in the shell

Just got my hands on The Sky Crawlers this past weekend. The flow of the movie seemed very Oshii. In addition, the personality of one of the main characters, Kusanagi Suito, reminded me of the Major. Maybe being a Kusunagi will do that to you. Anyway, just wondering if anybody else here has seen it and whether they felt the same vibes coming from Kusunagi-san.

I've seen it already about 10 times in the last week (since its release! )

The movie, up until the very end, is the only movie to have emotionally hit me with the strength that the first Ghost in the Shell film did. It was like a sledge-hammer.


Kusanagi was obviously made from a mold not much distant from Motoko Kusanagi. The character's appearance in several shots was identical to Motoko's body at the end of the first film, the attitude, the detachment, the questioning character.

But since I have to go right now, I'll talk more about it later, since I need to go for about an hour.

(It's going to be a long post).

Oh, wow. I trust you guys. I'll go watch it.

Alright, here's what I have to say about the film - It was one of the most sound and incredibly fluent films I've seen by Oshii.

The sophistication of his work seems to flow here with a depth unrivaled.

It shows that he had an easier time with this film than he did with Innocence - Innocence is notoriously the most difficult film he's worked on, but with this he got to deal with a thematic that he was very familiar with - a world he could craft on his own volition from his beloved places - Poland and Ireland (mainly Poland). The locales are aged buildings, quiet living areas breaming with silence, solitude, and a peaceful demeanor unfelt in this scope through any of Oshii's previous films. The peace is such a strange, yet perfectly parallel tone to add to a movie in which war is the main means of entertainment miles above the land, high in the ethereal skies that are portrayed so perfectly.

The characters are just as docile as the environments that they occupy. Kildren are the essence of what one would imagine a bubbly younger person to be in appearance - round faces, stocky bodies, yet everything about their attitude suggests someone aged, almost in a drugger or hypnotic state of contentment with their situation. That or severely questionable carelessness toward it all.

Much like the blue endless stretches of sky, the characters float non-stop through their indistinguishable todays, yesterdays, and tomorrows. The most alive creature in the film as per with Innocence is again the Basset Hound.

Just like the weather throughout the movie, and the natural world, the skies aren't always perfect blue - rain comes, and it comes heavily over time upon the shoulders of the main cast, Suito Kusanagi, and Yuichi Kanname. Two characters, one completely aware and living in the turmoil of the story's final dilemma, and one obliviously floating from day to day like most of the Kildren do.


Love, despair, prison, freedom, all of the elements of questioning and hopelessness, and the ever happening chase toward some sight of future, a hopeful promise haunt the plot of the movie, the combat becoming nothing more than the beautiful, meaningless babble for us to relax with and contemplate the situation that these people are in.

The plot is like the sky - it crawls slowly around, and while it's a detrimental and ever-present part of our world, we never notice it: much like these immortal children.


mm

very much a character driven film...a lot is put into character development and takes the time to show pauses and thoughtful reactions. music was great, story really draws you in.

GhostLine wrote:very much a character driven film...a lot is put into character development and takes the time to show pauses and thoughtful reactions. music was great, story really draws you in.

Glad you thought so. I'm absolutely entranced with this film.

i liked kusanagi's theory on how humanity needs war in order to grasp peace.... she definately had motoko's zen quality. to be honest, i was trying to figure out who those figures were on that shelf behind her as she was talking about it....

One thing i caught in the story was the Camus quote Yuichi made that Suito caught. That was the line the main character in The Stranger says was the reason why he killed the guy on the beach. I kinda took Yuichi's quote to say he had killed some people....