timepiececlock

If Anakin Skywalker's decent into evil had been half as interesting as this, I would have worshiped George Lucas forever. It's scary the ways you could compare this movie to Revenge of the Sith, and this one would totally kick its ass.

It seems to be anime film weekend for me. Yesterday it was Millenium Actress, today it's Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade. And whew! What an interesting movie that was. Reminded me strangely of The Devil's Own, but with in-your-face metaphor and much more artsy vibe.

Non-spoilery commentary:

Overall, a very good film. Totally different from Millenium Actress, so I'm glad I didn't watch them both in the same day. Where MA was fairly swiftly paced, Jin-Roh was often slow, smoothly making it's way along and dropping a trail of breadcrumbs for you to follow.

Summary: Jin-Roh is about an AU modern Japan that resembles Israel with it's constant terrorist attacks and State Of Emergency At All Times urban life. Constant rioting, constant fear. And although tensions between local police forces and the terrorist underground are high, there's also quite a bit of tension within the bureaucracy and agents of the various police and peacekeeping forces within the capital city. The whole situation is a powderkeg. In the midst of all this, Fuse, a member of a special forces unit, freezes under pressure and witnesses a suicide bombing by a young teenage girl that leaves him emotionally unstable and starts a chain of events with personal, political, and potentially lethal ramifications.

I don't know if I *liked* this movie, per se. Just like I wasn't sure if I liked The Devil's Own or Black Hawk Down. Movies like this... it's very hard to like them given the subject matter, characters, and themes. It's quite dark and quite nihilistic, with ZERO comedy relief. Seriously. I think ONE character smiled in this movie, and that character wasn't smiling for genuine reasons most of the time.

Nevertheless, though I'm not in a hurry to watch it any time soon, artistically I appreciate and applaud it, and have to say it's one of the best anime films I've seen in a while. And as far as dark subject matter, morally ambiguous characters, interesting plot, and blood content goes-- this was a much better movie than Perfect Blue, the only other anime film I've seen that's really comparable to it as far as genre goes. Perfect Blue was freaky and weird and unsettling and made me jump a few times in surprise, but it wasn't as well-executed and I wasn't as sympathetic with the main character of PB as I was with this film. And it was more of a conventional horror suspense film plot, whereas this storyline was more...twisty. And sick. And did I mention nihilistic? Although, thankfully it wasn't as bloody as I feared. There was some blood, but no more than you'd expect in any regular R-rated war movie with gun battles.

In short: a good movie though not one where I want to personally befriend anybody in it. Still, though the characters are all dark in some way, the're compelling to watch and by the end of the film you are deeply interested in the choices they will make and the way they justify those choices.

Also, it's a bit like spy v. spy. Which is always fun.

Oh, and the whole thing is seeped in fairy tale metaphors. Not you g-rated fairy tales either; we're talking' old-school R rated fairy tale metaphors.

CONCLUSION: Watch this movie! It's good. It's worth your time. Sit down and watch it without pause or interuption. Soak it up. And then when you're done, watch something bright and fluffy like Ranma 1/2 to help you recover.

Damn those writers. They got me! They suckered me, I admit it. The protagonist really was the antagonist but they still lured me with the hope that it was otherwise right till the end. They spent the whole movie telling me Fuse was a wolf, but I still didn't want to believe it because he didn't shoot the girl in the beginning, and damn them for that! But good for them, also. I respect any movie that suckers me. Not that I'm hard to sucker. I've always been willing to hope people are better than my instincts tell me they are.

Anyway, the plot execution of this movie was beautifully laid out. One conspiracy on top of another, but when you think about it, they'd already given you all the clues long beforehand. So when the revelation came that Fuse was in the Wolf Brigade it was more like simple confirmation... but the surprise was how LONG he'd been in it. Not since his breakdown, since the begginning of his training. And then comes the sucker-punch. He is having emotional problems and obviously hasn't really decided in his heart yet that he can be the wolf, be the cold-hearted killer. And then he falls in love (sure it's a trap, but it ends up being real anyway, I think). But does that save him? Does that stop him from becoming the Wolf? No. And that's the real suckerpunch.

He doubts. He questions himself. He has nightmares about what he's going to eventually have to do. And each step of the way we're there (though we don't QUITE realize it at the time), hoping he recovers his humanity because he seems to be splitting with his organization and their cause. But then we find out that he's only splitting because it was never really his cause to begin with. He was already something much worse. And although he has his doubts, he still makes the conscious CHOICE to be the wolf.

Which is about when I screamed at the tv and told him I hoped he committed suicide after he murdered the girl. Committing suicide after shooting the girl he loved and his ex-best friend and all those other guys would be the only way I could retain any hope for Fuse's inner humanity. Unfortunately, the damn camera blacked out before we knew. Did he commit suicide and die next to her in that field? Or did he choose to live on as the wolf, with this act as the final severing of any traces of his soul from the killing machine he's now become?

Fuse at the end of this movie makes a hundred times better Darth Vader than that whiny bitch Anakin did in Revenge of the Sith. Seriously. Anakin was crazy and indecisive and emotionally weak. Also kind of crazy. But Fuse... Fuse's one hardass bitch and he didn't get lured into evil. He fucking CHOSE evil. That's hard core. That's scary. That's evil. That's worthy of a black mask with a scary breathing aparatus.

Regarding "Little Red Riding Hood" as a story device:

This is both my favorite and least favorite aspect of the film. On the one hand, I loved it. I'm a lit geek in my soul so, yeah, I loved it. It added a sense of mystery and made it more interesting to someone like me, who really isn't a gigantic spy-movie/killer v. killer movie fan. I tend to like dark satire, not dark nihilism. On the other hand, there were moments when I found the over-use of the metaphor in dialogue distracting and a bit much. They could have cut out 1/3 of the dialogue allusions to Red Riding Hood and it would still have been very heavily present in the film. Nevertheless, after a while I got used to that too. And I became to wonder if everyone in AU Japan was drinking the same spiked tea. One that made you more likely to talk in metaphors. The same metaphor.

Even so, while the Red Riding Hood metaphor was pretty heavy-handed in the dialogue, it was beautifully executed into all other aspects of the film. With the constant imagery of red clothing, packages, and of course wolves, it was interesting to pick out as many referenes and symbols as I could in any given scene, image, or background. I love it when the metaphor is in your face visually, and it was so in your face visually here that it could have been toned down more in the dialogue. More balance.

Anyway, I can't think of anything else right now. But I'd love to chat about it, so leave your thoughts in the comments! This movie begs to be talked about after you watch it.

Edit: I adore th ending theme song in this film. Anyone got any of the music?

Edit 2: I just realized that I went through an entire review of an anime film without talking about the animation quality. What a crime! The animation here is the cream of the crop. Excellent all around, not a moment less than detailed and rich. Not as visually attractive as MA, which was all swirling color and movement. JR is a very dark palette, like early X Files episodes. Lots of muted colors. But the overall quality and detail... it's way up there. Visually stunning.