'Neo-tokyo is going to change soon... We need only wait for the wind which will make it fall to fruition, the wind called Akira'
Akira 9.1
The film opens with the destruction of Tokyo by a huge bomb in world war 3. 31 years later, a rebuilt city is again at war, but this time the war of motorcycle gangs. Tetsuo- a lowly gang member is injured in a crash with a child, who seems unharmed, and taken away by a shady looking government agency and examined before he escapes back on to the streets, but he has been changed forever. Now a high priority to the agency, he is recaptured. Another group, including his fellow gang member Kaneda, break in to get him out.. but he has been irreversibly altered by his encounter with the child and his treatment. He is no longer entirely human, he has God like mental powers, but crucially still retains the same personality and motivations. There is too much plot detail to go through, suffice to say there are many cool ideas in the story.
Within 10 minutes we have had gang warfare, a bike chase and deaths, and then comes the moment of an odd looking child with special powers, the one who is later crashed into. We see as the child, who has wrinkled, blue-ish skin, sees a man who was leading him (i dont know if it is a relative or not) shot dead and screams, causing all the windows around him to shatter, showing us there is more to this story than it seems. Whatever powers the boy posesses, he is jotnin control of them. The world around these characters is exposed to be very different to how they thought it was. As in the Matrix, the rules of life change half way through, and everyone has to get used to it. There is something about the angle of the shot of the child's face screaming and the sound design that has made it stick with me, it's one of my favourite moments of the film. At this point, the opening had done it's job, the film had me entirely. In the same way The Dark Knight (and most other Chris Nolan films, and countless others through film history) opening introduces the setting and characters, sets the tone, starts a crazy plot, and crucially gets you immediately invested, this does the same, almost as well as any other film I have seen. Many top quality openings can all but make the film, some of my favourites include Oldboy (2003), The Shining, Contact, Hidden (cache), Sunset Boulevard, Matrix, Inglorious Basterds, La Haine and Halloween.
It may be reasonable to presume that things will settle down after such a high energy opening, but quite the opposite. Where the story goes is extraordinary. After Tetsuo rejoins his gang, he starts getting nasty visions and is taken back into the custody of the agency for further tests while the visions continue. Alot of these visions, like his guts spilling out, are some of the most imaginative scenes ever in animation, which is saying alot. The sound design is important during these sequences, often things go silent for a moment, there is no background noise, whereas there almost always is in the rest of the film, so we are focused on what we are seeing, as Tetsuo is. I especially love the scene where he's in bed with the miniature and giant Teddy bear - its genuinely disturbing. It is crucial that they come at any time and can be within a scene of real truth, so that we can question from then on if all that we are seeing is truth or if some is wholly or partially within his head, a nice plot device for the last act.
The scale of the plot's events expands as the film goes on. During the last act in the stadium, the story has taken on a complete sense of gleeful abandon. So much happens in the last 15 minutes that it can be confusing, but still is an achievement of the production that it all hangs together. You do need to pay attention but perhaps you're best just to let it happen and not to apply too much logic, at the same time, we are kept grounded by seeing some of Tetsuo's early memories from school at the very end, which gives a bit of crucial insight and is always effective if you are invested in the character. The first time I watched the film I thought perhaps it is taken just a touch too far for me, it was hard to keep up with, but now I appreciate how the filmmaking commits purely to the nature of the story at that point - Tetsuo becoming invincible, flying into space, becoming a huge blob etc. - anything goes by then. I suppose it is important that Tetsuo, who at this point is just a vessel, is entirely transformed and unrecognisable by the end, after all this is something of a cautionary tale - if he wasn't so bitter about being second best in the gang to Kaneda, and if the world around him wasn't so ravaged by war and almost unliveable, perhaps he could have made more use of these powers, but that is missing the point really. All of this means that the shocking, beautiful, transcendant, confusing, powerful ending is apt and right. Still to be picky, I do find myself slightly wishing we had more time when Tetsuo was getting used to his new powers- visions etc, which I love so much.
There is of course a question mark over the very end and what happened to Tetsuo. In terms of timelines, I like to think that perhaps this is all just the end of this current cycle and it will all happen again in the future with other people? Does Tetsuo become the god of all creation? He certainly is on some higher plane - the final line, calmly spoken in an echoey voice as if from on high 'I am Tetsuo' makes that pretty obvious to me. I have no doubt it is meant to be open to interpretation. All of this has a very 2001: A Space Odyssey vibe about it (and given that for me it's the best film ever made, it's never a bad thing) it won't make any sense if you've never seen the Kubrick classic, but it asks some of the same questions of it's ending.
I mentioned in my review of Limitless about the idea of unlocking brain power, and how well it is done in Akira. Interestingly it's written well enough that you never forget that Tetsuo not only is a kid from the streets so has no reason or inclination to not go on a rampage, but also he has no control, that he is a product of experimentation or chance and he never asked for this, you really feel for him. The perspective of the script is certainly on the side of him and the kids and against the organised forces that govern them, and by extension, those that cash the cheques - there's a nice moment where one of the government controllers tries to flee with millions he has made, but he dies in an alley surrounded by his money, which is now entirely worthless.
Who or what Akira is or was or represents, isn't made explicitly clear. Everyone seems to know the word as part of a prophecy, at the end we see a boy with that name, but I don't think it's meant to be that simple. It seems to me that Akira is an incarnation of the next level of human evolution (more 2001 vibes) which cannot be controlled and could theoretically come through any person at any time, perhaps the boy was the first to stumble across it. In which case, the children with the blue faces may be those who have almost reached that stage but have been able to control it through medication and training. One of the special children, a girl, is clairvoyant and warns of the city crumbling, killing many. She also says not to let Tetsuo leave, he is obviously important to the future in some way. It is not discussed whether these children were created by the agency or other forces, or were they born different and are being collected? But her predictions mostly are truthful.
It's easy to simply focus on the craziness of the story but the script actually gets alot in, it deals with revolution, oppressed youth, government meddling, poverty of the masses, religious/prophetic beliefs, evolution, human individuality,
greedy capitalism and corruption.
The extremely complex feeling concept and plot comes in part from the storytelling and isn't necessarily just a feature of Anime, although there are many others that deal with similarly big ideas (Ghost in the Shell is the obvious example, it is often mentioned in the same sentence as Akira) - I have found this is often the far Eastern film style. I've spoken about this before, about how that part of the world seem to take a more symbolic and metaphorical stance to story telling, which can sometimes alienate a Western audience. Often dream sequences or imagination is shown on screen with no warning leaving the reality under question, which can be confusing. Also the film is based on Japanese Manga ie. comic series. I have never had any comics, but for those that are familiar, I imagine the film would make perfect sense given the source material. This style of film is taken more seriously than it is in other parts of the world, which I think is a shame. All over the world modern Hollywood is known for making easy films - not easy to make - but easy to experience. That's why when more intelligent high profile releases like Inception or Ex Machina come along, they are often critically well acclaimed.
Akira is technically brilliant on almost every level, and visually a masterpiece. I like alot of the music, although some of it may have dated, as have the fade-outs at the end of most scenes - which I have never really been a fan of, but the visuals have aged remarkably well over 30 plus years. Alot of the imagery has since become iconic; the racing motorcycles with the red spectral light trail behind, Kaneda's red jacket with the pill on the back, his red motorbike and Tetsuo's red cape. (I'm sure it's no coincidence they are all red) I am a fan of all sorts of animation, and the style can go a long way towards affectively tellung the story. There is a wonderful French semi-silent animation called the Illusionist, animated with very true to life scales and details, in very neat, mostly soft pastel tones which reflects the tone of the sweet, gentle story. Another maybe even better silent French one, Belleville Rendesvouz, is entirely different, almost childishly drawn, most objects and characters are caricatured, just like the story. Think of others like the nostalgic feeling The Snowman, the contemplative feeling Persepolis/Waltz with Bashir, the retro feeling The Incredibles and Gothic feeling Corpse Bride, all use their aesthetics to aid the storytelling. Akira uses the stereotypical, immediately recognisable Anime style, like the background motion lines to show fast movement, colourful designs, fashionable 'costumes', sharp edges and lots of lights. This lends itself well to the fast-paced, high concept story. I love the detailed animation of the cityscapes, the city is an important part of the story which helps drive things forward and is shown as a depraved, almost apocalyptic waste zone. It reminded me of things like A Clockwork Orange and Blade Runner in that sense.
Perhaps one thing lacking from hand drawn Anime and other more primitive forms is detailed facial expressions. In live action we can look at a character's face and have almost limitless impressions of their thoughts, which isn't really possible here. So in animation of this sort the expressions are all to the extreme, and aided by the verbals, so there isn't all that much in the way of character subtlety, but amazingly it doesn't get in the way of the storytelling, especially in a story this extreme, based in this sort of world. But even much more nuanced stories in Anime films (the girl who leapt through time, grave of the fireflies) still lose no emotional impact because of this, they have to rely on other aspects of the production, as is the genius of the mood setting, music and set-up in those cases.
When people think of Anime features, they probably think of Studio Ghibli, which is often referred to as the Japanese Disney, who mostly make wonderful, altogether friendlier, more universal films than Akira. But whoever said animation is just for kids and can't be extreme? This is a very adult film with lots of violence and blood and I think the subject matter really suits the look about perfectly. This style almost certainly was one of the many inspirations for Tarantino's animated sequence in Kill Bill. This would be next to impossible to make in live action, although there have been rumours of it for ages but nothing as of yet, perhaps no-one has a spare £500 million. It could be done in CGI of course but then you would have the same issue I've mentioned before that it feels like there's not as much artistry or skill in it, and certainly not the same connection with the viewer. This nature of animation gives the creators more artistic freedom than any other medium, and in this case they really use it to the fullest.
This I think is one of the most exhilarating films ever, and I can't stop thinking about it. I have said many times about the importance of a film staying in your thoughts, with this, you don't realise the effects it's had on you until long after it's finished, which in itself is remarkable, as is the detail you see after multiple viewings. I have seen quite a few Anime films, this may not be my absolute favourite but for it's uncompromising ambition, vision and imagination, it is hard to beat.
N.B.
There are Japanese cult films called Tetsuo, about people that change into cyborg like creatures. I wonder if the word Tetsuo had a metamorphic meaning in Japanese?
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