Film review: Summer Wars

   

Recently, I’ve re-watched Summer Wars, and my reaction was: director Mamoru Hosoda really knows how to make it BIG. It’s action-packed, it has explosive visuals, and a really modern story (at least for the moment it was released— in the year 2008). It explores what would happen if Japan depended on a single social network for EVERYTHING—from shopping and telephone calls to business and government. This social network is Oz, where everyone interacts through personalized avatars. In this setting, Kenji, a high school student who’s a mathematical whiz but a social klutz, is invited by Natsuki, a popular girl in his school, to spend a week with her extended family to celebrate her grandmother’s 90^th birthday. During his stay, he accidentally lets loose an unknown entity into the Oz world that hacks the network and halts not only all virtual but also external activity, as the entire nation depends on Oz in order to run. As the world falls into disorder, Kenji joins forces with Natsuki’s family to put an end to the hacker’s chaotic endeavors.

This is the best Summer Wars trailer out there, neither the official Japanese nor English trailers do it any justice:

 What really surprises me about this movie is that it’s the kind that I dislike the most: the blockbuster, guided by action, the kind that is made to entertain the masses, that is really commercial—here and there you see famous brands like Adidas, Apple, and Dell—and mainstream, in this case by Japanese standards (regarding the super anime styles found in the virtual world). However, strangely enough, this time I actually love all of its fast-pacedness. And why would that be? It’s because it’s done with CLASS. It all feels just right. Part of the things that makes up this CLASS is the story telling and the mastery of cinematic techniques. Sure, the film’s fast-paced on the whole, but it knows when to pause or slow down in certain moments, whether it’s to introduce you to the virtual world and the extended Jinouchi family, or to portray the characters’ reactions to bizarre situations. And by slowing down, I don’t necessarily mean only that the action in a scene moves slowly, but also that a scene may be energetic, yet it lasts enough to be believable or to let sink in what’s going on. The use of cinematic techniques—such as camera movement and positions, editing, shot composition and the use of music—play an important role in these aspects. I’ve recently watched a really interesting video on You Tube that deals with Hosoda’s use of camera movement, by the way, and one of the things it mentions is how this technique helps illustrate the characters’ emotions. I really like how in this film, as well as in other Hosoda works, the use of these techniques are at the same level as those in live action films; he treats his animated movies as though they were live action in this sense. 

Another element that makes up the “class” in this movie is its sense of humor. Summer Wars is basically a comedy, there’s no drama about it; its main purpose is fun, the more dramatic elements aren’t principal to the plot and can be taken lightly. Really, when it comes to comedy, you can barely criticize a movie because it’s all just a goof off, there’s nothing to be taken seriously. The humor in Summer Wars is really wacky, and it’s found mainly in the realistic portrayal of a family reunion, which is one of the chief themes of the movie, in all of its informality: the kids running about, the aunts and uncles joking around, 

and Kenji having a headache trying to remember how they’re all related. Much of the humor is also found in the characters’ interactions, faces and movements. One part I really liked was when Kenji learns through television that he has been accused of hacking the Oz network, and he chases some kids in circles trying to take the remote control from them to change the channel, until he finally unplugs the TV. As the kids stand puzzled trying to turn the TV back on, you see behind them Kenji scrambling out of the room on all fours. The composition of that shot is really funny—the kids staring at the “fourth wall”—which would be the TV for them—and a clumsy Kenji in the far back. One other part was when the family finds out that Natsuki had made up a big lie; the camera is placed from Natsuki’s point of view and it pans speedily from one hysterical relative to another, each time getting closer. Again, here we see the clever use of camera movement that I had mentioned earlier. 

Finally, everything's so bold and visually stunning in the scenes inside the virtual world. The virtual avatars are depicted in highly colorful, cartoony anime styles. Here, you can really feel that the filmmakers are having a blast designing these avatars and imagining the internet world—and it’s mostly here is where the film feels BIG. It’s all so technological, so edgy, so avant-garde. Add King Kazma’s theme song, and it bursts with LIFE.

There’s one scene that serves as an example that sums up all of these elements, and it’s the opening credits scene. It shows you snippets of the setting and characters that you will be exploring for the next two hours: the Oz world, how people use it, a few members of Natsuki’s family, some talk about Natsuki’s grandmother in anticipation of her birthday, all the while with a humorous—yet not corny—orchestral track playing in the back. Just like an overture at the beginning of operas and ballets, which tends to be a medley of all of the main themes—well, basically, opening credits scenes are the same concept as an overture. It was at the end of this scene, where the blackened screen finally reads: “Directed by Mamoru Hosoda”, that I found myself saying: now THAT’S how a movie is done!

Two words for Summer Wars: fun and slick.

NOTE: This movie can be enjoyed ONLY if you are familiar enough with anime or at least with the Japanese’s tendency for crazy things. If you aren’t, it’s going to be a reeeeeeal pain. Also, it MUST be watched in Japanese with subtitles. It loses all of its charm in the English dubbed version.

2^ND NOTE: Another movie that’s also real commercial but worked out well is The Lego Movie, and it’s all for basically the same reasons as in Summer Wars.

Friendly Bunnies

                              Last year, my dear grandmother was given two new bunnies for companions. I love bunnies, since I used to own a couple long ago, and they were a big part of my childhood. That’s why I got excited over my Grandma’s new pets. They were a male and a female; we called the male Poi and the female Pia. Poi was really calm and tame, he’d let you carry him without a fuss, but Pia was a nervous wreck! She was too fearful. However, I liked that challenge and wanted to befriend her, try and show her that there was nothing to fear. So each time I picked her up, I wouldn’t pet her, let her roam on my lap. When I let her out, I wouldn’t follow her, except when I had to put her back on the cage. But what really allowed me to gain some of her confidence was the key to any animal’s: FOOD. These two bunnies were some real fatsos. So one time while they were running about, I crouched a little far from Pia and stretched out my arm towards her with a piece of lettuce, which she really liked. She approached and happily munched on it from my hand without fear. Next I held out pieces of the typical food bunnies are always given, and again she ate from my hand without a problem. It was a very nice moment. I really do enjoy friendly encounters with these kinds of harmless animals. 

Tren Urbano

                      

J’aime prendre le train à l’université. Des personnes m’ont dit qu’ils n’en trouvent pas rien d’amusant quand on le prend quotidiennement pour quatre ans pour aller à l’université, mais même a ma 5^e année de baccalauréat, je le prends avec la même illusion de la première fois. Je le vois avec des yeux d’artiste et de réalisatrice. J’aime l’atmosphère urbaine qu’il transmet. Je trouve fascinant ses mécanismes et son mouvement. J’aime le jeu d’illusion quand on observe le passage rapide du train de l’autre rail à la fois que le train où on se trouve marche ; quand on arrive à une station à la fois que l’autre train sortit ; ou quand on observe dès la fenêtre les personnes qui restent dans la station pendant que le train la quitte. Puis, le trajet lui-même est un peu comme un tour de montagnes russes. J’aime quand on entre le tunnel, et les fenêtres deviennent obscures. J’aime comment, dès l’intérieur, on peut s’imaginer que les portes peuvent être des portales magiques vers différents destins, donc la voiture ne marche pas ; ce qui marche est l’extérieur. Ce que j’aime le plus sont les vues dès la fenêtre. Une opportunité de voir où se déroule ma vie dès haut. Tous les toits des maisons, des urbanisations, les postes d’électricité, les roues, les bâtiments, l’embouteillage a l’autoroute. Voir comme chaque arrête est diffèrent. Le train offre tous sortes des jeux pour l’imagination, et je les prends avec le soin de ne pas manquer un seul, de les apprécier bien. Pour quoi ? Pour deux raisons principales. La première, parce qu’ils font la vie un peu plus interessante, si on le permet. La deuxième, parce qu'ils servent de source d’inspiration pour l’art, pour l’écriture ; il faut les explorer pour voir tout ce qu’ils peuvent offrir pour une bonne création. Je pense que c’est important aussi de capturer ces choses pour faire les personnes conscientes d’eux. Enfin, je veux partager avec les autres comment le train peut être une thérapie pour l’âme, pour réfléchir sur la vie et savourer sa beauté.

VILLAINS

When it comes to creating villains, I’m out of my comfort zone. It’s probably because of my extra positive personality. It’s not my thing to deal with negative stuff. I don’t like hard feelings, I don’t like bad, mean people, don’t know too much about them, either; I don’t get their psychology so much. It’s like, it’s hard for me to understand why people can be that way. Well, I actually do understand overall, life is not beautiful for everyone, depending on their circumstances. The problem is that getting in their shoes, empathizing with them, going into a deeper level—THAT is harder for me. That’s why, if I create a villain, it would feel forced. They tend to stress me out, in general, when I’m watching or reading them, especially when it comes to super hero villains. I find tiresome how writers have to be always coming up with how their villain will outwit the hero, and how the hero will overcome him anyways, but keeping it believable at the same time. I also find annoying and pretty childish how these super villains tend to have a motif which influences how they do their bad stuff.

However, there are villains who, even though they might stress me because of their evil, I respect and sometimes even enjoy. For example, Amon from The Legend of Korra. He really did spark fear in me, but I liked how he also inspired awe, there was some majesty to him. Even though he did not—apparently—have the power of bending (the power to control the elements, really useful in battle), he had remarkable skill in the martial arts that matched any bender, PLUS he had the power to actually remove that power. This made him feel truly unstoppable, and even more of a threat as a leader of an equality campaign against benders. The creators did a really good job with this villain, not to mention that his character design was really cool.

Now, there is one type of villain that I like best and with which I’m more comfortable as a writer, and it’s the kind that has a hard past, the kind that used to be good but changed due to a tragic or hard event. These tend to be more real, more believable, and more interesting as it’s more psychological. It’s the idea of a villain who’s got some good mixed within him. There are very popular examples, one being Snape from Harry Potter. The main reason why I like them is their passion and drama, which make them more romantic and thus entertaining. However, I don’t think that a villain should be given much merit because of how entertaining their story is. I think that the complexity of their psychology gives more weight, because that way it is more realistic, more solid, as human beings ourselves are very complex. Recently, I read about a villain who shares both of those qualities: it’s Shadar, from the video game Ni No Kuni. This character was once a wizard who served a powerful kingdom. One day, he was ordered to destroy an entire village, but he decided to rescue a child as he was horrified by the act. As a punishment for disobeying orders, his home village was burned in turn, not sparing anyone. This led Shadar to believe there was no good in the world, and thus become eee-vulll. HOWEVER, one interesting fact is that the purpose behind all of his dark acts afterwards was to end war—a noble goal, but through bad deeds. He became a fanatic. I was impressed by the powerful emotions and drama of this backstory as well as the complexity of the motivation behind this character.

Finally, there’s one other kind of villain which I find interesting, and it’s when you can’t tell on which side he’s on, or when he’s actually on no one’s side, OR when he switches from one side to another. I’m guessing that most people reading this would think of Deadpool as he’s extremely popular right now, but I’m not familiar enough with his character to talk about him. The only villain so far who—at the beginning—has left me very puzzled, was Axel from the video game series Kingdom Hearts. The main antagonists of the series is a group of entities, called Organization XIII. In one part of the story, Sora, the protagonist, has to go through a small group of members of this organization, Axel being one of them. However, he helps Sora eliminate them, but you learn later that they were actually a group of traitors who wanted to take control of their organization, and that Axel sought to eliminate them on the orders of the organization’s boss. So in the end of that chapter, Axel was really helpful, but was still on working on the bad guys’ side…or was he? Even though he gradually fell onto the good guys’ side, his actions and motivations weren’t very predictable, and I enjoyed the confusion he caused as an interesting hook onto the story.