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LFF 2009: Air Doll

Andrew Heskins — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:00:20 +0000

With an interesting premise that goes awry, Hirokazu Kore-eda’s blow-up doll may develop a heart, but where’s the films soul?

In the first of a (short) series we look at some of the more interesting films that premiered at the recent 2009 London Film Festival and will, hopefully, make it to a wider audience. First up is Air Doll, director Hirokazu Kore-eda’s latest offering about an inflatable sex doll that comes to life…

The doll in question belongs Hideo (Itsuji Itao, Death Note: The Last Name, Tokyo Gore Police, Love Exposure), who treats the sex doll more like a living companion, dressing her up, talking to her over dinner, and generally caring for her far more than he would a real girlfriend (with a great sense of irony by director Kore-eda).

One day the doll he calls Nozomi (Bae Doo-Na, The Host, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Barking Dogs Never Bite) comes to life, and begins living a real, second life when he goes to work. Naively exploring the world outside her apartment, she soon encounters various urban residents who are as metaphorically ‘empty inside’ as she is for real. Getting a job at a local video store, she befriends her colleague Junichi (Arata, Bare Essence of Life, 20th Century Boys, Ping Pong), with whom she learns about life through films they watch together there.

As that friendship turns to love, she begins to know what it feels like to be a real human, but that happiness is soon interrupted by tragedy…

This isn’t the first film to feature a sex doll. In the past we’ve seen Lars And The Real Girl and delusional schlock horror Love Object, but it’s the first to show it from the dolls perspective. Of course, Kore-eda’s film is far more than an obvious look at the objectification of women in today’s society – it’s a tender meditation on the isolation of urban life, and loneliness each of his characters feel, and what it means to be human.

Based on the manga The Pneumatic Figure of a Girl by Yoshie Gouda – himself no stranger to live-action adaptations with the recent very successful version of Happily Ever After – the core themes are by no means uncommon. Indeed, even the more spectacular science fiction of Ghost In The Shell has at its heart the same question, what does it mean to be a living being.

As with previous films like Hana (which itself played at the London Film Festival two years ago), Kore-eda keeps his characters to a core ensemble, as they reoccur and we learn more about their lives. Each is fractured and dysfunctional in some way or another, all have a certain emptiness. Yet somehow the film itself fails to connect, like it’s as empty as the subject. It may have heart, but lacks the soul and warmth of Hana (which to my mind has been one of the most enjoyable and overlooked Samurai period films of recent years). It’s almost as if the director is holding us at the same distance we keep ourselves from our urban neighbours. (And again, not an uncommon themes, particularly in Japanese films.)

It’s when Nozomi meets her maker, the film really loses its way. It dithers for half an hour, seemingly unsure of where it wants to go, coming to a tragic but ultimately unsatisfying conclusion. When he asks if she has seen anything other than sadness in this world, she shakes her head. In many ways, it’s not unlike John Sayles interesting but flawed The Brother From Another Planet.

Korean actress Bae Doo-Na gives another solid performance in the lead, if oddly almost unrecognisable – her nationality successfully adding a level or two to Nozomi’s alienation and general bewilderment. Indeed, spending much of the film naked is bound to please long-time fans of her work, though Kore-eda’s direction is not at all salacious. Its only after she accidently nicks herself, letting precious air out of her body, and Junichi saves her by blowing her up, both sensual and hilarious, that his film gets remotes sexy – which seems somewhat fitting.

Kore-eda’s film is a great concept, and pretty well played out. Worth seeing. It just makes you wish some bright spark would hurry up and licence Hana (not to mention pretty much all of Kore-eda’s back catalogue!) for UK release, though…

Blood: The Last Vampire

Andrew Heskins — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:00:32 +0000

A solid, good looking action film with great fight sequences by choreographer Corey Yuen, but plot inconsistencies and a baffling conclusion don’t make the best for Chris Nahon’s live-action adaption…

Let’s face it, the original anime Blood: The Last Vampire was something of a tease. At 48 minutes long, the original intention of the film as part of a multimedia project including a video game and manga was lost on most of its audience, myself included. Those of us that saw it still loved it as a brilliant, if incomplete variation on Ghost In The Shell.

Nearly a decade on the film has recently become an Anime series, Blood+, loosely based on the original premise, and now Chris Nahon, director of the impressive (and arguably best) Western Jet Li vehicle (Kiss Of The Dragon), has returned to Asia inspiration of a glossy, nicely shot live-action version. Indeed Blood tries hard to reproduce the original, the opening subway scene is all but an exact reproduction, in a 300 or Watchmen sort of a way, down to the original’s yellow-filtered, 70s exposed light.

The first half-hour or so is pretty much an exact re-run of the original, with Saya (Gianna Jun, Il Mare – the original of The Ice House, The Uninvited) part of a mysterious agency going undercover on an American Base high school to coax out deadly vampire demons that feast on humans. Sure, some details have been mucked around with, but the main difference is the addition of fellow student Alice McKee (Allison Miller, 17 Again, Take) who, kind of, takes the place of the original’s Japanese born school nurse Makiho Caroline Amano.

Here the film rather lets itself down with it’s own lack of ambition to take the ideas further, and add imaginative layers that could have supplanted the original.

We begin to learn Saya’s history, and rather than the 19th Century past hinted at in the original, and used in the series, the live-action instead moves her past to edo period Japan. We discover her father was a great vampire hunter, but was killed by Onigen (Koyuki, The Last Samurai, Pulse, Alive), most powerful of all the demons, and hence Saya seeks revenge.

With Tokyo seeming rife with demons, it seems that increased demon activity points towards a devious plan by them, and the presence of Onigen. Saya’s chance for revenge is at hand, but at what cost?

As action films go, Blood: The Last Vampire is by no means terrible. It’s obvious that director Chris Nahon has an understanding of how to film action, and – having worked with action choreographer Corey Yuen on Kiss Of The Dragon – know when to hand over the reigns. It’s beautiful to look at, even if sometimes the CGI work is less convincing than the original. (Mind you, the original being one of those ground breaking anime’s that kept the right side of almost looking too real – well, how can you compare with that?)

It would be easy to blame it all on the tortured production. Billy Kong, producer of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hero, House Of Flying Daggers, and Lust, Caution, announced the live-action version of Blood with The Bride With White Hair director Ronny Yu attached. That didn’t work out, but ultimately Chris Chow’s (Fearless) script plays too readily into both their histories when taking the film on from its original premise.

In the flashback sequences, Blood tries hard to take you back to the films that inspired Crouching Tiger. It’s Lone Wolf and Cub and classic Shaw Brothers films wrapped in revisionist, noughties style. It’s all swords and wire-fu, wonderfully done, but you wonder, hang on, where are the demons? Later Saya’s showdown with Onigen seems too reminiscent of The Bride With White Hair. But Blood doesn’t seem to know how it’s demon vampires should look, or fight for that matter. It’s here, then over there, horror, then old school wuxia. Enjoyable, but perhaps somewhat misguided by Saya’s use of a sword. (Which in the original, by the way, breaks anyway!?)

It’s an odd mix, not helped by the fact that as a Brit – that as an international production – it relies on British actors to fill in the gaps in the cast. It can be disorientating to see Ruby In The Smoke’s JJ Field or Dog Soldiers Liam Cunnigham as Americans, but not as much as seeing UK TV stalwart Larry Lamb, last most noticeably cast in EastEnders, as a US army base general.

Casting wise, Gianna Jun is fine in the lead role, but weirdly not as feisty as you’d like her to be – all torn by her past and overly upset. (You wonder if someone like Love Exposure’s Hikari Mitsushima might have been been better?) As a character Koyuki’s Onigen just isn’t shown as evil enough – come on Chris (x 2) will you? Give us more to work with!

When Alice’s character starts spouting cod-philosophy it’s all a bit hard to take. (The purpose of the original school nurse character being a lot more poignant.) And then comes the baffling finale, which makes no sense at all other than playing up a reference to Alice’s name.

All in all Blood comes in pretty short for an action film. While I welcome an action film that runs well under 2 hours for a change, it’s all a bit telling on the production side. Indeed, the release date was put back a couple of times due to post-production not being finished in time. For all that, it’s not half bad looking (though you do wonder if the DVD could be more enlightening with deleted scenes and, possibly, abandoned or early scripts).

If you’re expecting entertainment, then Blood fulfils that and more, think Blade Trinity meets later episodes of Buffy. However, if you’re expecting an imaginative re-write of the vampire genre, seek out Park Chan-wook’s Thirst or Tomas Alfredson’s Let The Right One In…

» We spoke to both Gianna Jun and Chris Nolan exclusively earlier in the year…

…and don’t forget, you can win the DVD here!

Panda! Go Panda!

Andrew Heskins — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 09:00:53 +0000

An early gem from Studio Ghibli co-founders Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away, My Neighbour Totoro, Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea) and Isao Takahata, director of The Raccoon War (aka Pom Poko) and The Grave Of The Fireflies…

Left alone by her grandmother when she has to go out of town, young girl Mimiko worries little about fending for herself, but wishes she had a real family of her own. That wish soon comes true when baby panda Panny and his gigantic bamboo-obsessed father bound into her house, lured by the lush bamboo fields outside.

Mimiko decides to invite her new friends to stay, and soon gets used to having a new family around to keep her company. Only thing is Panny and his Papa have escaped from the local zoo, and the owner wants them back…

So begins Mimiko’s adventures with Panny and Papa Panda, which include Panny accompanying Mimiko to school, an escaped tiger cub who ‘joins’ the family and rescuing circus animals from a devastating flood.

With an original story, scripts and layout by Hayao Miyazaki, Panda! Go Panda! is recognised to be his first notable work. In fact, many consider it to be a dry run for My Neighbour Totoro, and the story has much in common: the young girl looking for companionship, finding mythical creatures (or in this case fantastical – talking pandas?) at the bottom of the garden. The girl herself mirrors that of the youngest girl in Totoro, more genuinely curious about the prospect of a burglar in the house than scared of what they might do. And the panda character designs are very much like the various sized Totoro. The underlying principles of the storyline would become trademark Miyazaki – a world away from battling heroes and villains to 70s Japanese animated TV.

(Even the original Japanese titles, included on the DVD, have the familiar Studio Ghibli look. And they’re far better than the Western/US titles that have been added subsequently.)

Undeniably cute, and even though it’s aimed straight at very young audience it’s particularly well done (with an irresistibly catchy theme tune to boot). The animation is of a good quality, and if not up to later Studio Ghibli standards, it’s still easy to see why the short films Panda! Go Panda! and Circus In The Rain (here presented back-to-back) were so popular on their original release in Japan. Since it’s made it’s way to audiences across the globe (though personally I found the US dub rather grating).

There are some fine ideas on show here, particularly that Papa Panda could go to work like any other dad, clocking out at 5.30 to return home – only it’s a job at the zoo at the zoo! Considering that later Walt Disney would come to Ghibli to ask to dub and distribute their films in the US, it seems more than a little ironic that the sequel so clearly takes Dumbo as a reference point for the circus coming to town by train.

Indeed it seems odd that, before this Manga release, the film has become difficult to buy on DVD outside of Japan, having been released twice by Pioneer in the US (once with only the English dub!) and once in Australia. (Doubly odd, really, considering the latest Japanese release is from Walt Disney?!)

A wonderfully enjoyable kids film, this is also a fascinating insight into the beginnings of the Studio Ghibli legend for older audiences. Just try getting that theme tune out of your head afterward!

Panda! Go Panda! was released by Manga on 6 July 2009.

Blood: The Last Vampire – the original Anime

Andrew Heskins — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 09:00:24 +0000

With the upcoming release of the live-action version, what better time to revisit the original that started it all…

In retrospect on the original anime of Blood: The Last Vampire, it’s still an impressive looking piece of film. Essentially a follow-on from Production I.G.’s Ghost In The Shell, both in terms of themes and production, Blood broke new ground in the film was entirely digital – being inked, coloured and animated on computer rather than using animation cells – yet without losing old-fashioned quirks. A revelation that garnered praise from mister CGI himself, James Cameron (who was also a very public fan of Ghost too). It was also one of the first series to be filmed almost entirely in English, no doubt spurred on by the success of Ghost and the financial involvement by UK/USA distribution company Manga Entertainment.

Working for a dubious US government agency, the eternally young Saya hunts down demonic bat-like creatures intent on causing some, undisclosed, havoc on the world. Tensions raised between her and her employers – they refer to her as the last ‘original’ – she is sent undercover as a schoolgirl on an American Air Base in Japan shortly before the start of the Vietnam war. Armed with just a samurai sword that has seen better days, Saya must flush out and destroy these creatures before they fulfill their nefarious plans – but Saya’s allegiances seem strained – she has more in common with them than her human employers…

At less than 50 minutes long, Blood: The Last Vampire was something of a deliberate tease for audiences. Intended as something of a multimedia release, with the story continued in a light novel, and a two-part video game – with hindsight an extremely savvy and forward-looking concept. Of course, for most of those of us unaware of those other release, or even just unable to get hold of them, it was hard not to be somewhat disappointed…

I remember its DVD release coming at quite an opportune moment. I’d just gotten round to watching the original Ghost In The Shell, and spurred on by a love of that film (as well as a new-found knowledge of how much of a rip-off The Matrix was!) I was keen to absorb any similar cutting edge Anime I could lay my hands on, particularly from the same producers. That was in the days when DVD releases were easily over £15 in retail price. Honestly for less than an hours worth of film, however beautiful the animation, that seemed a little steep.

(It’s notable that the original trailer, which we’ve included above, includes several shots that weren’t only not in the finished film, but don’t even appear to be from the same situations shown.)

But the animation itself is truly stunning. It inhabits a murky gray/brown world of golden tints, not unlike Production I.G./ Hiroyuki Okiura’s earlier Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade (except without the Hitchcock-styled soft focus). The studio had used a mix of CG and old-fashioned animation styles for years, but despite the digital conception kept the style full of character, and avoiding the soulless flaws of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. Unlike other films of the time, here the 2D and 3D techniques don’t jar against each other, despite some of the backgrounds and objects almost looking too real.

The style is as reminiscent of artist Gene Colan’s work on Marvel’s Tomb Of Dracula in the 70s as it is of previous Vampire-themed Animes like Vampire Hunter D. Perhaps that’s not coincidental, considering that series originally launched the Blade character, which had only recently been turned into a successful movie franchise. Half-human, half-vampire, intent on wiping out vampire-like creatures, the characters have a lot in common. Dressed as a schoolgirl, you could also argue the influence of Buffy. (Director Guillermo del Toro returned the ‘compliment’ by referencing Blood in Blade II.)

The scenes within the school have a superb, tangible tension, as Saya waits for the creatures to expose themselves. Indeed, considering the length this section could have been longer. Like most of the Anime coming from Production I.G. at the time, the pace neither rattles along nor brakes, finding a natural rhythm within the simple, effective plotline. Here the unresolved aspects of Saya’s origin, the government agency she works for and the creatures she hunts down help to cover the flaws in the script.

The action is well shot, if lacking the speed or surprise you might expect from an action/horror. Possibly the most memorable scene is where we first meet Saya, in a subway train leading up to a kill, (fairly) faithfully recreated in the new live-action movie. It obviously left a mark on the Pang Brothers, borrowing much the style and look for an assassination scene in the original Bangkok Dangerous. Elsewhere the Halloween party has obvious potential, but again doesn’t seem fully explored.

Despite the English language the acting in generally good, if occasionally stilted. Its greatly helped by Youki Kudo’s performance as Saya, her career far outstretching the occasional Anime voice-over, previous roles had included Jim Jarmusch’s Mystery Train and Snow Falling on Cedars, she’s gone on to appear in L: Change the World, Memoirs of a Geisha and, ahem, Rush Hour 3. Joe Romersa, voice of lead agent David, also has had a somewhat unexpected career, an engineer, singer and songwriter for over 30 years, he’s more recently become known for his Anime voice-over work. (And his singing can be heard on Silent Hill.)

There’s a promise of so much more in Blood: The Last Vampire, that without any sort of resolution in its Anime form, doesn’t quite deliver. Fans of Ghost In The Shell should perhaps look first to the earlier Jin-Roh. However, it’s easy to see the enduring attraction to Blood, having inspired mangas, an Anime series Blood+, and now a live-action film. Perhaps we might finally get that decisive conclusion we’re been waiting for…

The new live-action version of Blood: The Last Vampire is released around UK cinemas on 26 June 2009 by Pathé. We also exclusively interviewed director Chris Nahon and lead star Gianna Jun.

**There’s still time to enter our competition and you can win an exclusive Blood t-shirt and this original Anime version on DVD! Click here…**

Cutie Honey

Andrew Heskins — Mon, 11 May 2009 09:00:36 +0000

A(nother) 21st century take on an anime fave from the past, former model Eriko Sato gets a flimsy excuse to run around in her underwear and skintight cat suit…

With the world threatened by the menace of Sister Jill and her Panther Claw gang, is there anyone who can save it? Surely not the demure office worker Honey Kisaragi? But ah, actually Kisaragi (Eriko Sato, Funuke: Show Some Love, You Losers!, Carved) is also Cutie Honey, super-powered crime fighter, able to disguise her appearance under hundreds of, well… rather familiar looking faces as it happens.

With high camp style and a ‘Cutie… Flash’, Honey dispatches the villains, as long as she’s fuelled up on junk food, but even superheroes need allies, cue No-nonsense, no-fun cop Natsuko Aki (Mikako Ichikawa, Memories Of Matsuko) and super-cool reporter Seiji (Jun Murakami), on hand to help her track down Panther Claw’s well hidden base, Jill’s tower. (Yeah, mate, maybe you should look under that Tokyo Tower thing?).

Against spider villains and foes who want to serenade Honey with J-Pop before dispatching her, can she really defeat the bad guys?

Even when Cutie Honey originally came out, the thought of taking a vintage 70s anime TV series and turning it into a live-action film wasn’t exactly new –Casshern beat it to Japanese cinemas by a matter of weeks, and the overly energetic ‘making of’ documentary on the DVD admits to it being something of a trend. However, as it’s taken five years to get released in the UK, you could give the film the benefit of with the curve, if not exactly ahead of it.

Brought to the screen by legendary anime director Hideaki Anno (Neon Genesis Evangelion), the film keeps true to the source material – namely what its creator Go Nagai (who also created Devilman and UFO Robot Grendizer, and makes a guest appearance) referred to as the first shōnen manga – or to put it another way a manga aimed directly at titillating adolescent boys. In that respect, with the delectable Eriko Sato cavorting around in her underwear playing with her cat (now, don’t – that’s a cheap comment and you know it) or running around in spandex, frankly the charm goes way beyond a teenage audience.

Unlike the original manga (and an anime series overseen by Anno the same year this was released) those delights are kept pretty innocent. It’s all good, clean fun, even with the suggestion that Natsuko is smitten with Cutie herself. (Ah, yes, the old lesbian hints, eh?) The situations are utterly over-the-top, Eriko’s bubbly performance completely irrepressible. (An early film in her career, it’s interesting to contrast this with her appearance in Funuke. Though both characters are in their own ways oblivious to the real world, the complexities Eriko is now able to bring to the roles she plays are obvious.)

Easily more Powderpuff Girls than The Dark Knight, there’s more than a hint of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers to Cutie Honey. Indeed, perhaps deliberately the film seems a little cheap. Despite some inspired fight sequences which Anno makes look exactly like manga (the bits where they so that freeze frame where the background moves), he doesn’t seem to know how to shoot the real world. It’s often a little flat when it could be more saturated.

And though there are plenty of wacky characters involved, often the humour can’t quite find a level to pitch itself at, never quite making the Austin Powers yeah baby spoof it seems to be heading towards. The conclusion seems straight out of Neon Genesis, all meaningful and poetic – I mean hello, where did that come from?

Yeah, this is enjoyable, but not quite the spectacle – whether in action or comedy – that it needs to be to lift it above the many other recent manga/amine adaptations…

20th Century Boys

Andrew Heskins — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 10:00:36 +0000

Get ready for the next phenomenon as Nakoi Urasawa’s hit manga finally hits our screens as a live-action trilogy…

I know what you’re thinking, another multi-part manga adaption, can it really keep audiences interested in one movie, let alone three? Well, if the first part is anything to go by, then yes, it actually might…

It’s the late 1990s, and general loser Kenji Endo (Toshiaki Karasawa, Cassern) works in his mother’s convenience store, caring for his sisters baby girl, his dreams of being a rock star are long behind him. But at a school reunion he soon finds he has a far greater connection to a mysterious cult and strange deaths around the world, an icon he and his childhood friends came up with.

As the mystery deepens, it all seems to relate back to a story they came up with as children, the ‘book of prophecies’, which foretold devastating events in Tokyo and around the world, and the destruction of mankind at the eve of the new millennium. But just who from their tight-knit group could be trying to make it come true? And without the book itself, just how can Kenji and his friends stop it from happening?

Director Yukihiko Tsutsumi (Sushi King Goes To New York, Happily Ever After, Keizoku: The Movie) approaches Nakoi Urasawa’s immense 24-volume best-selling manga with the respect it deserves. Tsutsumi follows much of the original narrative, spanning five decades and several continents, looping back and forth on itself in flashback – he was said to have demanded a budget of 6 billion yen, an unheard of amount in the Japanese film industry.

With engaging performances from Toshiaki and the rest of the cast, director Yukihiko quickly pulls you into a plot that unfolds from such an inconspicuous start, but eventually pits our humble heroes against giant mechanized robots and deadly viruses. There’s great support from Etsushi Toyokawa as Occho, Kenji’s best friend – hardly seen in this episode, one expects him to play a much greater role in subsequent parts.

The mix of fondly remembered childhood and an increasingly dark, and bizarre present make a spellbinding mix. It’s reminiscent of some of Stephen King’s work, particularly It, where ghosts of the past come back to haunt adults – even if in 2oth Century Boys those ghosts are somewhat more innocuous. It only makes the journey, from the mundane everyday to science fiction, somewhat more believable.

Sure, there are plenty of questions left unanswered, but what do you expect for a proposed trilogy? This feels very much like a film in it’s own right. And if some of the recent ‘multi-parters’ have seemed a rather cynical move to gain repeat audiences, often lacking the content to pull a single decent movie, 20th Century Boys seems to have it in spades. It’ll be interesting to see if the series can keep the pace over the next parts, or if it quickly runs out of steam.

20th Century Boys (cert. 15) will be released on DVD (£19.99) by 4Digital Asia on 4th May 2009.

And we have three special prize givaways of a DVD, t-shirt and poster – click here to enter!

Death Note 2: The Last Name

Andrew Heskins — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 10:00:21 +0000

A satisfying conclusion to the Death Note series, but did we really need this exercise in tediousness to get there…?

Despite my misgivings over the first Death Note film, I really wanted to like the sequel. The idea itself matched with director Shusuke Kaneko’s take on the original manga make an obvious but sincere metaphor for absolute power corrupting absolutely. The cast reunite for this sequel, released but a few months after the first film in Japan, yet somehow none get the chance to shine, with a script that manages to jettison characterisation and extend the running time yet still make you wait what feels like an eternity (over two hours!) while very little happens.

Death Note: The Last Name picks up right where the original left off: with Light (Tatsuya Fujiwara, Battle Royale), supposedly grieving the death of his girlfriend Shiori Akino, offering to help L (Ken’ichi Matsuyama, South Bound) catch Kira, hoping to find L’s real name so he can rid himself of his nemesis once and for all. L, on the other hand, is all too happy to have Light close by, as he still believes him to be Kira and hopes he will give himself away.

With L’s theories about Kira soon blown out of the water when a second Kira appears, Light hopes this new ally will finally enable him to learn L’s true name. Time for the real mind games to begin as the two try to outwit each other, whose name will be last in the Death Note?

With all the original (surviving) cast in place for this sequel, shot back-to-back with the first film, signs were good for an enjoyable to-and-fro between our leads as they continually try to get the upper hand. Sadly – despite the additional of another Death Note, belonging to actress and presenter Misa Amane (Erika Toda, Goemon), and a devious use of an ambitious TV reporter Kiyomi Takada (Nana Katase) given the second death note to help hide his identity – this film lacks any sympathetic roles or true characterisation for that matter. Even Ken’ichi’s terrifically offbeat performance as L rarely breaks through a script that seems content to plod along, simply going through the motions to get character C from A to B and back.

Here the drawn out nature of the films, adding up to a running time of nearly four and a half hours in total, truly impairs your enjoyment. Much of this sequel seems unnecessary at best, making you wonder about the reason for making splitting it into two films. Whatever director Shusuke Kaneko’s argument may be – a cynic might say it was purely to milk the success of the Death Note manga (which it did in on it’s original release in Japan) – it definitely wasn’t to pay tribute to the original Manga and Anime series. New characters have been invented and general liberties with the plotline – mainly cutting major subplots.

As with the first film, the major issue is that L and Light’s battle of intellects just isn’t as clever as it thinks it is. It doesn’t demand the time and attention we’re privy to here. When we finally get to the conclusion – which definitely brings the series to a nice end – it all seems a little late.

Now if you’re thinking this has turned into something of a rant, you’d be right. Death Note: The Last Name isn’t a terrible film by any means. But a much tighter two hour film – rather than a series – would have done this story much better justice.

Yo-yo Girl Cop

Andrew Heskins — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 09:00:30 +0000

An enjoyable live action Manga from director Kenta Fukasaku that enters similar territory to Battle Royale, but let’s see some more yo-yo action next time…

‘K’ (J-pop star Aya Matsuura) is a fiery, martial art trained teenager who makes a deal with the Tokyo Police to free her mother – currently held under serious criminal charges by the US authorities. That deal involves becoming an undercover agent at the Seisen Academy, the origin of an underground website aimed at disaffected and suicidal students called Enola Gay, which has just started an ominous timer counting down.

Disguised as a high school transfer student called Asamiya Saki, she has only 72 hours to find out who’s behind the Enola Gay website, but she’s going to have to handle the school bullies first…

With its near hysterical, hormone ridden students driving all emotions well out of proportion, and Heathers/Mean Girls like dominance of girl bullies who dominate what’s (or who’s) cool and who’s not in school, Kenta Fukasaku returns to the hyper amplified high school world of Battle Royale. (Though it must be said this is a distinct improvement over his sequel, Battle Royale 2.)

Of course for British viewers recent events in Bridgend, Wales, potentially make the story come across as somewhat insensitive – seeming to make light of their self-harming and suicidal tendencies, without the cleverness of Kenta’s original script for Battle Royale – yet considering the source material you can hardly fault it for the film for comic book simplification?

Instead it’s all actresses who are quite obviously older than the age they are playing, running around dressed as school girls, which is always going to find an audeince. Yet for all its flaws its a likeable reboot of the Sukeban Deka (Deliquent Girl Cop) manga character from the 70s, the object of three live action TV series, an OVA and two live action movies. A previous Asamiya, Yuki Saito, even makes a cameo appearance as her mother.

Yet throughout Suki herself seems a little bit useless. Having proved her abilities against the US authorities, she seems unable to handle her schoolmates, spending much of the film recovering from one knock on the head or another. She only comes into her own in the finale, which itself is short-lived, and despite the involvement of World Yo-yo Champion Takahiko Hasegawa, you wish there was a lot more yo-yo action. (The mind overflows with the sort of trick shots that could be played – well, mine does anyway – but sadly the film doesn’t really deliver.)

The cast comes off well, with Riki Takeuchi (Dead Or Alive, Battle Royale II: Requiem) giving an enjoyable performance as Suki’s main contact Kazutoshi Kira, a man who has more of a connection to her than she realises. Overall, it’s an enjoyable yarn if nothing particularly special.

The DVD of Yo-Yo Girl Cop will be released in the UK on Monday 22 September by 4Digital Asia.

Death Note

Andrew Heskins — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 08:00:25 +0000

A solid live-action version of a manga starring Battle Royale’s Tatsuya Fujiwara that thankfully doesn’t quite replicate the amoral tone of the original manga – but be prepared to wait for the sequel!

Throughout the world criminals who have previously evaded the law are mysteriously dying. The general public attributes this to a mysterious figure known as ‘Kira’ (quite simply derived from how the Japanese pronounce killer), and soon the local Japanese police force attempt to track him down.

What no one realises is that ‘Kira’ is in fact a student called Light Yagami (Tatsuya Fujiwara), the son of the Police chief in charge of the investigation. His newfound power comes from a Death Note dropped by death god Ryuk. This note gives Light the power to kill anyone he chooses simply by thinking of them whilst he writes their name in the book.

Disillusioned by the justice system he sought to join, he sets about making the world right by writing the names of those he feels deserve it in the book, or indeed anyone else that might get in his way.

When the International Police Organisation and the FBI get involved in pursuing ‘Kira’, led by the equally enigmatic master detective ‘L’ (Ken’ichi Matsuyama), the pair enter in to a match of wits to see who will be caught out first. But just how much is Light willing to sacrifice in order to escape being found?

(Warning: The rest of this review contains spoilers!)

Based on a successful manga, Death Note’s original creators writer Tsugumi Ohba and illustrator Takeshi Obata, deliberately fashioned an amoral anti-hero as their lead. They wanted the story to be confrontational, to raise issues about the justness of Light’s actions without telling their audience how to think, but often at the cost of exploring the aftermath of Light’s deeds on his victims and their families.

All of which can be very clever, but doesn’t necessarily translate well to a teenage audience, nor to the gung-ho anime adaptation that came soon afterward – bringing an almost inevitable controversy to the series. Shusuke Kaneko, director of the camp Gamera monster films from the 90s and Azumi 2: Death or Love, decided to demonstrate a little more of the devastation Light’s actions caused, but still with little moral judgment on them.

Which leads to something of a problem – who do you root for? It’s not quite like Apt Pupil, as you watch Todd Bowden’s character become something far nastier than even a hiding Nazi war criminal – because within the constraints of the format you really do feel that you should at least care for one of the characters.

But that’s so hard to do. It soon turns out Light is something of a cold, calculating fish, prepared to sacrifice anyone he perceives as a threat to his work, even a loved one. ‘L’ is brilliantly played as a peculiarly idiosyncratic teenager by Ken’ichi Matsuyama, difficult to like. Only perhaps the fated FBI agent Ray (Shigeki Hosokawa) and his fiancé Naomi Misora (Asaka Seto) are particularly sympathetic – though that’s probably Shusuke’s intention.

His vision is eerily close to the original. Ryuk the death god seems to have flown straight from the pages of the mange, rather nicely making few concessions to being part of our three dimensional world. Ken’ichi Matsuyama’s performance as ‘L’, too, is straight from the original illustrations, keeping all of his ticks and eccentricities.

Eminently watchable, with a nice but somewhat under utilised use of the Death Note’s pages to introduce it’s different powers, Shusuke unfortunately spends too much time telling the story: showing us Light exploring his new found power and involved in discourse with Ryuk, whom only he (and anyone else who has touched the Death Note) can see. You can’t help but feel the running time could easily have been cut some 30 minutes. Indeed, often the manner in which Light uses the full powers of the Death Note to evade the authorities is not as clever as it could be. And just when you think the mind games between Light and his opposite in every manner ‘L’ are heating up, you realise the film is coming to an end and you’re going to have to wait for the sequel to find out what happens next.

Let’s just hope that like Japan, where they had less than a five month wait for Death Note: The Last Name, we’ll have equally short time.

Death Note is s released on DVD by 4digital Media today.

Origin: Spirits Of The Past

Andrew Heskins — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 09:00:32 +0000

A solid, extremely well-made slice of Anime – so why does it all seem so familiar?

In a post-apocalyptic future man’s interference with nature has given birth to a sentient forest and almost wiped out the developed world in the process. Three hundred years later mankind’s only survivors have formed two groups, those who want to form a tenuous coexistence with the Forest in Neutral City, and those who wish to dominate and subdue it from Ragna. Now Agito, the son of an aging hero, is about to set in motion a series of events that could bring all existence to an end.

A youthful prank leaves him lost in a forbidden are of the Forest, where he accidentally releases a young girl, Toola, from a cryogenic stasis tube. Toola finds it hard to come to terms with this new world and the loss of everything she knew. But she’s not the first to be released from the cryogenic tubes. Shunack, now a leader of the Ragna forces, plans to use Toola to unleash an ancient weapon that will end the Forest’s dominance once and for all. What she doesn’t realise is, however, that it will wipe out all life on Earth.

Agito srtikes a bargain with the Forest that it will imbue him with superhuman strength in order that he can both save the world, and Toola from herself. But will it be enough?

Origin comes with a strong pedigree: it’s the first full-length feature from the Gonzo studio, previously responsible for Hellsing, She The Ultimate Weapon and Final Fantasy: Unlimited, and by the director of Neon Genesis Evangelion, Keiichi Sugiyama.

The result is a beautifully made, lush mix of traditional 2D animation with 3D CGI. It’s nearly seamless, with the CGI machinations given a gritty, dirty look that fits them within cell animation without standing out too noticeably. The quality of close to being it good as it gets outside of a Studio Ghibli production, even far outstripping their disappointingly cheap looking last film Tales From Earthsea.

Where Origin falls down is on its predictable Anime plot. It boils down to this: Environmental catastrophe caused by man; only one young boy can stop it, dashing to save a damsel in distress who may well have caused this disaster, if inadvertently; the boy will have to face a truly mega-sized evil machination to save the world. It could be any one of a multitude of examples of Anime over the last 25 years!

The characters are likeable enough, and the story well-paced so it doesn’t overstay its welcome unlike so many productions now. (Though this also has the effect of making it feel like a sequel to a film you only glimpse in the opening credits.) But there’s really little to distinguish this from what has come before.

At least Steamboy had it’s League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen style Victorian setting, Metropolis had it’s incredible and completely unexpected use of a Ray Charles song. Indeed, the influence of Princess Mononoke is high, and such a comparison does Origin no favours. Surely it’s time for Anime creators to start looking away from these teen protagonists and towards new ideas for plotlines?

Origin is a good action-packed film, perfect for an early teen, over-12’s audience. Sadly, it just doesn’t do anything to break the mould. This ones for kids and real Anime fans only.

Origin: Spirits Of The Past is released by Manga and begins a limited theatrical release on 12 July.

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