Gungrave - episode 14
Jul. 24th, 2005 01:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
timepiececlock::smack dab in the middle of episode 14::
I'm cracking up. I'm seriously laughing out loud as I watch this.
It's fucking awesome. Harry and Brandon are dancing around each other's words and body language like a tango.
I stopped liking most of these characters as people a while ago, Brandon included, but I can't say that this rising tension and build toward conflict isn't very, very enjoyable. From a plot perspective. Who's gonna blink first?
And that SONG as they're driving along... Dude, am I supposed to be laughing? Am I supposed to find this as insanely funny and ironic as I do? Because I do find it funny. It's just too funny for words, the facades they're both putting up.
--
I spent most of this episode laughing. I know, I know, that's horrible of me! But right up until the elevator ride I was cracking up. You can tell in my episode 14 response a few posts back.
I was laughing because it was like they were both thinking "Is he going to turn and shoot me any second now? ....hhhhnn....how about now.....hnnnn...Hey, let's go reminisce about clouds!"
Harry's smiling and chatting while thinking "If I stopped talking about our childhood and told him about my misuse of company funds, would he shoot me right now right here?"
And Brandon's thinking "Harry's getting really tense. He's acting like a cornered pit bull...is he going to go for his gun? If he draws his gun I'll have to draw mine too."
The conversation dies and a tense moment drags on. Both narrow their eyes. Moment drags on more.
Harry: Hey, wanna go joyriding in my car and check out girls?
Brandon: Sure.
They don't talk about their many personal problems, instead they go joyriding.
Harry: Remember how we were best friends as kids and suffered horrible mistreatment but loved life anyway with that carefree happy way that children do?
Harry thinking: You totally wouldn't shoot me. You're my bitchboy.
Brandon: Yes.
Brandon thinking: Don't go doing' anything that would have to make me shoot your sumbitch ass Harry.
Harry: *smiles fakely* Want to look at the blue clouds and pretend we aren't both murdering gangsters?
Brandon: *smiles fakely* Sure.
Harry thinking: You would shoot me, wouldn't you, you prick?
Brandon thinking: I haven't decided yet. Gimme a minute.
Anyway, it had me laughing. Rolling on the couch laughing.
----
End of episode 14
Okay, uh... a little less funny now. But right up to the elevator ride it was freakin' hilarious, you gotta admit. The irony! [JohnStewartvoice] Oh, irony. Dear, dear irony...why must you be so... ironic? [/end JohnStewartvoice]
Of course, the end, where I was just kind of numb and sad and shocked. I knew it would happen (the tension was so well-built into the episode you could practically hear it singing in your ears by the time they go to the elevator), but I was shocked by the violence of his death. So very brutal. Harry didn't have to be brutal... but he was.
You know, cosmically Brandon deserved it because we'd already seen him kill dozens of other people the exact same way. And it's inevitable that it would happen to him too. But it was still more violent than I was expecting. No single shot in the back or being pushed off a roof... it was 4-6 shots to the chest and a shot through the freakin' eyeball.
Now if I were the anime producer and it were me calling the shots, I'd drop the first episode and stop after this episode, label the whole a 13-ep half-season and leave it at that. Zombie army subplot? Unnecessary. The mafia tragedy will do just fine on its own.
Speaking of anime mafia tragedies... I think this ending is way, way more tragic than the Spike/Vicious/Julia mafia tragic ending. For one thing, we know a lot more about the people involved... but mostly because this was just... more tragic. Just as inevitable, but ultimately more tragic in its execution. More tragic because Brandon had already chosen to spare Harry, but Harry decided not to take the risk and killed him anyway.
Also? The directing for this confrontation was much, much better than the confrontation with Vicious at the end of CB, or even Battle of Fallen Angels. Much more... classically cinematic in style and presentation. Much better use of camera angles, off-screen sounds (Brandon quietly crying while wrestling with his loyalties), and visual arrangement with the framing and mise en scene. The use of light and shadow contrasts, the symbolism of the shadow passing back and forth over the gun between them... it's positively arty. That I appreciate. The film/art/lit geek in me appreciates it.
The elevator window as a framing object was also a particularly nice visual device for the entire scene, from the ride through the argument and into Harry's final shot and Brandon's fall. Can't say the fall didn't remind me a bit of Ballad of Fallen Angels... but then, I've seen a LOT of CB music videos and watched that clip way, way more than normal viewers would.
This whole flashback sequence of the show, these 13 episodes (which ought to be their own damn series, I think) overall had a very sophisticated feel to them. It was well-plotted, well-developed, and almost poetic in how it played out.
I know the rest of the series is going to be quite different, and I prepared for that, but I'm sorry to see this part end. Even though I don't think I'd want to know any of these people in real life, their fucked up little world has been fascinating as it tumbles down around their ears.
I'm glad I theorized correctly about the role-reversal these two would have: that Brandon, who originally wanted nothing from Millenion, would come to embrace the organization in its true spirite, while Harry always kept himself apart from it with one hand while swearing loyalty with the other.
Though now I want a TARDIS of my own so I can jump back in time and tell those street punk kids to give it up, to let Harry leave town and let Brandon live quietly doing something simple for a living and marry Maria at a young age. Though Brandon was the harsher, more potent fighter, I think he would have been able to let go of that "heat" inside him a lot easier than Harry would have been able to let go of the ambition inside him.
I do wonder how Bunji's going to take all this. He's always been more loyal to Brandon than to Harry. But I suppose Harry'll make up some lie, or frame it on someone else and tell Bunji some other guy did his best friend in. It was obvious Harry didn't even tell his staff that he questioned Brandon's loyalty... it all happened quite quickly. Poor Bunji! Who's he gonna bottom for now, I ask you?
..Okay, just kidding. I don't really ship them as a couple. But this whole series is laden with slashy undertones, some between the lines and some right in your face.
I'm cracking up. I'm seriously laughing out loud as I watch this.
It's fucking awesome. Harry and Brandon are dancing around each other's words and body language like a tango.
I stopped liking most of these characters as people a while ago, Brandon included, but I can't say that this rising tension and build toward conflict isn't very, very enjoyable. From a plot perspective. Who's gonna blink first?
And that SONG as they're driving along... Dude, am I supposed to be laughing? Am I supposed to find this as insanely funny and ironic as I do? Because I do find it funny. It's just too funny for words, the facades they're both putting up.
--
I spent most of this episode laughing. I know, I know, that's horrible of me! But right up until the elevator ride I was cracking up. You can tell in my episode 14 response a few posts back.
I was laughing because it was like they were both thinking "Is he going to turn and shoot me any second now? ....hhhhnn....how about now.....hnnnn...Hey, let's go reminisce about clouds!"
Harry's smiling and chatting while thinking "If I stopped talking about our childhood and told him about my misuse of company funds, would he shoot me right now right here?"
And Brandon's thinking "Harry's getting really tense. He's acting like a cornered pit bull...is he going to go for his gun? If he draws his gun I'll have to draw mine too."
The conversation dies and a tense moment drags on. Both narrow their eyes. Moment drags on more.
Harry: Hey, wanna go joyriding in my car and check out girls?
Brandon: Sure.
They don't talk about their many personal problems, instead they go joyriding.
Harry: Remember how we were best friends as kids and suffered horrible mistreatment but loved life anyway with that carefree happy way that children do?
Harry thinking: You totally wouldn't shoot me. You're my bitchboy.
Brandon: Yes.
Brandon thinking: Don't go doing' anything that would have to make me shoot your sumbitch ass Harry.
Harry: *smiles fakely* Want to look at the blue clouds and pretend we aren't both murdering gangsters?
Brandon: *smiles fakely* Sure.
Harry thinking: You would shoot me, wouldn't you, you prick?
Brandon thinking: I haven't decided yet. Gimme a minute.
Anyway, it had me laughing. Rolling on the couch laughing.
----
End of episode 14
Okay, uh... a little less funny now. But right up to the elevator ride it was freakin' hilarious, you gotta admit. The irony! [JohnStewartvoice] Oh, irony. Dear, dear irony...why must you be so... ironic? [/end JohnStewartvoice]
Of course, the end, where I was just kind of numb and sad and shocked. I knew it would happen (the tension was so well-built into the episode you could practically hear it singing in your ears by the time they go to the elevator), but I was shocked by the violence of his death. So very brutal. Harry didn't have to be brutal... but he was.
You know, cosmically Brandon deserved it because we'd already seen him kill dozens of other people the exact same way. And it's inevitable that it would happen to him too. But it was still more violent than I was expecting. No single shot in the back or being pushed off a roof... it was 4-6 shots to the chest and a shot through the freakin' eyeball.
Now if I were the anime producer and it were me calling the shots, I'd drop the first episode and stop after this episode, label the whole a 13-ep half-season and leave it at that. Zombie army subplot? Unnecessary. The mafia tragedy will do just fine on its own.
Speaking of anime mafia tragedies... I think this ending is way, way more tragic than the Spike/Vicious/Julia mafia tragic ending. For one thing, we know a lot more about the people involved... but mostly because this was just... more tragic. Just as inevitable, but ultimately more tragic in its execution. More tragic because Brandon had already chosen to spare Harry, but Harry decided not to take the risk and killed him anyway.
Also? The directing for this confrontation was much, much better than the confrontation with Vicious at the end of CB, or even Battle of Fallen Angels. Much more... classically cinematic in style and presentation. Much better use of camera angles, off-screen sounds (Brandon quietly crying while wrestling with his loyalties), and visual arrangement with the framing and mise en scene. The use of light and shadow contrasts, the symbolism of the shadow passing back and forth over the gun between them... it's positively arty. That I appreciate. The film/art/lit geek in me appreciates it.
The elevator window as a framing object was also a particularly nice visual device for the entire scene, from the ride through the argument and into Harry's final shot and Brandon's fall. Can't say the fall didn't remind me a bit of Ballad of Fallen Angels... but then, I've seen a LOT of CB music videos and watched that clip way, way more than normal viewers would.
This whole flashback sequence of the show, these 13 episodes (which ought to be their own damn series, I think) overall had a very sophisticated feel to them. It was well-plotted, well-developed, and almost poetic in how it played out.
I know the rest of the series is going to be quite different, and I prepared for that, but I'm sorry to see this part end. Even though I don't think I'd want to know any of these people in real life, their fucked up little world has been fascinating as it tumbles down around their ears.
I'm glad I theorized correctly about the role-reversal these two would have: that Brandon, who originally wanted nothing from Millenion, would come to embrace the organization in its true spirite, while Harry always kept himself apart from it with one hand while swearing loyalty with the other.
Though now I want a TARDIS of my own so I can jump back in time and tell those street punk kids to give it up, to let Harry leave town and let Brandon live quietly doing something simple for a living and marry Maria at a young age. Though Brandon was the harsher, more potent fighter, I think he would have been able to let go of that "heat" inside him a lot easier than Harry would have been able to let go of the ambition inside him.
I do wonder how Bunji's going to take all this. He's always been more loyal to Brandon than to Harry. But I suppose Harry'll make up some lie, or frame it on someone else and tell Bunji some other guy did his best friend in. It was obvious Harry didn't even tell his staff that he questioned Brandon's loyalty... it all happened quite quickly. Poor Bunji! Who's he gonna bottom for now, I ask you?
..Okay, just kidding. I don't really ship them as a couple. But this whole series is laden with slashy undertones, some between the lines and some right in your face.
