Which Segment was the Best?!
I haven't seen it yet but I'm curious to see how each segment turned out.
"Be it a rock or a grain of sand, in water they sink as the same." Lee Woo-jin (Oldboy)
I just got back from the U.S. premiere in Washington D.C. so here are my thoughts:
Genius Party (Opening): Very, very abstract and trippy, but an engaging treat for the eyes. The last scene in particular is very trippy.
Shanghai Dragon: Awesome. The audience loved it. Very funny, well-animated, and entertaining. There is a bit towards the end that sent everyone howling; you'll know it when you see it.
Deathtic 4: This one stands out due to it being 3D CGI as opposed to hand-drawn, but it works well for this short. The overall style is very Tim Burton or Jhonen Vasquez like. There's some crude humor, but this is also a very funny and engaging short and one of my favorites.
Doorbell: Not good, not bad. The story goes along, there aren't any real twists, and while a good short on its own, nothing about it really stands out.
Limit Cycle: Awful. 10 minutes of random images while a guy rambles about God, the human consciousness, and symmetry. It's totally pretentious and has no real meaning, and was a chore to sit through.
Happy Machine: Also very very abstract and low on plot, but this actually manages to be great. The main baby characters is animated and voiced in a wonderfully charming way, and the creatures and landscapes are wild and inventive. The ending is very ambiguous, but not in a way that annoys you.
Baby Blue: A nice way to end things, as this is the only short that's down-to-earth and realistic. The main characters are nice, but don't go through the hugest amount of character development despite some big events towards the end. Their voice acting is very, very good, and the one-day journey they go on is very entertaining. Watanabe said he made this because he had done nothing but violent or action-y stuff, and he wanted to try something different. He did very well, and his directorial style is still there.
So I only found one short to be truly bad, which is good for an anthology with so many different shorts. See this ASAP, or buy the DVD whenever it comes out.
Thnx, How long was the whole thing?
"Be it a rock or a grain of sand, in water they sink as the same." Lee Woo-jin (Oldboy)
[deleted]
just watched it myself
nice review
why dont you post it under User Comments?
I agree, "Limit Cycle" was the worst and an embarrassing self-projection by Hideki Futamura.
Preaching about "God" and evangelize people doesn't belong here.
Just the same as other religious beliefs or ideologies like Scientology.
You nailed most of these pretty perfectly. I can't add a lot.
Shanghai Dragon was probably my favourite, followed by Baby Blue and Doorbell (the latter of which I liked a bunch more than you did; it was very nice sci-fi creepy stuff).
Happy Machine really disturbed me for some reason. I was just very unsettled and pained during the whole thing. I liked it, but it was hard to watch. Can't explain it.
Where I agree with you most is Limit Cycle. A rambling "essay" which I don't even think I would want to read. It had some interesting ideas, but nothing was explored, everything left in the abstract, and so none of the (potentially intriguing) ideas were of any use. On top of that it was, as you said, just a voice-over with trippy visuals. As interesting as some of the art and commentary were, neither were used to good effect, and the result is a bloody mess.
Everything left in the abstract? But that is the case with every single one of these shorts...
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