Movies for the week of 10/10/10 to 10/16/10

Today is Monday and it’s been a great week in movies for me. Here are my movies for the week of 10/10/10 to 10/16/10

Future By Design (2006)

I can’t even begin to really explain this little documentary. It’s deeper than it seems. Future by Design is about Jacque Fresco this futurist and engineer who designs these crazy and amazing things. He has these fantastic ideas that are all on such a grand scale. There is no doubt that, with the proper funding, many of these concepts can be pulled off. He has patented and created many inventions but his true passions seem to lie in these ultra-modern modes of transportation and living. What I love is that he was asked to invent a method of viewing 3D without glasses in the 60s and he did. But when you moved your head, the image became blurry. The studio wanted him to fix the problem. He said he could if he was funded. They said make it first and we’ll fund you more. So, it was never made. I just sit back and wonder how different movies would be if he did indeed invent it. And then, there's the Venus Project. I watched Zeitgeist2 last week and mentioned the Venus Project. I’d only heard about The Venus Project in passing before watching that movie. Jacque Fresco, leader of the Venus Project, is interviewed in Zeitgeist 2. At the time, I had Future by Design at the ready and had no idea he’d be interviewed in Zeitgeist 2 so that was a HUGE coincidence. I can’t even begin to explain what the Venus Project is and its Wikipedia page does it no justice. His designs are awesome, his theories are awesome, and the idea of these self-sustaining cities is awesome.  8.5 out of 10

Heathers (1989)

Before there were Mean Girls or plastics, there were the Heathers. It’s kitschy, crude, cruel and over the top. There’s so much to love about this movie. I mean really, who hasn’t thought about poisoning one of the popular girls and staging it to look like a suicide? I know I have!  Christian Slater as the crazed slightly attractive sociopath is boss! This movie has a very John Waters feel to it. It reminds me of Dawn Davenport in Female Troubles. Meaning, people take these tragedies and turn them into them into something spectacular. This will probably be the best movie Winona Ryder plays in. Winona is my Keanu Reeves. I should mention this movie has one of my favorite lines from a movie. 8 out of 10

Go (1999)

Oh how I have loved this movie for years. It came on IFC, so I randomly DVRed it. I haven’t seen it in maybe 3 years so and, like many movies, I have to confirm my love for it every few years or so. I really don’t know if I can explain why I like this movie. I know the first thing I can say is that this movie is deliciously 90s from the clothes to the music. I have a soft spot for any movie that has multiple connecting storylines and I really like everyone’s storyline in this movie. I like all the characters and I just like the feel of it. It’s different I guess. In my head it is. 8.5 out of 10

The death of Satoshi Kon kind of hit just now hit me. The day he died I was really sad. It sucks knowing one of my favorite directors will no long make movies anymore. Satoshi Kon was definitely an underdog in the anime world. He never made much money off any of his movies and he couldn't leave behind much for his wife. But he still has his legacy. Darren Arronofsky purchasing the rights to Perfect Blue for a meager $59,000 just so he could use 2 scenes from it gives you a good idea how much he’s worth.  The funny thing is that despite make 1/100^th of 1/100^th of what Miyazaki makes for his movies, he’s still very well known in America among anime fans. Perhaps #2 (after Miyazaki) among anime directors whose movies are released in the U.S. So, I decided to have a little Satoshi Kon-athon and revisit all of his movies and watch the 1 1/3 ones I’ve never seen.

Memories (1995)

Memories is an omnibus of shorts, Magnetic Rose, Stink Bomb and Cannon Fodder, based on mangas done by Katsuhiro Otomo.  I’m going to come right out and say I didn’t care for Stink Bomb and Cannon Fodder. Cannon Fodder was just boring. It’s interesting but boring. It’s about a town whose sole purpose is to bomb an unseen enemy. It’s commentary on war but blah, it was boring. Stink Bomb is about a guy who accidentally turns himself into a biochemical weapon. His body expels a toxic fume that kills people within a certain radius. It sounds bleak but it’s actually a comedy. I think this would have worked well if it were serious. Maybe it’s a Japanese thing and it went over my head. Of course the one I loved the most, Magnetic Rose, was written by Satoshi Kon and directed by Koji Morimoto. Morimoto directed the segment “Beyond” on the Animatrix and Beyond just so happens to be my favorite short for the Animatrix because it shows what happens when there is a glitch in The Matrix. Magnetic Rose is awesome! After receiving an S.O.S signal from a deserted part of space, a bunch of “space trash men“ answer the S.O.S. They board this ship like contraption and suddenly pulled into this bizarre space. This short has Satoshi Kon written all over. It’s slightly confusing and contains someone who is effed up and has some kind of obsession that all of his writing seems to have. If I could just rate Magnetic Rose I’d give it a 9 out of 10 but since this is a compilation, I have to rate it a 6.5 out of 10. The title of this is Memories. I’m not sure why because only Magnetic Rose seemed to touch on actual memories.

Perfect Blue (1998)

Perfect Blue is the only Satoshi Kon movie I hadn’t seen in its entirety. I had a copy of it but it disappeared with my computer last year. As I mentioned before, after the movie’s release, the rights were purchased by Darren Arronofsky so the bath tub scene (and the final rape scene) from Perfect Blue could be used in Requiem for a Dream. (Side note, now people are trying to say he ripped Black Swan from Perfect Blue which isn’t true. Even if it were true, HE OWNS THE RIGHTS!) Perfect Blue follows a singer turned actress as she slowly loses her mind. She begins to think things are there that aren’t and thinks she’s being followed. This movie is “classic Satoshai” meaning it’s just FRIGGIN CRAZY! The main character, Mima, visits a website called Mima’s Room that appears to be written by her but it’s not…or is it. This movie moves a mile a minute. I’m having trouble describing it. Like all of Satoshi’s movies, (excluding Tokyo Godfathers) there is this crazy element of fantasy where the character gets drawn into some other world that no one else can see but the audience.  

Perfect Blue is very reminiscent of Satoshi’s animated series (and my favorite anime) Paranoia Agent (which I'm going to talk about on Androids Don't Dance when I finish watching the series). Both focus on manifesting these evil alter egos and focus on how one’s thoughts can become deadly. The IMDB forums say that Satoshi borrows heavily from Dario Argento movies, but I’ve never seen any of them so I can’t say but apparently that fact is “awesome.” The ends of this movie will DEFINITELY leave one scratching their head. It’s very much left open for discussion although, in my opinion, if one thinks hard enough I think there is only one conclusion. See this mindfuck of a movie NOW! One last note, the music for most of Satoshi Kon's movies is done by the great Susumu Hirasaw. It's weird and it's electronic and that's enough for me. 8.5 out of 10

Millennium Actress (2001)

I guess after making Perfect Blue Satoshi wanted to tone it down and make a documentary/biopic type movie. Satoshi leaves behind the wild and crazy plot line for the most part and trades it in for some good old fashion cinematography. This movie transcends many decades and eras of Japanese history. It follows a documentary filmmaker as he documents the life of a once famous, now recluse, Japanese actress. What makes this movie very unique is as the story is being told, the documentarian and his camera man are basically inside the story following along and even assisting the actress. The “classic Satoshi” comes in when it’s hard to tell if she is playing a role in a movie or reciting and reenacting real life. The lines blur but they blur so well. This movie borrows a lot from many Kurosawa movies. I don’t know if that’s true, but I read it somewhere because I’ve never actually SEEN a Kurosawa movie.

If this movie were shot in live action it’d truly bean EPIC movie. From costumes to set design, to composition and how things are put together. And the transitions. Satoshi Kon does love his transitions. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the transitions in this movie. I love it when scenes blend together or move from one scene to the next without cutting. The character will be in a shop one second and when she turns around, she’s on a battlefield.And those match cuts. He loves him some match cuts. All of Satoshi Kon's movies seems to be filled with them. Chiyoko, the actress, is given a key as a teenager by a stranger she hides from the police. He promises to come back for her. She gets into the movie biz so she can find this stranger and this is what her story is about, finding this stranger. She spends most of her life doing it. It’s a REALLY nice story. I always told myself that if I was going to do a live action version of an animation, this one would be it except it'd be centered on American history rather than Japanese history.Did I mention it looks Amazing? Those damn transitions.  9.5 out of 10

Tokyo Godfathers (2003)

On Christmas day, 3 homeless people find a baby abandoned in a pile of trash. These homeless people, Hana, Miyuki and Gin, make it their goal to find the woman who abandoned her based on the clues she left. The story isn't as mundane as it sounds. Satoshi Kon steps outside the "Japanese box" and creates characters that wouldn't normally be seen in an anime. Having these 3 very different characters is one huge thing that makes this movie very enjoyable. Satoshi Kon made this movie with his American audience in mind. He even had the world premiere in America. Culturally, this movie does not got over the average American's head. Tokyo Godfathers is a very feel good movie. Satoshi set out to make a happy movie normal movie with this one. No major mystery, no confusing plots, no fantasy, just a pretty simple story. (Although, he couldn't help but add his signature crazy obsessed/character.) Satoshi Kon isn't often well received in Japan. I like to call him the Michele Gondry of Japan. His movies are abstract and surreal but the stories are very original and relatable. This movie isn't done in typical Japanese fashion. Although many of the jokes and site gags are stereotypically anime, much of the animation and character design is very different than traditional anime. Maybe this is why his movies don't do well in Japan. Who knows. I love that EVERYTHING seems to work out for the homeless characters and I hate that EVERYTHING seems to work out for them. But hey, it's Christmas. 8 out of 10

Paprika (2006) 

Aw snap! He done did it again! I'm glad this is my second time watching Paprika because the first time I was just like WTF? After watching all of Satoshi Kon's movies, I've realized if I'm not scratching my head after seeing a movie like this then Satoshi Kon hasn't done his job. But since I am, he obviously has. Let me start off by saying, without going off on a tangent, I can see why people keep comparing Inception to Paprika. Both movies are about dreams and some sort of dream machine. Both movies are about figuring something out within a dream and, in both movies, the characters don't know if they are dreaming or are in reality. Even in this Inception/Paprika mashup trailer when Ellen Paige's character screams "wake me up, wake me up," Paprika is screaming "wake her [real self] up, wake her up." I think when your dealing with movies involving entering other people's dreams, the themes are going to blend together. It's weird, I never thought one borrowed from the other until I Googled it. There is a chance that Nolan may have borrowed a bit from Paprika but, Paprika is an adaptation of a novel so it wasn't 100% original. Anyway, Paprika is trippy. I mean it's Perfect Blue trippy. When their dream machine is stolen by an employee, another employee attempts to go into his dream. But he gets stuck and Paprika must go into both of their dreams. But then dreams start mixing and they end up in a dream within a dream. There is an Xzibit joke in here somewhere. Ok, yea that sounds a bit Inceptiony I guess. 

Satoshi Kon combines lots of classic Japanese themes and elements with some beautiful artwork. The parade will always be one of my favorite animated things. It's colorful, it's loud and the music that goes along with it is catchy as all hell. Again, Susumu Hirasawa is an amazing man with his musical accompaniment. I'm finding it hard to describe this movie. It's the same reason why I never bothered writing a review for Inception. For me, trying to describe why a bizarre movie is good is like someone trying to describe to me a David Lynch movie. Sometimes explaining doesn't help. You just have to see it for yourself. This movie is getting a live-action remake by Wolfgang Pertersen. I've never seen The Never Ending Story, but from what I hear it's pretty cool so I think the remake may be in good hands. 8 out of 10