5 cm per second of emptiness
30th November 2007, Friday
So on Wednesday I have completed my trio of anime showing on "Animation Nation 2007" and kudos to the organizers for making the efforts to bring in such delectable anime title for viewing and I am sure with the reception seen from each full house showings as well as supposedly favored response for their seminars and short films screening, this one-week long anime festival surely must be a success and future such events will definitely be much anticipated for this anime-hungry nation...
My companions for the two shows this week was my wrecking buddies with the exception of Foo who as mentioned had to commit all his time in bid to get the deal with Lucasfilm...
TW & CS are the best candidates to watch anime with since we had done so while growing up and the aftermath of watching each movie once again justified the notion...
"Tekkon Kinkreet (鉄コン筋クリート)", a masterful rendition of Matsumoto Taiyou's (松本大洋) 1993 work, "Black & White" which I once read on this American compilation of manga series some years back. French director Michael Arias and the good people from Studio 4°C who gave us the likes of "Spriggan", "The Animatrix" and MVs like Glay's "Survival" & Linkin Park's "Breaking a Habit" certainly carried the eccentric mood Matsumoto sensei wanted to portray in the town of "Takara machi (宝町)"....
There was a mix of authentic Showa element in the streets with many Asian flavors (i.e. Chinese, Indonesian, Thai, Indian), making it a labyrinth with a myriad of clashing colors and artifacts...There were lots of homage paid to classic anime series as well as live action heroes in the show as well as some "Easter eggs" which you just had to keep an eye for such as a large "Arashi (嵐 )" logo on a rooftop, supposedly in tribute to the voice actor of the lead, Kuro, Ninomiya Kazuya of the Johnny's group, Arashi.
Speaking of the voice actors, I felt Ninomiya as well as Aoi Yuu who voiced Shiro did a really good job to capture the pain of the pair of street urchins yet still maintain the fact that they are just children... Famous dorama writer, Kudo Kankuro was the voice of the frigid detective, Sawada (by the way frigid means unresponsive to sexual advances or stimuli)
TW found the show to be a wee bit too violent while CS felt it was not violent enough...
Personally after the slow paced for the first half of the movie, I began to understand what message the story was transcending... the presence of a "black (bad)" and "white (good)" elements in everything, there's a balance between the 2 to keep on in line somehow...
The 100 minute long film was a bit too long and defy laws of physics but still a recommendation for those who like unconventional anime work which may incorporate the Western style of story-telling and out-of-thi-world fashion design such as the diaper-like spacesuit the local gang headed by the Mohawk-haired guy, Choc...
The show that really got to us was "5cm per second (秒速５センチメートル)" done the upstart animator, Shinkai Makoto (新海 誠) who some rave reviews touted as the next Miyazaki Hayao.
A chain of short stories (basically just 3) which encircles the life of a hapless chap by the name of Tagaki who was troubled with the affairs of the heart since junior high till into his adulthood... the perfect "ah jun ge(阿俊哥)" story for the likes of me and my buddies...
The visual treat was simply spectacular as Sinkai and his crew meticulously and intricately do the beautiful artwork for every scene...
The cinematography is one to savor as well with nice pace in the storytelling. The characters are likable especially Akari-chan with her bento... And great background music and theme song of Yamasaki Masayoshi's 1996 hit (a classic track from our J Pop cafe days) "One more time, one more chance" which totally suits the mood of the story...
After the 60 minute-long trilogy, we were overwhelmed with emptiness or what we known as "空虚感"...
This feeling had been long buried in our sad, monotonous past and we were actually glad it was back actually...
CS was the one that got the hardest hit I think as he started his quiet, one-liner self with the usual "tchk", we knew our Pepsiman was back into his prime...
We couldn't stop ourselves chatting about the afterthoughts of the film which for CS was beginning to creep into his system a hour later...making a fool out of ourselves as always...
The film was affecting us for sure but we were saying if it was 7-8 years back when we are still in the midst of our National Service, perhaps the effect would be much more profound...perhaps will drive us up the wall, surely more detrimental to the heart and soul...but that's just us...
After dinner, CS felt an urgent need for a walk and so we pranced around the area surrounding Dohby Ghaut MRT, still deeply absorbed in our thoughts about the storyline, feeling wretched at the same time as we love to do so
Anyway once again a big shout out to the good people of Singapore Film Society, Media Development of Singapore and others for hosting such an event... we will surely be there for the 2008 version, and hopefully be blown away by more fantastic anime shows!
So on Wednesday I have completed my trio of anime showing on "Animation Nation 2007" and kudos to the organizers for making the efforts to bring in such delectable anime title for viewing and I am sure with the reception seen from each full house showings as well as supposedly favored response for their seminars and short films screening, this one-week long anime festival surely must be a success and future such events will definitely be much anticipated for this anime-hungry nation...
My companions for the two shows this week was my wrecking buddies with the exception of Foo who as mentioned had to commit all his time in bid to get the deal with Lucasfilm...
TW & CS are the best candidates to watch anime with since we had done so while growing up and the aftermath of watching each movie once again justified the notion...
"Tekkon Kinkreet (鉄コン筋クリート)", a masterful rendition of Matsumoto Taiyou's (松本大洋) 1993 work, "Black & White" which I once read on this American compilation of manga series some years back. French director Michael Arias and the good people from Studio 4°C who gave us the likes of "Spriggan", "The Animatrix" and MVs like Glay's "Survival" & Linkin Park's "Breaking a Habit" certainly carried the eccentric mood Matsumoto sensei wanted to portray in the town of "Takara machi (宝町)"....
There was a mix of authentic Showa element in the streets with many Asian flavors (i.e. Chinese, Indonesian, Thai, Indian), making it a labyrinth with a myriad of clashing colors and artifacts...There were lots of homage paid to classic anime series as well as live action heroes in the show as well as some "Easter eggs" which you just had to keep an eye for such as a large "Arashi (嵐 )" logo on a rooftop, supposedly in tribute to the voice actor of the lead, Kuro, Ninomiya Kazuya of the Johnny's group, Arashi.
Speaking of the voice actors, I felt Ninomiya as well as Aoi Yuu who voiced Shiro did a really good job to capture the pain of the pair of street urchins yet still maintain the fact that they are just children... Famous dorama writer, Kudo Kankuro was the voice of the frigid detective, Sawada (by the way frigid means unresponsive to sexual advances or stimuli)
TW found the show to be a wee bit too violent while CS felt it was not violent enough...
Personally after the slow paced for the first half of the movie, I began to understand what message the story was transcending... the presence of a "black (bad)" and "white (good)" elements in everything, there's a balance between the 2 to keep on in line somehow...
The 100 minute long film was a bit too long and defy laws of physics but still a recommendation for those who like unconventional anime work which may incorporate the Western style of story-telling and out-of-thi-world fashion design such as the diaper-like spacesuit the local gang headed by the Mohawk-haired guy, Choc...
The show that really got to us was "5cm per second (秒速５センチメートル)" done the upstart animator, Shinkai Makoto (新海 誠) who some rave reviews touted as the next Miyazaki Hayao.
A chain of short stories (basically just 3) which encircles the life of a hapless chap by the name of Tagaki who was troubled with the affairs of the heart since junior high till into his adulthood... the perfect "ah jun ge(阿俊哥)" story for the likes of me and my buddies...
The visual treat was simply spectacular as Sinkai and his crew meticulously and intricately do the beautiful artwork for every scene...
The cinematography is one to savor as well with nice pace in the storytelling. The characters are likable especially Akari-chan with her bento... And great background music and theme song of Yamasaki Masayoshi's 1996 hit (a classic track from our J Pop cafe days) "One more time, one more chance" which totally suits the mood of the story...
After the 60 minute-long trilogy, we were overwhelmed with emptiness or what we known as "空虚感"...
This feeling had been long buried in our sad, monotonous past and we were actually glad it was back actually...
CS was the one that got the hardest hit I think as he started his quiet, one-liner self with the usual "tchk", we knew our Pepsiman was back into his prime...
We couldn't stop ourselves chatting about the afterthoughts of the film which for CS was beginning to creep into his system a hour later...making a fool out of ourselves as always...
The film was affecting us for sure but we were saying if it was 7-8 years back when we are still in the midst of our National Service, perhaps the effect would be much more profound...perhaps will drive us up the wall, surely more detrimental to the heart and soul...but that's just us...
After dinner, CS felt an urgent need for a walk and so we pranced around the area surrounding Dohby Ghaut MRT, still deeply absorbed in our thoughts about the storyline, feeling wretched at the same time as we love to do so
Anyway once again a big shout out to the good people of Singapore Film Society, Media Development of Singapore and others for hosting such an event... we will surely be there for the 2008 version, and hopefully be blown away by more fantastic anime shows!
Japanese word of the day: 空 (Empty) Felt so empty after "Byousoku" yet so fulfilling...
Labels: anime
posted by Kei at
4:48 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home