My first commentary :#

Oddly enough, I felt a lot excitement & challenges back in college than what I had during the 3 weeks of semester break in August. I've never manage to do much, but getting back to old friends and catching up on those nostalgic longings, it was well worth the break. I did pick up a few things or two on life again, and that's where my new outlook for the next semester starts.

Picture by toxictwo

I don't pen my thoughts down a lot often, but when there's a drive surging in me, I'll do whatever I can and charge this blog up.

The 1st Year, 2nd Sem in an art college is a new journey now, since many of my previous classmates diverged and went into their own respective majors, including my brother. I'm going to miss their silly, funny and memorable antics, but anyway it's still going around in our facebook group page. If you were wondering, 1st Semester in my college was all about foundation of art and we were all group in one class regardless of chosen major in the first place. Then as we progress to the 2nd Semester, that is when it truly going to take us to.

It's the 2nd week of this semester now, and recently I felt a little quench for entertainment. I had to depend on anime to fill this insatiable vanity. Well, maybe because I hadn't been able keep up with my favorites like Kuroko no Basuke and Sword Art Online. Must be the overly-focused conscience of mine which disagrees of me watching them. But now it's something I HAVE to do.

And then these two came along. I had wanted to watch them long before but maybe I simply was too caught up with high school work back then. I have to add this, if you are counting on something that departs from the usual stuff from American animated features, then I'd recommend this two, you'll be wondering what stuff you've been watching after watching these :

Paprika by Satoshi Kon

Summer War by  Mamoru Hosoda

Paprika is a very unique film, well truly it's not those kind of movie catered for kids, although it's has the central theme of dreams, and being an animated feature. Wikipedia even quoted a source that said it served as one of the inspiration for Christopher Nolan's masterpiece Inception. Not too sure if it is true but in terms of plotline and style, it's obviously different in many ways.

Atsuko Chiba, a psychiatrist who assumes an alter-ego as Paprika in her patient's dreams, is the main character here. The story opens with a clown coming out of a small car and it proceeds to reveal a circus act. Then things get a little twisty with the guy sucking into the ground after being trapped in the cage. This is a whole lot different than Inception-style, where people and the environment in the dreams fluctuate, and scenes change drastically and being so...mind-bending.

It is this that amazes me. The animation is great, colors and the mood of the environment in many scenes strike a wonderful chord of a visual treat. Sadly, I felt there's a lacking of background info, or rather, character development on the main character. I was hoping she'd tell how she got Paprika as her alter-ego, and why is she doing this? Does she have a motive as well? Somehow, the villian too feels a little flat. His motive are rather meager...where is his past, how?  I don't really want to summarize the whole plot here since there are the likes of Wikipedia and other sites that provide it, but please do check it out.


Summer War, on the other hand, is a very heartwarming story, and not to mention having several intense moments as well. It is a movie that dedicates to the core of human lives - your family. I love how radically different elements that actually are strewn together, forming the unexpected. How would you actually thought that the whole family....an extended family to be exact, who are celebrating in a traditional setting could have gotten involve in fighting off an enemy who is a digital rogue A.I. who is going about destroying the world? I wouldn't have thought of that too.

The main protagonist is a boy genius named Kenji who actually doesn't have any ties/relationship with this Jinnouchi family except being the girl's fiancee, which she made it up so she could make her Grandmother happy about her promise of getting a boyfriend. He becomes a suspect when he unintentionally cracked a code that allows the A.I. to hack into the OZ world,  the computer-simulated virtual reality world, where many people around the world have accounts and devices connected to it. From there, we see how the turmoil unravels and the Jinnouchis' lives and the community are challenged.

That concludes my first commentary in this blog. If any of you are reading this, please do spoil yourself with some amazing plots and visuals by watching these movies mentioned because it has already been recommended over and over, and plus my recommendation as well.

- Zach
16 Sept 2012 (Sun)