Change Your Image
discolite
Reviews
Odoru daisosasen the movie 2: Rainbow Bridge wo fuusa seyo! (2003)
Truly unwatchable
Went into the cinema with absolutely no preconceptions of the show - hadn't heard of it, or its sequel, and chose it because it looked like it might be good, brainless entertainment.
In the end it was just brainless. It really was. Plot loopholes aplenty. Illogical logic. Lame, flat humour, cheesy lines, uninspiring action. Everything was so obvious, so run of the mill, so pointless. Really, I couldn't figure out why this show was even made, let alone how it came to be "Japan's biggest live action box office hit".
Maybe the ending would've redeemed it - I wouldn't know. From about 15 minutes in I knew the movie was a bad idea, and despite valiant attempts to fight the urge, good taste prevailed and I walked out about 70 minutes in. I've only ever walked out on two movies before in my life, mind, so I'm not the type to often vote with my feet.
Looking at voting here people seem to think better of the show, but I know my friend and I who were both watching the show thought the same of it - very little indeed. This was a -1/5 (yes that's negative one) on my personal scale - not just a waste of money, I almost feel like writing to the show's producers for a refund.
Wandafuru raifu (1998)
If it makes you think, it's succeeded. Production values do not a great movie make.
its been a while since i've watched a movie could make me cry
and not during, and not for the sheer cinematic majesty or the humanity of it all or whatever. its a simple little japanese show from the film fest called afterlife and basically its about how after we die there isnt quite heaven or hell but rather a purgatory stage in which you choose one memory you wish to take with you and after a week in this purgatory you're gone and beyond that all you remember from this life is that one memory. the ppl around recreate the scenario and they film it.
so the ppl in the show slowly choose, and their choices range from the simple - looking up as cherry blossoms fall, flying a plane - to the bittersweet - the last moment a guy sees his fiancee before he goes to a war he knows he will be killed in, or a moment spent talking to his wife, a memory chosen because there is no better alternative.
and what would you choose, what would you choose? do you have that range to pick from even?
i'm watching the film and i'm sure everyone in the cinema is like me reviewing his or her own life and trying to pick that moment. and its a film for which the premise is uplifting - no hell, but an infinite memory to enjoy - but you come out of it and its still the same old shithole life you're in. and whatever the moment you've decided on its not going to happen that everything around will vanish.
so what do you do? do you thank the heavens for the fact that you've even had that memory to recall? do you determine to live a life full of such memories that not a regret holds sway in time to come? or do you look down in the painful knowledge that that moment has come and passed you by, and that you've lost everything about that picture that made it special and made you for that one moment in this lifetime happy?
not to say it won't happen again, and i'm sure everyone gets other shots at it; but it breaks the heart you know.
one guy chose a memory not for his outright joy but because he "was part of someone else's happiness - what a wonderful discovery". and if only i knew this was true, at least the consolation would make what went by worth the while. but time goes on and suddenly nothing's the same any more and you reach or call out but don't find anyone.
another girl is stuck in purgatory because she has had no real happiness in her life: "i can't bear seeing many more people forget me". and you realise that maybe that's what happened to you, that while the world went by you were too busy looking the other way, or were too stupid or inept to do anything about it.
its been a while since a movie could make me cry, or even think quite so hard. and i don't know whether it meant to be uplifting or thought provoking to the point where what thoughts come to mind are ultimately depressing. the moment i'd choose is still so fresh it hurts to know its gone and won't happen again in the near future. what now, do you go forth and work for it? and what if you can't? what if all your mind allows you to do is linger on it and harbour multitudinal regrets? what if you can't fight it?
and what memory would you choose?