X A film review by Steve Rhodes Copyright 2000 Steve Rhodes RATING (0 TO ****): **
What was that all about?
That's the most likely question after seeing Tarô Rin's X. The most frequent question of those who haven't seen it is about the title. The short answer is that the film has nothing to do with pornography and that it is rated R, not X.
Telling an apocalyptic story with stirring, visual panache, this Japanese animated movie (anime) dazzles us with its depressing images and dramatic music. If BLADE RUNNER were remade into an animated feature by the Japanese, this is probably how it would look. X's imagery, however, isn't in the same league as another anime, PRINCESS MONONOKE, which was close to the top of my best of the year list last year.
Now as to the story. From what I was able to piece together it seems to involve the dragons of the heavens, who come from the 7 stars that make up the Big Dipper, the dragons of the earth and the Tokyo power grid. I am not making this up.
Periodically the narrator stops for a minute and introduces another batch of characters along with their history. Imagine that you have never heard of Christianity and that you are introduced to it by a single animated movie that covers all the books of the bible. This describes the experience of watching X, which Rin directs with a Mixmaster approach.
The film's images are stunning, but, boy, are they ever violent. In the opening, a completely nude mother rips open her own stomach in order to pull out a sword to give to her son. He is to use the weapon in saving Tokyo. Decapitations occur regularly in the film, as does the severing of other body parts. The end of the world isn't pretty.
As I watched the movie, unable to figure much of it out, I began to wonder why various figures are drawn the way they are. Take the women, for example. Most of them have dime-sized mouths, whereas most of the men have full-sized ones. Is this the way that the women keep so fashionably skinny?
In a movie that is deadly serious, the stilted dialog provides unexpected sources of mirth. ("You're handling the situation so stylishly, I thought it would be unaesthetic to interfere.") Although one could write this off to bad translations, I'm not buying it. PRINCESS MONONOKE had no such problem, and the ridiculousness of the script for X permeates every scene.
If you want to enjoy more than just X's stunning look, perhaps reading the book would help. I can't say. What I do know is that even with my usual copious notes taken during the film, I still couldn't figure it out. The saving grace is that X never made me care that I found it indecipherable.
X runs 1:38. X is dubbed in English and is rated R for violence, gore and some nudity. It would be acceptable for older teenagers.
The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, April 21, 2000. In the Silicon Valley it will be playing at the Towne Theater.
Email: Steve.Rhodes@InternetReviews.com Web: http://www.InternetReviews.com
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