"Akira" - 9/01/02 - 9/07/02

[Morticia]

This is a thread to discuss the technical and/or thematic merits of "Akira."

The purpose being to foster intelligent discussion of films without resorting to "It's a piece of crap." or "It's the greatest film ever." (And so that we all can gain a bit of a film education from everyone.)

We'll discuss a new film each week. Either slade or I will post the film in this forum in advance, and lock the topic until the first day of discussion.

Thanks everyone. We are excited and we hope this works (we're open to any ideas of how to make it better).

****SPOILER WARNING**** of course this entire thread is going to be full of spoilers.

[Naminator]

Oh boy, I've been waiting to talk about this one.

Should it be more to the definition of "Epic filmmaking", or "Flashy Blockbuster that Doesn't Make Any Sense When Finished"? I must admit, it took me awhile to figure out the story in its entirety, but when i did, i realized what an awarding experience the film was to watch.

First off, for anyone "confused" by the ending, this is a summary of what happened to help clarify things:

First, the Japanese government decides to research certain individuals who possess psychic-type powers. They find a bunch of children and groom them to be able to harness these powers. One of these children is named Akira. He fritzes, and he creates the explosion that starts World War III and creates Neo-Tokyo. To prevent this from happening again, they take apart the body of Akira and they convert it into mechanical form for storage. Later, the General starts up a foundation in researching the process of Akira, while continuing to "Groom" the people containing psychic powers, which include those 3 pale children who look like freaks. When they discover Tetsuo is a harnesser of this power, they try at their hardest to try and contain it. But of course, with all of the hatred developed by Kaneda, he goes on the fritz, much like Akira itself. He goes on a path of destruction, etc, etc. So when Kaneda and Tetsuo show off in the Olympic Stadium, he develops that scary shit freak status because the power overwhelmes him. But, the mechanical form of Akira tries to save them, while showing Kaneda the memories he holds of what happened. The rest is history.

Now, the first time i saw this, I had no idea what happened. Much like Fight Club, i just kinda sat and stared into space. But after "repeated viewings" (Along the lines of 10, actually), i think i finally got the message it was trying to convey. Blame it on bad translation, I dunno, but it sure didn't make sense the first time you watched it.

But once i understood it, i could really watch it and enjoy what was going on, and the pain Tetsuo was having. He's having this enormous life force breathing down on his neck, and with all of the hate and jealousy in his system, it proves fatal, much like greed. With this, a message is conveyed that power is deadly in the wrong hands (Lord of the Rings, anyone? ).

But hey, it's an entertaining light show, and a very entertaining movie. Despite the flaws related to the first showings of the picture, if you hang in there and really look into it, it's a very good film that should be seen by others.

The only other flaw i could think of would be a weak love story, and although it proves to be necessary to show how Kaneda was following Kai around, it just seemed kinda dumb when nothing happened between them at the end. Also, bad dialogue was a problem

Score: 9 out of 10

[limacharliewhiskey]

This was probably one of the first anime films designed for both the Japanese and American audience.

I remember hearing about the making of this film when I was collecting the Marvel/Epic comics translated adaptation of the original manga comic books of Akira.

What makes this movie interesting is that the comic series was not yet completed when the movie came out, so creator Katsuhiro Otomo wasn't really sure what the ending was or if it would make sense.

Essentially, the movie is a condensed version of the first 3rd of comic books, and the last tenth of it forms the last 20 minutes of the movie. What didn't get adapted to film was about 60% of the middle story in the comic books. This is why there seems to be such a drastic jump of logic in the movie between the first 1.5 hours and the last half hour.

When you just watch the Akira film, it doesn't make sense in the last half-hour. It becomes somewhat similar to "2001", where you just say to yourself, "WTF just happened?! WTF is going on?!" I watched it 5 times, and I still didn't know what to make of it, just like "2001".

Maybe 4 or 5 years later, the manga comic book was completed and the final issues translated into English. Watching the film again after reading the entire comic series again, the ending does make a lot more sense. But there is more of an explanation for who and what Akira is in the comic book that is never really explained clearly in the film.

In the film, Akira appears to be a human form of a nuclear bomb. In the comic book, Akira is more or less the next stage of human evolution, where the power he can generate is equivalent to the power of the Big Bang that created the universe. Akira has the power to transport himself in time and space to create a new universe, which is what happens at the end of the film, where you hear the words, "I am Tetsuo." At least this is how I've interpreted it during my last reading of the comics and viewing of the film. Who knows, the next time I see it, I might interpret it differently.

Just like with most books, when they're adapted into a 2-hour film, they really don't do the original story any justice, as the film tries to cram in too much info in too short a time period. Akira falls right into this category, too.

It's still a visual feast to watch and a great introduction for any newbies to anime.