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| JAPANIME
02 : Day 3
Day, or more to the point Night, 3 and I feel that at this
point I'd just like to mention the fact that of course
I haven't been able to get to as many festival films as I'd
like (ie all of them). Unfortunately other things have
been getting in the way (like work, damnit, and sleep. I mean
who's got time to sleep when something this cool is happening?)
but I think that I've got the art of choosing the right films
down to...well, an art.
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Not, it goes without saying, in the same way that filmmaker
auteur Satoshi Kon seems to have filmmaking down to an art
however. Nowhere near it in fact, as Millennium Actress,
its opening sequence cementing us in everything that is going
to matter about the story in the first few minutes, demonstrates.
With consumate skill, Kon sets up his narrative, his verbal
play on the images of Japanese film history, suffusing it
with feeling not only on an individual level embodied in the
characters but within a context of origins. There's no way,
he seems to say in so many words or less, to understand where
we are going if we don't also acknowledge where we've been.
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I say auteur in the truest sense of the word. Kon's name
is littered throughout the credits, again in almost all the
roles that matter in the realisation of such a clever examination
of nostalgia and meaning. His character design in this film
surpasses Perfect Blue in a certain maturity of aesthetic,
an approach much more fitting to the subject matter yet still
indelibally his own unique style. His manipulation of the
story through the increasingly indistinct intersections between
reality and the main character Chiyoko's memories are a delight
to watch. The character of the documentary filmmaker Tachibana,
chronicling his own personal admiratation for the actress
but also encouraging us to participate more deeply in Chiyoko's
journey, is a perfect balance of comic timing and poignant
emotion.
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If you want to know above all else what this medium called
'anime' is capable of and is helping make possible, you could
look no further nor experience anything finer than Millennium
Actress.
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| And indeed, if you want
to know how far the medium can be pushed, then in some ways
you probably couldn't do better than Adolescence of Utena.
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| As if in definace of
all that 'artyness' Utena seemed determined to re-establish
the fact that anime's other potential is to defy reality,
and sometimes even sense, while making everything sound and
look absolutely as nice as possible. Utena was
in almost all ways a near overwhelming palette of texture and
symbol, its colours bordering on riotous, its narrative flirting
with the Avant Garde. It was funny, surprising and even (occasionally)
challenging, at least where pushing the limits of still slightly
taboo subjects was concerned (poor Touga - I'm surprised he
turned out capable of what seemed to be a reasonably healthy
relationship, considering...).
I was a little mystified as to where
the 'Adolescense' part came into things (possibly the fact that
it was supposed to be set in a high school?) but to be honest
who cares? There was enough going on (and indeed enough conversations
with the word 'crazy' in them as the audience filed out of the
cinema afterwards) to sustain a decent conversation regarding
the origins (and demises) of Princes, realities and identities
to last at least a couple of cups of coffee. If you plan on
seeing this film (and I recommend you do just for the sheer
novelty of it all if nothing else) then don't expect what you're
expecting, what I was expecting before I saw it, because with
a film like this, most of your expectations are just going to
be defied anyway...
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Deni Stoner reporting
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H E R O I C * C I N E M A
http://www.heroic-cinema.com
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