Imagine an animation whose driving metaphor is the sky, bustling with clouds and fighter planes. I would bet you are already thinking of adjectives like "action" and "fast-paced" to describe such a film. Well, think again.
In fact, Mamoru Oshii's latest feature film is surprisingly low-key. Fans of his previous work will not be disappointed, but even those familiar with his typical moody antics and his meandering, self-reflective style (from movies like Ghost in the Shell or Avalon) may find the pace of this film hard-going. Characters are distant and understated. Places are remote and static. Action is fleeting and almost random. Dialogue is sparse and vague. All of this makes for a challenging experience.
How, though, does it pay off? How does the film pull it off? Well, it is difficult to explain this without either giving too much away or saying far too little, but the main point is perfectly understandable without any spoilers: The salvaging fact of the movie is its logical progression towards perfect explication of its premises, towards perfect self-explanation. This film pays off wonderfully towards the end. The way it does it is being faithful to its own pace and rhythm. Yes: characters may be understated - but for a reason. Yes: places are remote - but for a reason. And on and on, so it goes... There will be a moment when everything just clicks into place. The serenity and straight-forwardness of the film is also its greatest strength. It is like a long algebraic expression that crunches away slowly in the background but ultimately overwhelms the viewer in a "Heureka!" moment. For a film that starts opaque, everything becomes transparent by the end. It doesn't rely on tricks or cheating the audience. It is a perfectly honest, and also perfectly brutally realist film. It makes explicit references to Camus, and this makes sense, in the context of the classically existentialist questions the movie raises. For its theme and mood, it feels very European and American (it even features quite a bit of English dialogue) and there's no Japanese "cutesy-ness" in the film. It is a very serious and mature movie, in a way that combines the best of both European literature and Japanese culture.
Despite its universal and abstract nature, and despite its stylized "alternative American" backdrop, the best reference point for the style of the film is the cinema of the masters of Japanese understatement, Yasujirô Ozu and Akira Kurosawa. Indeed, the movie's subtle aesthetic eye belongs to the tradition of the Japanese outlook on life crystallized in the concept of "mono no aware" (translatable as "transience of things"). If the movie is existentialist, it is so in a way that only a Japanese film can be. The movie, then, is very Japanese and very universal. It combines realism with symbolic and science-fiction elements in a way that is reminiscent of the equally slow-paced "spiritual materialism" of the master director Andrei Tarkovsky.
So, Sky Crawlers succeeds because it starts out with banally normal situations and people but, by the end, increasingly problematizes its own deceptive normalcy and shows the underlying tensions bubbling under the calm surface. In other words, the film is both straightforward and complex, both obvious and difficult, both down-to-earth and transcendent. This contrast between "ground" and "air" is, in a very obvious way, incorporated into the plot - it is, after all, a movie about pilots and airplanes, both on the ground and in the air. This is obvious, right? Well, yes, it is obvious, but it's also very difficult to comprehend and appreciate. This film doesn't show heroes or heroic deeds, it shows people in difficult situations. This movie is not about pilots and planes, but about what those pilots and planes represent. The symbolism of the film is very subtle, but it is this very subtlety that makes it so strong and compelling when it finally hits you! Slowly (as is intended) you get to see the greatness of this film, and the gravity of its themes. Like in Tolstoy's "War and Peace", the true genius is not in the description of banal dinner parties or whatever, but in the way all of this "normal" interaction is shown to be a facade through a careful elaboration of the underlying themes. A huge kudos to the script, which is an exercise in humanity and subtlety.
This marvelous ability of the film to be read on many levels at once - literal and allegorical - is what makes it such a pleasure to watch, at least for the most part. The pacing may be difficult, yes, but the pay-off is immense. It reminds me a little of David Lynch's "The Straight Story" where the simplicity of the plot is what makes it so good. The bottom line, you don't need to think about Camus, Ozu or Ghost in the Shell to appreciate this film. Even if it's not exactly easy entertainment, it works on the surface level of science fiction anime. I mean, it's simple (some would say banal), it's low-key (boring), it's marvelously atmospheric (slooow). All those qualifications can be read as good or bad signs, but if you're willing to invest a bit of time and effort into digesting the theme and message of the movie, you will be glad you did so, because Mamoru Oshii has given us another masterwork of adult animation.
In fact, Mamoru Oshii's latest feature film is surprisingly low-key. Fans of his previous work will not be disappointed, but even those familiar with his typical moody antics and his meandering, self-reflective style (from movies like Ghost in the Shell or Avalon) may find the pace of this film hard-going. Characters are distant and understated. Places are remote and static. Action is fleeting and almost random. Dialogue is sparse and vague. All of this makes for a challenging experience.
How, though, does it pay off? How does the film pull it off? Well, it is difficult to explain this without either giving too much away or saying far too little, but the main point is perfectly understandable without any spoilers: The salvaging fact of the movie is its logical progression towards perfect explication of its premises, towards perfect self-explanation. This film pays off wonderfully towards the end. The way it does it is being faithful to its own pace and rhythm. Yes: characters may be understated - but for a reason. Yes: places are remote - but for a reason. And on and on, so it goes... There will be a moment when everything just clicks into place. The serenity and straight-forwardness of the film is also its greatest strength. It is like a long algebraic expression that crunches away slowly in the background but ultimately overwhelms the viewer in a "Heureka!" moment. For a film that starts opaque, everything becomes transparent by the end. It doesn't rely on tricks or cheating the audience. It is a perfectly honest, and also perfectly brutally realist film. It makes explicit references to Camus, and this makes sense, in the context of the classically existentialist questions the movie raises. For its theme and mood, it feels very European and American (it even features quite a bit of English dialogue) and there's no Japanese "cutesy-ness" in the film. It is a very serious and mature movie, in a way that combines the best of both European literature and Japanese culture.
Despite its universal and abstract nature, and despite its stylized "alternative American" backdrop, the best reference point for the style of the film is the cinema of the masters of Japanese understatement, Yasujirô Ozu and Akira Kurosawa. Indeed, the movie's subtle aesthetic eye belongs to the tradition of the Japanese outlook on life crystallized in the concept of "mono no aware" (translatable as "transience of things"). If the movie is existentialist, it is so in a way that only a Japanese film can be. The movie, then, is very Japanese and very universal. It combines realism with symbolic and science-fiction elements in a way that is reminiscent of the equally slow-paced "spiritual materialism" of the master director Andrei Tarkovsky.
So, Sky Crawlers succeeds because it starts out with banally normal situations and people but, by the end, increasingly problematizes its own deceptive normalcy and shows the underlying tensions bubbling under the calm surface. In other words, the film is both straightforward and complex, both obvious and difficult, both down-to-earth and transcendent. This contrast between "ground" and "air" is, in a very obvious way, incorporated into the plot - it is, after all, a movie about pilots and airplanes, both on the ground and in the air. This is obvious, right? Well, yes, it is obvious, but it's also very difficult to comprehend and appreciate. This film doesn't show heroes or heroic deeds, it shows people in difficult situations. This movie is not about pilots and planes, but about what those pilots and planes represent. The symbolism of the film is very subtle, but it is this very subtlety that makes it so strong and compelling when it finally hits you! Slowly (as is intended) you get to see the greatness of this film, and the gravity of its themes. Like in Tolstoy's "War and Peace", the true genius is not in the description of banal dinner parties or whatever, but in the way all of this "normal" interaction is shown to be a facade through a careful elaboration of the underlying themes. A huge kudos to the script, which is an exercise in humanity and subtlety.
This marvelous ability of the film to be read on many levels at once - literal and allegorical - is what makes it such a pleasure to watch, at least for the most part. The pacing may be difficult, yes, but the pay-off is immense. It reminds me a little of David Lynch's "The Straight Story" where the simplicity of the plot is what makes it so good. The bottom line, you don't need to think about Camus, Ozu or Ghost in the Shell to appreciate this film. Even if it's not exactly easy entertainment, it works on the surface level of science fiction anime. I mean, it's simple (some would say banal), it's low-key (boring), it's marvelously atmospheric (slooow). All those qualifications can be read as good or bad signs, but if you're willing to invest a bit of time and effort into digesting the theme and message of the movie, you will be glad you did so, because Mamoru Oshii has given us another masterwork of adult animation.