| blog | Short Fix: Memories | AHoodedFigure |
| review | Crusader Reviews: Memories (4 out of 5) | crusader8463 |
Three short stories featuring salvage space ship Corona responding to an S.O.S. from the mysterious Madame Butterfly, a young man accidentally becoming a weapon of (stinky) mass destruction, and a day in the life of a cannon city devoted to the destruction of a far away enemy.
An anthology film in the tradition of Robot Carnival and Neo-Tokyo, hyped further for comprising three stories based on works by Katsuhiro Otomo. For Magnetic Rose (Kanojo no Omoide, jpn: Her Memories, hence the title for the film), a group of space salvage operators find a gravity well in the center of the "Sargasso" area of space. Sensing booty, they investigate, to find that the giant metal rose is the mausoleum of a famous opera singer from the 20th century. Robots and holograms on the ship recreate the events of her life and her bitterness over her rejection by her lover, Carlo; though as the visitors dig deeper, they not only discover more sinister aspects of her past, but also that the mausoleum wants to drag them into the illusions forever. For astronaut Heintz Beckner, haunted by his daughter Emily's death on Earth, this is a tempting prospect, and Morimoto's direction juxtaposes ultramodern sci-fi designs with the stately baroque interiors of the space station and the homespun farmhouse of Beckner's family. Redolent at times of Tarkovsky's Solaris (1971) and the poststargate scenes from 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), the Magnetic Rose sequence is one of the triumphs of anime, helped all the more by liberal extracts of Puccini's Madame Butterfly and Tosca, which manage to dwarf the other music by Yoko Kanno, Japan's greatest living composer.
The second sequence, Stink Bomb, reprises the runaway-weapon theme of Otomo's Roujin Z. Hapless scientific researcher Nobuo takes an antihistamine, unaware it is an experimental bioweapon that generates a fatal odor. Not realizing there are any ill effects, he heads for Tokyo to report to his bosses, while the military throw every weapon they have at him, and passersby drop dead in his tracks. Eventually, the task is left to foreign soldiers (thinly disguised Americans) whom the canny Japanese everyman effortlessly outwits. A well-made but lightweight comedy.
The final part, Cannon Fodder, was the first anime Otomo directed after Akira. Originally planned as a 5-minute sequence, it ran well over time and budget, eventually reaching the 15-minute form shown. Set in a steam-punk world that recalls the animation sequences of Pink Floyd's The Wall (1982), it features a nameless boy living in a town whose entire existence revolves around an unexplained war with a distant foe. He goes to school to learn about gunnery, while his father goes to work on one of the giant cannons, shooting an immense shell over the horizon. Shot in a drained, drab color scheme, Cannon Fodder is a stinging indictment of war-the boy knows nothing except fighting and dreams of cartoon soldiers. It is also a masterpiece from Otomo, planned as a single, continuous tracking shot (though this is not sustained for the entire film) and utilizing digital effects and scoring, reputedly as an experiment for Steam Boy.
The second sequence, Stink Bomb, reprises the runaway-weapon theme of Otomo's Roujin Z. Hapless scientific researcher Nobuo takes an antihistamine, unaware it is an experimental bioweapon that generates a fatal odor. Not realizing there are any ill effects, he heads for Tokyo to report to his bosses, while the military throw every weapon they have at him, and passersby drop dead in his tracks. Eventually, the task is left to foreign soldiers (thinly disguised Americans) whom the canny Japanese everyman effortlessly outwits. A well-made but lightweight comedy.
The final part, Cannon Fodder, was the first anime Otomo directed after Akira. Originally planned as a 5-minute sequence, it ran well over time and budget, eventually reaching the 15-minute form shown. Set in a steam-punk world that recalls the animation sequences of Pink Floyd's The Wall (1982), it features a nameless boy living in a town whose entire existence revolves around an unexplained war with a distant foe. He goes to school to learn about gunnery, while his father goes to work on one of the giant cannons, shooting an immense shell over the horizon. Shot in a drained, drab color scheme, Cannon Fodder is a stinging indictment of war-the boy knows nothing except fighting and dreams of cartoon soldiers. It is also a masterpiece from Otomo, planned as a single, continuous tracking shot (though this is not sustained for the entire film) and utilizing digital effects and scoring, reputedly as an experiment for Steam Boy.
Characters & Voice Actors
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Credits
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Tensai Okamura | Director | He's the creator of Darker than Black and a director for many shows. |
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Hirotsugu Kawasaki | Character Artist/Designer | ||
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Hidekazu Ohara | Character Artist/Designer | ||
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Koji Morimoto | Director | Koji Morimoto was born December 26, 1959 in Japan, and is one of that nation's premier anime directors. |
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Katsuhiro Otomo | Director | |
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Masahiro Ando | Key Animator | A japanes animator/director who has worked in popular shows including Canaan, Cowboy Bebop, Wolf's Rain and Neon Genesis Evangelion. |
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Takashi Watanabe | Art Director | A Japanese director who was best known for directing Slayers, Lost Universe and Ichiban Ushiro no Dai Maō. |
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Satoshi Kon | Writer | Director of many prominent movies including Paprika, Perfect Blue, Millennium Actress, and Tokyo Godfathers, as well as the anime series Paranoia Agent. |
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Yoko Kanno | Music | Did the Soundtrack to the Magnetic Rose Segment and the ending theme "In yer Memory". |
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Hiroyuki Nagashima | Music | Did the Soundtrack to the Cannon Fodder Segment. | |
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Jun Miyake | Music | Did the Soundtrack to the Stink Bomb Segment. |
Original US Poster Art
General Information
Edit
 Name: |
Memories |
| Release Date: |
Feb. 24, 2004 |
 Name: |
メモリーズ |
| Romaji: |
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| Release Date: |
Dec. 23, 1995 |
| Rating: | R |
| Runtime: | 115 (mins) |
| Genres | |
| Themes | |
| Aliases | Katsuhiro Otomo Presents: Memories Magnetic Rose Cannon Fodder Stink bomb |
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