All posts tagged: Fantasy/Adventure

Eye-On_Lilous-Adventure

LiLOU’s adventure

Published by Ben Dimagmaliw

The movies of Kumasaka Izuru have always seemed to gravitate toward stories about the relationships between unlikely people. In his triple 2005 Pia Award winning debut short film, Coffee and Milk, a 6th grader falls in love with and tries to help a deaf woman 12 years his senior through his photography…and fails. The wins granted him the opportunity to make his debut feature through the Pia Scholarship Program, Asyl: Park and Love Hotel. In it, women from various walks of life form bonds as they find solace at a Japanese love hotel which strangely features a park at its rooftop where residents of the surrounding community have always visited to find respite from urban, Tokyo life–hence the word “asyl” in the title which is German for “sanctuary” or “oasis”. Kumasaka’s handling of these character dynamics garnered him the Best First Feature Award at the 2010 Berlin International Film Festival instantly marking him as “one to watch.” He answered those expectations with LiLOU’s adventure, his second independent feature. The story seems like classic Kumasaka. Set on Okinawa, Lilou, …

Typhoon-Noruda-Still

Typhoon Noruda

Published by Ben Dimagmaliw

One of 2016’s buzzwords was Your Name, the animated feature by likely the most recognized independent animation director, Shinkai Makoto. However, a year prior, there was animated feature made by another small animation house called, Colorido. Typhoon Noruda employs techniques similar to Shinkai Makoto, but there is a more youthful and innocent (for lack of a better term) air to the palette and character design. While it can be argued Shinkai’s works are driven by esoteric, adult themes, the works by Colorido are high-concept, yet more straightforward adventures in childhood and/or adolescence. Set on an unspecific outlying island, *Typhoon Noruda*, tells the tale of Azuma and Saijo, two friends since youth bound by their love of baseball. Their relationship is strained when Azuma decides to quit playing. Then Azuma comes upon a strange girl, Noruda, who appears out of nowhere. “When the whirlwind on the ground, the maelstrom in the sky and I are linked as one, this world will be reborn…” At this time, the largest typhoon in recorded history is bearing down on …