Having been a really devoted fan of the seminal Anime movie Akira, I hate to say I've only finally managed to watch this collection of three short stories wrapped in an anthology for the big screen. All three clearly sharing similar themes of Akira, with all three having been written by the same legendary writer (Katsuhiro Otomo) and one of them directed by him too.
First off, we have what I thought was the best of the three segments, "Magnetic Rose", a sci-fi story in space with similarities to the classic original Solaris movie, which is poignant as we see a space crew board a distressed space station only to find that their memories & fears are being played in front of them. The second story "Stink Bomb" is comedic but again very telling, esp as it long proceeded Covid, and there's a lot of dark humour in this tale about a young man who accidentaly becomes a walking death trap for anyone who breathes the air around him, forcing mass military intervention to try to contain him. The final tale is an kafka-esque tale of city that is centred solely around war, and is all visual, but the catch is just who are they supposedly under threat from? It's a poignant and very thought-provoking tale.
All three are superb, and can even stand on their own. We have a great cerebral anthology of tales that really is a stand-out even after all these years, and in many ways has been unfortunately been overshadowed by Akira, when really this also deserves attention.
I'd recommend for everything. The writing, the art work and direction are all superb, and you can definitely rewatch it over & over again, and find new things to learn from. I think this could be very seminal for aspiring directors & writers.
Definitely highly recommended by myself, and I just wish more of this quality & standard could be made in the present day.
First off, we have what I thought was the best of the three segments, "Magnetic Rose", a sci-fi story in space with similarities to the classic original Solaris movie, which is poignant as we see a space crew board a distressed space station only to find that their memories & fears are being played in front of them. The second story "Stink Bomb" is comedic but again very telling, esp as it long proceeded Covid, and there's a lot of dark humour in this tale about a young man who accidentaly becomes a walking death trap for anyone who breathes the air around him, forcing mass military intervention to try to contain him. The final tale is an kafka-esque tale of city that is centred solely around war, and is all visual, but the catch is just who are they supposedly under threat from? It's a poignant and very thought-provoking tale.
All three are superb, and can even stand on their own. We have a great cerebral anthology of tales that really is a stand-out even after all these years, and in many ways has been unfortunately been overshadowed by Akira, when really this also deserves attention.
I'd recommend for everything. The writing, the art work and direction are all superb, and you can definitely rewatch it over & over again, and find new things to learn from. I think this could be very seminal for aspiring directors & writers.
Definitely highly recommended by myself, and I just wish more of this quality & standard could be made in the present day.