looks good!

-Japanese Edo period, about famous artist/painter! Critics love artsiness.

-Beautiful Japanese anime-ish characters! Critics appreciate different cultures.

-Japan, Japan, oh how they love and adore Japan!

-Gorgeous 19th-century Edo cityscape and scenery. Critics adore and appreciate cinematography, history, architecture, and the outdoors - a plus if it's a different culture!

-And what is the film about again? I don't care, it seems experimental and cool, so I'll upvote it!

Anyway, I'm guilty of thinking like critics, so I was pretty impressed with the film, and I enjoyed it. I'd hate to say this, but it really is way better than typical American films. Art-house elitism!

The art, as well as the way the making of art is portrayed in the film is great; however, there is no real story arc or character development to speak of. Perhaps not much is known about the daughter of Hokusai, but even so, historical fiction is fiction for a reason. Though the film is narrated by the daughter, it is not about her at all, which is misleading (title, trailer all suggest the film will be about her). Her character does not develop much, though there is ample room for it to develop. Just when she may go beyond her immature, mean self, beyond her father's shadow, the film ends with a few narrated summary lines conveying what happens in the next 30 years without actually showing it. The film seems to focus on the period in which the blind daughter of the famous painter (the narrator's sister) is young, falls sick, and dies. It is not clear how and why Hokusai is separated from his wife, why his eldest daughter draws and paints with him (though she resents him plenty)... None of the romantic interests develop during the film, yet the summary in the end tells us she married once! It is hard to imagine her marrying, so this would be a great story, but it is not the subject of the film. At one point, we learn that she has a passion for fire, but have no idea how, if at all, this affects her paintings, her art...

All in all, the art is great, especially the parts where painting and drawing itself is discussed. But the story is severely lacking and aimless.