Anime Friday: Powerpuff Girls v. PPGZ

Way back in 1992, an art student named Craig McCracken created a short film called The Whoopass Stew in which he introduced The Whoopass Girls. Two years later, the film got picked up for Spike and Mike's Sick and Twisted Animation Show. This got McCracken's foot in the door at Cartoon Network, which in the mid-90's sought out original work from independent animators to help establish the cable station's unique brand. By the end of the decade, McCracken had a kid-friendly version of his creation in The Powerpuff Girls. To this day, no animated program has had a higher rated premiere. The Powerpuff Girls is a campy mix of anime and classic Hannah-Barbera cartoons. This is why it's so strange that the show got a full-blown anime makeover in 2001 with the help of a slew of big names in Japanese cartoon production. The result was Demashita! Pawapafu G?ruzu Zetto, or "Here They Are! Powerpuff Girls Z". Needless to say, a lot got lost in translation. The American original is an unabashedly postmodern mash-up of as much kitsch as possible. Its origins as a cheeky art film are evident. This Warhol-does-anime approach just doesn't make sense in the context of Japanese culture, let alone the sub-section reserved for children. Both PPG US and PPGZ had the same target audience, the coveted pre-teen toys and breakfast cereal market. It only stands to reason that most of the American version's style wasn't adopted for the Japanese take. That's not to say they didn't at least try. While PPGZ is essentially Sailor Moon with different characters, the Japanese writers attempted to bring some of the original version's odd, non-sequiter humor into the adaptation. The problem is that Japanese culture never fully grasped the aim of camp. Japanese kitsch is almost always over-the-top and thensome. It veers right past bad taste into a much weirder territory. Take the ice cream gag in the PPGZ link. The girls need to rejuvenate themselves in the middle of a fight, so they get some ice cream. Their nemesis, Mojo, does the same, right beside them. Before long, every supporting character in the show is eating ice cream, each with his or her own unique flavor. Is it funny? Sure, but it's also surreal as all get-out. That's not to say the US PPG didn't go strange. I distinctly remember a villain who was a red devil in drag with a reverb-heavy voice. Still, there's a difference between wanton weirdness and obliviously earnest failure to translate a brand. Comprehension: 9/10- Seeing as I experienced a lot of the US version in my teen years when I knew something was fishy, that mitigated the unusual qualities of PPGZ. My mind did do something of an ouroboros concerning the Japanese Mojo. If I recall, the original Mojo Jojo had something of a Japanese accent and was designed to be the prototypical anime villain, so seeing him made somehow more Japanese was just too strange. Enjoyment: 5/10- Without a doubt, Japanese animation is slick. In fact, it's too slick in this case. All the stereotypical anime tropes were really distracting, especially since it was a take on an American show. This must be the way Japanese people feel when they see crappy anime-lite shows produced by American executives. Improvement of Understanding: 10/10- The comparison and subsequent research led me to an interesting conclusion. Whereas the American cartoon industry strikes a balance between giant corporate brands and unique indie outfits, Japan has standardized its style to the breaking point. Anime has gone way beyond convention into a state fast approaching dogma. PPGZ turned out the way it did because it went through the mill of several corporate committees. I do not envy the talented upstart animators of Japan. For them, the business is utterly hopeless. The idea of some irreverent art school kid getting a major TV deal is absurd on the other side of the Pacific. Next Week: Blue Submarine #6

Israeli Pop

The most the average American ever hears about Israel is when a new military conflict or suicide bombing takes place. This results in a terribly inaccurate image of the country as a war-torn backwater in the middle of the desert. The truth is that much of Israel is a very beautiful, very modern country. It was an early adopter of the Internet and its medical facilities are frequently rated the best in the world. Israel also has a vibrant music scene. For example, in the 1960's and 70's, the Israeli folk movement was every bit as pervasive as its American and British counterparts. Today, pop music from Israel is starting to get wider recognition in the West. Here are a few artists to look out for. Sarit Hadad Israel's answer to the pop diva, Sarit Hadad has been a constant chart-topper in her home country for more than a decade. She represented Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2002 with her song "Light a Candle". She came in 12th place. Hadad's sound combines the high-production styles popular with Western Top 40 vocal talents and a distinct Middle Eastern flare. This year, Sarit Hadad has been on tour and had a few dates set for venues in the United States. She was in New York, Miami, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Oren Lavie Oren Lavie is something of a Renaissance man. In addition to his work as a singer-songwriter, he is an accomplished theatre professional. He has written four plays and directed three of them, with shows in Israel, England and Germany. American audiences may be familiar with his music without knowing it. He composed the song "A Dance 'Round The Memory Tree" for the soundtrack to The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. More recently, the video for his song "Her Morning Elegance" has gone viral on the Internet. With English-language songs and modern sensibilities, Lavie might just be the first Israeli musician to make it big in the United States. David Broza Those who know of David Broza have been known to refer to him as The Israeli Bob Dylan. It's true that Broza's lively guitar music has garnered some significant critical praise all over the world. Despite getting high marks from major American publications, most people on this side of the Atlantic (or Pacific) haven't heard of him. He's been recording music since the mid-1970's after his mandatory period in the Israeli military. Only part of Broza's youth was spent in Israel. Some of his education took place in England and some also took place in Spain. Listening to his music, his international influences are apparent. His trademark is a super-fast Spanish picking style. Even with 30 years of work under his belt, David Broza is still going strong. In 2007 he staged an ambitious concert with Jackson Browne and Shawn Colvin in the middle of the Negev dessert at Masada hill. He's spent a lot of time at Masada, recording two live albums there in the 90's.

Anime Friday: Serial Experiments Lain

For the last two installments of Anime Friday, I covered a neat little series called Paranoia Agent. Watching it made me realize that the real narrative power in anime is that, quite simply, cartoons aren't bound by physical limitations, so suspension of disbelief is easy. As I found out with this week's subject, Serial Experiments Lain, this is also anime's primary weakness. Serial Experiments Lain follows a young girl, the titular Lain, as she comes to uncover the mystery of dead people speaking through an Internet surrogate called The Wired, and indeed the mystery of her own true identity. The show does this through a back-and-forth of minimalism and frenetic intensity. At first, I adored SEL's slow, deliberate pacing. It had a David Lynch quality to it, oppression and dread barely held back by a thin fence of clean sets and spare dialog. The problem comes when director Ryutaro Nakamura has to contend with Chiaki Konaka's clunky script. Subtle, careful mise-en-scene like when Lain's father lectures her from behind a wall of computers is often followed by completely disconnected bits of raw exposition. This is especially prevalent in the case of the show's sci-fi technology bits. Instead of using the obvious power of animation to demonstrate things like the nano-technology club drug called Accela, the show opts for a closeup of the pill with a non-character voiceover explaining exactly what Accela is, how it works, and even how it makes its users feel. This isn't helped at all by crazed club-goers popping an Accela tab and shouting "I feel... accelerated!" What's more, even when SEL's visual language is strong, it's nothing that couldn't have been done as well or better in the flesh. When the once-luddite Lain finally gets into computers, she modifies her PC to basically attach itself to her room like a weed or a tumor. In ink, it just looks like another generic anime set. Were it created in real life, it would rival the carefully crafted pieces in Brazil. Ultimately, I blame the shallowness of Serial Experiments Lain on the era from which it comes. It was originally produced in 1998, placing it among other not-so-illustrious speculations on how the Internet would impact society as movies like Hackers. It's all meaningless flash that looks all the more ridiculous and overblown the better acquainted we become with our world's favorite new technology. SEL is ambitious, in that it attempts to be to the Internet what Videodrome was to cable television. This time around, the narrative isn't nearly as odd and the visuals not nearly as shocking. I'd love to see what David Cronenberg would do with the concept of SEL, but I doubt the man will ever really tackle the Internet in general. Comprehension: 6/10- SEL is a mystery, so by definition I was in the dark nearly half the time. All the same, the story isn't nearly as clever as it wants to be. Maybe it's just that Internet and computer plots have been done so much in the past decade that they've all run together. Had I watched SEL when it first came out, it's possible I might have found it a lot more stirring. Enjoyment: 5/10- While the product as a whole left me cold, I appreciated the good parts while they were happening. The whole project has a similar feel to all those music videos for European electronic acts that came out in 1999 and 2000. It's at once slick and DIY. Improvement of Understanding: 9/10- While I wasn't much of a fan of SEL, I can admit that it keyed me in to one of my major hang-ups with anime as a genre. Namely, that all of the attention goes to the visuals while the script and direction are almost always afterthoughts. An interesting concept and a cool haircut do not a compelling drama make. Next Week: Powerpuff Girls US vs PPGZ Japan

The Mighty Boosh

I’m not sure if The Mighty Boosh have made it across the Atlantic yet but they will. They are a comedy duo who have made three series for the BBC so far, each more surreal than the last and they are currently on a sell out tour around Britain. Their magic is not easy to explain and surreal is an understatement, they are incredibly imaginative and have created a subtle and gentle kind of comedy which doesn’t rely on adult humour or references to real life. Personally I’m hooked, I recently saw their live show in Glasgow and they were awesome, left me with a sore face from laughing. Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding are the men responsible although their Boosh names are Howard Moon and Vince Noir. They form a kind of double act with Howard as the straight man, a Jazz loving obsessive who dresses like a geography teacher and Vince as the cool fashion obsessed, flirty and fickle shallow moron. They started life in a zoo, working for the repulsive Bob Fossil (played by American Rich Fulcher) as zookeepers and then progressed to the wider world with adventures which could end up anywhere but would always involve them getting into trouble. In the last series they worked in the Nabootique, a weird shop owned by the shaman Naboo and his sidekick gorilla, Bollo. Barratt and Fielding were both stand up comics before they started the Boosh and they each have excellent comic timing and a real talent for writing and playing characters. There is also a massive musical element to their comedy and they cover all sorts of genres with frequent musical numbers in the show which are catchy and hilarious, a rare combination. The show began life as a radio series developed from three stage shows and they have now done three television series and there are persistent rumours about a film which we can only hope are true. The Mighty Boosh is a really unique show and to be honest it defies explanation. The art style, direction, characters and outfits hang together beautifully and I guarantee you’ve never seen anything like this before. Amongst my friends opinion is completely polarised they either love it or they don’t get it at all and find it weird and unfunny. Of course the people that don’t like it are just plain wrong but you might find you have to invest a bit of time before it grows on you like a psychedelic fungus. If you are a fan of British comedy, and lets face it Britain is the best place in the world for comedy perhaps as a counterbalance for the miserable greyness and awful weather, then you have to seek out The Mighty Boosh. Get your hands on a DVD, sit back, relax and join them on a journey through time and space. If you’re not sure where to find it or perhaps you don’t feel ready yet then why not check out their official website, you won’t regret it, well you might regret it but hey that’s your problem.

Bollywood Over Hollywood?

If you hadn't heard of the film Slumdog Millionaire before this week, you probably have since Sunday night when it won 4 Golden Globes. Slumdog Millionaire swept all four categories for which it was nominated at the 2009 Golden Globe Awards. This underdog film about a Mumbai orphan who rises to glory after winning TV show "Who Wants to be a Millionaire," won best drama, best director, best screenplay and musical score. The movie is based on a 2005 novel by Indian novelist and diplomat Vikas Swarup.
Does it deserve these accolades? Absolutely. A riveting film, the narrative structure creates great suspense as it unfolds while making you deeply empathize with its characters. It also captures a side of Indian life that many outside the coutnry wouldn't know about it, as it focuses on Jamal's life in the slums of Mumbai. While its a great film in itself, it's interesting what mainstream attention it is now generating.
Mainstream and Hollywood are synonymous when it comes to films in the U.S., but in India it's Bollywood that takes prime stage with its elaborate costumes, soap opera plots, and synchronized dance scenes. Slumdog Millionaire is Indian at heart, but British director Danny Boyle tells the story in a Western way that uses Bollywood as a cultural reference more than a film tool. The film portrays the seamier side of slum life, without glossing over the grittiness and hardship and without participating in the mawkishness of Bollywood. It's in English with a smattering of Hindi. Starring Dev Patel and the beautiful Freida Pinto, the love affair that develops between them as life keeps them apart is the same story of countless Bollywood films as well as Romeo and Juliet. During the credits though, the actors engage in pure Bollywood when they break out in synchronized, half Indian, half hip hop dances.
Interestingly, the Golden Globes don't tend to be international affairs, but American ones. Hollywood has been THE place for film in the world since the industry's beginnings. Now, however, American Hollywood-style films aren't winning the awards, even if they're still the ones paying for the show. No Bollywood film would have a chance at winning a Golden Globe, much less an Oscar. Yet Slumdog Millionaire is Western enough to be accessible to American judges and their awards, while retaining an Indian spirit and story. And it tells a great story. Oscars, here comes a winner from a different side of the world!

Classic British Comedy: 'Allo 'Allo

'Allo 'Allo is one of those legendary British shows. It was meant to be a spoof of serious British drama, specifically war-time drama Secret Army but soon enough this creative show gained a huge following in its own right. Viewers do not have to be familiar with Secret Army to appreciate the genius behind comedy/alloallo/">'Allo 'Allo; boasting distinct characters, witty dialogue and an absolutely mad story line, it is no wonder that this show became a classic. Brief Introduction of 'Allo 'Allo

'Allo 'Allo was a popular comedy sitcom that ran for 10 years (1982 - 1992) on BBC1. The gist of the story was as follows.

Anime Friday: Paranoia Agent Part 2

Last week I began my analysis of Satoshi Kon's Paranoia Agent, a short anime series that caught me off-balance with how good it is. So, how did the second half hold up? All in all, I think Kon pulled it off. That's not to say the series doesn't stumble as it hits the halfway mark. The cynic in me wants to believe that Kon was contracted to make thirteen episodes for a series that really only had material for eight or nine. Still, the stuff that's there is so good and the conclusion is so satisfying that I'm willing to give Kon the benefit of the doubt and say that his pacing was deliberate. Hell, for what we get at the end, his decision is downright literary. As episode 7 closed, we witnessed Shounen Bat's first actual murder when he/it assaults a teenaged boy copying the evil spirit's MO. Before that, Shounen Bat merely conked people on the head with enough force to hospitalize them. It's a not-so-subtle sign that his power is growing. In fact, that's basically what the second half of the series is about. We can safely assume, though it's never explicitly said, that Shounen Bat isn't of this world and that he's becoming stronger as more people come to believe in him. The series spends a good three episodes diverging from the main plot to explore some one-off characters who only graze the central story arch. To their credit, these characters are fairly amusing, especially a pair of suicidal men who inadvertently become the caretakers of a cheerfully morbid little girl. The only reason these "filler" episodes even exist is to give the series time to build up tension, as well as possibly exploring the big theme of how people run from reality. That's where Kon's thesis is so strong, particularly in the last two episodes. As Shounen Bat grows into an unstoppable mass of black sludge, we finally get the big reveal of where he came from and what he has to do with a quiet cartoon animator. Kon suggests, quite convincingly, that there's very little difference between fashion fads like the Maromi cartoon and rumor-driven violence like the kind perpetrated by Shounen Bat. At the public level, both are things people use to distract themselves from the pressures of real life. Though wrapped in the gory bombast of anime, Paranoia Agent makes the same claim as Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers, only more poignantly. Comprehension: 9/10- I could never quite keep up with all the cultural references, though I tried. But as for as the inferences of the imagery, I found them to be pretty universal. I loved the subtlety, especially as we get to Tsukiko's memory sequence. A younger version of herself drops her dog's leash due to a debilitating cramp, and we witness a splatter of blood at the simultaneous moment the dog gets hit by a car and Tsuki crouches in pain. The references to menses is quiet but unmistakable, and it adds a layer to the character's pathos that even those investigating her life don't know. Enjoyment: 9/10- Some of the filler veered into the unnecessary, but most of it was still pretty entertaining. I especially enjoyed Maromi's explanations of the animation industry. Improvement of Understanding: 9/10- Satoshi Kon uses common anime tropes to tell a very layered, insightful story. It still looks and feels like anime, but it's easier to take seriously than tales of ancient warriors or ridiculous robot battles. Paranoia Agent is essentially what anime can be in its optimal form. The cartoon medium allows for a more magical style, so the story can be told in a way that is neither economical nor immersive when using flesh and blood. Next Week: Serial Experiments Lain

Tokyo Gore Police

I am not unfamiliar with the oddity that can be Japanese cinema. On the contrary, I consider myself to be quite versed in its idiosyncrasies and its unparalleled creativity. But that does not in any way mean that I am not routinely shocked and taken aback by the insanity that it can bring. Of all the film making nations in the world, I find the Japanese, for the most part, to be the most radical and the most innovative, seemingly aiming higher than anyone would dare, regardless of it's practicality. It is because of such things that we inevitably get pieces of work that walk a delicate line between utter absurdity and striking poignancy, full of movement and color, layered with metaphor and philosophy. True, some films tend to favor one side of the artistic fence than the other but it is hard to deny the sociological undercurrents that can be hidden in even the most preposterous of outings. And so we come to Tokyo Gore Police, the newest film from director Yoshihiro Nishimura and it is every bit as comically brutal as you'd expect. It is like Manga come to life, with characters using bazookas to launch themselves up to rooftops, powerfully bad-ass women who you would not want to cross under any circumstance and nightmarish body mutilation that results in grotesque techno-organic weaponry. Indeed, it is a disgusting feast for the eyes that every bit lives up to its title. However, what initially drew me to the film was not, in fact, the copious bloodshed, but instead the casting of actress Eihi Shiina in the role of Ruka, the vengeance seeking police officer who is our protagonist. Shiina first came to attention of many for her disturbing portrayal of Asami in Takashi Miike's unsettling thriller, Audition in 1999. Since then, Shiine has only appeared in a handful of films but I have tried to see every role she has taken. There is a subdued rage that she brings to her characters that few have the ability to pull off and it is a wonder to see. Set in a near future, Tokyo Gore Police shows us a police force that has been privatized and acts more or less as a military imposing a sort of martial law. Coinciding with this a deranged scientist develops a method of planting tumors composed of pure rage into people, resulting in a race known as 'Engineers.' When an 'Engineer' is injured, weaponry of unknown composition will sprout forth from it instead of merely causing them to die. The only way to truly kill them is to find and sever the tumor that somewhere festers in their body. Shiine plays Ruka, a troubled young police officer with a knack for killing 'Engineers' who heads a special task force designed for the sole purpose of eliminating the new threat. Bloodshed ensues. Disgusting as it can be, it is downright surreal in places, taking the hallucinogenic imagery of horror greats like Guillermo del Torro into new and fascinating realms. Creatures that have swords and guns for legs, genetically engineered escorts with snail shells on their back and eyes in their mouths and people being dismembered only to have demonic jaws grow from their severed torsos are but just a taste of what you'll see. Tokyo Gore Police is ultimately a film of satire and beneath the layers and layers of blood and surrealism, there is a social statement being made, even if it is a tad cliched and worn out. It speaks of totalitarianism and fascism, of the suppression of ideas and that drastic measures may ultimately lead to the destruction of what you are trying to save, themes that we have seen dealt with numerous times before. However, we have rarely seen them dealt with in so odd a way and there are numerous clever homages and references to films such as Robocop and Starship Troopers that are scattered throughout. Besides Shiine, there is not much to say about the acting. For the most part, it is sub-par and over-exaggerated and the lines tend to be somewhat amateurish but in a film like this, do you really care about such things? Of course you don't. The social satire simply needs to be plenty and the gore needs to be bounteous and Yoshihiro Nishimura has done this beautifully.

Director Profile: Dario Argento

It has been said that Dario Argento puts the 'gore' in gorgeous, that in watching his movies, you will see horrible things happen, yet you cannot look away because it is done in the most beautiful way possible. Those who have witnessed the imagery in films like Suspiria and Deep Red know that this is true beyond any doubt. Not content to point a camera and shoot moving objects, his films greatly utilized anamorphic lenses that would pan and zoom with jagged suddenness as if in the grip of fits as bodies and blood falls all around. His colors are lavishly exaggerated and wholly unnatural in their settings and the blood that permeates the films is red to the point of technicolor florescence that almost glows in the darkness. Argento is best known for his workings with in the genre known as 'giallo,' an Italian invention that blended the suspense-heavy drama of the iconic detective novel with copiously gratuitous scenes of violence and bloodshed. Acclaimed director Mario Bava may be dubiously credited with the invention of 'giallo' but Argento's surveys and explorations within the genre are what truly made it what it is today. He pushed the boundaries not only of 'giallo' but of film in general to limits that few up until then had dared. Masked men with knives were all well and fine for a while, but soon assimilated supernatural elements that moved his work into something more surrealistically Baroque. Fairy Tales and fables were something that struck a mighty chord with Argento, the cautionary plots and playfully wicked imagery resonating within him, waiting to be released within his aural mosaics. We live in an age when such stories have been dumbed down or altered to be much more cheerful, but when going back and looking at the early versions of these tales, we can see things far more horrible than what we may have grown up with. Argento in not afraid to shy away from such things, in fact, he makes us witness the true horror that has been ignored or forgotten. The savagery of a wicked witch or the jealousy of a scorned lover are not so lightly thrown aside. Perhaps his best known work, considered by many to be his unrivaled masterpiece, is the 1977 supernatural horror, Suspiria. It is a bright, noisily colorful work of art, an acid trip of a movie that features perhaps the most beautifully choreographed and violently elaborate deaths ever to be put onto celluloid. It is with this film that he truly began to move outside of the boundaries laid down by he and other 'giallo' filmmakers. Sight and sound became just as important as story and every shot, whether it be a grisly murder or a more subdued scene of conversation is art directed down to every last detail. The breaking of glass, the slamming of doors, the sounds of knives against wood and flesh; all entered the mind with crystal clarity, gnawing at it and becoming intense fear without it ever being known. Until the blood ran cold and the skin crawled of course. The story itself owes much to 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,' featuring a pale-skinned, dark-haired young woman at the mercy of a decrepit and vile witch. It is like a Walt Disney film by way of Dario Argento, fantastical and colorful yet unflinchingly evil and incomprehensibly odd. Most famous are the film's first fifteen or so minutes which feature a murdered ballet dancer falling through a multi-colored plate-glass window. So intensely macabre they are, instilling your emotions with fearful suspense, that is it often heralded as having never been rivaled, hailed as one of the greatest opening sequences of all time. Much of Argento's work gave way to what we now call the 'slasher' film, a genre that does indeed have its moments, but for the most part pales in artistic comparison. The quality of his output has arguably sagged over the years but their is no denying his strong influence on the modern horror genre. And with recent efforts showing echos of his previous glory, one can hope that this master of horror is not finished just yet.

Let The Right One In

Adolescence is savage. Adolescence is brutal. It is confusing and heartbreaking. It is hopeful and wondrous. You are altogether alone but surrounded by those who are going through much of the same things. Some lash out, some withdraw inwards and everyone is suspicious. There is nothing quite as frightening as entering adolescence, except maybe adolescent love. I will tell you right now that Tomas Alfredson's film Let The Right One In examines these issues with an unflinching brilliance that is rarely dared to be executed. As to my knowledge, not since the great Japanese film Battle Royale has this been done so effectively. I have often said that Science-Fiction and Horror are in a rare position to take metaphor to new levels and that it is a crime that such things are rarely taken advantage of, even more so that they fail to get their deserved credit when they do. Let us hope that this film does not suffer the same fate. Coming of age films are rarely this fierce. At such a time in life, the opposite sex is so alien that they might as well be a different species, something that is entirely beyond relation. So much so that they might as well be Vampires. Forget Twilight. Wipe it from your mind. This is the true Vampire metaphor of this generation. Introduced to us at the film's opening is Oskar, a scrawny blond boy twelve years of age who lives in a small town outside of Stockholm. Oskar is a peculiar young boy who enjoys collecting newspaper clippings of murder reports and is constantly tormented by children at his school, particularly by a young boy named Conny. Oskar never fights back, knowing he could never find the courage or the strength to stand up to them and resigns himself to merely fantasizing about his revenge. He spends his nights in his housing development's playground, acting out these fantasies, stabbing trees while quoting lines from Deliverance and Taxi Driver and one particular night he meets a young girl named Eli. The escalation of their relationship is done so awkwardly perfect. At first, Eli informs him that she cannot be friends with him and abruptly leaves. But she is drawn back to him the next night and he gives her a Rubik's cube as a present. They only see each other at night, in the playground and together they learn Morse code in order to talk to each other through their apartment walls. I tell you, there are few things more endearing than watching a young couple tell each other 'sweet dreams' through a series of taps on a wall. Eli is the one person capable of understanding Oskar. She gives him strength. The strength to fight back, the strength to stand up for himself. It is a testament to the confidence that being in love can bestow upon you. The vampire aspects of the film are astounding, some of the best ever put on film and as Oskar slowly beings to realize the true nature of his beloved, it is a wonder to behold the way they make sacrifices for each other. Oskar is scared at first, and who wouldn't be? But Eli proves times after time that she will never hurt him, culminating in a beautiful scene in which she enters his house uninvited, subjecting herself to pain and horror beyond comprehension. It is in this moment that Oskar realizes that he too in turn would never let anything happen to Eli. Love overrides his fear. The gore is beautiful and tasteful and stays for the most part in the periphery. And it does not need to be any closer. It is the proper embellishment to such a ferociously uncompromising love story but the truly primal scenes in the movie are watching these two young people learn to understand and communicate with their alien companion. Their lives are bound and they will be saved from both loneliness and evil only by each other. I implore you: learn Morse code. It will make the final scene all the more beautiful.

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