Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Latest Inspirations - Makoto Shinkai

Well... it's been two days since I saw three animations all made by Makoto Shinkai. He is the creator of the following movies/short animations.

1. She and her Cat



2. Voices from a Distant Star



3. The Place Promised in Our Early Days / Beyond the Clouds


4. 5 Centimeters per Second



I had already seen 5 Centimeters per Second, but it was only two days ago that I laid my hands on the remaining 3 movies/short animations.

First I saw The Place Promised in our Early Days. I was like "WOW" after watching the detailed artwork and the completely new concept for a Sci-Fi. The violin Music that the girl played hit my head everytime... it was just beautiful. Overall, the movie touched me.

6 Hours later, I saw She and her Cat. It was wonderful, but weird. There was a theme, but no story, no explanations, and no ending. All this story wanted to show you was how a cat spent his life with her master. The fact that he made each and every frame of the animation himself was enough to impress me... I just saw this 5 minute animation and the last line drowned me in thoughts... but my thoughts (rather deep) are not something I can write down in words... >_< Voices from a Distant Star. I'll be frank. I still haven't recovered yet. I've lost sleep for 2 days now, and have temporarily lost my cold blooded thinking ability...Reasons

1) This guy made this total 25 minutes of animation himself. The only help he took was of his fiance for the girl's voice and his friend Tenmon for the music (which has hit my heart this time... not just my head... and I'll soon put a new post on it...). The rest of it... he made it himself... He did something that was beyond my imagination, until now...

2) The visualization and ambiance of this story is simply superb. I still find it hard to believe that one guy made it himself on his computer... o_O

3) Even though the story is shallow, i.e. doesn't cover details and stuff... yet I could feel the characters, especially the Girl. I could feel her loneliness and her longing to be on Earth with Noboru (The Boy).

4) He made a 24 minute animation with two complete human characters... and all dialogs were carried by them alone (Leave the Female voice in the Space Ship).

5) Incomplete Ending or Open Ending. This forces my mind to trace possible endings. Being a natural pessimist makes me think of the bad ending first. Only a lot later I could calm my mind by thinking the happier ending.

6) Waaaaah!!!!! I don't Know... why... why this movie made me sentimental. WHY!!!!!?????

The last time any movie made me that level of sentimental was Benji the Hunted. I accept that I cried in one part of this movie... but otherwise... no movie has made me cry.

Well... Voices from a... didn't make me cry... but it did make me feel terribly sad and even more terribly lonely... The ending song - Through the years and far away, amplified my sadness... However, getting back to my topic of this blog...

Makoto Shinkai is an inspiration because he made his stories come to animation on his own power (mostly) . He wonderfully tells a story that is so damn simple and straightforward, yet is so complex that you'll sit and think about it. His works cover human emotions with such accuracy and tenderness that you can't help but feel the character come alive in reality.
Yes, for me he is an inspiration because he has shown me that any story or creation can also have details on human emotion, and that can be show via art and animation.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.