Memories
Although these three shorts were made to be shown together, they have little  in common beside lavish production values. In "Magnetic Rose," a two-bit  salvage rig answers an SOS in deep space from the palatial ship of a former opera  diva. Koji Morimoto (Fly Peek!) blends shimmering visuals and snatches of Puccini, turning  the derelict vessel into a lovely, fatal siren's song. Nerdy researcher Nobuo  Tanaka takes an experimental drug and begins emitting a murderous gas in  Tensai Okamura's (Kikaider) "Stink Bomb." Too silly to be scary, but too grim to be funny,  it's the weakest entry. In "Cannon Fodder," Katsuhiro Otomo (Akira) uses long tracking  shots and an acid palette of khaki greens and faded reds to depict a militarized  civilization where gargantuan machines dominate vapid little people. This  brief but timely vision of the insanity of war suggests a mixture of 19th century  Prussia and World War II Japan. (Rated PG-13: profanity, violence, tobacco and  alcohol use)--Charles Solomon