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| Overall | Art | Animation | Character Design | Music | Series Story | Episode Story | Reviewer | |
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| Avoid | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 2 | Nyuu-chan | # | |
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I'm generally very interested in historic anime such ash Barefoot Gen or The Grave of the Fireflies, so when I saw this title in the bargain bin at the Right Stuf for six bucks I thought, "What the hell?" and bought it. I should have kept my money. And I'll tell you why. For the sake of convenince, I'm skipping over the details about the visual and audio aspects of this film and get straight to what I think is it's main problem: the story. (Actually, the sound and visuals were all pretty ordinary, not too bad, but not that great either.) What struck me as odd about this movie is there seems to be a profound lack of conflict to make the story even remotely interesting. Seriously, I can't say that main characters hardly faced any sort of opposition at all. Here's what happens. Chitose's younger sister dies early on in the film. Sadness is abound, but quickly forgotten. Chitose has a run-in with a down-trodden Korean lad and helps him out of a pond where he's just been tossed by some angry Japanese schoolyard bullies. Touching. Next, Chitose's nursemaid, also a Korean, is fired because Chitose accidentally sits down on a knitting needle she left lying around and ends up having to become a prostitute. At this point I'm thinking, "Well, maybe Chitose sees the plight of the Korean people and makes some child-like gesture to help them out. That would be pretty cute, I guess." Nah. No such thing happens. I'm a little dissappointed, but then I think, "Well, this movie is supposed to be about the suffering of the Japanese who are getting the results of their selfish land-conquering. Something deep like that will probably happen." Nah. None of that, either. The War begins. Chitose's dad is drafted into the Japanese army and goes off to war. There are a few months of tension and then he returns, discharged because he was sick. Came home without a scratch. Which is all well and good, but doesn't make for much in the way of drama. After the war is over, the Koreans and their new Russian alies take charge and force the Japanese out of thei fashionable homes and into two or three internment houses. Better than concentration camps, I suppose. Of course, the strong-willed Japanese escape and stow away on a train heading south to the 38th Parallel and, supposedly, freedom. They are disovered at the first stop by armed Russians. They get caught, right? How exciting!... no, actually, they run away quite easily into the woods where they move on foot to a small village. At the village, they find a Korean man who knows the easiest route to their freedom. Oh, the suspense! How do they get the information out of him? Well, actually, he just tells them. Why? I don't know. So, they are led to a hill they must run over to freedom. Of course, this place is watched 24/7 by Russian snipers. How dangerous! how do they ever escape? Well, they just run over the hill, actually. A few shots are fired, but they al make it over okay. The next thing you know, they're all on a boat home and the movie is over. So... there you have it. By the end of this film, I just had this profound feeling that I had just wasted two hours and six good dollars. I can't really recommend this anime to anyone who likes their drama-type movie to come with an interesting story. Maybe there's some kind of obscure Japanese film technique at work here, but I found this work totally boring and uninspired. Avoid it. Last updated Sunday, March 04 2001. Created Sunday, March 04 2001. | ||||||||
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Other Sites
| Name | URL |
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| Official Madhouse Japanese Series Web Site | http://www.madhouse.co.jp/works/w_ohoshisama.html |
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