Anzu the Ghost Cat Animation Movie Review – Review

On paper, ghost cat anzu It seems to be the most family-friendly film of the year at the annual Scottish Love Film Festival, now in its 15th year. There was certainly a higher percentage of families with children in the audience than with most other films. Maybe they didn’t expect it to be such a strange film, with a loosely structured first half of humorous skits and a more action-packed second half that delves into a chaotic exploration of Buddhist hell, filled with violent comedy about torturing demons and a profound story. For a central character, there are disturbing afterlife implications. In a matter of minutes we went from a funny ball-licking cat person to “Hell of Needles” and “Big Screaming Hell”.

ghost cat anzu It’s crazy and I love it for that.

It’s not just a convoluted plot ghost cat anzu separate. First, it’s a French-Japanese co-production based on a relatively obscure one-volume manga from 17 years ago (although a sequel began serialization earlier this year). screenwriter Now Ama Shinji He is best known for several sexually explicit “pink movies,” a brave choice for a “family” movie. What is unusual is that ghost cat anzu have two directors because, in The example of Hana and Alicestyle, the film was first shot entirely in live action by a director and then digitally drawn with support from an animation director. However, I’d be hesitant to call the animation style purely rotoscoped – while the characters do move in a more natural way than many other animations, it’s not as distracting or deliberately provocative as others. flower of evilreveling in its naturalistic ugliness. Here, live action is no longer something uncanny or disturbing, but human, relatable, even fantastical.

Take Karin for example – she is a child. She was manipulative, conniving, not a “good” child, but life wasn’t “good” to her either. We quickly learn that she changes her behavior depending on the audience. She is rude and condescending towards her father, referring to him only by his first name without any honorific. In front of other adults, such as her grandfather, she pretends to be a “good girl” with wide eyes and a wide smile. It’s funny and a little sad how she uses the blushing country boy to carry out her revenge plan. The animation style captures every nuance of her body language, deepening our understanding of her conflicted, complex personality. Especially her facial expressions are so funny. It’s unusual for a kid in this animated genre to be so thoroughly fleshed out – she’s a great example of a character who can be hateful but still feel sympathetic to the audience.

Although Anzu is a supernaturally sized immortal “ghost cat” (the translation of the Japanese term “bakeneko”), Anzu himself behaves more like a slightly weird single 37-year-old uncle who likes Hawaiian shirts and farts loudly around the house . His facial expressions rarely change—his wide eyes are unreadable and his emotions are expressed mostly through masses of strangely floating beads of sweat. He has the comical flaw of being pulled over by the police for riding a motorcycle without a license and losing Karin’s money in a pinball machine. At times, he was the unfair target of Karin’s resentment, but as a member of her family, he loved her, cared for her, and sacrificed and suffered for her happiness. He is indeed a good cat.

Anzu isn’t the only strange creature. In this version of rural Japan, the supernatural is just another aspect of everyday life – so when we encounter the various monsters, they’re all going about normal human activities and no one bats an eyelid. Sure, tanukis can serve as golf caddies, and apparently human-sized frogs can dig giant holes and run their own private hot spring pools. A bunch of cute little ball-shaped tree elf birds, straight out of a Miyazaki movie, and a weird-looking mushroom guy round out the extremely colorful supporting cast.

While Anzu’s goofy antics elicited bursts of laughter from the festival audience, this is a slow-paced film with weird comic timing and takes a long time for anything to happen. occur. This isn’t necessarily a criticism; Many writers and directors have spent their entire careers making slice-of-life animations that celebrate the joys of slow living. So it’s surprising ghost cat anzu to such an exotic location—and disturbing – the location of the second half – shifts first from pastoral country life to urban Tokyo and then to the various levels of Buddhist hell, which is depicted as an upscale hotel populated by Chinese-style demons and the souls of the dead. Comparison with Hara Keiichiof colorful I pictured in my mind the scene of the recently deceased waiting in line to receive details about the fate of their souls from businesslike attendants.

I don’t want to spoil the details Why The characters end up in hell or whatever they do there, but the climax of the film is a truly crazy car chase involving a minibus full of demons, Anzu showing off his most dangerous motorcycle skills, and the madness Animated monster-driven sports car sequence. It’s all very silly, and while very entertaining for adults, there’s a disturbing element of rather brutal violence that’s clearly played for laughs. For young children, this may be too much, and the end result of these events may lead to challenging conversations with questioning children about Eastern concepts of the afterlife, which may require parents to enter a Wikipedia death spiral.

Its core is, ghost cat anzu The film tells the story of a young girl struggling with the scars death has left on her life, unleashing anger and resentment on those around her, bargaining to try to change her situation, and finding a way to gain acceptance. In fact, there is a bit of denial mixed in here and there. ghost cat anzuThe ending will divisive viewers because, while the central conflict is satisfactorily resolved, many aspects remain unclear. This is definitely not the kind of animated film you’d expect to see from a Western studio.

Even if you don’t like spin animations, don’t let that put you off ghost cat anzu. This is a very strange but entertaining movie, and while it seems like a silly comedy at first, it turns out to be deeply emotionally intelligent and funny. Karin creates a compelling and conflicted protagonist, ably supported by her charismatic and eccentric cat uncle. Recommended for fans of Japanese folklore, “difficult” girls, and fart jokes. Nya-ha-ha-ha!