(Dir. Keiichi Hara 2015)
PG-13, but I wouldn't really consider it a kids movie. It's something that they could watch, but not necessarily made for them. Miss Hokusai is an animated biopic of O-Ei, the daughter of the renowned Japanese painter Hokusai. Most people, Japanese or no, would recognize his Great Wave woodblock print. O-Ei is also a skilled artist and often sells them under her father's name. The movie was based on a manga of the same name and is told in a series of vignettes. I liked the overall tone of the movie and use of vignettes, but they were disjointed at times and the switches between could sometimes be confusing. One issue I had with the movie was its lack of closure. Throughout the vignettes there were recurring issues, such as O-Ei's struggle to capture sensuality in her paintings and the man who was wooing her. The movie shows her struggling with these but neither of these issues are ever resolved. I will recognize that part of this comes from the fact that it's based off a real person and real life doesn't have proper closure, but they just left the viewer in limbo. At the end they had a voiceover tell the details of the rest of her and her father's lives, but it just felt rushed and stilted. The style of animation in the movie is beautiful. It's reminiscent of classic works of art from the time while still keeping a modern edge. The most beautiful shot of the movie is during a boat ride with O-Ei and her blind sister. As, O-Ei is describing the waves to her and how they could swallow boats the waves pick up and mimic the Great Wave wood print that Hokusai is famous for. One part of the movie that really stuck out was the use of classic rock music. Others said that they felt that this music captured O-Ei's rebellious spirit and while I didn't necessarily dislike the music, I kind of wish they had chosen something more traditional or fitting to the time period.
1 Comment
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Aubrey KirchhoffI'm just screaming into the void and somehow getting graded on it. Archives
April 2018
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