Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
Mr. Sheldrake’s a busy man. Between all the articles he’s been writing and all those members of the secretarial pool that he’s been... um... interviewing... I’m concerned about the man’s health. I hope he’s keeping up with the vitamin C. For now, here’s another review from the man that several of you called a “plant” the other day for liking ELEKTRA. Who he’s supposed to be a plant for, I’m not exactly sure. His track record speaks for itself. Check this out...
APPLESEED - English Language Version
American Release 2005
Directed by Shinji Aramaki
Produced by Fumihiko Sori
based on manga by Masamune Shirow
Sheldrake here reporting from New York City, the Asia Society at 70th and Park. Tonight the director has called the anime faithful together into one room, one temple, one place of cinematic worship: the theater at the Asia Society. The line outside stretches around the corner and halfway down the block. Many are in attenance, including many Japanese fans who live in New York. I spend some time talking with them in line, about their love for Shirow’s manga, then my friend Max arrives. Max’s dad and I play ball together in the summer, and I called Ed late in the day and said I needed the opinion of a 12-13 year old. Max, a public school kid in New York City with a hell of a throwing arm and as cool as they come, graciously agreed to see the film with me and give his opinion. That opinion: “yeah, it was cool.”
Cool, the man said, and cool the movie is, about as cool as they come. The film is made with new live motion techniques married to anime, and the result is beautiful and powerful and astonishing. It wouldn’t work as well as it does if the story didn’t work: but the story is tightly written comic book post-apocalypse utopian ADVENTURE and the kick-ass action kicks in from moment ONE in the movie. We catch maybe a thirty second glimpse of a gorgeously destroyed nuked out city with rubble that will make you feel all the crap you felt the first time you saw Charlton Heston fall to his knees in POTA. You feel like that, all torn up and haunted and horrified. And then Deunan the girl warrior comes under attack and my-oh-my she does NOT go quietly. This is girl-warrior week here at AICN and Duenen would complete the fantasy battle I have going on in my head between Jenn and Uma. I’m sure you have similar going on.
Then when you think you’re just going to see destroyed landscapes, this majician director draws back another curtain and you’re in a candy apple colored utopia with some of the most breathtaking architecture you’ve ever seen AND THE CHARACTERS (GORGEOUS ANIME WOMEN) DISCUSSING THE DESIGN PHILOSOPHY BEHIND EVERY FUNCTIONAL ELEMENT OF THE SOCIETY. What kind of madness is this??? I need more of it whatever the hell it is.
Oh my gawd Hitomi. You'll know what I mean when you see it.
The plot in short: man, in order to stabilize himself, has populated the world with a population of BIOROIDS, superior humans who can’t reproduce and have to be recharged like GL’s power ring or the go ALL the way down. They’re basically a lot CALMER about EVERYTHING, so they stablize society. Turns out humans still run the military and they DO NOT LIKE BIOROIDS.
Now, there are many twists and turns to this story and you don’t know who you can trust. Deunen the heroine is in this thing up to her neck in a story involving her mother and father. Beware feeling confidence in her friends as revealed in the film; they may be, they may not be, but not everything is as it seems in this utopia and as the story develops there surface several groups vying for power, and the final group trying to seize power have a terrifying and insane motive.
The movie pays off all the way down the line. The music’s great. The art and design are insanely great. And the story is a perfect realization of the manga. This is my favorite movie so far this year. Run your butt to a theater and get tickets and get prepared to sit through this several times. God, I envy every one of you…
…because you haven’t seen it yet.
And afterwards I talked with a fan, the beautiful Hiroe Tsukamoto, exec producer for the movie, and...
...the genius himself...
... THE DIRECTOR SHINJI ARAMAKI..,AND THE INTERVIEW IS ONLINE FOR ALL OF YOU HERE AT AINT IT COOL NEWS!!!
Mr. Sheldrake
New York, New York
The interview’s online? Really? Oh... hell... that probably means I’ve got more stuff to encode. I’m gonna go check my e-mail box.
"Moriarty" out.
