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Forum - View topicREVIEW: Giovanni no Shima
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mewpudding101
Industry Insider
 Posts: 2210 Location: Tokyo, Japan |
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I got to go to the premiere, and it was a good movie, and made me and my male friend cry uncontrollable tears... But we did laugh like crazy at the one scene where they forgot to fix Jinta's head- it was still drawn as a roughly-drawn square. The animation had some problems, but it was good.
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Neko-sensei
Posts: 286 |
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I felt the film was a little less formulaic than it's given credit for here—I saw Tanya's abrupt abandonment, without a chance to make amends, as a very deliberate touch of realism rather than a shortcoming of the plot, and I also liked the way we got the children's view of the adults' relationships without sacrificing the sense that the adults have full-bodied emotional lives of their own (to which the audience, adopting the child's perspective, is not privy).
I also must make special mention of the delightful sequence in which the Japanese and Russian school classes first war, and then create common ground through their national songs. It was a lovely moment of cultural contact, and it got Katyusha stuck in my head for days after I watched the movie. |
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unready
 Posts: 411 Location: Illinois, USA |
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... which rightly should be better known. It doesn't sound like the movie goes into the broader politics at all, not that it should or would from a child's pov. Although technically Japan and the Soviet Union were on opposite sides during the war, Hirohito (Showa) and Stalin had a mutual non-aggression pact. After VE, Stalin announced his intention to renege on the pact, but Hirohito still thought Stalin was his friend and invited him to invade to help keep the Americans out of Japan. Hirohito thought it would "save" Japan (i.e., his imperial power), but Stalin wanted his first eastern satellite and would have kicked Hirohito out of power even more severely than the Americans did. The Place Promised in Our Early Days sort of touches upon it, as well, taking place in an alternate universe were Japan was partitioned like Germany was, except there it was north (Hokkaido) and south rather than east and west. Anyway, it's a bit of history that I think is vastly under-appreciated. It would probably be tough to make a movie on-point, though, without it being a snoozer. Oh, well. |
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Fronzel
Posts: 1906 |
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I find this is typical of anime productions about the Second World War or its aftermath. This is true of Grave of the Fireflies and Rail of the Star, which the article mentioned, and also Barefoot Gen, Futatsu no Kurumi, and Glass no Usagi, off the top of my head. |
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 9902 Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC |
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For the record, here's the original plan of dividing Japan after WWII in Japanese, Chinese, and Russian Wikipedia, which never became a reality.
I wonder why there has never been a corresponding English page.
I'd like to watch Aoi Kioku - Manmō Kaitaku to Shōnen-tachi, but it's not a title can be acquire easily; even Amazon.jp has only an ani-manga, no video release. |
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Fronzel
Posts: 1906 |
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I'd like to be able to see Aoi Hitomi no Onna no Ko no Ohanashi myself, but not even fansubbers have given it any attention, and it's not new anymore. |
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mdo7
 Posts: 6513 Location: Katy, Texas, USA |
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Oh wow  , you know I remember somebody on Kotaku telling me about Japan would've been divided like Germany did after World War 2 if that had went this path. I didn't believe it at first until you showed the map, Dormcat. If this had happen, then Japan would be like the 2 Koreas today, North Japan and South Japan. Would North Japan had a wacky dicatator as Kim Jong Un.
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Fronzel
Posts: 1906 |
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Or possibly just a stagnant Communist regime that might have collapsed like so many in the early 1990s. More importantly, an anti-war section would have never made it into any Japanese constitution in such a situation. |
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enurtsol
 Posts: 14896 |
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Imagine if that won the Nobel Peace Prize: "Japanese constitution nominated for Nobel Peace Prize" |
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mdo7
Posts: 6513 Location: Katy, Texas, USA |
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Well China and North Korea didn't collapse yet, but I doubt North Japan's communist regime would've collapse if it had went this path. |
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Fronzel
Posts: 1906 |
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That might depend on where this hypothetical People's Republic of Japan fell during the Sino-Soviet split....or if that would happen at all with a possible strong Soviet ally off the coast of East Asia....or if North Japan might re-align to China due to the Soviet collapse...or if a probably impoverished North Japan was embarrassed by a prosperous south, fueling re-unification desire, like what happened in Germany... Really, when you start to try to deal with predicting cause and effect with "counter-factuals", it becomes impossible. |
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Chrno2
 Posts: 6172 Location: USA |
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Great review. I will say that I did enjoy it for what it was. I often wonder if another reason for why the film was produced that way was also not to step on any toes. Because we all know that dealing with war and politics are a touchy subject. However it was nice to get to hear about a little portion of history that was never told. But also hearing from the screenwriter himself Yoshiki Sakurai did admit that much of the influences were Grave of the Fireflies. And while he did say that a good part of the film was fiction, he still wanted it to be as historic as possible telling the story of true events. The thing that impressed me was the whole deal that only those that were born on that island are only allowed entry. He stated that they don't allow many from the outside to enter since Russian and various ethnic groups occupy that area. Another interesting tidbit he stated was that they had planned for the film to be a live-action film. But due to the restrictions in producing the film they decided to go the animation route, but still get in contact with those living who can give clear accounts of the events.
I had the opportunity to shake Sakurai's hand, thanking him for such a great movie. It probably could have been better, but it did well enough for what it was. It's good to see works like these getting done. Kind of a plus for hand drawn animation despite the use of CG. |
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mdo7
Posts: 6513 Location: Katy, Texas, USA |
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Well we'll never know how that alternate history will play out for Japan, but at least Japan isn't split into 2, but it make an interesting alternate history scenario story though. 
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