Katsuhiro Otomo’s action fantasy - ‘Mushishi’
MUSHISHI (2006, Japan) MUSHISHI is a live-action movie directed by Katsuhiro Otomo, whose AKIRA (1988) elevated anime to an internationally recognised form of entertainment for all ages. But since AKIRA, he has prefered to collaborate on projects rather than helming them himself. His only other solo feature films were the live-action satire WORLD APARTMENT HORROR (1991) and STEAMBOY (2004), which disappointingly gained only a fraction of the attention it deserved. After years of working on this elaborate animated project, obsessivly concentrating on how to realistically animate steam (!), it must have been a relief to direct live-action again with MUSHISHI (2006). The setting appears to be 19th century rural Japan. A young man with silver-grey hair travels around selling an unusual skill. He is Ginko, a Mushi-shi, an expert in Mushi – a strange, largely unknown part of nature. Primeval creatures existing somewhere between this world and the next. Ginko can help with all sorts of Mushi problems, as they can severely affect anything from health to the weather. At a time when electricity is only just being introduced, there are no advanced technological solutions on offer to diagnose or cure problems with Mushi. Ginko uses expertise, deduction, simple science and occasionally his herbs. After a spectacular start, the story alternates between Ginko’s backstory of becoming a Mushishi, and a series of his Mushi encounters. He finds a little girl who is being deafened by a noisy type of Mushi, although no one else can see or hear them. He meets a man trying to catch a rainbow, and also has some serious trouble at Mushishi HQ, with an infestation that threatens the core of the organisation. But all the while, Ginko’s past is catching up on him, in the form of some unfinished business that he has no recollection of. There’s a strong central performance from Joe Odagiri (recently the star of SHINOBI), even though his hairstyle looks more like the lead from GEGEGE NO KITAROU rather than the spikier one in the manga. Ginko is even missing his right eyeball, which seems to be a direct homage to Kitarou. But I can imagine that the film could be hard to follow. It certainly helped that I had already seen the MUSHISHI anime series, also based on the manga stories of Yuki Urushibara. The anime were beautifully animated and very atmospheric. The 26 episodes closely followed the manga’s delicately constructed stories. The live-action film reworks and interweaves four stories that have already been adapted into anime. But the Mushi are barely given an adequate introduction, and look more like either plankton hanging in the air, or hyperactive plantlife. The visual effects are impressive, but the series gave the Mushi more character, more of an animal status. It’s almost impossible for lightning to strike twice - for both the anime and live-action film to successfully capture the complex and way-out tales of alternate lifeforms. I think it’s interesting to see the stories acted out, but it’s really only of interest to fans of the anime. It all looks beautiful enough, and succeeds in portraying some spectacularly original scenes – I particularly enjoyed Tanyu (Yu Aoi) Mushi-wrangling with her gigantic metal chopsticks. But rather than delve into the subplots of each tale, the film moves between the highlights, but at such a slow pace that it almost grinds to a halt. It’s odd that someone famous for directing animation should adapt a manga for live-action after it has already been turned into an anime. Fans of the director, Katsuhiro Otomo may have their expectations set too high if they are expecting an epic in the same league as his previous films. Prepare instead for a chilled-out mystical experience that’s a little too laid back. Ideally it will introduce movie fans to try out the series, but if they don’t enjoy MUSHISHI, they’ll be put off one of the best anime of the decade. This has only recently been released on DVD in the US and UK, thankfully without the announced title of BUGMASTER, presumably to tie in with the translated anime and manga releases. But the DVD subtitles still refer to Mushi as “bugs”. The subtitles are also loosely translated in places, making it harder to follow, and miss out signs and writing. The region 2 UK DVD suffers from over-compression, and a poor standards conversion from NTSC, which continually ruins the detailed vistas of the Japanese countryside. There are no extras, except for a misleadingly exciting trailer for the film. Mark Hodgson Mushishi official sitehttp://www.mushishi.co.uk/
MUSHISHI (2006, Japan) MUSHISHI is a live-action movie directed by Katsuhiro Otomo, whose AKIRA (1988) elevated anime to an internationally recognised form of entertainment for all ages. But since AKIRA, he has prefered to collaborate on projects rather than helming them himself. His only other solo feature films were the live-action satire WORLD APARTMENT HORROR (1991) and STEAMBOY (2004), which disappointingly gained only a fraction of the attention it deserved. After years of working on this elaborate animated project, obsessivly concentrating on how to realistically animate steam (!), it must have been a relief to direct live-action again with MUSHISHI (2006). The setting appears to be 19th century rural Japan. A young man with silver-grey hair travels around selling an unusual skill. He is Ginko, a Mushi-shi, an expert in Mushi – a strange, largely unknown part of nature. Primeval creatures existing somewhere between this world and the next. Ginko can help with all sorts of Mushi problems, as they can severely affect anything from health to the weather. At a time when electricity is only just being introduced, there are no advanced technological solutions on offer to diagnose or cure problems with Mushi. Ginko uses expertise, deduction, simple science and occasionally his herbs. After a spectacular start, the story alternates between Ginko’s backstory of becoming a Mushishi, and a series of his Mushi encounters. He finds a little girl who is being deafened by a noisy type of Mushi, although no one else can see or hear them. He meets a man trying to catch a rainbow, and also has some serious trouble at Mushishi HQ, with an infestation that threatens the core of the organisation. But all the while, Ginko’s past is catching up on him, in the form of some unfinished business that he has no recollection of. There’s a strong central performance from Joe Odagiri (recently the star of SHINOBI), even though his hairstyle looks more like the lead from GEGEGE NO KITAROU rather than the spikier one in the manga. Ginko is even missing his right eyeball, which seems to be a direct homage to Kitarou. But I can imagine that the film could be hard to follow. It certainly helped that I had already seen the MUSHISHI anime series, also based on the manga stories of Yuki Urushibara. The anime were beautifully animated and very atmospheric. The 26 episodes closely followed the manga’s delicately constructed stories. The live-action film reworks and interweaves four stories that have already been adapted into anime. But the Mushi are barely given an adequate introduction, and look more like either plankton hanging in the air, or hyperactive plantlife. The visual effects are impressive, but the series gave the Mushi more character, more of an animal status. It’s almost impossible for lightning to strike twice - for both the anime and live-action film to successfully capture the complex and way-out tales of alternate lifeforms. I think it’s interesting to see the stories acted out, but it’s really only of interest to fans of the anime. It all looks beautiful enough, and succeeds in portraying some spectacularly original scenes – I particularly enjoyed Tanyu (Yu Aoi) Mushi-wrangling with her gigantic metal chopsticks. But rather than delve into the subplots of each tale, the film moves between the highlights, but at such a slow pace that it almost grinds to a halt. It’s odd that someone famous for directing animation should adapt a manga for live-action after it has already been turned into an anime. Fans of the director, Katsuhiro Otomo may have their expectations set too high if they are expecting an epic in the same league as his previous films. Prepare instead for a chilled-out mystical experience that’s a little too laid back. Ideally it will introduce movie fans to try out the series, but if they don’t enjoy MUSHISHI, they’ll be put off one of the best anime of the decade. This has only recently been released on DVD in the US and UK, thankfully without the announced title of BUGMASTER, presumably to tie in with the translated anime and manga releases. But the DVD subtitles still refer to Mushi as “bugs”. The subtitles are also loosely translated in places, making it harder to follow, and miss out signs and writing. The region 2 UK DVD suffers from over-compression, and a poor standards conversion from NTSC, which continually ruins the detailed vistas of the Japanese countryside. There are no extras, except for a misleadingly exciting trailer for the film. Mark Hodgson Mushishi official site