INTERMISSION
After a week of delving into my deep dark closet, I need time to get myself together as I craft DRIVE part 4. So, here's an installment of Thought bytes to tide you over.
THOUGHT BYTES FOR 2005
Fantasy Fetish
I had to write about this; last week, while surfing the net, I stopped by sundevildvd.com to see if they had any new anime. Sundevil is a cool place to get your Japanese anime for people who are true fans of the genre and don't want to pay the inflated prices of the American market. Their dvd's are imports, straight from Japan, with American subtitles and are damn good. And the prices are great. $11.50 for a movie and $30 for an entire OAV series. I know what you're thinking, because I thought the same thing, but they're legit. The production value is too high for black-market and the quality is too clean.
So, I'm shooting over and what do I see when the home page downloads? They have Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. SquareEnix's second full CGI movie sequels their first game on the Playstation ten years ago. I remember buying Final Fantasy VII for my wife as a Christmas present. She wasn't a video game geek, and I'd gotten out of it after Nintendo lost its thrill. But, when we saw the commercials for FF, we were both blown away by the graphics. Video games had come a long way since the first Legend of Zelda or Street Fighter on the Super Nintendo. She wanted it so badly that I got it for her. Our first system together, our first video game, and what a pain in the ass it was. She played it all the time... ALL the time. We had so many fights;
it would have been funny to see the divorce papers stating a video game as the reason for the split. While I loved looking at the game, I couldn't play it. It was too slow for me. Nothing like the third-person action games I became hooked on. But it was gorgeous. I still sit around as JM plays, just looking at graphics.
We both loved Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, but we understood why it failed. While it had a tight story and incredible CGI, it was too slow for American audiences. Asking American audiences to watch a computer-generated character for over an hour and emotionally invest in them is not an easy task. While true fans of the franchise were disappointed because there was no direct link to the games, the truly obsessed geeks, like my wife, understood the connection and loved it. I loved it just for the story, art, and tech. Americans can be so picky, like with their music, they can be so obsessed with what they like, they close themselves off to anything new. But, there are a few like myself who love a medium so much; they're open to anything. I love movies. I love stories. I love computer tech and video
games. So, I liked it.
When we saw SquareEnix was moving forward with another movie, and we saw the previews, we were blown away and have looked for it ever since. Advent Children is what Spirits Within should have been for an American release. It's breathtaking, epic, kinetic, and just plain jaw dropping. If this is the future of animation, get rid of the talking and dancing animals and make way for some incredible shit!
Now, I won't dare and try to explain the whole story because I barely have a grasp myself. It's a sequel to the game, so you have to have played it, but there is a cool beginning that clue you into the story, so you're not missing everything. But, like comic crossovers, you're better off knowing the entire story. Luckily, I have a #1 source that filled me in on what the whole deal was. It all begins in the game, Final Fantasy VII, where a corporation was draining the earth's energy for power (here's one of those "oh, so subtle" links Sprits Within had to the games that few picked up on). The corporation, called Shin-Ra, had used alien tech to create their own soldiers to protect their interests. This tech came from an alien dubbed Jehovah who landed on earth (another subtle link to Spirits Within) and it's believed it's mission was to destroy the planet, but something went wrong and it crashed. Shin-Ra used cells from Jehovah to enhance humans and genetically engineer beings they called "Soldiers". The hero and villain are two of these soldiers.
The villain, Sephra, genetically engineered using Jehovah's cells, claimed to hear the voice of Jehovah calling him to destroy the planet. The hero, Cloud, a Jehovah enhanced human, was unaffected until Sephra, his mentor, destroyed his village, putting Cloud on the path to destroying the villain. And, as these things go, along the way he meets a bunch of people, members of a resistance group against Shin-ra, who join his quest. At the end, Cloud's ladylove, a healer, sacrifices herself (And that's three, people - How could people NOT see the connection between the game and movie?) to save the earth and Cloud destroys Sephra in a blaze of glory.
Advent Children picks up two years later, Shin-ra is destroyed and Cloud still mourns the death of his woman. A disease infects children, including Cloud, and three next generation soldiers are now looking for the remains of Jehovah, who they call "Mother". Somehow the infected children play a part in their plans. The reason the story is still sketchy to me; despite seeing the movie FIVE TIMES is because the visuals are so strong, you can't look away to read the subtitles. SquareEnix are the masters of making realistic CGI characters that move, breathe, and feel more human than the clones we see walking the streets everyday. The designs are phenomenal on every level from tech to clothing. The fight choreography looks like Woo Ping did it.
It's as kinetic and graceful as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, with the collateral damage of Dragon Ball Z.
At its core, it's an Epilogue and a bridge between Fantasies 7 and 8. What that means, in relation to Japanese anime, is it's an "encore" a final bow for the fans. It's nothing new; they've been doing this since the 80's. With Macross, they did Flashback, a music video retrospective of the movie and series that ended with twenty
minutes of new footage showing what happens to Minmei, Rick, and Lisa after the series, taking off on the new ship Victory Road. In Mospeda (that's Robotech Gen. 3 for those not in the know), it was Love, Live, Alive, and another collection of music videos that end with Lancer reunited with his friends for one night before leaving them again. Advent Children is no different and follows the same formula. By the end, every character has been re-visited and Cloud is reunited with his companions, alive and dead. I've always liked that about Japanese anime, they really give a damn about the fans. Sure, it's about money, but it's not ALL about money. They love their fans and they treat them right. Sometimes, Japanese studios will even take an OAV and do a special presentation, a 0 episode, on television for the
fans. Here, the pushers couldn't give a damn about us. They just milk us for everything we're worth. Oh, sure, I'm sure Japan does the same. But they kiss us while they fuck us. American comics and animation just rapes us dry, and they won't even wear a fucking condemn.
But, back to Advent Children...
I won't say this movie is better than Batman Begins, but damn close to it. Buy this movie at all costs; it's well worth the money. The whole thing has a great feel to it, especially the emotional element within and outside the story. That feeling of gratitude and love for the material; a final bow to the fans who love this one particular game and its characters. It makes me wish I did play the game. Better still, that I was in Japan fore the release, surrounded by friends and strangers who loved Final Fantasy VII as much as I do. But I don't, I just love this amazing
movie.
Lessons in Life and Death
Another purchase I made from Sundevil was the Japanese cult classic, Battle Royal. Based on the novel later turned into a manga, Battle Royal is about a Japan where the adults become fed up with juvenile delinquency. They pass the B&R Act, also known as Battle Royal. Every year, a class is selected in a National lottery to participate in an all or nothing fatal contest. The students are kidnapped and taken to a deserted island where they fight and kill one another until only one remains. They have three days; if there's no winner they all die via remote collars that explode when activated by the military.
This was a thrill to watch, and I'm not just writing that because I'm one sick puppy. I've wanted to see this since the manga hit the states. I haven't read the manga, but the fandom got me curious and I can see why it's so popular. It's Running Man meets Lord of the Flies, but it works. They take all the school crap: the insecure fat boy, the sexpot school slut, the nerd boys and loners in-between and give them weapons and three days to kill each other or die. Oh, and that was one of the cool catches, the weapons were randomly picked and distributed. And the term weapon is a general one. It could be a gun or a trashcan lid. One student's "weapon" was a GPS handheld, allowing him to track any student on the island. That was an
entirely new level of intensity, students killing each other for bigger and better weapons.
Some of the coolest scenes dealt with factions of the student class set against one another. The fat boy who you knew was an outsider was the first to start killing with his crossbow. Then, you had those who took to it all too quickly, like the sexpot who used her ways to get close and slice open another girl's neck. But, the point of everything hits home when one boy spends over half the movie looking for one girl, only for her to shoot him dead. With his last breath, he tells her how he's loved her from afar and wanted to save her. Leaving the girl crying over his dead body, screaming how he never talked to her, how was she to know he loved her, and what was she to do now, knowing how he felt and left alone in what was her last
twenty-four hours of life.
The movie is full of dark comedic moments, the best being a training video that plays like a Japanese game show tutorial. And, if none of that sells it, then maybe this will: Takeshi "Beat" Kitano as the Director who picks the class for this year's game. He was a riot and responsible for most of the dark comedy in the film. There's even a body count after every killing scene, so you never have to wonder how many are
left of the forty students who started.
This is a must see if you can find it. They made a sequel, but I'd hate to see it because it could crap all over the first one.
Best.
JPG.
THOUGHT BYTES FOR 2005
Fantasy Fetish
I had to write about this; last week, while surfing the net, I stopped by sundevildvd.com to see if they had any new anime. Sundevil is a cool place to get your Japanese anime for people who are true fans of the genre and don't want to pay the inflated prices of the American market. Their dvd's are imports, straight from Japan, with American subtitles and are damn good. And the prices are great. $11.50 for a movie and $30 for an entire OAV series. I know what you're thinking, because I thought the same thing, but they're legit. The production value is too high for black-market and the quality is too clean.
So, I'm shooting over and what do I see when the home page downloads? They have Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. SquareEnix's second full CGI movie sequels their first game on the Playstation ten years ago. I remember buying Final Fantasy VII for my wife as a Christmas present. She wasn't a video game geek, and I'd gotten out of it after Nintendo lost its thrill. But, when we saw the commercials for FF, we were both blown away by the graphics. Video games had come a long way since the first Legend of Zelda or Street Fighter on the Super Nintendo. She wanted it so badly that I got it for her. Our first system together, our first video game, and what a pain in the ass it was. She played it all the time... ALL the time. We had so many fights;
it would have been funny to see the divorce papers stating a video game as the reason for the split. While I loved looking at the game, I couldn't play it. It was too slow for me. Nothing like the third-person action games I became hooked on. But it was gorgeous. I still sit around as JM plays, just looking at graphics.
We both loved Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, but we understood why it failed. While it had a tight story and incredible CGI, it was too slow for American audiences. Asking American audiences to watch a computer-generated character for over an hour and emotionally invest in them is not an easy task. While true fans of the franchise were disappointed because there was no direct link to the games, the truly obsessed geeks, like my wife, understood the connection and loved it. I loved it just for the story, art, and tech. Americans can be so picky, like with their music, they can be so obsessed with what they like, they close themselves off to anything new. But, there are a few like myself who love a medium so much; they're open to anything. I love movies. I love stories. I love computer tech and video
games. So, I liked it.
When we saw SquareEnix was moving forward with another movie, and we saw the previews, we were blown away and have looked for it ever since. Advent Children is what Spirits Within should have been for an American release. It's breathtaking, epic, kinetic, and just plain jaw dropping. If this is the future of animation, get rid of the talking and dancing animals and make way for some incredible shit!
Now, I won't dare and try to explain the whole story because I barely have a grasp myself. It's a sequel to the game, so you have to have played it, but there is a cool beginning that clue you into the story, so you're not missing everything. But, like comic crossovers, you're better off knowing the entire story. Luckily, I have a #1 source that filled me in on what the whole deal was. It all begins in the game, Final Fantasy VII, where a corporation was draining the earth's energy for power (here's one of those "oh, so subtle" links Sprits Within had to the games that few picked up on). The corporation, called Shin-Ra, had used alien tech to create their own soldiers to protect their interests. This tech came from an alien dubbed Jehovah who landed on earth (another subtle link to Spirits Within) and it's believed it's mission was to destroy the planet, but something went wrong and it crashed. Shin-Ra used cells from Jehovah to enhance humans and genetically engineer beings they called "Soldiers". The hero and villain are two of these soldiers.
The villain, Sephra, genetically engineered using Jehovah's cells, claimed to hear the voice of Jehovah calling him to destroy the planet. The hero, Cloud, a Jehovah enhanced human, was unaffected until Sephra, his mentor, destroyed his village, putting Cloud on the path to destroying the villain. And, as these things go, along the way he meets a bunch of people, members of a resistance group against Shin-ra, who join his quest. At the end, Cloud's ladylove, a healer, sacrifices herself (And that's three, people - How could people NOT see the connection between the game and movie?) to save the earth and Cloud destroys Sephra in a blaze of glory.
Advent Children picks up two years later, Shin-ra is destroyed and Cloud still mourns the death of his woman. A disease infects children, including Cloud, and three next generation soldiers are now looking for the remains of Jehovah, who they call "Mother". Somehow the infected children play a part in their plans. The reason the story is still sketchy to me; despite seeing the movie FIVE TIMES is because the visuals are so strong, you can't look away to read the subtitles. SquareEnix are the masters of making realistic CGI characters that move, breathe, and feel more human than the clones we see walking the streets everyday. The designs are phenomenal on every level from tech to clothing. The fight choreography looks like Woo Ping did it.
It's as kinetic and graceful as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, with the collateral damage of Dragon Ball Z.
At its core, it's an Epilogue and a bridge between Fantasies 7 and 8. What that means, in relation to Japanese anime, is it's an "encore" a final bow for the fans. It's nothing new; they've been doing this since the 80's. With Macross, they did Flashback, a music video retrospective of the movie and series that ended with twenty
minutes of new footage showing what happens to Minmei, Rick, and Lisa after the series, taking off on the new ship Victory Road. In Mospeda (that's Robotech Gen. 3 for those not in the know), it was Love, Live, Alive, and another collection of music videos that end with Lancer reunited with his friends for one night before leaving them again. Advent Children is no different and follows the same formula. By the end, every character has been re-visited and Cloud is reunited with his companions, alive and dead. I've always liked that about Japanese anime, they really give a damn about the fans. Sure, it's about money, but it's not ALL about money. They love their fans and they treat them right. Sometimes, Japanese studios will even take an OAV and do a special presentation, a 0 episode, on television for the
fans. Here, the pushers couldn't give a damn about us. They just milk us for everything we're worth. Oh, sure, I'm sure Japan does the same. But they kiss us while they fuck us. American comics and animation just rapes us dry, and they won't even wear a fucking condemn.
But, back to Advent Children...
I won't say this movie is better than Batman Begins, but damn close to it. Buy this movie at all costs; it's well worth the money. The whole thing has a great feel to it, especially the emotional element within and outside the story. That feeling of gratitude and love for the material; a final bow to the fans who love this one particular game and its characters. It makes me wish I did play the game. Better still, that I was in Japan fore the release, surrounded by friends and strangers who loved Final Fantasy VII as much as I do. But I don't, I just love this amazing
movie.
Lessons in Life and Death
Another purchase I made from Sundevil was the Japanese cult classic, Battle Royal. Based on the novel later turned into a manga, Battle Royal is about a Japan where the adults become fed up with juvenile delinquency. They pass the B&R Act, also known as Battle Royal. Every year, a class is selected in a National lottery to participate in an all or nothing fatal contest. The students are kidnapped and taken to a deserted island where they fight and kill one another until only one remains. They have three days; if there's no winner they all die via remote collars that explode when activated by the military.
This was a thrill to watch, and I'm not just writing that because I'm one sick puppy. I've wanted to see this since the manga hit the states. I haven't read the manga, but the fandom got me curious and I can see why it's so popular. It's Running Man meets Lord of the Flies, but it works. They take all the school crap: the insecure fat boy, the sexpot school slut, the nerd boys and loners in-between and give them weapons and three days to kill each other or die. Oh, and that was one of the cool catches, the weapons were randomly picked and distributed. And the term weapon is a general one. It could be a gun or a trashcan lid. One student's "weapon" was a GPS handheld, allowing him to track any student on the island. That was an
entirely new level of intensity, students killing each other for bigger and better weapons.
Some of the coolest scenes dealt with factions of the student class set against one another. The fat boy who you knew was an outsider was the first to start killing with his crossbow. Then, you had those who took to it all too quickly, like the sexpot who used her ways to get close and slice open another girl's neck. But, the point of everything hits home when one boy spends over half the movie looking for one girl, only for her to shoot him dead. With his last breath, he tells her how he's loved her from afar and wanted to save her. Leaving the girl crying over his dead body, screaming how he never talked to her, how was she to know he loved her, and what was she to do now, knowing how he felt and left alone in what was her last
twenty-four hours of life.
The movie is full of dark comedic moments, the best being a training video that plays like a Japanese game show tutorial. And, if none of that sells it, then maybe this will: Takeshi "Beat" Kitano as the Director who picks the class for this year's game. He was a riot and responsible for most of the dark comedy in the film. There's even a body count after every killing scene, so you never have to wonder how many are
left of the forty students who started.
This is a must see if you can find it. They made a sequel, but I'd hate to see it because it could crap all over the first one.
Best.
JPG.
posted by QABBAL at 7:32 AM
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