genrebusters
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Take: 1 parts Terminator 1 parts E.T. 1 parts Independence Day A dash of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within Put all parts in a Japanese animated blender set on Matrix mode, mix thoroughly and poor into the hippest cup you can find. Sit back, kick your feet up, and enjoy your refreshing Returner.
Almost all movies take bits and pieces of other movies and mold themselves into something that appears new and different. After all, there really are no new stories to tell just different ways to tell the same story (thank you Joseph Campbell for showing me this!). Most movies are able to easily hide their influences. Some movies however, wear their influences on their sleeves. And then there is Takashi Yamazaki's Returner. A film that not only wears its influences on its sleeves, but also on its head, hat, jacket, body, pants, feet and shoes. Its as if Yamazaki took all the things that he thought were cool about all the cool movies he liked, and threw them together to make something that was his own. Although sometimes the final product is a bit rough, the stitches do show through this Frankenstein monster, all in all the final product is extremely enjoyable and an exciting thing to behold.
Takashi Kaneshiro plays Miyamoto, a hound dog of a semi-Yakuza gangster who speaks softly and carries a large gun. While out on some kind of Yakuza "business", against his arch-rival Mizoguchi, who years ago was responsible for kidnapping Miyamoto's child hood friend and selling his bodily organs, Miyamoto's life is forever changed. Milly, played by Anne Suzuki, is a time traveling Japanese cutie that materializes amidst the Yakuza shoot out. She gets wounded, gets saved by Miyamoto and thus the two are thrown together to stop an alien invasion.
Milly was sent back in time, a hundred years or so, to destroy a single alien who landed on Earth. She thinks this alien is a scout of sorts that is going to send for his planet's army to destroy the Earth. A few plot twists here and there, as well as few action scenes later, we learn the truth of this alien visitor and I can safely say the ride was quite enjoyable.
The reason this movies works is that it doesn't try to hide its influences: it shoves them down the audience's throat. And when you're ripping off movies, it's at least a good idea to rip off movies that are exciting, action packed, visually stimulating and enjoyable. So now for the checklist of rip-offing:
1. Matrix style visual effects: Lets face it folks, the Matrix movies have pretty much tainted and jaded the way we see action movies now. At least they have done so to me. I want bullet time; wire-fu, sci-fi-kung-fu and I want it in spades. Returner handles this with a bit of great creativity. Milly has a device on her wrist which when charged up allows the wearer to enter into a few moments of bullet time. This gives way to some very cool action scenes, one in particular which just so happens to be the coolest gun reloading scene ever filmed, even beating out the great one in Equilibrium
2. The time traveling warrior who goes back in time to stop a disaster which will happen in the future, a la Terminator 2.
3. Video game styled, and inspired visual effects that include a war torn earth, transforming jets, space ships and aliens - perhaps the movie that Final Fantasy should have been!
4. An alien that looks like the head pilots of ID4, but is really just a cuddly little misunderstood Muppet - in other words, E.T.
If you are looking for something original, groundbreaking, thought provoking or mature, stay far away from Returner, as a matter of fact, don't even look at the DVD cover (Neo wants his trench coat and shades back!). However, if you are looking for a movie that is fun, action packed, hip and able to keep up with multiple viewings you really can't go wrong. And after all is said and done, as long as a movie is entertaining, and makes you forget about the humdrum of daily life for two hours, then isn't it worth the price of admission? I for one would have been happy paying twice what I paid!
Almost all movies take bits and pieces of other movies and mold themselves into something that appears new and different. After all, there really are no new stories to tell just different ways to tell the same story (thank you Joseph Campbell for showing me this!). Most movies are able to easily hide their influences. Some movies however, wear their influences on their sleeves. And then there is Takashi Yamazaki's Returner. A film that not only wears its influences on its sleeves, but also on its head, hat, jacket, body, pants, feet and shoes. Its as if Yamazaki took all the things that he thought were cool about all the cool movies he liked, and threw them together to make something that was his own. Although sometimes the final product is a bit rough, the stitches do show through this Frankenstein monster, all in all the final product is extremely enjoyable and an exciting thing to behold.
Takashi Kaneshiro plays Miyamoto, a hound dog of a semi-Yakuza gangster who speaks softly and carries a large gun. While out on some kind of Yakuza "business", against his arch-rival Mizoguchi, who years ago was responsible for kidnapping Miyamoto's child hood friend and selling his bodily organs, Miyamoto's life is forever changed. Milly, played by Anne Suzuki, is a time traveling Japanese cutie that materializes amidst the Yakuza shoot out. She gets wounded, gets saved by Miyamoto and thus the two are thrown together to stop an alien invasion.
Milly was sent back in time, a hundred years or so, to destroy a single alien who landed on Earth. She thinks this alien is a scout of sorts that is going to send for his planet's army to destroy the Earth. A few plot twists here and there, as well as few action scenes later, we learn the truth of this alien visitor and I can safely say the ride was quite enjoyable.
The reason this movies works is that it doesn't try to hide its influences: it shoves them down the audience's throat. And when you're ripping off movies, it's at least a good idea to rip off movies that are exciting, action packed, visually stimulating and enjoyable. So now for the checklist of rip-offing:
1. Matrix style visual effects: Lets face it folks, the Matrix movies have pretty much tainted and jaded the way we see action movies now. At least they have done so to me. I want bullet time; wire-fu, sci-fi-kung-fu and I want it in spades. Returner handles this with a bit of great creativity. Milly has a device on her wrist which when charged up allows the wearer to enter into a few moments of bullet time. This gives way to some very cool action scenes, one in particular which just so happens to be the coolest gun reloading scene ever filmed, even beating out the great one in Equilibrium
2. The time traveling warrior who goes back in time to stop a disaster which will happen in the future, a la Terminator 2.
3. Video game styled, and inspired visual effects that include a war torn earth, transforming jets, space ships and aliens - perhaps the movie that Final Fantasy should have been!
4. An alien that looks like the head pilots of ID4, but is really just a cuddly little misunderstood Muppet - in other words, E.T.
If you are looking for something original, groundbreaking, thought provoking or mature, stay far away from Returner, as a matter of fact, don't even look at the DVD cover (Neo wants his trench coat and shades back!). However, if you are looking for a movie that is fun, action packed, hip and able to keep up with multiple viewings you really can't go wrong. And after all is said and done, as long as a movie is entertaining, and makes you forget about the humdrum of daily life for two hours, then isn't it worth the price of admission? I for one would have been happy paying twice what I paid!
Super Dimensional Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love? Ah, what a name and what a movie. This is what classic Japanese Animation is all about. Just the name itself conjures up nostalgic memories of yesterday, running home from fourth grade to catch the latest episode of Robotech, to attending my first Anime convention and realizing the true power of the unedited series as well as this incredible film which retells the story. The music, the characters, the animation and the story are the very things that attracted me to Japanese animation in the first place. And still, even after all of these years, SDFM:DYRL not only holds up, but is still a force to be reckoned with.
This is due, in no small part, to the creative talent and storytelling capabilities of Shoji Kawamori. Although his filmography may be small, it is an example of quality over quantity. Kawamori's Macross series made giant transforming robots, singing pop-idol young starlets, heroic floppy haired boys, and melodramatic drama popular to thousands of fans across the globe. Who in their right mind never dreamed of someday flying a Valkyrie, or meeting a girl as spunky and hot as Lynn Minmay or as gorgeous and smart as Misa Hayase? Or who never wished that their hair were as cool as Max's blue locks or Hikaru's tangled mop? And who never wished for the experiences and friendships shared by the Defense Force as they battled the onslaught of the Zentradi forces? Without Kawamori, none of these questions would have ever even been possible. To me, this is like trying to imagine a childhood without Star Wars.
SDFM:DYRL is at it's core, a story of an alien invasion. The Zentradi, a race of aliens created for only war are hell-bent on tracking down a lost ship, the Macross, which is the key to the universal power of Protoculture. Protoculture is the universal matter from which all things were created and it gives life to those who have it. The Zentradi track down this lost ship, which has landed on Earth. The humans of Earth learn, to a somewhat limited degree, the power of the Macross, and are able to escape with a few hundred survivors to the outer reaches of space, thus setting in motion the constant game of cat and mouse between the Zentradi and the humans. Although this story is quite basic on the surface, what really set Macross apart from the other giant-invading-robot movies/series was the investment the audience had in the characters.
The animation itself is quite beautiful, although it may seem somewhat primitive by today's digital standards. It is, however, a great example of how Japanese animation differs from its Western counterparts. While Western animation, especially concerning studios such as Disney and Warner Bros., put more energy into creating smooth animated movement, the Japanese directors and artists have always been more interested in creating insanely detailed drawings. Some Japanese directors have claimed that Japanese animation is actually more of a mix between the detailed still drawings of manga and the fluidity of traditional Western animation, thus it is an art form in and of itself being neither comic book nor cartoon. Macross is a perfect example of this ideology. Although the animation may not be extremely fluid, what we are given are vastly detailed cityscapes, landscapes and space frontiers, as well as mechanical and character designs to die for.
And how can I possibly even mention the word Macross without at least a brief mention of the music? Kentaro Haneda, who created the original music, made sure that the score and songs were as captivating as the film itself, as well as making sure every note of every song fit perfectly with what was being shown on screen. After all, with music playing such an intricate roll in the entire Macross saga, the music really needed to be top notch and it was.
SDFM:DYRL is a classic in every sense of the word. A movie that is just as good today as it was almost 20 years ago. Some films do not live up to the memories we have of them, and as we get older some films lose their power. SDFM:DYRL on the other hand, becomes a beacon of light to remind us of the reasons we fell in love with Japanese films in the first place.
This is due, in no small part, to the creative talent and storytelling capabilities of Shoji Kawamori. Although his filmography may be small, it is an example of quality over quantity. Kawamori's Macross series made giant transforming robots, singing pop-idol young starlets, heroic floppy haired boys, and melodramatic drama popular to thousands of fans across the globe. Who in their right mind never dreamed of someday flying a Valkyrie, or meeting a girl as spunky and hot as Lynn Minmay or as gorgeous and smart as Misa Hayase? Or who never wished that their hair were as cool as Max's blue locks or Hikaru's tangled mop? And who never wished for the experiences and friendships shared by the Defense Force as they battled the onslaught of the Zentradi forces? Without Kawamori, none of these questions would have ever even been possible. To me, this is like trying to imagine a childhood without Star Wars.
SDFM:DYRL is at it's core, a story of an alien invasion. The Zentradi, a race of aliens created for only war are hell-bent on tracking down a lost ship, the Macross, which is the key to the universal power of Protoculture. Protoculture is the universal matter from which all things were created and it gives life to those who have it. The Zentradi track down this lost ship, which has landed on Earth. The humans of Earth learn, to a somewhat limited degree, the power of the Macross, and are able to escape with a few hundred survivors to the outer reaches of space, thus setting in motion the constant game of cat and mouse between the Zentradi and the humans. Although this story is quite basic on the surface, what really set Macross apart from the other giant-invading-robot movies/series was the investment the audience had in the characters.
The animation itself is quite beautiful, although it may seem somewhat primitive by today's digital standards. It is, however, a great example of how Japanese animation differs from its Western counterparts. While Western animation, especially concerning studios such as Disney and Warner Bros., put more energy into creating smooth animated movement, the Japanese directors and artists have always been more interested in creating insanely detailed drawings. Some Japanese directors have claimed that Japanese animation is actually more of a mix between the detailed still drawings of manga and the fluidity of traditional Western animation, thus it is an art form in and of itself being neither comic book nor cartoon. Macross is a perfect example of this ideology. Although the animation may not be extremely fluid, what we are given are vastly detailed cityscapes, landscapes and space frontiers, as well as mechanical and character designs to die for.
And how can I possibly even mention the word Macross without at least a brief mention of the music? Kentaro Haneda, who created the original music, made sure that the score and songs were as captivating as the film itself, as well as making sure every note of every song fit perfectly with what was being shown on screen. After all, with music playing such an intricate roll in the entire Macross saga, the music really needed to be top notch and it was.
SDFM:DYRL is a classic in every sense of the word. A movie that is just as good today as it was almost 20 years ago. Some films do not live up to the memories we have of them, and as we get older some films lose their power. SDFM:DYRL on the other hand, becomes a beacon of light to remind us of the reasons we fell in love with Japanese films in the first place.
Jin-Roh is one of those few animated films that not only transcends the boundaries of it's medium, but also displays more emotion, heart and depth than most live-action dramas. It is a film that destroys any preconceived notions any audience might have about the true power of animation and how much emotion "mere" drawings can convey. Upon viewing this great film one might ask why it was even animated in the first place. It probably would have been cheaper and easier to produce as a live-action feature, but herein lays the beauty of this sublime film: it is the strength and integrity of its animation that emphasize the dark, mysterious and surreal themes of the picture.
Jin-Roh was written by legendary Japanese director/writer/producer/animator Mamoru Oshii and directed by the freshman Hiroyuki Okiura. However, make no mistake about it, Jin-Roh looks, feels and IS an Oshii film, even having its gorgeous score written by long time Oshii partner Kenji Kawai. Jin-Roh explores the themes often touched upon by Oshii. Themes of human beings becoming detached alienated and threatened by the very technologies and societies they themselves have created.
Jin-Roh is, quite loosely, based upon the childhood story of Little Red Riding hood. It is set in an alternate reality where after WWII, Japan is under complete Martial Law becoming little more than a police-society upset by constant social unrest, political terrorism, and near civil war. The government set up the ultimate police force, the Wolf Brigade to combat the thousands of citizens fighting for economic stability, social justice and their identity as a nation ravaged by warfare. The revolutionaries have a special "unit" of terrorists that resemble Little Red Riding Hood. These girls dressed in red cloaks deliver baskets, baskets full of bombs, to their evil wolf-like Grandmother, the Wolf Brigade.
Although this story could have easily set itself up to be a military action-thriller, what transpires is nothing short of a harsh, tragic love story between one of the "hoods" and the very "wolf" she so desperately wants to kill. With that being said, Jin-Roh is, with out doubt, one of the most depressing journeys into the psyche of a soldier blinded by his idealistic, oppressive leaders, and a social revolutionist numb to life after years of civil and social unrest.
While watching live-action films it is easy to forget about all the craftsmanship that went into creating the final picture: it easier to view the film as an entity within itself. This is not the case with well-crafted animation. The viewer is constantly aware of the vast amounts of detail, heart and soul that were poured into each and every frame. Animation should be regarded as the pan-ultimate art form. Animated features are the only form of art to incorporate all of the major media: Film, acting, painting, writing and music. And Jin-Roh is a work of fine art when it comes to all of these aspects. The animation is smooth and natural, almost having a roto-scoped feel to it, the music is as moody, beautiful and moving as any soundtrack ever recorded, the director and layout artists worked together to craft each shot with the utmost care, and the script and it's delivery are near flawless.
If there is anyone out there who doubts the emotional power of mature, adult animation, then I challenge you to view Jin-Roh and not walk away marked by its brilliance. Once again Oshii has proved that animation, when done correctly, is not only beautiful, but it can also strengthen an already strong story and theme.
Jin-Roh was written by legendary Japanese director/writer/producer/animator Mamoru Oshii and directed by the freshman Hiroyuki Okiura. However, make no mistake about it, Jin-Roh looks, feels and IS an Oshii film, even having its gorgeous score written by long time Oshii partner Kenji Kawai. Jin-Roh explores the themes often touched upon by Oshii. Themes of human beings becoming detached alienated and threatened by the very technologies and societies they themselves have created.
Jin-Roh is, quite loosely, based upon the childhood story of Little Red Riding hood. It is set in an alternate reality where after WWII, Japan is under complete Martial Law becoming little more than a police-society upset by constant social unrest, political terrorism, and near civil war. The government set up the ultimate police force, the Wolf Brigade to combat the thousands of citizens fighting for economic stability, social justice and their identity as a nation ravaged by warfare. The revolutionaries have a special "unit" of terrorists that resemble Little Red Riding Hood. These girls dressed in red cloaks deliver baskets, baskets full of bombs, to their evil wolf-like Grandmother, the Wolf Brigade.
Although this story could have easily set itself up to be a military action-thriller, what transpires is nothing short of a harsh, tragic love story between one of the "hoods" and the very "wolf" she so desperately wants to kill. With that being said, Jin-Roh is, with out doubt, one of the most depressing journeys into the psyche of a soldier blinded by his idealistic, oppressive leaders, and a social revolutionist numb to life after years of civil and social unrest.
While watching live-action films it is easy to forget about all the craftsmanship that went into creating the final picture: it easier to view the film as an entity within itself. This is not the case with well-crafted animation. The viewer is constantly aware of the vast amounts of detail, heart and soul that were poured into each and every frame. Animation should be regarded as the pan-ultimate art form. Animated features are the only form of art to incorporate all of the major media: Film, acting, painting, writing and music. And Jin-Roh is a work of fine art when it comes to all of these aspects. The animation is smooth and natural, almost having a roto-scoped feel to it, the music is as moody, beautiful and moving as any soundtrack ever recorded, the director and layout artists worked together to craft each shot with the utmost care, and the script and it's delivery are near flawless.
If there is anyone out there who doubts the emotional power of mature, adult animation, then I challenge you to view Jin-Roh and not walk away marked by its brilliance. Once again Oshii has proved that animation, when done correctly, is not only beautiful, but it can also strengthen an already strong story and theme.