日本映画祭 ２０１９ Festival Log Final
Gambling anime is a genre that satisfies a very particular itch: the excitement of gambling without the associated risk, with excitement elevated through ludicrous levels via the nature of the medium. Kakegurui represents the insanity and craziness of the genre quite well, by making its a good chunk of its characters insane gambling machines.
The Kakegurui live action movie follows two successful seasons of the live action series and two seasons of the anime. The movie is partially based on the side story light novel Kakegurui Joker, with new movie-only characters thrown into the mix.
The movie starts off slowly, introducing each new character and setting up the gambling-stuffed climax, but the payoff is worth it. The mechanics of the games themselves and the psychological tactics are what draws viewers to Kakegurui; in this case, the games featured are variations on games we've already seen in other gambling anime such as Kaiji but are still fun to see play out either way.
The Kakegurui is a crowd pleasing, entertaining movie that is sure to please fans. Non-fans will probably find the first third or so slow and tedious, but the movie falls into place well enough by the end.
It's best to watch One Cut of the Dead blind, but if you have done so (perhaps multiple times, which is best) then read on.
There's a certain wonder to self-reflexivity, when artistic works of genre take a look at themselves and peel back the layers behind their creation. The resulting creation is something much more profound than the initial work, operating in multiple levels.
Such is the movie One Cut of the Dead, which starts with a one take movie within a movie, full of the sort of kitsch and charm one sees in independent productions. However, that section is only one third of the complete story. Once the "real" movie starts (the Japanese title is 'Camera wo Tomeruna!' or 'Don't Stop the Camera!') we see what went on behind the scenes, a cinematic zombie riff on Henry Lewis' The Play that Goes Wrong.
The three act structure also does not feel haphazard or insular; each element in the film within a film is a seed that bears fruit once the same scene is revisited in a different context. Director Ueda skillfully weaves in these elements so that they yield maximum rewards.
Thus, from horror, the film becomes comedy and metafictional self-examination, and it's refreshing and actually even inspirational in a way. Shooting movies is hard, guys.
Masaaki Yuasa's Lu Over the Wall, a quirky animated tale about an aspiring musician and his newly discovered mermaid friend, is more about eliciting a certain mood rather than telling a story. The film ends up being disjointed as a result, but is no less visually lush.
Yuasa's personal animation style is felt in full force here; it is flowy, imaginative and expressionistic, and colorful. It's reminiscent not of his anime contemporaries, but classic american cartoons from the early 20th century. It helps that he isn't bound to sticking to a certain style or material, such as his work with The Tatami Galaxy.
The film touches on themes of tradition (and breaking from that tradition) as well as the strained relationships that form between children and parents. The characters of Lu over the Wall have at least one parent who has left them behind, and that dysfunction affects them in different ways, whether it entails acting out, seeking attention, sticking stubbornly to traditions or overcompensating to bad effect.
Though the climax is rousing enough and the emotional beats are felt, the impact could've been more deeply resonant had the storytelling been equally up to snuff. As it is, Lu Over the Wall is par for the course, but nothing special.
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