thestudent32 Reviews

Gasaraki (1998–1999)

A triumph of substance over style

[4 October 2003]

Chances are, you've never really seen anything like Gasaraki. Probably because there isn't anything really like Gasaraki.

Gasaraki is a show about politics, a family, spirituality, mechs, and more politics.

The show opens with a test of the Japanese Special Self Defense Forces' new Tactical Armor, a bipedal weapon with unprecedented mobility in an urban environment. The mechs are very well-designed, and look like the sort of thing that the US military might actually produce.

Then we are treated to a Noh dance, being performed by one of the pilots of the Tactical Armor. During the dance, bizarre phenomena occur, including gravity increases, and a girl appearing to him in a vision, begging him not to bring back "the terror."

And then we learn that the pilot/Noh dancer is Yushiro Gowa, one of the children of the Gowa family. The Gowa family also just happens to be developing the TA for the army.

And that's just the first episode.

Much of the show is produced in a style similar to the news coverage of Operation Desert Storm in 1991, further adding to the realism of the situation, which includes the US invading a (fictional) middle eastern nation which appears to have developed weapons of mass destruction.

The animation is uniformly high quality, fluid and clean. I've never seen a show produced for television that looked this good.

The show was written by people who actually understood politics, and that is a breath of fresh air. With a complex geopolitical scene as a backdrop, Gasaraki constantly has surprises for the viewer, as well as the constant sense of mystery surrounding the "terror" of a thousand years past.

Some have compared the show to Evangelion, but such a comparison is flawed. Gasaraki is much darker and more complex plot-wise. Where Evangelion is about Hideako Anno's personal views on spirituality, Gasaraki is about politics, with a dose of spirituality to add mystery. Beyond the obvious similarity of mecha and spiritual elements, there's really no comparison.

In summary: Gasaraki is not for those with short attention spans. Gasaraki will reward those who pay attention to detail. Gasaraki is a triumph of substance over style, a rarity in the world of anime these days.

Macross: Do You Remember Love? (1984)

Not as great as they say... but still pretty good

[21 December 2001]

I just got my copy of Superdimesion Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love in the mail from Singapore yesterday. Yep, I'm a purist: subtitled, not dubbed.

I watched it last night, and there is one thing that stood out glaringly: If you are not familiar with Macross, whether in the original form or as Robotech, it would be damned near incoherent.

Visually stunning and with great music, all the elements of greatness are here, but the plot leaves much to be desired, with virtually no exposition and only limited character development. Taken on its own, I'm afraid that this film can't stand up.

For those who actually understand what's going on, it's a treat. The animation is top-notch, and the film moves quickly. However, it also glosses over many points which in another film would have been character development and major events. Plotwise, I felt that this film was lacking.

The visuals cannot be overlooked, though. Easily, the film is the equal of many animated pieces that came later, brilliant and vibrant.

And, of course *possible minor spoiler* it was worth it just to see Minmei get slapped.

Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995–1996)

Highly overrated...

[23 October 2001]

I went into Evangelion with high expectations. "This is great stuff," I'd been told. "It's deep and philosophical. You'll really care about the characters. The plot is wonderful."

So, I sat and I watched it.

And I thought to myself, "Wow. Is there no one with the courage to say what they really think?"

I do not understand why people found this interesting, I really don't. Characters you care about? Hardly. I found most of the characters flat and uninteresting collections of neuroses, whining fourteen-year-olds in huge robots. "Will Shinji grow a backbone?" I found myself unable to care.

Then came the EVAs themselves, and their opponents the Angels.

The concept, quite frankly, isn't what I would call high art. In fact, it sounds more like something a kid would come up with. "Yeah, they're these robots, and they're really cool because they bleed when they get hurt, but they're not really mecha, but captured angels, so sometimes they go crazy and don't do what the pilots want, and they have to be plugged in..."

Needless to say, I was less than impressed with the concept. This could have been forgiven, though, had the animation been exceptionally impressive (it was decent, but not incredible) or the plot engaging (the depth, in my opinion, is pure sophistry designed to appeal in the same sort of pseudo-philosophical way that the Matrix did) or if the mecha combat against the Angels had been particularly impressive. This last is perhaps the greatest failing. I'm sorry, but I found it particularly lame when one EVA *strangled* another. Mecha should not strangle each other. Another incident was that of a 'sniper rifle' that required the blackout of an entire nation to power it, but had to be compensated for the rotation of the earth, and a rather trite explanation constructed just to give the animator an excuse to show the EVA chambering a second round in the rifle.

The Angels? I'm afraid that they weren't particularly nifty, either. It felt, at some points, like a re-run of Voltron, with a different random Angel monster every other episode. Why were they called Angels? So far as I could tell, there wasn't really any reason for it. Just accept it and move on, the series tries to tell you, but if a series is going to be 'deep,' it cannot skip out on such an important element. And that's just one of the many holes that is supposed to add to the series.

The end of the series was particularly unsatisfying, to say the least.

With Evangelion, the sheer banality of the characters absolutely drenches the series. Most should have been in therapy, not piloting giant robots. While flawed characters can be interesting, and in fact are the best kind, that does not mean that all flawed characters are interesting. This series is a case in point.

To conclude, I found Neon Genesis: Evangelion to be an overrated mess, with little to recommend it aside from a lot of hype. Some might dismiss me as a Philistine for saying it, but I think that any series should stand on its own merits, and should give the viewer something to grab onto and be interested in within a half-dozen episodes. Quite frankly, it was like getting teeth pulled, watching the entire series. I was hoping for something that would justify the effort, but I didn't find it. Maybe others will, but I did not.

Braddock: Missing in Action III (1988)

Chuck Norris... need I say more?

[1/10 · 9 June 2001]

This movie is the absolute bottom of the barrel, an irresponsible vanity project that is a complete and utter waste of your time.

I have no idea how Norris managed to get funding for this piece of drivel, and even less about how he managed to persuade people to let his brother direct it.

To say that this film is unrealistic is to be entirely too kind. In one pivotal scene, where Norris is busy freeing the children of American POWs in Vietnam, he is spotted by the guards in the prison.

Most people would end up dead, but not Norris. He manages to evade all enemy fire by standing in one place, firing his improbable machine gun, and sweating dramatically in several close-up shots. Despite the fact that he is standing on open ground, and not moving, all the automatic fire directed at him somehow misses him and the children entirely.

Another dramatic moment has Norris sneaking into a compound, and knocking out a guard by apparently kicking him in the leg.

Finally, I point to an important rule in movie-going: The quality of a film is inversely proportional to the number of helicopters which explode in it. A good film, such as the Matrix or Apocalypse Now, cab get away with one.

This film had seven... within a span of half an hour.

Avoid it at all costs.

The Killer (1989)

Perhaps the finest action film ever made...

[10/10 · 29 April 2001]

The Killer is, perhaps, the finest action film ever made. Not only does it contain action scenes to make any other action film cringe with shame, but it also contains solid characters, excellent acting, and a camera style all its own.

The story is, at its core, not about killing, or a cop's relentless pursuit of a killer, but about two men on opposite sides of the law, seeing that they have more in common with each other than they'd care to think.

This film is a landmark of Hong Kong cinema, a film of rare craftsmanship. Chow Yun Fat delivers a performance second only to that in A Better Tomorrow, and Woo's direction creates a film with a unique feel, a film in which the plight of the characters commands as much attention as the incredibly staged gunfights.

The only quibble one can have with the film is the relative weakness of the character of the crime boss, but since the film isn't really about him at all, this can be overlooked. He's more of a plot device, a reason to bring together the two main characters, than a character in his own right.

The film operates on so many different levels, an example of Woo's talents as a director. Be sure to avoid dubbed versions, however, as the dialogue loses much of its power.

If you have not seen this film, and you have any kind of respect for the action film, you do yourself a great disservice.