Mind Game (2004)

User Rating:

8.1/10   

Director:

Masaaki Yuasa

Writers:

Robin Nishi (comic)
Robin Nishi (story)

Release Date:

7 August 2004 (Japan)

Genre:

Animation | Adventure | Comedy | Mystery

Plot:

The film follows Nishi, a loser who has a crush on his childhood girlfriend. After an encounter with the Japanese mafia...

Plot Keywords:

Heaven | Sex | Violence | Love | Bathing

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Koji Imada	...	Nishi (voice)
Sayaka Maeda	...	Myon (voice)
Takashi Fujii	...	Jiisan (voice)
Seiko Takuma	...	Yan (voice)
Tomomitsu Yamaguchi	...	Ryou (voice)
Toshio Sakata	...	Father of Myon and Yan (voice)
Joji Shimaki	...	Yakuza boss (voice)
Rintarou Nishi	...	Yakuza (voice)
Kenichi Chujou	...	Atsu (voice)

Runtime:

103 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Black and White | Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Australia:R (2008)

Company:

Studio 4°C

Trivia:

This is the directorial debut of Masaaki Yuasa.

Quotes:

Nishi: We've gotta leave. It's that or drown.
Yan: But how?
Nishi: The boat, of course!
Myon: The cops'll be looking for us.
Nishi: So?
Myon: The Yakuzas'll come after us!
Nishi: So what! I wanna get out! 'Cos there's so much out there! So many different people, living different lives! Incredibly good guys, bad guys... Folks completely different from us! It's one huge melting pot! See, it's not about success, dying in the streets...

The story has never ended

This movie is really what the title says it is. At first I thought the title was bad, since it didn't say anything about the film, but in the end I realized it does.

If you are looking for a normal story (you know, with a start, an end, a punchline) you are not going to find it in this anime. The animation is coarse, not like the classic Japanese animation, a bit like Tokyo Godfathers, but even more symbolic. So why is this film so great?

Because of the feeling. Plot and animation separately don't make this great, but together they do. The moral of it all is that you must live your life to the fullest and enjoy everything life throws at you, since it is all you have. No one else is going to live your life or enjoy what you have.

My thoughts are that this story is deeply personal to Robin Nishi and, even if a lot of the symbols in it can be singled out and understood, most of it you are left to guess. An argument for this is the torrent of animation sequences that don't make sense in the beginning of the movie, repeated at the end of the movie and suddenly making sense. I believe that is the greatest innovation of this anime.

Bottom line: this is an art film. This time I mean it in a good sense :). Perhaps because it has a positive view on live and it is more accessible. Anyway, if you are ready for its message and are in the mood for a fun carpe diem story, you gotta see this. If you've enjoyed Tokyo Godfathers, then you will also like this movie.