You
could say Masaaki Yuasa’s anime cult classic is like Heaven Can Wait on some serious psychedelic hallucinogens. Or maybe
it is more like Pinocchio, but still
on mind-melting acid or mescaline. Kids, there is no need for drugs when this
movie exists. Strange and inconsistent, but clearly the work of a mad genius,
Yuasa’s freshly restored Mind Game (trailer here) opens this Friday in New York, at the Metrograph.
Yuasa’s
recent films, The Night is Short, Walk on Girl and Lu Over the Wall have
been acquired by GKIDS, who are also distributing Mind Game, but parents and patrons should understand clearly and
explicitly there is some very adult content in Yuasa’s semi-notorious 2004 provocation,
but his hyper-kinetic stylistic blender might be even more off-putting for
young viewers. Yuasa mashes together dozens of animation forms, including some
deliberately ugly, highly stylized live action sequences, but always with a
purpose, mind you.
Narrative
is not a strictly linear business in Mind
Game, but it largely follows thusly. Nishi is a profoundly morose slacker,
who happens to meet up with Myon, the old not-quite girlfriend for whom he has
been eating his heart out since their high school days. At the neighborhood
ramen spot run by her sister Yan, Nishi had hoped to proclaim his love for her,
but instead he meets her emasculating fiancé and is shot dead by an ex-soccer
star turned Yakuza.
Nope,
that’s not the end. Resentful that the disinterested God will not give him an
opportunity for reincarnation, Nishi makes a break for it back to Earth. Coming
to seconds before his murder, Nishi turns the tables on the Yakuza and drags
the confused Myon and Yan on a mad getaway flight that ends in the belly of a
whale. Therein starts the second act.
Actually,
mid-section gets rather bogged down in the whale’s belly, which is the film’s greatest
drawback. Frankly, there is a whole lot of story told in elliptical fragments
that could have replaced some of the whale languor. Granted, there is a point
to it all, that is actually totally on-point for our time: the uncertainty of
real life is ultimately preferably to the safety of a whale’s belly (embroider
that on a throw pillow), but viewers will miss the manic eccentricity that came
before.
Or
not. This is definitely a film for adventurous cult movie fans. Thematically,
it shares some similarities with Night is
Short, Yuasa’s best film to date, but aesthetically, Mind Game is entirely its own creature. Essentially, you just need
to roll with it, as it starts, stalls, and goes in dozens of directions
simultaneously. If you latch on to its wavelength, at some point, the
unruliness starts to click, but don’t beat yourself up if you never get there.
Still, this is a film serious fans and scholars of animation will have to deal
with, because it is so singular. Recommended for the rude and bold, Mind Games opens this Friday (3/2), at
the Metrograph.
