Mindgame. Anyone Seen It? DVD Sneeked Out. With Subtitles.

Now THAT is some weird shit. Looks damn good.

Weird ... I hadn't heard of this at all until it turned up on Mark Schilling's year end summary at the Japan Times ... he makes it the #4 Japanese film of the year ... guess I'm going shopping ... should probably throw up a link to that article, too ...

Is it just me, or did anyone else get a Waking Life meets Dead Leaves vibe from that thing?

I was actually REALLY skeptical about this film.. I don't care for the "experimental" type movies, but damn this film is something awsome. The visuals are kinda f***ed up (in a good way), but the story is REALLY powerful... Serious, the trailer doesn't even begin to convey the emotional impact this film packs (at least for me).

The animation looks strangely reminiscent of the animation in the latter half of the anime series Samurai 7. Anyone else who watches that anime get that feel? I've only breezed through a couple of the latter ones and they had that same look in motion, dimension and perception.

It's too early in the morning for me to take a deeper look and see if it's related by production company and such. I need to go to work.

Pretty messed up find though. Niiice.

from looking at the stuff i saved about the film from earlier in the year, i spotted it thanks to looking up the studios site and seeing a chirashi for the upcoming cinema release which i seem to see was back in june... i thought : "theres one to look for an american disc of in the future" but when i saw the japanese disc has english subs it went straight on my list. should have the money to get it mid-week. cool looking trailer isnt it...

yep : finally ordered mine.... cool. with coupon its £21 for me.

mind arrived today : nice box etc... the films longer than i thought : 103 minutes... cool.

I just finished watching MINDGAME. Not expecting anything, the film is everything. In a few words,
inspiring, mesmerising, crazy, sad, nostalgic, fun.

This film is definitely, in anime sense, ranked above INNOCENCE in my heart.

For those who want the original, consider getting the R2 Jap now... the oversea edition will be edited. as from the interview in Japantimes below:

Q:I heard that the company is thinking of inserting the faces of foreign actors for the overseas version. How do you feel about that?

A:It's sad if the actors who appeared [in the original] are not [in the overseas version]. But that may be necessary to get foreign audiences to see it. There is also text that may have to be redone. But I want a lot of people to see and know about the film, so I don't mind if it's changed somewhat. The ideal would be to have a lot of people see it the way it is, but that may be difficult.

source: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?ff20040728a4.htm

i agree, watched it a couple of nights ago, and its an amazingly well done film. great story, very varied throughout... stunning animation thats a sophisticated as anything ive seen... and the vibrant colours are just astonishing... well worth the money. i am very VERY surprised this isnt getting major attention (on the "oldboy" scale) from asian film fans here in the west...

The trailer looks cool, but also kind of makes it seem like random madness. But from your reactions I understand it actually has a coherent story?

it's a coherant mad story, so it does go all over the place in a coherant manner... it's very odd, but not straight-forward (remember, it's animated cos it couldn't be done as live action movie). try and check it out, as it may be slowish to get going, but by the end i am sure many will be convinced this is a stunning film, and a major new talent to watch...

I really do want to check it out, it's just that... for a DVD of a movie I haven't seen yet fifty bucks is a bit much.

99% of what i buy is a blind-buy. with all the information, opinions, trailers and sites around it shouldnt be that difficult to judge if somethings of interest... i rarely feel i have gone wrong with a choice, as the added bonus with foreign movies as blind-buys is that theres been a lot of sifting and judgement done to decide on the worth of the product before subtitles are added or distribution deal made with other countries...

Seen it, ADORED it. What I love is that it's a massively experimental movie that manages to be totally unpretentious and filled with genuine emotion.

It has such a deep kick to it, especially towards the end. There are stunningly powerful montages in the film that have a sort of gut-wrenching honesty to them.

That's what got me most about this film. Its unabashed honesty, that real pain in the face of our intense battle against the limitations of humanity.

glad you lked it...

! Thaks so much for the links to buy the dvd, I was looking for them for a while, this stuff looks SO GOOD I just HAVE to have it.

let us know what you think of the film eva...

It blew my mind straight away. One of the best animes I have seen in my life.WHAT A DRUGLESS TRIP!