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Mind Game awesomeness.


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Anthony P



Joined: 27 Oct 2005
Posts: 227
Location: Phoenix, Arizona, US
PostPosted: Sat Dec 23, 2006 9:24 pm Reply with quote
Cloe wrote:
Hoenheim wrote:
One major theme I saw throughout most of the movie was the power of the mind, probably related to the name. The place I started to think about this and how it could have been used throughout the rest of the movie was in the end, spoiler[during the whale escape, theyre running on water, which is obviously impossible, but then it shows Nishi remembers that thing about water striders and it becomes possible to him. Then his ankle breaks, and him remembering he didn't drink his milk isn't helping, but he remembers, or at least thinks his mom put milk in his food, thus giving him strong bones and making them impossible to break]. That's how I saw it at least. An earlier example of this theory is that spoiler[Nishi never died. Of course, there's no way of knowing since what ultimately happened was what happened after he died. His death was, in my opinion, all in his head which gave him the courage he needed to kill the soccer dude.].

That's an interesting point, and one I haven't thought of before. It almost begs the question: how much of Mind Game took place in the mind? The theory that spoiler[Nishi's death] was some kind of endorphin-induced hallucination that provided him with the courage to bring Atsu his just desserts has merit.

When I first saw Mind Game last year, I also thought that spoiler[Nishi's death was all in his head; an elaborate "what if" scenario, if you will. ] The beginning and ending scenes of the movie and how they showed all the different people doing whatever seemed to imply that everyone has these "what if" scenarios play out in their heads as they go about their lives. That doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but that's the impression I got. Also, the fact that the film is titled "Mind Game' cemented my notions.
Quote:
I think I would personally disagree, but I believe that the creators of Mind Game really wanted to leave much of the narrative up to the minds of the viewers, so different people can leave the film with different perceptions. In this sense, your theory, that it took place purely in the mind, and mine, spoiler[that Nishi actually died and came back], are BOTH correct.

That's exactly it. With the way those scenes play out, there's really no way to discern with certainty whether or not spoiler[he really dies].
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Ardlien



Joined: 19 Jan 2008
Posts: 59
PostPosted: Mon Oct 27, 2008 12:24 am Reply with quote
A bump with style. Watch the movie, yadda yadda yadda, true masterpiece, really..

On to some stuff I saw.

This is in the short sequence before the opening.


spoiler[There are numerous repeated scenes in the film, a few I can find comments for are:

The time travelling super-hero who stops a robbery. While this is a useful scene in showing a background for the comic book suitcase thing and the yakuza guy's sense of entrapment (wishing he could be like this superhero and turn back time instead of making decisions in the first place) the repetition has a somewhat broader relation to the film's themes, especially to the idea that everyone has these fleeting dreams of what their life could be or could have been.

The scene where the old man picks the wrong suitcase before heading to a drug deal (I gather). This is shown in the opening and the explanation he gives to nishi and the two girls, and also I think near the end. Ironically it isn't a particularly important mistake, considering they get busted during the deal anyway. I think the scene itself is more meaningful for its apparent unimportance to the series of events that followed it. To put it another way, it shows a mistake that, had he a way to turn back time, would not have made a difference if he'd chosen the right suitcase.
]


Super long spoilers, sorry about that.


spoiler[Notice the similarity between Nishi's experience with god, and his race to get out of the whale. Notice the similarity between the car chase and the dances later on. These I think show a pattern of living without regrets, then struggling to survive no matter what, and the humour/dramatic tension that the two phases are treated with show them both in a positive light.]


spoiler[Notice Yang's artwork on the (windmill?) where each time she runs up against it the same way, but leaves a different shape and different colour each time. Notice the dreams that each person has, that they never seem to be focused on one thing. Notice how the concept of god is treated, how there is no single image, voice or even judgement that lasts longer than a few seconds.]


spoiler[Notice that Nishi's rage when beaten by the whale takes the same form as Atsu's in the restaurant. Notice that during this scene he crushes the time-hero-suitcase (which I believe symbolises regret and the tendency to look back and wish for things to have been different). Notice that in their escape from the whale, the old man is wearing the belt of the time hero and it is glowing and moving forward.]

spoiler[How many times, when the animation switches to live action, are the characters' true identities revealed? Is it important that Myon is shown in live action within Nishi's story?]

There has been some talk of the ending sequences. spoiler[ I'm not exactly certain of my interpretation, but I get the feeling that there is a montage of possibilities for the four escaping from the whale (including a worrying one that mentions the yakuza) and that the tearful response is a positive one. The jarring cut to the car in the rain from the very beginning makes me think perhaps this hasn't all happened in Nishi's head as was suggested earlier in the thread, but in the yakuza's (think for a moment of the whale as the yakuza organisation) and that in moving from the time-hero's way of changing the past, to seeing all the possibilities of the future, the yakuza is able to turn the car around (instant change in colour) and decide on his future.

The second sequence seems to show an alternate timeline with a lot of the past of each character shown. I hadn't noticed that Yang and Myon's mother was the same woman as the Yakuza guy loved. What I gathered from the sequence was that the yakuza guy had turned around, and Nishi's adventure hadn't happened, but the old man still managed to escape from the whale (there is a shot of him lying on a boat with seven motors).]




I am a long way from having watched this film enough to form coherent analyses. Part of the beauty of the movie is that despite the depth it shows on multiple viewings, it is very effective in conveying emotion, and entertaining first time viewers. One of the few movies of this type that is not intimidating.
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riobardmulcahy



Joined: 25 Feb 2009
Posts: 2
PostPosted: Thu Feb 26, 2009 5:38 pm Reply with quote
[yes, an amazing movie, steve..really clever and with so much much visual variation and subplot interspersal...hard to follow in toto on first viewing..and i've only seen it the once, in a cinema in limerick (IRELAND) at a mini japanese film fest, so i did not have the advantage of stop, pause and/or rewind...but nonetheless i left the cinema aware that i'd just witnessed a fantastically special film and ever since i've wanted (badly/goodly!?) to see it again, preferably to buy a dvd copy and watch it at will...but really having a bad time in the search and my search has led me to this website and forum...and even sending you this missive!! What determination!!
just wonder, and even hope, that you might know of how i might procure a copy of this 'awesome' movie..and put me out of my 'misery'....would be really cool if this were possible and i'd be eternally grateful...living in hope...cheers, steve. Smile
riobard mulcahy (limerick, ireland)
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Kruszer



Joined: 19 Nov 2004
Posts: 7991
Location: Minnesota, USA
PostPosted: Thu Feb 26, 2009 6:01 pm Reply with quote
Cloe wrote:
Kruszer wrote:
Well I did finally watch it and I'd have to say it was good. Although, it could have been better if the ending wasn't such a spoiler[non-ending. Along with all that craziness it would have been nice to actually see them all make it out of there.]

On the contrary, I think the ending was absolutely perfect. spoiler[Of course they made it out. I don't think there's any question about that; the feeling of relief in that moment with Nishi and the others floating in the air after all that tension is so great it's almost tangible.] Again, it's subtext that does the storytelling here, not exposition. With this moment of relief comes the realization of the future, and each character has a personal epiphany about the possibilities that lay in front of them. I don't see how the movie could have ended any other way; if it had been more literal, it would have destroyed the delicate web of intricacies in the storytelling up to that point. That, spoiler[and I got to see my favorite character get his personal happy ending when he steps on the train]. It's not necessarily a "non-ending"; like all great films, you just have to dig a little to uncover what's going on.


Well, I can imagine it's good for you if you enjoy that kind of interpretive ending. I don't. It's like being at the gallows, they drop the floor out and just leave you hanging, it kills my enthusiasm. Everything before it was a good trip though.
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Cloe
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Joined: 18 Feb 2004
Posts: 2728
Location: Los Angeles, CA
PostPosted: Thu Feb 26, 2009 8:33 pm Reply with quote
riobardmulcahy wrote:
just wonder, and even hope, that you might know of how i might procure a copy of this 'awesome' movie..and put me out of my 'misery'....would be really cool if this were possible and i'd be eternally grateful...living in hope...cheers, steve. Smile
riobard mulcahy (limerick, ireland)

The DVD is available (with English subtitles) on R2 in Japan, if you own an all-region DVD player. Unfortunately, the regular edition appears to be out of stock in most places, but the super fancy editions are still available.

[Edit: You can still get the regular edition from CD Japan. Smile ]
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riobardmulcahy



Joined: 25 Feb 2009
Posts: 2
PostPosted: Fri Feb 27, 2009 7:57 pm Reply with quote
[thank you,cloe, for your reply and help in my quest,,,i'll give it a go and come back to you on the result of my search...multo grazie.
riobardmulcahy.
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