FFS Day 1: 花とアリス殺人事件
My first pick for this year's Films from the South Festival was 花とアリス殺人事件, or The Case of Hana and Alice as it's called in English.
It's an animated prequel to a live action film from 2004, 花とアリス (Hana and Alice). I watched the original ages ago, but didn't have time to rewatch it before yesterday's screening. In the end it didn't matter, it is a prequel after all - but I really want to rewatch the original now. I think it'll be interesting to see what sort of references or unexplained backstory hints the prequel actually clears up.
I guess the most interesting thing about 花とアリス殺人事件 is the animation style. If you've seen the anime 惡の華 (The Flowers of Evil), you'll recognise the style. It's live action footage overlaid with animation. It's not my favourite animation style, I must admit, but it did fit with the plot and emotion of 花とアリス殺人事件.
The story itself is a pretty simple coming of age type of story. High school life, every day mystery, and it tells the story of how Hana and Alice, the two main characters from the original film of the same name, came to know each other. Alice moves to a new town with her mum, new school, new name, new life, new problems. She eventually befriends the hikikomori girl next door, and together they try to solve a high school murder mystery. I was worried the animation style would come off as too distant or cold to be able to form any sort of emotional bond with the on screen action, but in the end I think the distant animation style helped express Alice's feelings of alienation in her new life situation. Everything seems sort of... unreal or dreamlike somehow. It may not have been intended that way, but that's how I viewed it.
There is plenty of humour, and the characters are very enjoyable. You want to get to know them better, and it's a joy to be whisked away on their odd adventures.
Weirdly, I think my favourite character in the film is a minor character called Mutsu Mutsumi. If you're looking for a film with diverse female lead characters, this is a good one. The voice acting for Fuu-chan is annoying as fuck, though (I think that was her name, I'm really bad at remembering names - even fictional ones).
I was pretty sceptical of the animation style going in, but I ended up enjoying this a lot more than I thought I would. I'll probably watch it again at some point along with the original.
Here's the trailer! Give it a go if this looks interesting.
Click to view