One of those rare foreign films made by someone from the country it was produced in. I recall after finishing the movie thinking to myself "why would someone from japan be named Michael Arias?"
So I did a little research. Very interesting.
As was the movie. It had the slow adorable kitsch of "Cat Soup" with the zany scribbly stylized art of "Mind Game"
It focuses on two orphans who run around a large city called Treasuretown. Like some sort of combination of Paris, Las Vegas, and a circus, it's a large intricate city full of all sorts of odd forms on entertainment.
The two major plots of the movie focus on two things.
The first being the two orphans. Black and White. White is an odd little boy who seems to be partially insane and is a very happy lad. Little seems to dampen his very high spirits. Black is the complete opposite. A bitter kid who likes to fight, and whose goal in life is protecting White who is like a brother to him.
The second major plot involves the yakuza (japanese mafia) who are scheming with developers to destroy the slums of Treasuretown and try to turn it into a larger more robust enterprise. This however requires unsavory types.
When the worlds of the orphan children who run rampant in the city and the world of the yakuza collide it becomes a violent, sometimes funny, action packed and very dark little roller coaster of a film. It starts off almost as a character study where one just sort of observes the events of Treasuretown to see how they play out. It evolves into a movie that explores the anger of Black and what happens when he and White are separated. It then becomes somewhat of a psychological thriller as Black battles with his own personal demons.
Overall a highly enjoyable film. Not sure if I liked it as much as Cat Soup, but still better than pretty much anything I've seen lately.
It's also absolutely fucking beautiful.
Look at some of these backrounds:
The movie is one of those things where you just gotta watch it to be entertained. If you want to understand what the filmmakers are trying to convey, you are going to need to think. Yes I know it's hard. But if you don't turn on your brain, you'll get lost, and then whine that you didn't "get it" despite it being a pretty simple message of the film.
Also, Plaid (one of my favorite bands) did the soundtrack.
I am having trouble locating the english cast for the film. There was one character in particular whom I'd swear was Tom Kenny. But none of the english dubbed voice actors seem to be credited anywhere. Blargh!
DID YOU HEAR ME? I SAID BLARGH. ACKNOWLEDGE MY BLARGH!
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I got a wonderful phone call the other day. I'm not entirely certain, but I may finally have happened across a wondrous opportunity. The likes of which don't come along too often, and when they do I usually fail miserably, but this time, I don't think that's gonna happen.
3 days until I'm 22. I can't wait til this week is over.
And now, because it's my blog, and I have no integrity, I am going to place a giant advertisement right about.........
DO YOU NEED MY SON TIMOTHY TO SHOW YOU HOW TO SELL A CAR?
YOU EITHER GONNA GET FINGERED (sproing)
OR YOU'RE GONNA GET FUCKED fucked (fu fu fu fu fu fucked)
It's far too late for such nonsense.
This isn't really even a blog post.
It's just me talking about a movie I like and then a big fat ad.
I said nothing of importance here.
AH AH AH HA HA HA
bologna
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3 comments:
Just out of curiosity, have you made any money on your Zazzle thingy?
like....20 bucks.
Have you ever seen Howl's Moving Castle? If so, what did you think of it?
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