Seriously. What's wrong with you, Japan???
Ok, so I'm still on my japanese movie kick. It seems like I watch one after work every night. I downloaded a whole bunch off the ourhour community, and I'm slowly making my way through them (btw, this is pretty much thanks to tey's mu account, yaaay thank you!! XD).
Ok, so tonight I decided to leave behind the sappy love stories and opt for something more along the lines of crazy wtf Japan batshit insane things like that movie I saw a while back called the Taste of Tea (fucked up for real face).
I ended up picking Negative Happy Chainsaw Edge because it's a story about a high school girl who does battle with a chainsaw-wielding maniac from the moon every night and the boy who falls in love with her and her bad-ass fighting skillz.
Uh-huh. Only to find out that this chainsaw guy is really just a metaphor for her grief over having just lost her ENTIRE family to a drunk-driver-car-accident and the boy is dealing with his inability to get over the death of his best friend in a motorcycle accident, too.
AAAAAAAAAARRRGHH!! WHAT THE FUUUUUUUUUCK! Why are all Japanese movies about DEATH?!
Negative Happy Chainsaw Edge
This movie is based on the debut novel of Takimoto Tatsuhiko, written in 2001 and awarded some special award for something or other. I haven't read the book, so I can't offer a comparison with the movie, but I'm tempted to check if it's translated into English.. otherwise I might just force it down Yume's throat and make her tell me how it is..
Ok, so the movie. Production value in the movie is pretty high, with really well done special effects and pretty good fight scenes. The effect of the snow that stops mid-air when chainsaw man appears is nifty to say the least, and these fights are all beautiful, especially when he attacks inside the aquarium.
The main characters are Eri and Yousuke, two teenagers who have recently experience painful loss of close friends or family. The theme of grief and loss is pretty much what the movie is about, as well as the different ways each of the characters deal with it.
Yousuke deals with his grief by trying to out-do or "catch up" to his best friend Noto who just died in a bike accident. He steals for fun and tries to prove that he isn't "gutless" like his friend said. He takes up arms against the chainsaw man because of this. A part of Yousuke is hoping to be killed by the maniac so that he can really catch up to Noto, so that it will be him that his classmates cry over and not him crying for his friend. There is a beautiful scene in which Yousuke literally catches up to Noto by racing a motorcycle around the exact same corner where Noto died, all the while Noto's ghost is driving alongside him until they reach the spot where he died and a cloud of rose petal flies after Yousuke as he keeps riding. It helps him realize that by just being alive he's not only caught up to Noto, but surpassed him and vows to live happily with Eri.
Eri is dealing with a LOT more grief than Yousuke, to the point where it takes the form of the giant chainsaw-wielding maniac that she feels the need to fight every night when she would otherwise be sitting alone in her family's home surrounded by pictures and reminders of them being gone. She keeps her feelings more to herself than Yousuke, but the strength of the monster shows the level of her sadness, and the longer she spends with Yousuke the weaker he gets. When it seems that Yousuke will be leaving her side, though, the chainsaw man is nearly able to kill her during the final battle. When the chainsaw man is defeated Eri is finally able to smile, and while the loss of her family is still sad she isn't being held back by it anymore. It literally isn't killing her.
Watanabe, Yousuke's other friend, deals with his grief by trying out several different creative pursuits like painting a picture of his friend on fire riding a motorcycle and finishing a song that Noto had recorded himself singing before he died. Watanabe effectively moves on when he is able to finish the song and he and Yousuke listen to it together. It's another great scene when Yousuke is listening to the song and imagining them playing together again. It's heartbreaking because it's cut with scenes of the three of them having fun together, Noto's final ride on his motorcycle, Yousuke's memories of him, and the aftermath of his death and the effect it had on everyone. The line he repeats over and over, "asu ni mukatte" means "face tomorrow" and it's as if he's talking directly to his friends, telling them to move on.
Gah, I really did like it. It's different from the other depressing Japanese movies because they usually start out happy and get happier for half the movie and then go on the never-ending downward spiral into depression. Negative Happy Chainsaw Edge starts off with a mellow sadness, almost apathetic, and then steadily moves along, frustrating any attempt to attain happiness until the very end when the characters allow themselves to move on.
Ok, so tonight I decided to leave behind the sappy love stories and opt for something more along the lines of crazy wtf Japan batshit insane things like that movie I saw a while back called the Taste of Tea (fucked up for real face).
I ended up picking Negative Happy Chainsaw Edge because it's a story about a high school girl who does battle with a chainsaw-wielding maniac from the moon every night and the boy who falls in love with her and her bad-ass fighting skillz.
Uh-huh. Only to find out that this chainsaw guy is really just a metaphor for her grief over having just lost her ENTIRE family to a drunk-driver-car-accident and the boy is dealing with his inability to get over the death of his best friend in a motorcycle accident, too.
AAAAAAAAAARRRGHH!! WHAT THE FUUUUUUUUUCK! Why are all Japanese movies about DEATH?!
Negative Happy Chainsaw Edge
This movie is based on the debut novel of Takimoto Tatsuhiko, written in 2001 and awarded some special award for something or other. I haven't read the book, so I can't offer a comparison with the movie, but I'm tempted to check if it's translated into English.. otherwise I might just force it down Yume's throat and make her tell me how it is..
Ok, so the movie. Production value in the movie is pretty high, with really well done special effects and pretty good fight scenes. The effect of the snow that stops mid-air when chainsaw man appears is nifty to say the least, and these fights are all beautiful, especially when he attacks inside the aquarium.
The main characters are Eri and Yousuke, two teenagers who have recently experience painful loss of close friends or family. The theme of grief and loss is pretty much what the movie is about, as well as the different ways each of the characters deal with it.
Yousuke deals with his grief by trying to out-do or "catch up" to his best friend Noto who just died in a bike accident. He steals for fun and tries to prove that he isn't "gutless" like his friend said. He takes up arms against the chainsaw man because of this. A part of Yousuke is hoping to be killed by the maniac so that he can really catch up to Noto, so that it will be him that his classmates cry over and not him crying for his friend. There is a beautiful scene in which Yousuke literally catches up to Noto by racing a motorcycle around the exact same corner where Noto died, all the while Noto's ghost is driving alongside him until they reach the spot where he died and a cloud of rose petal flies after Yousuke as he keeps riding. It helps him realize that by just being alive he's not only caught up to Noto, but surpassed him and vows to live happily with Eri.
Eri is dealing with a LOT more grief than Yousuke, to the point where it takes the form of the giant chainsaw-wielding maniac that she feels the need to fight every night when she would otherwise be sitting alone in her family's home surrounded by pictures and reminders of them being gone. She keeps her feelings more to herself than Yousuke, but the strength of the monster shows the level of her sadness, and the longer she spends with Yousuke the weaker he gets. When it seems that Yousuke will be leaving her side, though, the chainsaw man is nearly able to kill her during the final battle. When the chainsaw man is defeated Eri is finally able to smile, and while the loss of her family is still sad she isn't being held back by it anymore. It literally isn't killing her.
Watanabe, Yousuke's other friend, deals with his grief by trying out several different creative pursuits like painting a picture of his friend on fire riding a motorcycle and finishing a song that Noto had recorded himself singing before he died. Watanabe effectively moves on when he is able to finish the song and he and Yousuke listen to it together. It's another great scene when Yousuke is listening to the song and imagining them playing together again. It's heartbreaking because it's cut with scenes of the three of them having fun together, Noto's final ride on his motorcycle, Yousuke's memories of him, and the aftermath of his death and the effect it had on everyone. The line he repeats over and over, "asu ni mukatte" means "face tomorrow" and it's as if he's talking directly to his friends, telling them to move on.
Gah, I really did like it. It's different from the other depressing Japanese movies because they usually start out happy and get happier for half the movie and then go on the never-ending downward spiral into depression. Negative Happy Chainsaw Edge starts off with a mellow sadness, almost apathetic, and then steadily moves along, frustrating any attempt to attain happiness until the very end when the characters allow themselves to move on.