WINGS OF HONNEAMISE
Santa Rusli
abrupt, don't you think? It leaves me with a kind of unfinished feeling,
like something more could be done, to tie up the loose ends.
Whatever happen to Shillotzough? or Laquinne? Do they get married or what?
I just hope that they pursue their relationships further.
What about the rocket control personnel back home? Do they get blown up?
Is this movie supposed to be set in OUR world, Earth? All the animals look
a little bit different..( the water buffalo, for eg. ), and the designs were
a little outrageous, but nevertheless, very impressive.
I think WoH contains a lot of symbolic messages and those kinds of stuffs.
It was really deep, and may be good to be used as a literature text in some
schools! :)
Paul_Jamieson FENWICK
>Is this movie supposed to be set in OUR world, Earth? All the animals look
>a little bit different..( the water buffalo, for eg. ), and the designs were
>a little outrageous, but nevertheless, very impressive.
It doesn't look like it's set on our Earth, more of an Alternate Earth.
I think it works quite well, especially in getting around any political
hassles you might have in setting in the real world. Whenever you
see a space-shot of the world (I think there was only one or two), it
was fairly obvious it had different land-masses and layout than that
of the real Earth.
I loved WoH... I thought as a whole it worked really well. To me the
ending wasn't as important as the rest of the concepts expressed
during it.
Have fun!
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rhee kie-hyock
>Is this movie supposed to be set in OUR world, Earth? All the animals look
>a little bit different..( the water buffalo, for eg. ), and the designs were
>a little outrageous, but nevertheless, very impressive.
Let's say it's an alternative universe. We see lotsa those, where the
mechanisms and animals and such are a little different; they all
took a different development path. Some examples would be Laputa,
Orguss II, and Wings with Mayonnaise, uh, Honneamise. ^_^
--
Keith Rhee | AISS / technograph / e-motion
Phone: (217) 352-2810 | a boss says "Go."
eMail: kr...@ux4.cso.uiuc.edu | -- a leader says "Let's go."
Elizabeth Horn
I'm glad you enjoyed THE WINGS OF HONNEAMISE, but I personally don't
feel that it's the kind of film that begs for a sequel. That is, I'd
certainly like to see Hiroyuki Yamaga write and direct another motion
picture, and his boys in GAINAX animate it--but I feel that HONNEAMISE
sets out to do everything it intended in terms of story and character
development. In terms of the movie's incredibly rich art direction and
design--yes, it's a great pity that we only get to see it for two
hours. But I *haven't* seen it for only two hours, ha-ha--I just
finished watching it for the seventy-sixth time, and that time like
every time I caught some new detail in the background. One can't
possibly appreciate all the work that went into HONNEAMISE in one
pass--it's definitely a film that rewards repeat viewing.
Put a slightly different way, THE WINGS OF HONNEAMISE, a truly
exceptional feature film, took the effort that might have gone into
making 20 mediocre OAVs. Naturally, I'd rather have the one film
instead...I have long believed that the OAV rarely lives up to the
promises that were made that this format would expand the "artistic
freedom" of anime. Instead it seems to be more of a marketing ploy,
and studios increasingly microtarget their audience--to the point, I
suspect, where they practically know the name of every fan who's going
to buy it before they ever lay brush to acetate. A motion picture or
television series, on the other hand, has the potential to be seen by
millions and therefore reach an "unexpected audience"--that is, expand
people's tastes where the OAV philosophy often assumes "we know them
already, thanks." I believe that despite original and provocative OAVs
such as MEGAZONE TWO THREE and OTAKU NO VIDEO, and superfly shit like
RIDING BEAN, anime's greatest achievements, ten years into the OAV
era, are *still* found in movies and television--MACROSS, ZETA GUNDAM,
MAISON IKKOKU, URUSEI YATSURA, LUPIN III, LAPUTA, ONLY YESTERDAY,
AKIRA, PATLABOR: INQUEST, GOLGO 13...don't sleep on 'em.
I think Shirotzugh and Leiqunni's relationship in THE WINGS OF
HONNEAMISE is more important for what it isn't than what it is. The
irony is that the two of them have something of that "higher love," a
spiritual sharing that many people long for, but as my man R.A.H. said
"if you don't like yourself, you can't like other people"--and
Leiqunni has a very low opinion of herself, posessing nothing but her
faith in God (just before Shiro tries to rape her, she questions
whether it is possible for people to do good at all: "Your truths
become lies when they leave your mouth...your good intentions are made
evil when they reach your hand...What can any of you do, besides
pray?") whereas Shiro is engaged on a voyage of trying to figure out
how to live in the real world with its complex moral landscape. Did
you notice the scene where Leiqunni stops from reaping winter wheat to
look up at the jet (she is also the only one to look up, just like she
is the only one to look up at the end of the film)? It is a match to
the scene at the beginning, just before the opening credits, where the
young Shiro looks up at the jet. It certainly suggests they share a
similar longing. Yet Shiro learns to look *around* as well as up, and,
in the end, looks *down* from orbit, as he realizes that he has indeed
become a part of that vast reality below instead of withdrawing and
hiding from it as he did before. Leiqunni thought of space as some
place that would make you free of the evils of the world, whereas
Shiro has gained the wisdom to understand that, while space does offer
the chance for a new start, we bring there what we are and that a
"change of scenery" can't change the violence of human nature--only
humans can do that.
On the issue of what happens to the launch team, since we see the
Republic's troops withdrawing from the site after the launch, and we
see pictures of Shiro's friends greeting him after his splashdown in
the end credits, we can assume they're OK. HONNEAMISE definitely does
not take place in "our" world, but rather what I regard as a
"kaleidoscopic mirror" of our world made up of bits and pieces of many
human cultures. You can see the Maori, the Hopi, the Japanese, the
British, the Russians, and ourselves in the designs, among many
others. Also, the connections between the film's world and our own are
suggested in the opening and closing credits, which are largely
adapted from actual historic photos, and sequences such as the "march
of history" near the end where you see figures that resemble Tesla and
Lenin.
HONNEAMISE is a film of many symbolic messages, but I argue that
rather than being preachy, the film develops its messages through the
experiences of its main character rather than preaching per se. Or put
another way, HONNEAMISE does not preach but invites us to think about
preaching--the value systems we own or are invited to buy. I think it
is the best science-fiction film of the 1980s, both in terms of its
art direction (not even BLADE RUNNER involved as much work in creating
a world) and in the idea that SF should make you *think*.
--Carl "Punks runnin' like roaches with the light on" Horn
"You and I, aren't we both otaku? And as otaku, we'll continue to
LIVE!"
--Kubo, OTAKU NO VIDEO
Lex...@world.std.com
rhee kie-hyock <kr...@ux4.cso.uiuc.edu> wrote:
>sru...@multi.multiline.com.au (Santa Rusli) writes:
>
>>Is this movie supposed to be set in OUR world, Earth? All the animals look
>>a little bit different..( the water buffalo, for eg. ), and the designs were
>>a little outrageous, but nevertheless, very impressive.
It didn't actually matter if it was set on our Earth or not...fact is that
this _could_ have taken place on our Earth, and the anime is in itself
very very human :-)
Cheers
Yat
Elizabeth Horn
>In article <2pctm7$f...@multi.multiline.com.au>,
>Santa Rusli <sru...@multi.multiline.com.au> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>>I think WoH contains a lot of symbolic messages and those kinds of stuffs.
>>It was really deep, and may be good to be used as a literature text in some
>>schools! :)
>>
>
>more sombre...
>
>
1984? How would you characterize these similarities? Since Orwell made
an excellent analysis of trends in modern superpowers, I don't doubt
that one could make some observations from his work that would be
relevant to HONNEAMISE. And since I've compared it seriously to both T
S Eliot's "The Wasteland" and Dante's "Inferno" (it's amazing how one
can earn credit in today's colleges :-)), I'm sure one can make a
case for comparing it to Orwell.
Robert Heinlein is my favorite author, although I regard him as a
rather complicated man who expressed a wide variety of political and
social views during his lifetime, to match his diversity of styles (I
say that because I know some people have been turned off by him on the
basis of reputation alone, or by reading only certain works from his
50-year career). When I was a freshman at Pomona, I was scheming how I
could get HONNEAMISE subtitled, and I had the thought that, once done,
I could send a copy of it to Heinlein, along with that fan letter I'd
always wanted to write. Thinking about that early one morning, I came
back to Wig Hall to pick up the L.A. Times on the doorstep, and he was
dead on page two.
But many of the issues that Heinlein wrote about are unresolved, and
in terms of space travel, we are in certain ways still in the 1950s
(the testing of the DC-X is not too different from the work on ROCKET
SHIP GALILEO). If the space race showed anything, it is that reasons
are important, and if we go into space for the wrong reasons, we won't
stay there and nothing will change. We went through in real life the
"False Dawn" that Heinlein spoke of in the 1940s. What made Heinlein
such a great SF author was that he was the first such since H.G. Wells
to consider the socio-political aspects of the genre rather than
relying on gimmicks and space opera. Wait a minute--gimmicks and space
opera? Sounds like a lot of SF anime...Hiroyuki Yamaga also considers
these in THE WINGS OF HONNEAMISE, and also what Michael Franti sings
about: "the personal evolution...far more difficult/than the first
stage/in any revolution." Yamaga is obviously very much attracted to
the romance of engineering, and his film is indeed a tone poem to
design and those who labor on it, but the engineers who make space
travel possible are, like anyone else, easy prey for the political
schemes of others if they fail to take time and consider who they are
and what they themselves believe in. HONNEAMISE is a remarkably mature
work for a 24-year old (even if I, a 23-year old, say it :-)), and,
when one considers that it was Yamaga's first film, it's just plain
astounding. I really hope he can write and direct another one before
too long...He, through his original story, certainly pays more respect
to the spirit of Heinlein's work than the people who made the STARSHIP
TROOPERS OAVs, who kind of missed the story's fucking raison d'etre...
--Carl "Soy El Alcalde (El Alcalde de Rock and Roll)" Horn
"I'm a driver, I'm a winner...Things are gonna change, I can feel it."
--not Bean Bandit
Emru Townsend
> I agree that WINGS OF HONNEAMISE is a classic, but the ending is a bit
>abrupt, don't you think? It leaves me with a kind of unfinished feeling,
>like something more could be done, to tie up the loose ends.
>Whatever happen to Shillotzough? or Laquinne? Do they get married or what?
>I just hope that they pursue their relationships further.
The ending is fine. All that other stuff is unimportant, because it's not
the real point of the film.
--
=======================================================================
Emru Townsend, aka: em...@cam.org, = Editor/publisher, fps: the Magazine
swi...@bix.com, Fido: 1:167/133 = of Animation on Film and Video
Live and in colour, from Montreal = #4 due in June: Music and Animation
=======================================================================
Eric Franzen
Either it is unimportant to the story or he wants to leave that to your
imagination.
Raymond T Dizon
Can anyone recommend this art book by M. Shirow? I saw two copies the
other day for $40 and the next time I came back they were both gone. Must be
good then. Any information would greatly be appreciated.
The Mikimoto Fan
Yawng Seong Suh
: Can anyone recommend this art book by M. Shirow? I saw two copies the
: other day for $40 and the next time I came back they were both gone. Must be
: good then. Any information would greatly be appreciated.
: The Mikimoto Fan
I strongly recommend it! If I had the money I would snatch it up in an
instant! Most of it is appleseed. You can check out some of the art work
by ftping to ftp.sunet.se under misc I think. I'm not sure. I will check
and post a followup.
--
Steve Suh
gt7...@prism.gatech.edu
Georgia Institue of Technology
Kyuuketsuki Miyu of AMPD
: Can anyone recommend this art book by M. Shirow? I saw two copies the
: other day for $40 and the next time I came back they were both gone. Must be
: good then. Any information would greatly be appreciated.
I would most definitely recommend it. Highly regard it, in terms of
adding it to my art book collection(s) <let see, Dragonlance, Mikimoto,
Gundam, BGC, M-66, Project A-ko, Silent Mobius... Geeesh... Lots more...>
Well worth it...
______________________________________________________________________________
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|\--/---\--/|"Ater Marcet Ve Gebra, Ve Dedra Lu Oram, Amen!" - Katsumi Liqueur
| >< AMP >< |"For the female of the species is deadlier than the male."
|/--\---/--\|"Social distortions turns the weak into criminals."
| \_/ |"Those who break faith with the Unity shall go down in darkness."
Dan M. Liebgold
> The Mikimoto Fan
yep... its excellent. An absolute MUST for any Shirow fan... and its good for
even those unfamiliar with his work. A friend of mine not even into anime went
and bought it after seeing his "Landmate" designs.
dl
--
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Dan Liebgold lieb...@seas.ucla.edu|"Gentleman! You
515 Kelton Ave #226 Good Things: Rush, Anime, Linux| can't fight in here!
LA, CA 90024 Bad Things: MS-DOS, AC/DC| This is the war room!"
Peter Evans
>Raymond T Dizon (rdi...@sales.STERN.NYU.EDU) wrote:
>: Can anyone recommend this art book by M. Shirow? I saw two copies the
>: other day for $40 and the next time I came back they were both gone. Must be
>: good then. Any information would greatly be appreciated.
>: The Mikimoto Fan
The Mikimoto Fan implies that there is only one.
have you bought the Mikimoto BGV yet?
$40 is really steep. Its about 2400yen? (come on tohan, invoice me!)
I can get about 20% off, but I have to order a mind-numbing amount.
anyone want 100?? (50 will do!)
>I strongly recommend it! If I had the money I would snatch it up in an
>instant! Most of it is appleseed. You can check out some of the art work
>by ftping to ftp.sunet.se under misc I think. I'm not sure. I will check
>and post a followup.
It is one of the best art books around. it also has these nice
little insights into the reason/content of some of the paintings.
Peter
----(
--
Wai-Wai! Paati! Paati! Wai-Wai! Tsuki ni kawatte, hayaoki yo!
Ban-ban-ban-ban- banpei-kun Ban-ban-ban-ban Banpei-kun RX!
My opinions are my own, my company is not capable of opinions, even if it was,
they would be stupid. (They are, I checked.) [Half-man, half-email ^_^]
Raymond T Dizon
>The Mikimoto Fan implies that there is only one.
>have you bought the Mikimoto BGV yet?
The Mikimoto BGV? What's that? As long as it has those female
chara designs, I'm interested. But I doubt I'll be able to get
it here in the states. You forget, you're in Japan so you get all
the goodies.
>It (Intron Depot) is one of the best art books around. It also has
>these nice little insights into the reason/content of some of the
>paintings.
It is huh? Great, now I'm going to end up spending another $40. You
know something, this has got to be the most expensive hobby. First it
was just videos. Then soundtracks. As if that wasn't bad enough, now
art books. What's next, garage kits? Hope not.
The Mikimoto Fan
Profess'nal Agitator
> The Mikimoto Fan implies that there is only one.
> have you bought the Mikimoto BGV yet?
What does BGV stand for?
Thanx in advance,
Agitator
#->
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battery on a brick. --Dana Summers, Orlando Sentinel // Kemp '96
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Roderick Lee, HMC '91 "The Professional Agitator" agit...@kaiwan.com
KhChan
: In article <2qkbda$8...@hera.ryutai.co.jp>, Peter Evans <pe...@ryutai.co.jp> wrote:
: > The Mikimoto Fan implies that there is only one.
: > have you bought the Mikimoto BGV yet?
: What does BGV stand for?
Probably means Background Video.