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Reviews
Honogurai mizu no soko kara (2002)
Excellent, moving horror SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS
SPOILER-LESS SECTION:
This is another excellent film from champion director Nakata. If you enjoyed the Ringu trilogy, you'll love this. While Nakata does use many of the same motifs, for instance a child ghost, focus on a dark, watery place, innocent victims, confused but overly inquisitive divorced single mother, it's in no way a carbon copy of Ringu. Even though Nakata exploits similar methods of invoking fear: for instance, the someone's shocked expression seen face-on before the camera slowly slowly slowly pans round to reveal the source of their terror, and the combination of visual and aural oddities to make a latent atmosphere of fear, these techniques still work, and it's every bit as frightening as Ringu.
SPOILERS BELOW!
But to its credit, the ending is different, and stunning. While Ringu rebounded from it's false ending with the true ending, where we see the most frightening part of the film, in Dark Water, the true ending is almost devoid of fear. This actually struck me as a happy ending, as the mother's love for her true child is revealed to be so strong that she is willing to give up her life and 'adopt' the ghost girl Mitsuko in order to protect Ikuko from another trademark 'malignant ghost'. This was completely different from what I was expecting, having seen the Ringu trilogy, and as such Dark Water is a fantastic film in its own right.
Admittedly, one has a sense that we've seen many motifs and set-pieces before. But the film is unique, although without a doubt Nakata's craft. I advise we set up a TV in divorce lawyer's offices and show this to people who are unhappy with their marriages, it'd be great as a demonstration of why not to split up!
This film was doubly good for me as I watched it during a period of heavy showers. Though, tragically, they didn't quite follow the ebb and flow of the action...
Shin seiki Evangelion Gekijô-ban: Shito shinsei (1997)
A poor collection of excellent material
10/10 for the fact that most of the material was taken from an excellent TV series and a good film.
2/10 for the lack of new material and rather uninspired way in which 24 episodes were summarised, meaning that this isn't really a film as much as an overview.
Leaving me with 6/10. Couldn't be fairer than that.
Shin seiki Evangelion Gekijô-ban: Air/Magokoro wo, kimi ni (1997)
Flawed brilliance
From one perspective, a masterpiece of Anno's work, the feature length conclusion to the Evangelion saga in a red mist of robot battles, deep psychological disturbance and theological discussion.
Unfortunately, it doesn't quite address any of these properly. Produced to answer the demands of fans dissatisfied with the existing conclusion to the TV series, which I enjoyed immensely, it should have answered the questions left unanswered in a striking display of animation.
The theological discussion is rambly, introducing whole stretches of Bible characters and Trees of Life that frankly could have been done without. One thing I valued in the original was the ambiguity of how Instrumentality was achieved. Here, it's shoved in my face in a selection of imagery that poses more questions than it answers.
In terms of exploring the psyche of Shinji, it goes into no more (explicable) detail than the TV series conclusion, instead just summarising. Not that its opening scene wasn't powerful and challenging cinema, silently achieving a level of mind exploration previously avoided by Anno.
Robot battles? Only one, really, which is not, perhaps, what the fans wanted. While Asuka's choreographed Eva-bashing to Bach's Air on the G String (Air? yes, that's the subtitle of the first half of the film) is sublime, I in fact consider it inferior to the other two fantastic sequences Anno produced in the series. Namely, Asuka's Mind Invasion to Handel's Hallelujah Chorus and Kaworu's Adam Hunting to Beethoven's Ode to Joy.
As a conclusion to the series, does it really work? In my opinion, not in fact. It produces a lot of excellent material for our viewing pleasure, but fails to match what it should have delivered. Most of the questions are not answered, too many more are posed. Its dark ending in the Shinji asphixiating those he feels threatened by before his troubled mind asphixiates him doesn't really explain Instrumentality as well as the beautiful freeform that was the original conclusion.
If it is intended to supplant this existing conclusion, let it conclude, and not just wander tangentially into theological referencing. To claim conclusion by confusion holds no validity. In short, flawed brilliance. 7/10, Anno-san.
Kingpin (1996)
Disappointing
A very disappointing film from the Farrelly Brothers, who have produced some excellent comedies in more recent years. Here, however, their crude jokes and stereotyping seems to fall flat and the film remains not only humourless but somewhat devoid of an interesting plot.
Dazed and Confused (1993)
An intelligent take on teenage rites of passage
A very intelligent film that is all the better for its hints at both humour and frustration with life. Determinedly plot-less in that it follows a succession of events over a night, the great strength of this film is the numerous and disparate groups it follows. From potheads to poker club the sluts and jocks of mundane teen gross-outs like American Pie are distinctly absent in favour of a whole cast that seems somehow more human. Despite their different interests and backgrounds, no character is perfect nor wholly objectionable.
Nice to see so many actors and actresses who have become famous in their youth, but nothing distinguishes them from a cast of unknowns all of whom perform strongly. Add this to great cars and fantastic soundtrack that is really representative of the culture presented.
Personal favourite moments include the opening Aerosmith (and Pickford's car!), just about every appearance of Slater, and the comment about "white slave owners who didn't want to pay their taxes", representative of an entire ethos of 70's subversity in Austin, commonly called an island of liberalism in the sea of the Deep South.
Watch this film, thoroughly engaging and enjoyable if nothing truly spectacular.