Synopsis: Neo-Tokyo, 2019 — a government agency experiments with giving children psionic powers, with potentially deadly results.

I’ve actually been meaning to revisit this movie for a while. I originally watched Akira a few years back — it was one of the first animated films from Japan (more concisely known as anime) that I ever saw, and it really solidified my admiration for anime, and also (if I’m remembering this right) helped to reignite my interest in animation in general. So obviously, my memory of this film is that it was really, really good. But did it hold up?

Yes. Yes it did. I’m a sucker for films that present a dark, dystopian take on a future society (stuff like Blade Runner and Brazil) and this is one of the best. The film’s vision of Neo-Tokyo in 2019 is always visually stunning. And in fact, this whole movie is a definite visual treat — from the haunting opening moments of Tokyo being decimated in a nuclear blast, to the bizarre, somewhat baffling but still-awesome conclusion, this is a movie that always looks really good. The animation is top notch (plus, it’s kind of refreshing to watch old-school traditional animation with very little computer assistance) as is the visual design of the film.

Of course, there’s the narrative, which is condensed from the 2000+ page comic (which I have not read). It starts out simply enough, with the shenanigans between two rival motorcycle gangs, though as it goes on it becomes somewhat more complex, leading up to a conclusion that probably raises as many questions as it answers. I wouldn’t say that’s a bad thing, though. Did I understand everything about that ending? No. Did I enjoy it? Definitely. As I said in my post for 2001, I think there’s something to be said for an ending that leaves some things ambiguous and invites debate.

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Synopsis: After waiting for most of his life, a famed Kabuki actor finally sees his opportunity to exact revenge on the three men responsible for the death of his parents.

Yeah, so I was hoping to watch 12 Angry Men next — I went to the mailbox today all set to pick up my copy of the film, but alas, just bills and junk mail. That left me with only one other list-related option for today: An Actor’s Revenge, which is unavailable on DVD, but of course, available on the internet. Hey, it was either that or not watch it (which, in retrospect, may have been the preferable course of action).

I’ll admit that I had never even heard of this movie prior to flipping through the list, nor had I heard of its director, who was apparently quite prolific in Japan. 1001 Movies calls this “one of the most outrageously entertaining Japanese films ever produced,” which I can’t really say I agree with. On a technical level I admired it quite a lot — the direction, cinematography and score were all quite striking and certainly memorable. The whole look of the film is extremely stylized, and so on a visual level alone it remained entertaining for a while. However the narrative was exceptionally muddled, and there were parts where I had a hard time figuring out what was going on (though it probably didn’t help that as the film went on my attention was really starting to wane).

What else to say about this film? It’s a movie about revenge, which makes you think it’s going to be much more compelling than it is — however, Ichikawa piles on superfluous side-characters and odd asides which really add very little to the film itself. The review in the book states that “the conventions of kabuki theater are affectionately parodied,” so… maybe I needed to know more about kabuki theater to really appreciate this film? I always knew that my lack of kabuki knowledge would come back to haunt me one day.

All in all I’m not sure if I agree that this is one of the essential films of all time, but the visuals were so impressive I’m almost ready to give it a pass just for that.

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