View Larger Image |
Memories Directors: Kôji Morimoto, Tensai Okamura, Katsuhiro Ôtomo Number of Items: 1 Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen Format: Color Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) Studio: Columbia Tristar Hom Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Region Code: 1 Product Group: DVD Release Date: 2004-02-24 Buy from Amazon |
 "Facinating"3 very different stories told in very different styles and very much at the top of their form.  "Artistic Genius at work"Of the three works in "Memories", each is extremely different and contribute to a very entertaining and thought-provoking work as a whole. "Magnetic Rose" combines beatiful artistry and harrowing audio and visual effects to create an ambience like something from a work by M. Night Shaymalan. The masterful audio score by the musical genius Yoko Kanno contributes greatly to the short. Both chilling and provocative, "Magnetic Rose" is the overall best from the three works in "Memories" "Stink Bomb" is purely entertaining. Right from the start, we as viewers connect with the poor pharmaceutical researcher we see before us and his plight throughout this very comical and incredulous short. The music as well helps keep a "groove" as the movie flows smoothly throughout. "Cannon Fodder" is easily the most under-appreciated work of the three. Much reminiscient of the WWII "Maus" comic written by a Jew after his experiences in Nazi-occupied Germany, "Cannon Fodder" takes us to a world that is not full of ghosts and spaceships, nor unbelievable biochem weapons, but a world not too much unlike our own- where people are vulnerable and controlled by unseen forces. It is the most thought provoking, and its style is completely apart from popular animation styles of today. The most intersting part is that the movie is one cut- meaning the backrground flows entirely throughout the movie without the scene in front us chaging suddenly. As a whole, "Memories" offers something for everybody- from the scary moviegoer to the saturday night funny flick watcher to the ponderous artist- definitely worth 2 hours of your time. "Memories"The Anime "Memories" is a great film that everyone should see. It is 3 stories within the movie. The first involving an "Alien" type setting. The second story is about a chemist who ingests a chemical weapon and becomes one himself. The third displays a fictional country with a fanatical obsession to firing cannons at an imaginary country. "Three amazing short films from true legends of the genre"I'm still pretty new to this wide new world of anime, so I can't really compare Memories to other works in the genre. I can say that it is a most interesting and impressive production made up of three very different short films from some of the leading names in anime. I don't think the visuals are quite as dazzling as that of more recent anime films, but the artistry of these three episodes certainly does help define the very different worlds in which the action takes place and demonstrates the compelling, visceral powers of anime. We have the celebrated Katsuhiro Otomo to thank for this project; each of the three films, if I'm not mistaken, was adapted from a short manga piece in Otomo's graphic novel Memories. Episode One is Magnetic Rose, directed by Koji Morimoto of Animatrix fame. This is a beautiful, haunting tale of a most unusual space rescue mission. The crew of a space garbage collection ship responds to a distress signal from a dead part of space. Two crew members board the debris-shrouded vessel and enter a completely different world, one fueled by the memories of a beautiful young opera singer who apparently retreated to the isolation of space following a tragedy in her life. I won't pretend to have understood every thing about this story, but it is wholly captivating. The men encounter lavish rooms including opera houses and living quarters fit for a princess, holograms and other visual artifacts of "the young Madam" Eva entertaining guests and audiences, and decayed artifacts that sometimes come to life in front of their eyes. Each man is soon drawn into the vivid, colorful world of Eva's memories, but only one recognizes the unreality behind the vivid scenes he encounters - in his case, though, memories of his own wife and child serve as fuel for the increasingly realistic episodes he experiences. Much of the story takes place to a soundtrack of beautiful opera music such as that of Puccini, and the combination of such grand music and the amazing visual miracles that define anime of the highest caliber make this a most powerful film indeed. Episode Two, Stink Bomb from director Tensai Okamura, goes in a completely different direction. Existing in some nebulous space between dark comedy and grim political satire, Stink Bomb is certainly entertaining but much less powerful than the other two films. In this story, a young scientific researcher takes an experimental fever pill that turns out to be something else entirely. He awakes to find everyone in the building comatose or dead (it's never really clear to me), and panicked company executives order him to find the pills and the secret documentation related to them so that he can bring everything to them in Tokyo immediately. He does just that, but he comes across death and destruction everywhere he goes. He does not understand that he has become a biological weapon emanating deadly gas from within his own body. It's almost comical to see the military firepower brought to bear - quite fruitlessly - against him as the military seeks to stop the spread of the noxious gas. The ending is also somewhat comical, on a dark level. The last and shortest of the films comes from Katsuhiro Otomo himself. Cannon Fodder is an extremely dark film that vividly portrays a day in the life of a militaristic society along the lines of a post-modern day Prussia (i.e., pointy helmets are big in this world) dedicated solely and completely to the continued firing of gigantic cannons against some nebulous enemy. The obvious interpretation is one of the insanity of warfare, and the dark tones and grimly drawn characters bring the message home in a powerful fashion. Interestingly, the entire action seems to consist of one continuous shot that moves fluidly from one scene to another. Memories dates back to 1995, but it is certainly an impressive example of anime's unique strengths and possibilities. The music, I should mention, plays an integral role in each film, especially Magnetic Rose - I think this DVD is worth owning just for this first amazing film alone. Otomo, Morimoto, and Okamuro are the same masters of anime who gave the world such wonders as Akira, Animatrix, and Ghost in the Shell, so anime newbies can rest assured that Memories will not disappoint. "finally! memories for the masses!"i first saw 'memories' in 1996 and i am still blown away by it everytime i watch it. and i watch it a lot. my fansub copy from way back when should soon be replaced by this dvd edition. the first segment, 'magnetic rose' is my favorite anime of all time. how could it not be? although the story is based on the manga by Katsuhiro Otomo, 'magnetic rose' was directed by my all time favorite anime director Koji Morimoto. Not only that, but it was created and produced at one of my favorite anime studios of all time, Studio 4C. on a side note, my 2nd favorite anime is 'Porco Rosso' by Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli. 'magnetic rose' features lush visuals, high quality animation, top notch production and art design, and an intruiging story concept. very atmospheric and lyrical, the film is set to snippets of puccini's 'madame butterfly'. Characters moving in weightlessness are animated more convincingly than Gundam 0083 (ok, so it's a tv series, but it's still done pretty well), and concept design for space vehicles and ships are both functional and believable. backgrounds are beautifully painted as well. what many people may not realize is that quite a bit of cg is used in this film also. from the spaceships and flying pods to the rose itself, it is so well done that one may not quite realize it until a second viewing. the worlds of reality and illusion are cleverly blended in this film, and will keep you watching until the breathtakingly poetic ending. if i was stranded on a desert island, all i would need would be wi-fi access to the net and this film. the other two films in this series bear mentioning too. 'canon fodder' reminds me very much of the films that came out of eastern europe during the height of their oppression. overall, much darker than the previous two films, 'cannon fodder' is a very interesting exercise in sweeping camera views and warped perspective background layouts. a bit of 3d cg is also used in this film and the character and concept designs are quite interesting. i highly recommend it for animation buffs. now keep in mind that this anthology of films was released in 1996. now watch it, be blown away, then watch it again. now go out and buy the 'art of' book, "the memory of memories" and be blown away yet again. and if you are interested in seeing more, i highly recommend looking up "koji morimoto" on the net and checking out his other works. one of his more recent being "beyond" on the 'animatrix' dvd (many of the better shorts in 'animatrix' were produced by studio 4C). i highly recommend his music videos as well, 'survival' and '4 day weekend' come to mind. and if you're looking for something really bizarre, don't pass up 'noiseman insect' there are only 2 names you need to remember from this review: Koji Morimoto & Studio 4C. |
