Ni no Kuni (2019)
Awww man.
I really wanted to like this film. Like really wanted to like it. I'm not a huge fan of the games, and by that I mean I've never played them. The only thing I know about them is the brief period in which my sister played the second one, and the incessant use of the theme song. Boy did they play it over and over again. That tune is ingrained in my mind. It's so annoying, I'd probably lash out at anyone who played it. I'm not kidding. Play it. I dare you.
Anywho... I started this movie with high hopes. It's directed by the key animator of Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki, The Wind Rises) Yoshiyuki Momose, who also happened to work on Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom, the latest game in the Ni no Kuni franchise. It's styled like the Ghibli films of yonder, and its set in a lush high fantasy world akin to Sword Art Online's first arc. So, suffice to say it's jammed packed with things I love about anime. I was very excited to say the least.
But, as we all know, I'm rarely allowed two good things in a row. I had Tune In For Love, a beautifully crafted Korean movie that made me fall in love with films again, and then this. This is perhaps the most nonsense anime film I've ever had the displeasure of watching, and it's breakneck pacing, lackadaisical plotting and overall just general incompetence as a narrative don't help. I'll try and explain my feelings about this film as clearly as possible, but as of writing this sentence I have no idea how, so bare with me. This is as much a mystery to you as it is to me.
This film starts strongly. The two main characters Yu (Kento Yamazaki, Alice In Borderlands) and Haru (Mackenyu Arata, Sayonara Made No 30-bun) are best buds and at high school together. Yu is wheelchair bound, and Haru is a talented sportsman. They're friends with a girl by the name of Kotona (Mei Nagano, You Shine In The Moonlight) who is also dating Haru. Oh, and Yu fancies her too. So there's that. One day, Kotona gets stabbed by a mysterious assailant and the two lads are transported to a fantastical new world when trying to take her body to the hospital. Yu finds he can miraculously walk, and the pair encounter all sorts of strange new races and sights as they look for their friend. They come across a princess who looks a lot like Kotona and who is fatally cursed. They realise in order to save their friend, they must first save the princess. It's a good set up, and the fantasy world is brilliantly realised through the beautiful Ghibli-esque animation. Unfortunately, from then on this film just gets messy. It's borderline boring at times, but mostly just confusing.
The sheer amount of stupid reveals, twists and information dumped on the viewer towards the end, with so little set up at the beginning was an insulting way of concluding the film. The use of the theme song was brief (thank God) but was strangely used at what felt like an inopportune moment. Instead of the fight scene just before, it's used straight after. Why? It's a triumphant track, use it when they're fighting! The soundtrack is, for the most part, forgettable, which is shame as the original game's soundtrack was composed by the legendary Joe Hisaishi. But then again, the lacklustre imitation of a better piece of work seems to be this film's forte.
Furthermore, the fact that the world, characters and motivations have no set up, development or satisfying conclusion lead to a boring and uneventful film that feels three times shorter than its actual run-time. With a blatantly obvious villain telegraphed from the get go, an uninteresting, forced conflict between the two main characters, and a lack of depth in the lead female character (she is ill, dying or in danger the whole movie... yet another damsel in distress, Japan sure love em') this film lost me half way. I don't think I've laughed as hard as I did with this film. Quite literally, when the main villain reveals his five hundred identities (he can't just be a character we "totally didn't" suspect, but has to also be related to other characters and events barely mentioned, because otherwise it wouldn't seem like a SUPER EPIC twist, right?) I burst out laughing. Oh boy, I wish this had just been the theme song for 1 hour and 46 minutes. I could have handled that. To make matters worse, this bad boy ends on a weird Japanese pop song that feels so out of place, so that's something.
Frankly, this film was just an utter let down. It's rare we get Ghibli imitators, but often when they come around, they miss the mark. This lacks the world building, character depth and development, and interesting narrative that helps solidify Studio Ghibli films as the legendary pieces of art they truly are. This is a shallow, boring, messy film that could only hope to aspire to the films its trying so desperately to pay homage to (rip off is more accurate to be fair). I'm going to try and not let this ruin my opinion of movies, as I am so easily swayed by a disappointing film, and I'll keep up with these reviews and get back onto watching some more interesting flicks. But honestly, give this a miss; play the first game instead, I've heard its genuinely great. For now, I think I hear someone playing that theme song somewhere, and I'm not too happy about it.
3/10
I really wanted to like this film. Like really wanted to like it. I'm not a huge fan of the games, and by that I mean I've never played them. The only thing I know about them is the brief period in which my sister played the second one, and the incessant use of the theme song. Boy did they play it over and over again. That tune is ingrained in my mind. It's so annoying, I'd probably lash out at anyone who played it. I'm not kidding. Play it. I dare you.
Anywho... I started this movie with high hopes. It's directed by the key animator of Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki, The Wind Rises) Yoshiyuki Momose, who also happened to work on Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom, the latest game in the Ni no Kuni franchise. It's styled like the Ghibli films of yonder, and its set in a lush high fantasy world akin to Sword Art Online's first arc. So, suffice to say it's jammed packed with things I love about anime. I was very excited to say the least.
But, as we all know, I'm rarely allowed two good things in a row. I had Tune In For Love, a beautifully crafted Korean movie that made me fall in love with films again, and then this. This is perhaps the most nonsense anime film I've ever had the displeasure of watching, and it's breakneck pacing, lackadaisical plotting and overall just general incompetence as a narrative don't help. I'll try and explain my feelings about this film as clearly as possible, but as of writing this sentence I have no idea how, so bare with me. This is as much a mystery to you as it is to me.
This film starts strongly. The two main characters Yu (Kento Yamazaki, Alice In Borderlands) and Haru (Mackenyu Arata, Sayonara Made No 30-bun) are best buds and at high school together. Yu is wheelchair bound, and Haru is a talented sportsman. They're friends with a girl by the name of Kotona (Mei Nagano, You Shine In The Moonlight) who is also dating Haru. Oh, and Yu fancies her too. So there's that. One day, Kotona gets stabbed by a mysterious assailant and the two lads are transported to a fantastical new world when trying to take her body to the hospital. Yu finds he can miraculously walk, and the pair encounter all sorts of strange new races and sights as they look for their friend. They come across a princess who looks a lot like Kotona and who is fatally cursed. They realise in order to save their friend, they must first save the princess. It's a good set up, and the fantasy world is brilliantly realised through the beautiful Ghibli-esque animation. Unfortunately, from then on this film just gets messy. It's borderline boring at times, but mostly just confusing.
The sheer amount of stupid reveals, twists and information dumped on the viewer towards the end, with so little set up at the beginning was an insulting way of concluding the film. The use of the theme song was brief (thank God) but was strangely used at what felt like an inopportune moment. Instead of the fight scene just before, it's used straight after. Why? It's a triumphant track, use it when they're fighting! The soundtrack is, for the most part, forgettable, which is shame as the original game's soundtrack was composed by the legendary Joe Hisaishi. But then again, the lacklustre imitation of a better piece of work seems to be this film's forte.
Furthermore, the fact that the world, characters and motivations have no set up, development or satisfying conclusion lead to a boring and uneventful film that feels three times shorter than its actual run-time. With a blatantly obvious villain telegraphed from the get go, an uninteresting, forced conflict between the two main characters, and a lack of depth in the lead female character (she is ill, dying or in danger the whole movie... yet another damsel in distress, Japan sure love em') this film lost me half way. I don't think I've laughed as hard as I did with this film. Quite literally, when the main villain reveals his five hundred identities (he can't just be a character we "totally didn't" suspect, but has to also be related to other characters and events barely mentioned, because otherwise it wouldn't seem like a SUPER EPIC twist, right?) I burst out laughing. Oh boy, I wish this had just been the theme song for 1 hour and 46 minutes. I could have handled that. To make matters worse, this bad boy ends on a weird Japanese pop song that feels so out of place, so that's something.
Frankly, this film was just an utter let down. It's rare we get Ghibli imitators, but often when they come around, they miss the mark. This lacks the world building, character depth and development, and interesting narrative that helps solidify Studio Ghibli films as the legendary pieces of art they truly are. This is a shallow, boring, messy film that could only hope to aspire to the films its trying so desperately to pay homage to (rip off is more accurate to be fair). I'm going to try and not let this ruin my opinion of movies, as I am so easily swayed by a disappointing film, and I'll keep up with these reviews and get back onto watching some more interesting flicks. But honestly, give this a miss; play the first game instead, I've heard its genuinely great. For now, I think I hear someone playing that theme song somewhere, and I'm not too happy about it.
3/10
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