Category: Screenings

Gantz movie 1: Do Not Taunt Happy Fun Ball

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Gantz is a franchise that has always had a mixed reputation. The manga is always known to have very extreme reputation with a good deal of gore, violence, sex, and a pitch black outlook. This has earned it a fair share of fans as well as detractors. It also know many complaints have been levied at it loosing its way in its long run. The anime has a similar reputation but has a quick fix ending by Studio Gonzo that almost always gets a poor reaction. But Gantz fans are almost always fans of its unrelenting nature. So while Narutaki and I have been interested in this series neither or us has started it. When animemiz mentioned the premiere in New York I figured that we might want to check it out if for nothing else the fact that it was a simultaneous debut in American and Japan.

This was my first real introduction to Gantz. I have heard small details about it, and I even own some of the anime thanks to a very good sale but haven’t actually explored the series till this live action film. And going to see this movie was pretty much a last-minute whim. So while I wasn’t excited going in, I became excited as we waited for the show to begin. Gantz entertained me, Kenichi Matsuyama contributed to that greatly, while also making me curious to bust out those DVDs I have.

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NYICFF 2010: Oblivion Island, Waiting for Cotton Gaiden.

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As a person who tends to be absent minded I get a certain amount of dread whenever I cannot find something and wonder if I have lost it forever. So I acutely understand the pain and loss of losing track of something precious. But I think that it a universal misfortune that everyone has faced at one time or another. Oblivion Island taps into this feeling while tying it into a fantasy adventure story that uses Japanese myth to tell a tale of friendship and the bonds of family.

I wasn’t very interested in Oblivion Island, but really I don’t know why that was. I had heard of the film, but not really gone out of my way to learn more about it. The real draw in the end was that it is by Production I.G. And considering the fact that you shouldn’t look the gift of a film festival in the mouth, I ended up with a ticket to the last-minute-added showing.

The opening scene is a young girl named Haruka being read a picture book while visiting her sickly mother in the hospital. The story is about foxes who take things which people no longer appreciate. We then fast forward to Haruka in her teens. Haruka notices that the mirror her mother gave her, who has since passed away, has disappeared. In trying to find the mirror she follows a fox named Teo back to his magical homeland. Teo decided to help her find her missing mirror so he can get rid of her before everyone else realizes he has let a human discover their world. But they soon realize that in the world of Oblivion Island the mirror has great power and its new owner will not give it up easily.

The plot is steadfastly simple, we are taken in by Haruka’s adorable child-self and the very relatable plight of looking for something that was once important only to find it has disappeared from neglect. The world of the Kitsune, who are really all kinds of strange looking creatures who just wear fox masks, is colorful and vibrate with life. The looming evil a foot, which doesn’t ever get a good grip on just what it is doing, adds some stunning machine and battle moments. As the teen Haruka encounters this strange otherworld, she regains not only lost items, but lost feelings and memories as well. However, as the story goes on the connected feeling from the beginning moments is neglected and you never truly feel the what is displayed, you merely see it.

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NYICFF 2010: Mai Mai Miracle, I am the great pretender!

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The New York International Children’s Film Festival is a place I like to experiment and quite often go into movies without much knowledge of them. I guess it comes down to the fact that for many of these films, this may be the only chance to see them, especially on the big screen. With a number of films this year being anime, I was feeling even more of an itch to squeeze in as many screenings as I could. Something about that big screen adds a lot to the experience, at least for me. So with that in mind I went to see Mai Mai Miracle where literally the only thing I knew about it was that it was from Japan.

Mai Mai Miracle follows the ever-imaginative young Shinko in a small, somewhat rural town, of a post-WWII Japan. Thanks to Shinko’s grandfather she has become fascinated with the town’s 1000-year-old history so much so that she often has wild daydreams about it. When shy Kiiko moves to town, Shinko’s curious nature leads her to befriend the quiet girl and the two become fast and inseparable friends. Through the make-believe world that Shinko shares with her, Kiiko starts to come out of her shell, and soon the little town is a place of joy where each day is spent in laughter and adventure. But, as many stories about coming of age do, some sad and very real problems invade their little piece of paradise. Mai Mai Miracle is a story of friendship, history, dreams, and growing up which really and truly feels like the perspective of the young.

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