Change Your Image
Hyathin
Reviews
Glamour (1999)
stunning visuals, great soundtrack
I saw this at the 2001 Seattle International Film Festival and loved it. Not many people went to see it, but it seemed to me that most of them enjoyed it. I would like to mention that this movie won a Jury special prize at Festroia-Troia International Film Festival, Grand prize at Hungarian Film Week, and was the Oscar submission for Best Foreign Language Film (I assume for Hungary).
I don't remember much since then but thought that the movie deserved a good review to match the bad one. The cinematography is beautiful in this movie. And I felt the effects for the surreal moments were done quite well. The characters were lovable and I didn't find the movie to be lagging or tedious (caution: I really like slow-paced movies). The music composed for the sound track was also excellent. And I asked the director (who was at the film festival) if he would send me some, which he agreed to, but sadly it never happened.
All in all I would recommend this movie, and I would watch it again if I had the chance.
Kôkaku kidôtai (1995)
erratic and lacking
Though this movie does have a few good moments and pretty good animation it is overall a grand disappointment. I dare say that the only people who will like this are those who never read the manga. The movie is seriously lacking so many of the elements of the original story line presented in the comic. Normally you can excuse it because they can't put it all in, but the result is a movie that makes very little sense by comparison, at times is tedious, and left me going "What!? they screwed this all up!" The manga is worth good out a reading (if you can find it) and to me is a classic in a way. Shirow is one of the best artists and a good storyteller, after you get past his blatant perversion.
Don't see this, it's not worth it. Unless you got nothing better to do.