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nikkuchan
Reviews
Gedo senki (2006)
Good effort, good movie, but something's missing
Being a fan of both Ghibli movies and the Earthsea books, I went to see this movie the day it was released. I enjoyed the movie, but had mixed feelings about a number of things about it.
Animation-wise the movie was excellent. It had all the feel of a Ghibli movie, complete with characters that look like exact copies of characters from older movies. There was just one problem; the art and animation seemed to get very bad at times (the most noticeable is in a little scene with two ladies talking about Tenar), but it's good where it counts, so I wasn't complaining.
The story is where the mixed feelings came in. The story seemed to mix The Farthest Shore and Tehanu together in order to make a more epic and fast-paced story-line. That might have worked out, but much of the book's story went missing, having on the bare-bones of the story is there, and any slow-paced portions changed or eliminated. The change I had the biggest problem is that Ged and Arren met by chance in the movie, instead of Arren seeking him out, and Ged asked Arren if he wanted to join him. It gives them a very shallow, and kind of pointless relationship, and makes Arren kind of motiveless. The whole story takes place in Hort Town, which works out well, but as one might suspect, that itself eliminates a lot of the story. Tenar lives on the outskirts of town, and Cob inhabits a castle in town. The story moves quick and many things come without explanation, which alienates those who haven't read the books (and I doubt anybody in Japan has read the books prior to seeing the movie).
It seems very obvious while watching the movie that the director tried very hard to imitate his father's work. For anyone who has seen the Miyazaki movies, they will easily be able to recognize parts of the movie as being very similar to other Ghibli films. A lot of this is good, but some of it comes off as "trying too hard." The result is a lack of humor, very straight-forward story, and somewhat shallow characters.
Like I said, I enjoyed the movie. It was a good effort, but it's hard to get things right on your first try. I still enjoyed it. Great music though.
Jisatsu sâkuru (2001)
Good, but not entirely coherent
First of all, I looked at another comment by someone named rrobins2-1, who said that this movie is "not for the Japanese ignorant," that it has a lot to do with Buddhism and Shintoism, and that it's perfectly understandable from a Japanese point of view.
Mr. rrobins2-1 obviously doesn't know what he's talking about. I have lived in Japan, I speak the language, and I know that his comments are ignorant, which is ironic because that's what he claims others are. First of all, many Japanese people don't follow any religion, nor do they know a great deal about them. Second, every Japanese person I spoke to said the same thing about the movie: "I didn't understand it." So much for that perfectly understanding Japanese point of view. Anyway, now that that's finished, on to the review:
The beginning parts of the movie show a lot of promise. Teenagers are killing themselves, and being happy about it to boot. The police are looking into it, believing that it's more of a murder, and someone is causing it. Throughout the movie, you see their futility in trying to figure things out, and the scenes that feature mass suicide are very intense and well-done, but there ends up being so many different things in the movie that don't amount to anything, and their is no real conclusion to the film.
First off, there's a girl who informs the police of a website that's connected to the suicide. She attempts to find out the cause of the deaths. It seems that she would be an important character, but she's not in very much, and she doesn't do anything. This goes with all the characters. There are many characters in the movie, but none of them are developed, and many times you're left wondering why they're in the movie to begin with. There's a weird Rocky Horror-esquire musical performance about halfway through the movie, which many people believe is way out of character for the rest of the movie. Anway, I don't want to spoil anything, so I will just say that the story doesn't end, and with the way things stand at the end of the movie, it's impossible to understand how these people were convinced to kill themselves the way they were.
Going through all the stuff in the movie quickly: There's the mass suicides, Cops that are out of touch, a giant roll of stitched together human flesh of the people who have or will commit suicide, a weird j-pop band who's name is misspelled numerous times throughout the movie, the weird, gay cultist who sings wants to be famous, coughing children who know everything about the situation and give cryptic clues about it. All of these, as well as the stuff I neglected to mention, either come out of the blue, or are barely in the picture (or both), with no explanation (and almost no clues), leading you to wonder what they are doing in the first place. I know it's supposed to be a satire, but if half the people who watch it don't understand it, how are you supposed to get your message across?
Watership Down (1978)
It's not bad, but it doesn't feel right.
I watched this movie, and though it wasn't bad (it was quite well done for the most part), something about it rubbed me the wrong way the whole time I was watching it.
First, it covers the book pretty well. It keeps the important parts, takes out some less important parts, shortens others, or changes the order in which things happens (or mixes two events together for time). In a movie that isn't very long, they covered the story very well, but there are two big things that I was very disappointed with. The book was filled with stories of the rabbit's myths and religion, and those were some of the most interesting parts, and they really helped understand the character's thinking, but alas, all but one had to be eliminated from the movie. The other big mistake was that the movie was filled with the Lampine language (The rabbit's language for those who don't know). While the book had a glossary to translate what they say, the movie has no such thing, so words will appear throughout the movie that people don't know what they mean unless they've read the book.
The two biggest problems I had with the movie were the art, and the acting. The art, while detailed, was unappealing, depressing and somewhat unrealistic (the animation was of fairly poor quality too). I was depressed when I watched it because the art didn't have any character to it (honestly I was pretty disturbed by some of the art styles). The acting, while not really bad, was mostly unemotional and monotone. The characters all seem bored much of the time, and it really makes some parts trudge along slowly.
This is not a bad movie in anyway. Most people like it, but after getting so much emotion and power from the book, the movie seems very weak.