January 11, 2006
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MIND GAME
Sometimes an animated movie comes along that turns your perceptions about the whole medium, upside down. We don’t even know how to describe MIND GAME to do it justice. Even example screengrabs or stills would tell you nothing. All we can suggest, is go out of your way to find the movie, and see it. Mad, confusing, inspired, original and uplifting. Japan leads the way, once again.
It’s film-making that uses another part of the brain…
MIND GAME is apparently a low-budget(!) feature debut by Yuasa Masaaki of Cat Soup & Samurai Champloo.
Stylistically, the movie is all over the place. A mix of grungey, psychedelic, cartoony hand-drawn styles, live action, CG… and it all works! The aesthetic style changes with the emotional content, like water changing shape in different containers. We hadn’t read any plot spoilers beforehand and were holding our breaths through most of this film, intensely engaged and always surprised.
Some links:
- Movie trailer
- Reviews via Cartoon Brew
- The Gline: review
- Twitchfilm: Fantasia Report
- Japantimes: Interview with Director
Unfortunately, the MIND GAME DVD is not in stores. My imported copy with English subtitles is Region 2 and cost forty-eight bucks (!!!) Totally worth it, though!
(Download MP3) Closing Theme Song
Comments (3)
Wow, it looks like they incorporate a lot of different styles into the animation, like FLCL (probably my favorite anime of all time) and maybe a little Paranoia Agent thrown in. Just what I needed….more anime to become obsessed with…sigh. Speaking of obsessions, have you seen any of the Pinky Violence box set http://store.yahoo.com/olivefilms/pivicodse.html ?
Looking forward to (and how) to Los Campeones de la Lucha Libre. Oh! And your LGN Scare Package is on it’s merry way, crushing all packages in it’s path!
Miss F
the trailer looks so cool. might purchaase.
Miss F, I watched ‘Terrifying Girls Highschool’ on New years Eve at FPU/Ninja 80 headquarters