From: rmc@wang.com (rmc)
Subject: Re: KOR movie
Organization: Wang Laboratories, Inc.
Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1992 15:47:49 GMT
	<RMC.92Dec29094945@miyazaki.wang.com> <1992Dec31.040245.15427@pegasus.com>

Hmm, i guess i need to try to explain why i find KOR disappointing,
especially the final movie.  I'm going to quote from Doug Cha's
(ranma@pegasus.com) article.  I hope it doesn't look like i'm picking
on him, especially since i use at least one quote badly out of context.

It's pretty obvious that KOR is pretty good, or we could not have this
discussion.  We're not talking about which mecha can beat up what
mecha, or whether Sakura-san is cuter than Kahm.  What we're looking
at is effectiveness in portrayal of emotion.  What we're discussing is
the the successes and failures of a particular instance of cinematic
art.  

Let's look at Doug Cha's best point:

>	Madoka's move to throw her lifelong friend away in pursuit of
>love is sad enough by itself.  It gives me shivers to just type that
>line out.  

This is a really fine story element.  It is emotionally powerful, it
is wrenching in its immediacy.  I have the highest regard for
Takahashi-sensei, but in all the stories i can think through by her, i
can't think of a single plot element quite this brilliant or powerful.
This is the kind of thing you find in Pushkin, or maybe DH Lawrence, 
not in inexpensive entertainment.  Actually, the closest parallel i
can think of is Zhivago's decision to leave his wife and kids for Lara.

OK, so what does our brilliant KOR director do with this plot element?

Well, all right, maybe we aren't supposed to be following Madoka's
feelings here.  After all, the real conflict is Kyosuke trying to
bring to a halt the three or four years of deception he's been
perpetrating.  We do get to see him agonize over having to make a
clean break.

So what are we given to work with when he finds out she has known of
his love for Ayukawa all this time, and patiently worked to turn it
around, and finally thought she had "won" when she kissed him?

Sigh, it's still really quiet here.

I'm no cimematic genius, but i would like to believe i would have
realized that this was the climactic movment of the whole
relationship.  I might have tried a couple of flashbacks to the times
where Kyosuke worked hardest to avoid being demonstrative in front of
Madoka.  Heck, maybe Madoka getting them to drink a soda together
after all the trouble Akane caused in OAV #7.  Or maybe, since it is a
standard device in all the KOR anime, i would have used one of those
interior monologues where Kyosuke's lucid explanation contrasts so
harshly with the inarticulate character we are watching in action.
But i would not have just let the issue drop with no comment.

It's not as if the director and script writer are incompetent or
incapable.  Waiting for the phone call between Kyosuke and Madoka may
be a bit of a cliche, but it was handled quite well.  And standing in
the store quietly, watching her sit on the bench in the rain, knowing
that the "human" thing to do would be to go and appologize, but not
doing it anyway because that's how he decided to handle breaking up.
There's a moment where i actually DID identify with Kyosuke, partially
because i was given the time and the visual stimulus to do so.

>	As the conclusion to a series spanning 3-4 years of the "spring-
>time of their youth", it's pretty damned sad.  

Yes, its sad.  With a bit more attention to showing conflicts, to
letting us live inside the skulls of the protagonists, this could have
been one of the best animated films.  Instead, it's just a movie.  Its
sad that a simple thing like working with the climax of the relationship,
orlooking at some of the consequences or motivation of the most
agonizing choice in the story could have...

>As a movie by itself, "Ano Hi Ni Kaeritai" isn't more than
>a very slow and very uninteresting movie at best.  It is not at all a
>very memorable movie.

Precisely.

Oh, bah humbug!

R Mark Chilenskas
rmc@wang.com