Jinsei: Animated J-Pop, Cults, and the End of the World

He is the new Man with No Name, but he is a Japanese pop idol instead of gunslinger—at least he was. He has various nicknames at various stages of his life, but his genuine identity is fluid and perhaps unknowable. Yet, violence regularly intrudes into his increasingly surreal world in animator-screenwriter-director Ryuya Jinsei, which opens Friday in theaters.

Hold on, because the opening scenes explaining “Se-chan’s” tragic early life flash by at nearly the speed of subliminal images. His stepfather Hiroshi tries his best, but life is hard and his stepson’s temperament is awfully dark—for good reason.

Not surprisingly, school isn’t much fun for the boy mockingly nicknamed “The Grim Reaper,” but much to his surprise, the handsome blond transfer student Kin befriends him. Through Kin, Se-Chan develops such proficiency in Idol-style dancing, they are both recruited by the shadowy idol mogul Shiratori for his next boy band. However, just when they are poised to break out, Se-Chan commits a shocking act of violence that temporarily derails his career (and life).

After that, things get weird for Se-Chan, or whoever. He transforms into a lowlife bar host, a nearly feral derelict, a holy fool guru, a New Age movie star, and perhaps even the next stage of post-human evolution.

Truly, the tone and style of Jinsei (which in English means life), is sort of like Spielberg’s AI, re-conceived by Terrence Malick, animated in the style of Yeon Sang-ho’s Seoul Station, and cut by old school 1980s MTV music video editors. It also reflects an emotional kinship with Tetsuya Nakashima’s overwhelmingly tragic and devastatingly ironic Memories of Matsuko. It’s a lot. In fact, sometimes Jinsei causes sensory overload. It also has a habit of strolling away from logical narrative structure. Nevertheless, it is boundlessly inventive.

Essentially, Jinsei turns into evolutionary-scale science fiction, comparable to the works of Olaf Stapledon. There is no question it gets messy and even indulgent at times, but viewers need to just ride out the slow parts because the highpoints are truly inspired. It is like an open fire hose of a film, but there is a ton of fascinating stuff to interpret in there. Highly recommended for the adventurous, Jinsei opens Friday (6/5) in New York, at the IFC Center.