From: Andy
Message:
Riding past the oilrigs and open wastelands. Past the expansive fields
of wind turbines that no longer turn. Over the bridges over rank
polluted rivers and through the bellied nave of since-forgotten
cathedrals. Eventually youll reach ECOBAN, towering, earth-plunging
metropolis of light. ECOBAN feeds off the pollution from the air
surrounding it, is powered by the pollution. But for a decade the power
in the city has been falling so a plan is put in place to increase the
pollution so ECOBAN can survive. The ECOBANS plan to set fire to the oilfields.
Far away from ECOBAN, from its light but not from its influence, live
the Marrian, the underclass which suffers among the steel and dirt and
constant haze of fire and smoke. To the ECOBAN they disposable as long
as the city lives.
Among the Marrian works the two-part Resistance. 1 part hardnosed
muscled agitators called the Hot Dogs, 1 part wheelbound Dr, Noah, and
his brooding prodigy Shua.
Its Shua, under instruction from Dr Noah, that we first meet
infiltrating ECOBAN as part of a celebratory procession. He makes his
way to the central core and hacks into the system. He’s unable to finish
his task. His hack has set of the alarms and security come super-powered
hoverbiking in. One of the guards is female, red-haired, cute. Shua and
the cute redhead, Jay, have met before. As kids. When they were both
growing up within the protective embrace of the city. Before Shua
disappeared. Before Shua found himself in the barrenlands. Before Shua
had shown Jay one Wonderful Day when, having climbed out on an overlook
up in a forbidden part of the city, the dark oppressive clouds had
parted and the sun shone had down through shining blues skies, down on
their mesmerised faces.
Having covered Oldboy, and with still got the thrilling task of watching
Tale of Two Sisters ahead, I dropped this film on after my further
investigations into a previously-unknown Korean film industry revealed
this to be high up on the list of favourites of a lot of folks.
It’s a CG/cel animation mix. The CG is, while probably not as
monumentally exciting, to my mind, as awesome battle in Attack of the
Clones is certainly, in terms of detail and fluidity and camera-shaking
is on a par with it. The cel animation, while not up there with some of
the best Manga or Gibli productions, is still excellent. The combination
of both, and their seamless interaction, is astounding.
If there’s any failing in the animation, the story, the characters and
their journey more than make up for it. I think I was lucky and got
subtitles that made some sense. Apparently the English subs on the DVD
arent really up to scratch (fail to introduce character names until the
end of the film, fail to introduce major plot points or motivations),
but I followed, and was overwhelmed by the narrative.
For me this cocks Ghost in a Shell into a flat hat, and even Final
Fantasy with its state of the art CG cant match this in terms of
plotting or drama. Wonderful Days is a very subtle touching film, shown
not merely in the love story between the two principle characters, but
also through the commeradery in Team Hot Dog; the comedic Gollumish
dwarf (“I must be INVINCIBLE to survive THAT!) and his brawns-for-brains
sidekick. For parents wanting to get this for their kids, there is
shooting, machetes and a heap of bloodletting during the resistance
fighting which might not be suitable for younger audiences.
An astonishing film.
