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danield10101
Reviews
Blue Giant (2023)
Wonderful jazz score on ok story
This is a film to see for the music.
The film is scored by the amazing jazz pianist and composer Hiromi Uehara, and every musical sequence is wonderful. The animation is also striking, from hyper-realistic depictions of Tokyo to imaginative representations of the musicians' inner worlds as they explore the space of chords and sequences of jazz improvisation.
On the other hand, the story is trite and predictable, and the characters are absurdly histrionic (as is typical in conventional animé). It also seems more a bit inappropriate that there's only one significant female character in a film so dependent on the musical ability of a woman performer and composer.
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (2019)
Everything but harnessing the wind...
OK, I'm not a typical viewer -- but as a scientist and engineer, I wanted to see the story of a boy figuring out how to make a working electrical system from scrap. But every time we see William start to think about anything involving engineering, we immediately jump to some other place in the story. One has the impression that whoever wrote the script hated science class and doesn't ever want to think about how anything works. It's fine to tell the story of the drought and its impact on the town, but the two stories should run in parallel, with us learning with William as he figures out how to make a working wind-driven pump. In (film making) technical terms, the first act lasts almost the whole movie -- we spend the whole time setting up the problem and the solution then appears by magic. Disappointing.
West Side Story (2021)
a huge improvement over the 1961 version
A wonderful performance by Rita Moreno anchors this film, which does a much better job of portraying realistic people while still preserving some of the stage production feel. This version also conveys the impermanence of the world the characters live in and thus explains (without excusing) their behavior.
OK, there is a scene where the school band is playing, and the pianist is pounding the keys but the music has no piano part audible! But only a (bad) pianist would notice this. Excellent film, see it in a theater when you can.
Yoru wa mijikashi aruke yo otome (2017)
Unpredictable, Imaginative, and Lots of Fun
I saw this film at the Animation is Film festival in LA, on a huge screen in a packed theater fairly late at night -- probably the best way to see it. The story opens on a wedding, though the bride and groom play only an incidental role in the remainder. The heroine spends an incredibly long and eventful night at first drinking everyone under the table, then searching for a long-lost book, accidentally acting in a guerrilla play, and finally passing out remedies to a town overwhelmed by the same nasty cold. Various subplots proceed simultaneously, the most important of which is the pursuit of our heroine by Senpai, a smart but insecure fellow who is infatuated with her. None of this is in the least constrained by reality, and all of it is funny and sometimes touching. Catch it in a theater if you can.
(Warning: if you have a family history of alcoholism or have had problems with it yourself, you might want to skip this film! It unashamedly glorifies consumption of lots of alcoholic beverages while happily ignoring the real-world consequences.)
Hoshi wo katta hi (2006)
just a note that this film is at the museum now (September/October 2015)
This short film is just what the other reviewers have said: gorgeous, touching, memorable, all in too few minutes. I don't speak or read Japanese, so sometimes I had to guess about what was happening -- didn't matter. Still amazing. The museum is very strict in allowing each guest to see the film only once, so pay attention when you get the chance! Just adding to note that we saw the film on 19 September 2015 -- it's back and (if it's practical for you) worth a trip to Mitaka! But get your tickets in advance, as noted elsewhere. The sound track is available in the Museum store -- I'm listening as a write the review. Piano and strings with a bit of synthesizer, all lovely even if not by Mr. Hisaishi.