Netflix Journal: Signs (and Details)

 

• Signs is a film that flawlessly marries theme and process/development. As indicated by the title, one of the core themes of the film is faith/belief. This theme is exhibited through the main character Graham Hess, played by Mel Gibson, opening the film as a character who has lost his faith. Once an Episcopal priest, after the accidental death of his wife Graham has renounced his faith. From the seemingly random death of his wife to her last words, Graham views life as chaotic and ultimately meaningless. Ie. adding up to nothing. 
• From the beginning of the film the many details are presented fleshing out the characters, their circumstances, and putting their lives in perspective against the scope of the world. Though the film focuses on the rural life of the Hess family, putting the details together put everything into perspective. Every detail, every line, and every scene adds up to the dramatic conclusion. Morgan's asthma, Bo's water cup habit, and Merrill's tendency to swing away are just some of the details that come together in the final alien fight. Right when it clicks for the viewer it clicks for Graham Hess. 
• The detailed nature of the writing/plot sets the viewer up for a kind of close viewing. When paying close attention, information can be communicated to the viewers through unqiue and unconventional means. Pieces of information from small talk or a TV program are taken in by the characters and relayed to the audience through the character's reactions. This is a particularly subtle kind of visual storytelling. You never get a narrator talking over the film or a character recapping everything. You just get the details, and you piece them together yourself. Another movie on the same level as Signs is Pixar's Wall-e. Save & Close
• Because of the slow, constant presentation of details, the film has wonderful pacing. The slow build is similar to the experience I described in this post. The acting, like the rural life depicted in the film, is far removed from typical blockbuster/Hollywood acting. For all of these reasons, I find Signs very refreshing. 
• As if there wasn't enough to like about Signs, the direction of Signs is something that is unique to M.Night Shyamalan. Aside from The Happening, one of my least favorite movies, I'm a fan of all of M.Night's films and greatly look forward to the upcoming Avatar movie that based on one of my favorite cartoon shows. 
• The music is great too.

Netflix Journal: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

• This film has beautiful music. The baroque style pieces were particularly refreshing. Otherwise, the music fits the laid back, slice of life, mundane feel of the film.
• In any piece of writing that deals with people I feel that it is important to include certain ordinary elements to greatly increase the relatability and believability of the narrative. Such scenes include hanging out at home, eating meals, getting ready or going to bed, and running errands. This film is filled with these kinds of scenes which help give it a distinct ordinary feel. Even those who aren't accustomed to common Japanese customs like students being assigned to clean up after school should be able to understand and relate. 
• At the same time, the ordinary life design of the narrative that's forwarded greatly by dialog makes the film a bit long in places. Though I appreciate how much time the film takes to set up the world/characters before the time travel element is introduced, part of me thinks the film could have been cut better. After all, the style of scene composition is very similar to the techniques taken with serial anime shows that use long dialog scenes while focusing on objects in the environment to save money. Fortunately, the film is packed with details that become even more important once the timeline of the film becomes folded and compressed. 
• The dialog is simple and wonderfully mundane matching the film as a whole. The voice work is really well done considering it had to audiences' attention in a very dialog heavy film. 
• Likewise the animation and direction are high quality. Drawing ordinary people doing ordinary things can be a greater challenge than drawing imaginary elements. Every scene in the film is well composed opting for long, sustained shots over the more standard budget saving facial closeups. The flat colors and expressive animations reminded me of parts of the Animatrix and rightly so. Studio Madhouse did work on the Animatrix. 
• The main action of time leaping is well developed in how it's woven into the main character and themes of the show. The themes include, growing up, moving on, decisions (after graduation), and taking action. These themes should be very familiar to people 18 and older. Trying figure out who we are and reach goals without regrets is the challenge of adolescence. For Makoto, despite having the power to leap through time, she goes through these same challenges making the film a coming of age story like so many Shonens, animes targeted at middle-high school aged kids. I love how the the magical anime factor/action of time leaping was used to lightheartedly and visually illustrate a very relatable story: ie. a young girl who learns and fights for what she wants after running away from her problems. 
• The film has a lot of mysterious elements. The Aunt who's a "witch" knows about time leaping, yet she jokes about it. She guides Makoto through her high school years as a mothering figure. Did her old love time leap? After doing a little wiki research I found out that the aunt is the original girl from the original version of the story released in 1976.  And Makoto's final transformation/decision is fraught with mystery. We know Chiki will wait for Makoto in the future, but what does this mean? Will she leap to him? Grow old to him? Will he be older? Is he too far into the future for them to meet? All we know by the ending is that Makoto is transformed. She's come to a decision about herself and she won't tell Kosuke about it. This ending is only fitting. The story revolves around Makoto. And though love is a part of Makoto's journey, being in a relationship isn't key to her transformation.