Comments on: A feelgood hit for the summer

By: Martin

Martin — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 13:32:33 +0000

@chaostangent: yeah, it was part of the LEeds Film Festival…there’s a children’s version next month, which probably won’t be of any interest to you but there will be a screening of The Sky Crawlers. I’m not sure if I was overthinking Summer Wars too, but I think it’s one that you can enjoy whether you choose to mull over what it’s trying to say or not.

@ghostlightning: absolutely. I’m sure it does have some important messages to convey but the way it’s done is in a subtle and less forceful way than it could have done. It’s a good balance between the extremes mindless entertainment and opinionated preaching.

@gaguri: I’d love to learn how to play hanafuda. It reminded me of christmases and holidays back home where the whole family would play card and board games. Even to this day my grandad is invincible at Scrabble…my own word power is ineffective against him!

By: gaguri

gaguri — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 11:56:33 +0000

“The take-home messages are more complex yet simple at the same time. It shamelessly celebrates a way of life that many domestic audiences will see as escapism rather than realism, and portraying our love for electronic gadgetry as both a cause and solution for a lot of life’s problems. Fundamentally things are turned around by humans embracing the new, but simultaneously maintaining the age-old bonds that hold families and the big ‘family’ that is society as a whole together. While it lacks the personal focus of Tokikake and the longer moments of character study that accompany it, Summer Wars aims for bold and bright with warmth and relevance.”

Oh I love this paragraph.

On a semi-related note, I wonder if there’s an english online site where people can play Hanafuda with each other. Bit addictive game though.

By: ghostlightning

ghostlightning — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 14:59:35 +0000

Good job on such a comprehensive piece. I don’t think it’s sending a specific message, but rather a “look here!”

This simple (but loud) call, is more effective I think, as it results in thoughtful reflection as you did here. It makes us look at ourselves and ask questions, at least that’s my experience of it — as opposed to telling me what to think.

By: chaostangent

chaostangent — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 14:32:37 +0000

You’ve touched on a lot of areas that, in retrospect, I wished I’d picked up on in my review. At the time I wondered whether I was overthinking the film in trying to scry hidden meanings – especially from the “Love Machine” name. I eventually came to the assumption that the film went for unbridled emotion over thoughtful introspection.

“same picturesque, nostalgia-inducing charms have overspilled into his work too”

The opening journey of Kenji and Natsuki was wonderful, I definitely felt that nostalgia for summer, whether or not that was coloured by Shinkai’s works I’m not sure.

I was also completely unaware of anime being shown at the Leeds film festival, being only a stones throw away from me I’m annoyed I didn’t get to see this on the big screen. There does seem to be more and more anime being shown in cinemas though so hopefully this they’ll be more at future events.