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2004 film by Masaaki Yuasa

Heed Game
Japanese	マインド・ゲーム
Hepburn	Maindo Gēmu
Directed by	Masaaki Yuasa
Written by	Masaaki Yuasa
Based on	Mind Game by Robin Nishi
Produced by	Eiko Tanaka
Starring	Koji Imada Sayaka Maeda Takashi Fujii
Edited past	Kyōko Mizuta[ane]
Music by	Seiichi Yamamoto
Production company	Studio iv°C
Distributed by	Asmik Ace Amusement
Release engagement	Baronial 7, 2004 (2004-08-07)
Running fourth dimension	103 minutes[2]
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese

Mind Game (Japanese: マインド・ゲーム, Hepburn: Maindo Gēmu ) is a 2004 Japanese blithe experimental feature moving picture based on Robin Nishi's manga of the same name. It was planned, produced and primarily blithe by Studio 4°C and adapted and directed by Masaaki Yuasa in his directorial debut, with principal animation direction and model sheets by Yūichirō Sueyoshi, art management by Tōru Hishiyama and groundwork and farther animation direction by Masahiko Kubo.

It is unusual amidst features other than anthology films in using a series of disparate visual styles to tell 1 continuous story. Every bit Yuasa commented in a Japan Times interview, "Instead of telling information technology serious and straight, I went for a expect that was a bit wild and patchy. I think that Japanese animation fans today don't necessarily demand something that's and then polished. You can throw different styles at them and they can still usually enjoy it."^{[3] [iv]}

The film received a cult audition and was well received, winning multiple awards worldwide, and has been praised by directors Satoshi Kon^[5] and Pecker Plympton.^[6] Allegedly, according to Tekkonkinkreet director Michael Arias, there was consideration for a release of the movie on R1 DVD but it fell through.^[7] The film is now available to stream on Netflix in Australia as of 2016. GKIDS announced that they licensed the movie, which streamed on VRV Select on Dec 29, 2017 followed by a express theatrical run in Feb 2018 and a dwelling video release in spring 2018.^[8]

Plot [edit]

Nishi is a xx-year-old loser with dreams of condign a comic book artist. I late evening he runs into his childhood shell, Myon, on the subway. She tells Nishi she is due to marry. Nishi has flashbacks of exchanging dear letters and letters with Myon and fantasizes declaring his dearest for her, only in reality fails to actually say anything.

They go to her father's yakitori restaurant, and see Myon's father and her elder sister Yan (who runs the restaurant). Nishi also meets Myon's fiancée, Ryo. Ii yakuza gangsters enter, Atsu and a senior yakuza whom Atsu calls Aniki (literally 'blood brother', a term used by Yakuza to refer to each other). They are looking for Myon's father who hid under the tabular array when the gangsters walked in. Atsu is subsequently him as he had seduced and stole Atsu'southward girlfriend. Information technology is after revealed through flashbacks that the senior yakuza is really the starting time boyfriend of the girls' mother, who was also seduced away by Myon's begetter in a disco in their youth.

As Atsu threatens Myon with a gun, Ryo steps in and tries to dial Atsu, but instead gets knocked out. Atsu and so prepares to rape Myon, who calls out Nishi'southward name. Atsu turns on Nishi, who is rolled in a brawl, terrified, placing his pistol against Nishi's anus. Atsu fires when Nishi finally musters the backbone to yell, "I will hurt you!", thus killing him instantly. The senior Yakuza, offended past Atsu's lack of control, shoots him dead, and then nonchalantly orders dinner.

Meanwhile, Nishi is in some sort of limbo where he encounters a being whose physical image changes every fraction of a second, Kami-sama (God). Kami-sama directs Nishi to walk into a red portal where he volition disappear, but at the last moment Nishi runs for the reverse bluish portal in guild to return to life. Kami-sama becomes impressed by Nishi'southward sheer will to alive, so lets him escape.

Nishi returns to the moment merely before Atsu pulled the trigger. This time, Nishi seizes Atsu's gun with his buttocks, and shoots him dead. He, Yan and Myon all pile into the yakuza'due south motorcar, leaving the father and Ryo (notwithstanding unconscious) backside. They speed off, followed by the massed yakuzas. The Yakuza boss calls Nishi using the yakuza'south car phone and reveals that Atsu was a player on the Japanese national soccer team, threatening to frame the three for armed robbery and murder. Then after further chase the boss has his men strength the trio in to a dead end on a span. However, Nishi steers the car off the bridge and they are swallowed upward past an enormous whale.

Inside the whale, they meet an old homo who was formerly yakuza and has been trapped in the whale for more than 30 years. (He is afterward shown through flashbacks to exist the father of the senior Yakuza shown before). He shows them to the elaborate suspended house he has constructed over the 'sea' within the whale's belly. Nishi attempts to escape the whale but he fails and they resign themselves to life inside the whale. Yan practices dancing and fine art, Myon practices swimming (a dream she gave up when her breasts got bigger), Nishi practices writing and cartoon humorous manga and he and Myon finally become sexually intimate.

They effort to go out the whale, once more declining. The old man reveals that the water level inside the whale is ascension, and he believes the whale is probably dying. They contrive a programme to brand a motor boat using spare parts and fuel from the auto they arrived in. On the twenty-four hour period before the last lucifer of the soccer World Cup, the whale returns to Osaka (their abode town) and Yan, Nishi, and Myon, as well as the Onetime Man, manage to escape.

Equally the four wing through the air, the film returns to its very first scene, with Myon running from the Yakuza, but this fourth dimension she does not become her leg caught in the door of the train, and the Yakuza is left behind on the platform. This is followed past a lengthy montage, similar to that of the opening credits, showing the histories of the diverse characters. The movie ends ambiguously, with the phrase "This Story Has Never Concluded" appearing before the credits roll.

Cast [edit]

Voice cast

• Koji Imada as Nishi
• Sayaka Maeda every bit Myon
• Takashi Fujii as Old human (jiisan)
• Seiko Takuma as Yan
• Tomomitsu Yamaguchi as Ryō
• Toshio Sakata as Father of Myon and Yan (Myon to Yan no chichi)
• Jōji Shimaki every bit Yakuza dominate (yakuza no bosu)
• Ken'ichi Chūjō as Atsu (yakuza member)
• Rintarō Nishi every bit Senior yakuza member (Aniki. lit. "brother". A term used by Yakuza to refer to each other).

Other crew

• Kōji Morimoto — animation managing director
• Shinichirō Watanabe — music producer

Production companies

• Studio 4°C
• Asmik Ace Amusement
• Beyond C.
• Rentrack Japan Co. Ltd.

Other companies

• Gainax – animation
• Production I.G – animation

Product [edit]

The film's music, produced by Shinichiro Watanabe, also every bit the score by Seiichi Yamamoto includes an epitome vocal by Fayray^[2] and piano performed by Yōko Kanno.^[1]

Reception [edit]

The film'due south accolades include the Ōfuji Noburō Honor at the 2005 Mainichi Film Awards and the Blitheness Partition One thousand Prize at the Nippon Media Arts Festival in 2004, outranking nominee Howl'due south Moving Castle.^[9] Exterior Japan, the film had its international premiere at the New York Asian Moving-picture show Festival in June 2005.^[ten] Information technology had maybe its biggest success at the Fantasia Festival in Canada in July 2005,^[11] wherein it beat many live-activeness films to win all three of the festival'southward own jury awards information technology qualified for: Best Film, Best Director (tying with Gen Sekiguchi for Survive Style 5+) and Best Script.^[12] It also received an additional Special Award for "Visual Accomplishment", besides every bit placing beginning (Golden Prize) in the audience honor for Best Animation Pic and second (Silver Prize), behind Survive Manner 5+, for Most Groundbreaking Motion picture.^[13] Despite these accolades, equally of July 2011 the film's just habitation video release in a primarily English-speaking country is a region 4-locked, "PAL" DVD-Video released in Australia by Madman Entertainment in 2008 (catalogue MMA3985),^[14] though the Japanese (region ii, "NTSC") DVDs have English subtitles for the characteristic itself. On Apr Fool'south Solar day in 2018, the movie aired on Adult Swim'south Toonami block with Japanese audio and English subtitles. It has a rare 100% on Rotten Tomatoes.

References [edit]

1. ^ ^{a b} "Listen Game" (in Japanese). Sakuga@wiki. Retrieved x July 2011.
2. ^ ^{a b} "Listen Game" (in Japanese). Japanese Movie Database. Retrieved 10 July 2011.
3. ^ Schilling, Marker (28 July 2004). "Director has whale of a time making experimental 'Listen Game'". The Japan Times . Retrieved 12 Dec 2015.
4. ^ Leong, David (i July 2005). "Mind Game: Anime for the 21st century". KFCC. Archived from the original on 23 February 2009.
5. ^ "Interview with Satoshi Kon". Gamestar. Archived from the original on 4 January 2011. GS: Accept you seen any films lately that you found great? Any you're looking forward to? SK: I've not seen many movies lately but Masaaki Yuasa's theatrical animation, Mind Game, was outstanding. The images were full of pictorial attraction. I'grand looking forrard to its overseas release.
6. ^ "Rotten Tomatoes: Five Favourite Films with Neb Plympton". RT.
7. ^ "The bargain in question was never closed - Youtube and the English subtitles certainly didn't help - and I've no idea what the current status is. Also bad though - MG is a wonderful and unique flick. All of u.s.a. who worked on it were very proud of MG." http://www.pelleas.net/aniTOP/index.php/title_44
8. ^ "Yuasa, Studio 4°C'southward Heed Game Flick to Stream on VRV Select, Play in Northward American Theaters". Anime News Network. Nov 18, 2017. Retrieved November eighteen, 2017.
9. ^ "Honor-winning works in 2004 (8th) Japan Media Arts Festival". Japan Media Arts Plaza. 2004. Archived from the original on ten April 2012. Retrieved ten July 2011.
10. ^ "Mind Game". New York Asian Moving-picture show Festival 2005. Subway Cinema. 2005. Archived from the original on 27 September 2011.
11. ^ Brown, Todd (26 July 2005). "Fantasia wraps upwards and Mind Game cleans upward". Twitch Film. Archived from the original on xv Oct 2011. Retrieved 10 July 2011.
12. ^ "Official honour listing of the ninth edition of the Fantasia International Genre Film Festival". FanTasia. 26 July 2005. Retrieved 12 December 2015.
13. ^ "Fantasia 2005 Public'due south Prizes". FanTasia. 26 July 2005. Retrieved 12 Dec 2015.
14. ^ "Mind Game (2 disc set)". Madman Entertainment. 2008. Retrieved 10 July 2011.

External links [edit]

• Official website via Internet Annal
• Mind Game at IMDb
• Listen Game (picture) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
• Listen Game at The Big Cartoon DataBase
• Mind Game at Rotten Tomatoes

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