| Gorgeous visual poem of Miyazawa's world |
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| written by hneline1 |
February 26, 2003 - 11:01 PM PST |
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8 out of 9 members found this review helpful
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Spring and Chaos (Ihatov no genso, Kenji no haru) is a beautiful, made-for-tv animation special of the life of Kenji Miyazawa (1896-1933), the famous Japanese poet and writer. Director Shoji Kawamori (Macross, Arjuna, Escaflowne) creates an almost surreal retelling of the most creative period of Miyazawa's life, when he was a schoolteacher, geologist and agriculturalist in his rural hometown. Kawamori combines numerous animation techniques ranging from traditional cell to 3D CG to pastel scribbles in an attempt to capture Miyazawa's worldview -- although the characters act Japanese and the environment is Japanese, the style reminds me of more Western abstract animation where scenes can metamorph into dream imagery without warning.
This is a biography that conveys themes and feelings more than plot and factoids. If you aren't familiar with Miyazawa and his works, I highly suggest that you read a few blurbs about him first (there are plenty of sites on the web). Otherwise, many things probably won't make sense -- what's happening with his sister, his relationship with his father, what he's doing with his notebook, the montage of story images. The strength of this film is in creating a gorgeous visual poem of Miyazawa's world, and I think you'll appreciate the imagery more if you know at least a few references (for example, the trains bursting up from the fields to climb into the starry sky refers to his short story, Night on the Galactic Railroad).
This disk contains some insightful interviews with Director Kawamori and Sound Director Atsumi Tashiro. There is a very short English-language "intro" which shows photographs from Miyazawa's life. Also, I like the Japanese audio more than the English dub -- it's more powerful to read the translated poetry subbed while listening to the actual Japanese words, rather than listening to a badly performed English dubbing. |
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