If you know anybody whose really into anime, give them a slap from me.
If they tell you that Tekkonkinkreet is one of the greatest things ever, please kick the shit out of them.
Which isn't to say that Tekkonkinkreet is a bad film persay, in fact it's a very good film in terms of what its contemporaries are, it's just not that special.
Directed by Michael Arias, an FX guy who worked on The Abyss and Princess Mononoke, the film is about two orphans fighting for survival in a vaguely dystopian vision of future Japan. It's essentially a pastiche of every anime film which hit the popular consciousness, the only plus being that thanks to some superb sound work it's actually visceral and vicious enough to make you forget how much it steals. Hampered with the usual anime conceits, a Kubrickan fetishisation of Mise-en-scene at the expense of character, esoteric plot developments, and a bizarre freakout ending with under currents of potential magic, the film is pretty, if utterly vacant.
Seriously, if you don't believe me about the esoteric bullshit take into account that the film's main villain is probably Satan, he controls three huge golem like warriors with the power to inexplicably fly, his master scheme is to build an EVIL Disneyland in conjuction with the Yazuka, one of the heroes evil sides exhibits itself as a physical force and tries to kill said hero, and that the other hero is special enough to be able to predict said psychopaths.
If they tell you that Tekkonkinkreet is one of the greatest things ever, please kick the shit out of them.
Which isn't to say that Tekkonkinkreet is a bad film persay, in fact it's a very good film in terms of what its contemporaries are, it's just not that special.
Directed by Michael Arias, an FX guy who worked on The Abyss and Princess Mononoke, the film is about two orphans fighting for survival in a vaguely dystopian vision of future Japan. It's essentially a pastiche of every anime film which hit the popular consciousness, the only plus being that thanks to some superb sound work it's actually visceral and vicious enough to make you forget how much it steals. Hampered with the usual anime conceits, a Kubrickan fetishisation of Mise-en-scene at the expense of character, esoteric plot developments, and a bizarre freakout ending with under currents of potential magic, the film is pretty, if utterly vacant.
Seriously, if you don't believe me about the esoteric bullshit take into account that the film's main villain is probably Satan, he controls three huge golem like warriors with the power to inexplicably fly, his master scheme is to build an EVIL Disneyland in conjuction with the Yazuka, one of the heroes evil sides exhibits itself as a physical force and tries to kill said hero, and that the other hero is special enough to be able to predict said psychopaths.
