Mono no aware

[Reposted, with edits, from my old side-blog. Much of the other content on there has now been moved to my revamped front page]

This post is partly inspired by Bateszi’s observation of how little those of us in the English-speaking world hear of drama- and realistic fiction-style Japanese cinema, and partly because a review for the movie adaptation of Haruki Murakami’s short story Tony Takitani is long overdue. The original story, by the way, is currently available in the Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman compilation of his short stories; another book on my ‘To Review’ pile.

The man of the film’s title is a graphical artist with a solitary life and an unconventional childhood. His mother died when he was born and his often-absent father is a travelling jazz musician; a man “as unsuited to being a father as Tony was to being a son,”. Tony Takitani is skilled and successful professionally but despite an agreeable personality and lucrative career he is something of an introvert. This life of solitude changes when he marries a woman with a passion for clothes and understands the true meaning of loneliness.

Now I’ve finished Clannad ~After Story~, with the exception of Kyou’s episode which is currently in my ‘to do’ folder, I felt I could finally watch the feature film adaptation. This turned out to be a good idea spoilers-wise since the movie covers events from both seasons of the TV show but in retrospect I think it’s a better introduction to the franchise than KyoAni’s effort. I’m not implying it’s the better of the two full stop, but it would probably be more rewarding to sit through the more heavily edited hour and a half version before the longer one; although I daresay the subset of ‘people who have not seen any Clannad before but plan to in the future’ is very small at this point in time.

The feature-length film covers the same ground as its younger counterpart but inevitably leaves out the side-stories and, interestingly, wraps it up with an alternative ending. Most noticably the art style and direction are different thanks to a Toei production crew, although the only change in terms of casting is that of Tomoya’s VA (i.e. Kenji Nojima as opposed to Yuuichi Nakamura). The result is different for sure, but I’d hate to think a KyoAni bias would stop you giving it a fair chance.

First: my expansion of the point I raised with Gaguri, initially touched on during my second Kara no Kyoukai post. It stems from the time when I became an anime fan proper which, to get what follows after the jump into perspective, happened at a relatively late age when I was already a general film/TV nerd. Second: to clarify on my stance on this issue I dropped English language and literature in favour of a more science-orientated timetable post-GCSE, in the hope that it would improve my employment prospects. Long story short, it didn’t, which meant I abandoned my favourite subject to make a gamble that I regret to this day. Just so you know I’m not trying to be clever here, because I couldn’t even if I wanted to.

Just for the record I stole this pic from a blog called, appropriately enough, Serious Fucking Business, which is well worth a visit

So then, I’m an academic without being an intellectual, watching anime as a layman but one who likes a decent movie in addition to the typical box office blockbuster. I hope I’m not insulting your intelligence here in pointing out that the term ‘anime’ is merely an umbrella term for a set of artistic techniques (animation) and the geography (Japanese in origin); except my own set of standards and definitions need something a bit more specific than this to differentiate a certain type of anime from the rest. No, I don’t have higher education qualifications in this area, but I still want to talk taxonomy. Please hear me out, ‘kay?

Or, “What is the function of cinema as an entertainment medium and expressive art form?” Or, more simply, “What the hell was that?”

I’m a little reluctant to endorse the marketing strategy of some distributors of Japanese cinema titles, beyond the fact that they bring the said titles to would-be viewers’ attention. Y’see, I don’t want originality and thoughtful film-making to be mistaken for some “Hey, look at those crazy Japanese people and their crazy movies!” sales pitch. The Happiness of the Katakuris was an artistically innovative demonstration of the importance of family (I’m not kidding) and if you watch Battle Royale purely for the shock value of sixteen-year olds killing each other, you’re missing the point of the exercise by a mile. I’m more interested in seeing what their film industry as a whole has to offer beyond this cultural stereotyping, but I digress.

Gen Sekiguchi is probably better-known as the director of the imaginative and offbeat Supercar music videos but here he makes his feature-length debut with some well-known names in Japanese media…along with a special appearance by British footballer-turned-actor Vinnie Jones. This movie is unlike any other I’ve seen and as such has ‘cult hit’ written all over it but my question to Survive Style 5+ is: What is your function?

Being the ignorant pleb that I am I haven’t actually seen any of the films that the multi-talented cult figure Takeshi Kitano has directed; all I know is that his films frequently involve crime thriller-type themes, striking instances of humour and a distinctive and individual style. As a first experience of Kitano the director then, Dolls is a surprising one because it’s a very experimental piece that defies mainsteam classification. It takes a very unusual approach to storytelling in comparison to those I’m used to: the stories may come across as clichéd at first glance but in terms of execution a conventional romance it certainly isn’t.

The allusions to bunraku puppet theatre were lost on me since I know nothing about the medium but I don’t think it’s necessary to be familiar with the details to appreciate the movie as a whole. The film relies heavily on symbolism and metaphor, which extends from the puppets that make the ‘dolls’ of the title to most of the movie overall. It is very stylised so the narrative shouldn’t be taken literally and at face value; those who prefer their drama more realistic might find it odd that the events portrayed are shown like some sort of stage play. It could also be argued that the characters are indeed like emotionless puppets playing out their roles but that I think is missing the point.