Pharonic Fantasy Theatre: Short Films, Short Reviews

This is going to be a short review (Promise!) because I’m tired out from work and other stuff. Today’s movie is an anthology film, made up of three separate short stories.

Theatrical Film, 1995

Directors: Kōji Morimoto, Tensai Okamura, Katsuhiro Otomo

The Story

Magnetic Rose: A deep space salvage crew runs across a distress call coming from a ship in the middle of a dangerous magnetic field. After investigating, they find that the ship is one big shrine to the life of an opera singer of the last century. Both delights and dangers await them as they explore the memories and psyches of both the diva and ultimately themselves.

Stink Bomb: A bumbling Japanese lab worker accidently swallows some secret pills thinking they are flu medication. Hilarity ensues as he starts emitting a poisonous gas killing all around him with him completely unaware of what’s going on. Determined to get to Tokyo to deliver the pills to his company’s headquarters, he finds himself mysteriously under attack from the military. Will the Japanese SDF be able to stop this human biological weapon from reaching the capitol and killing untold millions of people?

Cannon Fodder: In a town where all the buildings are topped by enormous cannons the citizens are always at war. The people exist only to load the guns, fire the guns and strive to win a war against a foe they never see.

Review

This is a very good movie. It’s movies like this that show the true potential of anime and of animation in general to tell stories and elevate the medium to true art.

Magnetic Rose: This is the longest of the shorts, and could have easily have been its own movie. It kind of struck me as being a Japanese Twilight Zone meets The Shining. I don’t think it’s quite the absolute masterpiece that everyone else who’s seen this movie says it is, but it is very good. It's very atmospheric, and the music (courtesy of Yoko Kanno) is very good as well as very fitting. The characters are well fleshed out and easy to relate to, which is quite a feat considering this is short film with only 45 minutes to have character development in.

Stink Bomb: This is a hilarious satire of human stupidity. Not only does it ridicule the standard subjects of satire – the government and military – it also takes on the Japanese corporate mentality and human obliviousness in general. Nobuo is not only so stupid that he can’t put one and one together to realize that he’s causing all of the death around him, he’s a complete unthinking corporate drone to boot. The Japanese are known for being fiercely loyal to whatever company they work for, and this is riffed on stupendously in “Stink Bomb.” Nobuo will not let anything, not soldiers, not tanks, not helicopters, nor even his own grandmother stop him from reaching Tokyo. And the government is just as bad, trying to kill him as a first option instead of just dropping a note to explain the situation to him. Truly a tales to warm the cockles of your heart.

Cannon Fodder: This is always painted by others reviewing this movie as solely a portrayal and satire of fascism, but I think it’s a metaphor for life itself. I think that it is more specifically a metaphor for the life of drudgery that a majority of the world’s population endures – the poor souls who get up everyday, trudge into their job and do monotonous work all day before going home to repeat the cycle all over again. Anyone who has worked in the fields, in a factory or even in retail or at a restaurant… anyone who works as a tiny cog in a soulless machine – especially in a soulless machine spouting bullshit propaganda (whether government or corporate) – anyone who doesn’t get to utilize any sort of creativity or true intelligence or passion in their work… anyone who endures that will be able to relate to this film.

This film is highly recommended. Not one of the absolute best movies ever made, but very entertaining and unlike 99% of the movies out there will actually make you think.

Screenshots