Media Month in Review – December 2013

Well, I’m resurrecting my old “Media Consumption” posts. Turns out it might be hard to remember what I watched when otherwise, and it’s also an opportunity to write 2-3 sentences about something, when I might not have more to say (or don’t have the time for it). I did watch more anime than usual this month, for the sake of the “Top Anime Shows ending in 2013” list.

Movies:

• Gravity – This movie is an experience, more than it is a plot-driven movie, and what little plot there is is focused on the very American message of the human triumph. Regardless, floating in space, seeing explosions while hearing nothing had been well-done. A good movie? Probably not. A great experience? Very much so. The use of silence had impressed me, as it always does when it’s used well.
• Kara no Kyoukai / Garden of Sinners 1-4 – It’s interesting, to treat this as films. I’ve watched it as part of an anime watching club online, but fell behind, so hope to get one more film watched and an essay for it written every week or two. It’s a supernatural mystery thriller, it’s very artistic, very pretty. Very interesting.
• Steins;Gate Movie (Fuka Ryouiki no Déjà vu) – This is a fan-service movie in the best sense of the word. We get more time with the characters we enjoy. In a manner very fitting with the show, we have a story quite similar to the one in the series, but now Kurisu is the one who has to go and save Okabe. It had some pacing issues, and it didn’t hit as hard as the series, but it only had 2 hours to do everything. The concept of memory alongside reminding us of stuff from the series at every turn made this a very welcome movie.

Kara no Kyoukai Film 4 – The Hollow – A Film About Nothing(ness)

Kara no Kyoukai, also known as Garden of Sinners, a series of 7 films with a psychological / supernatural focus. The fourth film is called “Garan no Dou” or “The Hollow”, and is 45 minutes long, and seems to occur after the second film, and between the third film.

An important note – these write-ups are written after watching each movie, not the whole series of movies. Spoilers of movies beyond the one numbered in each entry will not be tolerated.

(This is a Things I Like post, it’s not a review, but more a discussion of the show and of ideas that have risen in my mind as I’ve watched it. This time it’s slightly farther from a review, but I do note character personalities quite heavily. There will be a fair amount of spoilers.)

I took notes for this movie as well, about half of what I did for the previous entry. I took relatively few images this time, here is the album.

First, let me begin with an amusing anecdote from a philosophy class I’ve taken, which was about “winning arguments”. One side claims that “Nothing(ness) can’t be the subject of a sentence,” so the other side writes down that sentence on a piece of paper and shows him that it is indeed the subject of a sentence, and wins the argument.

Kara no Kyoukai Film 3 – Remaining Sense of Pain – All About Shiki

Kara no Kyoukai, also known as Garden of Sinners, a series of 7 films with a psychological / supernatural focus. The third film is called Tsuukaku Zanryuu or Remaining Sense of Pain, and is 58 minutes long, and seems to occur shortly before the events of the first film.
This series of movies almost feels like an anime series, and is the current focus of an online anime watch club I’m participating in. I will share write-ups written for the club, which aren’t written in the form of notes, but also aren’t me trying to come up with a specific point (thus far).
Final and important note – these write-ups are written after watching each movie, not the whole series of movies. Spoilers of movies beyond the one numbered in each entry will not be tolerated.

(This is a Things I Like post, it’s not a review, but more a discussion of the show and of ideas that have risen in my mind as I’ve watched it. This time it’s slightly farther from a review, but I do note character personalities quite heavily. There will be a fair amount of spoilers. Trigger-warning, this film opens with a rape scene.)

I took notes for this movie as well, about half of what I did for the previous entry. I also took a bunch of images again, and here is the album – more striking/plot relevant moments in general, rather than a showcase of the use of colours.

Kara no Kyoukai Film 2 – Murder Speculation (Part 1) – Rejection and Acceptance; Romanticism

Kara no Kyoukai, also known as Garden of Sinners, a series of 7 films with a psychological / supernatural focus. The second is called Satsujin Kousatsu or Murder Speculation (Part 1), and is 60 minutes long, and occurs three years before the events of the first film – the second part of “this movie” is the 7th film in the show, which isn’t told in chronological order.
This series of movies almost feels like an anime series, and is the current focus of an online anime watch club I’m participating in. I will share write-ups written for the club, which aren’t written in the form of notes, but also aren’t me trying to come up with a specific point (thus far).
Final and important note – these write-ups are written after watching each movie, not the whole series of movies. Spoilers of movies beyond the one numbered in each entry will not be tolerated.

This is a Things I Like post, it’s not a review, but more a discussion of the show and of ideas that have risen in my mind as I’ve watched it. This time it’s slightly farther from a review, but I do note relationships quite heavily. This post is somewhat rambly, I just had a lot to cover and too many threads. There will be a fair amount of spoilers.

If you were to take a look at my notes for this film, you’d see I noted the colour usage quite heavily in this movie as well (here is the imgur album of images taken). We still go with red-green and an atmosphere of decay for when things go wrong, or bloody. We have a lighter atmosphere when blue and green give us a sense of calmness, and yellow seems to be the colour of home. It’s quite interesting to note how the scenes tell us what sort of mood they’re going to use through their use of different palettes alone, and unless one devotes conscious thought to it (like I did), then it just sets the stage, like music gets to do. Good stuff.

Kara no Kyoukai Film 1 – Overlooking View – The Usage of Colours

Kara no Kyoukai, also known as Garden of Sinners, a series of 7 films with a psychological / supernatural focus. The first is called Fukan Fuukei or Overlooking View, and is 48 minutes long. This series of movies almost feels like a series, and is the current focus of an online anime watch club I’m participating in. I will share write-ups written for the club, which aren’t written in the form of notes, but also aren’t me trying to come up with a specific point (thus far).
Final and important note – these write-ups are written after watching each movie, not the whole series of movies. Spoilers of movies beyond the one numbered in each entry will not be tolerated.

This is a Things I Like post, it’s not a review, but more a discussion of the show and of ideas that have risen in my mind as I’ve watched it. It’s relatively close to a review though, as aside from describing the movie’s plot I actually go over it pretty closely. There will be a fair amount of spoilers.

First thing first – this is directed as a movie. Look at all those “dead moments”, those quiet moments where “nothing happens”. Shiki waking up, people just standing or walking, without music, and most of all the pretty long sequence where Shiki had eaten her ice-cream. You can see it in shows, often by the BBC, and say in Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex and Serial Experiments Lain, but it’s much more common in films, and usually not in Hollywood films either.