Colorful (film)
 

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Summary:



No idea why no one is talking about this, especially since this isn't even upcoming and has been released already.

I saw this title floating around, but I thought it was a remake of this series, so I steered clear. Thankfully, the film is much more elegant and interesting than its same title brethren...:).

i also mistook the movie for the other title, but somehow i doubted that the echi shit series would be released in blu ray, so i checked the doki blog. and thank god i did. this movie is the breath of the finest freshest air in a long while. 5cm/second and Ano hana pale in comparison. if i had to choose a single word for this movie it would be "human". i have tons to say about it, so i'll take a break to formulate my thoughts and post later. ...so many questions are posed here.

i'll start with most important and least obvious (at least to me) - the message. i've started to hypothesize on the message since the 5th minute in, which hasn't happened for at least a year. at first, i thought the movie was trying to say smth
about the japaneese way of life. "the nail that sticks out gets hammered in". like how the main char (MC for short) has to get
used to living the life of another person and gets a say in the matter only technically. that theory fell apart when we learned that the MC was in fact Makoto himself (which raises quite a few questions). 20 min after i've finished the movie, i came up with another, more simple, obvious theory -
every person can change himself at any moment, even when life seems hopeless. although this raises some questions about the execution, it seems very fitting.
now, about those questions...the writer delves into almost unknown territory, assuming one can change if he loses his memory.
in the US movie "Overboard" it was believable, because the subject of memory loss was tossed into a different life situation and
circumstances than that of his life prior to memory loss. here, makoto has to live life in the exact same consequences as before memory loss. how is he supposed to change if he is thrown into the same life which has pushed him to suicide? yes, he lost his memory, but his reactions to triggers/events should be the same. with memoty loss you don't become a new person. you become
your old self minus memories - that 's it. so for examle, it isn't believable that the MC makes a friend, although Makoto didn't have a single one.

but the fuck up with logic is easily excused with the char development and tearjercking moments.also at this point it should be mentioned that the artwork is god - level, mainly the backgrounds. the animation is okay, but as this isn't an action movie - it
doesn't matter. character movement is very fluid. the char designs could be more detailed to fit the backgrounds, but that seems to
be the plague of most movies for some reason. + some expressions could be animated a whole lot better, without the chance of them being posted on "quality" threads on 4chan. anyway, the art and animation add to the overall positive impression.

next up - characters. i must say, this movie has the most chars i sympathise with compared to series and movies in recent memory. it was sufficient for me to like the MC to like a movie/series, but here i liked/undestood every char eccept that ugly glasses chick, she was just unpleasant to watch and didn't add to the char development or the story. they could/ve removed that char from the story altogether and it wouldn't have mattered...
the mother didn't have that much imersion, but her reasons could well be understood, i can't blame her fully for her actions. the father, while starting out like a pathetic char, managed to gain some personality and respect from me by the third part of the movie. he may be a lowly salaryman, but he is still a human being who has smth usefull to share with his son. the fishing scene shows him to be more than a stereotype, athough he is a secondary char - a feat most anime fail to accomplish. the brother, the crush and the friend all lack a bit of characterisation, but it's still enough for me to like them. the brother and friend are the simple chars in their reasoning, with no mysteries. the brother with his cold attitude, yet caring heart is a bit of a cliche, but i didn't really see him an important influence on the MC or an interesting char. the friend wasn't all too deep a char either, but he provided the positive feel-good moments of the movie and didn't feel like just a plot device. i could see the similarity between him and the MC and the reason they became friends. now, the hot chick - that's another story altogether. her char isn't fleshed out AND we don't get to know the real reason she is being a slut. yes, she wants expensive things, but on a psychological level that just doesn't do it. there has to be an underlying reason. + we don't know why she is so close to the MC, why she deals so easily with the fact that makoto literally isn't the same person, why she comes to the art club at all. how could the writer expect us to have strong feelings about her having sex with older men if we don't get a chance to know her character all that well nor the details of her relatinship with the MC?

EDIT

while the premise feels artificial, it's overall an enjoyable experience, the highlight being the fact that noone is being "aggressively stupid ", to quote the blog "Moe sucks". on the contrary, you get the feeling that the interactions of the chars are lifted from real life. apart from the message, i enjoyed the slice of life feel of the anime.
the only drawback is the OST, which impressed me only in one scene. for a movie, that's sub par, really...

Wonderful movie. Very realistic (the whole reincarnation part notwithstanding) and moving. "Human" is probably the perfect word to describe this movie. The family scenes in particular were so realistic it was almost distrubing. The atmosphere during the dinners was so heavy. Even the character design was more realistic than what we're used to. I loved the "You're hideous even without your glasses line" because it's true :heh:

The twist was incredibly easy to predict, but it doesn't matter at all. In fact, I couldn't have imagined the movie ending any other way. It would have lost some of its meaning if the main character had been totally unrelated to Makato.

As for the message of the movie, I don't think it's about changing oneself. In fact, I'd say it's the opposite. Makoto hasn't changed all that much, the glasses girl even implied he went back to his old self. He simply accepted himself and the people around him for who they were. Then thanks to Saotome, he managed to break out of his shell. His memory loss and the fact he thought Makoto's life wasn't his own allowed him to be objective, do things Makoto would have never done, and finally see his family in another light. Thanks to this, he realized that even though they aren't perfect, his family members care deeply about him. The message for me lies in what he told Hiroka: "Everyone is the same. Humans aren't comprised of a single colour, but of many different ones. There's nothing wrong with it. Be it beautiful or dirty colors."

Nobody is entirely perfect, nobody is entirely worthless. People all have good sides and bad sides. The world isn't black and white, it's colorful. This colorfulness is what allows us to be kind to one another. There are people supporting Makoto, and no matter how pathetic he thought he was, he was also supporting someone all this time.

accepting oneselfand others andbreaking out of his shell both require changing oneself...
as for the "color" dialougue, well it was too naive and simple for me. it's very obvious that life isn't black and white. i hold the first part of the phrase in place of first importance - "Everyone is the same". a very jap thing to say, considering the idea can be interpreted in an opposite way.
also, about makoto. as the movie went on, the feeling that the MC and makoto were fusing into one became only stronger, although i didn't anticipate the plot twist (MC being makoto). so when the glasses girl said he was just like the old makoto, it meant that he was nearing the realisation of his sin. (and that he was makoto himself)
all in all, i still can't find a logical explanation to makoto's epiphany. it's more of an emotional movie than a logical one. like, how exactly is it that makoto overcame the challenge? by making a friend? by realising his sin? so what? realisation doesn't equal the feeling of regret. how did he realise his sin exactly? and there's the thing i talked about in my previous post. the one, where it's impossible to change a person through memory loss - he;ll still be the sme person. so all that is needed to change a person is erase his memory? i don't think so...

Not the kind of work that sees a lot of talk around these parts, that's why. For one it's just become available, it's also low profile as an original anime movie project, it's from a studio that has a bizarrely negative reputation around these parts and whose works only ever seem to get much consideration if it's a mecha TV series, and it came out in theaters in the midst of the Haruhi movie being released on BR which drew a lot of attention away from a lot of things.

I see it's fate being similar to that of Tiger & Bunny in barely getting any attention early on (and still not that much) despite the content and quality and clearly being targeted with a western audience in mind.

A few other things, it didn't sell well upon release (placed 20th overall I think), but it's definitely getting noticed in film critic circles. Been nominated for quite a few animation awards outside of Japan (Europe mostly) as well as within, and we're not talking magazine rankings or something, we're talking actual awards like the Mainichi Film Awards where it actually won. It's basically seen a lot in the same company as Ghibli's Arietty.

I realize the environment in came out in, alongside the obscurity of its creators are reasons for it not being that talked about. But still, it is a film that has been wining awards and is receiving many positive reviews. That's why I'm surprised.

Oh well, hopefully people notice this.

Keiichi Hara and Sunrise aren't that obscure though, not by a long shot, I just don't think they draw a lot of attention around these parts when it comes to things not named Gundam/Code Geass/Shin-Chan. It might have also been confused with that other panties show that a lot of people are mentioning and considering they have the exact same name that's understandable. Could be the second time a Sunrise production has been screwed over by name confusion in these parts this year as I think that's a good chunk of the reason "Tiger & Bunny" isn't the talk of the town as well.

I think people will start to notice it now that it's available though.....maybe?

Well it wouldn't be the first time I've watched and really liked an anime only to find out hardly anyone has watched it :p.

So, since we're all made of pretty colours and disguting colours, it's kind of ok for a 14 year old middleschooler to sell her body?

^Who said she's just 14 ? I wasn't sure of their age but those characters sure seemed more mature than just 14, I'd guess around 16-17 at least. And well, it's Japan, if you've been following the news at all it's not even really uncommon for teens to sell their body to get money to buy stuff they want.

Anyway .. Just watched the movie because of this thread. Gotta love the scenery in this one .. Some scenes were visually just stunning .. Makes me wonder why the character design is always so simple in these kind of movies though .. Perhaps to portray '' real '' humans.. I don't know, but it's still rather boring.

Story was .. predictable I suppose but still pretty good. I wish there were more movies like this (maybe not story wise, but scenery/art) .. There's just something about watching a movie opposed to a series.

I don't see it that way. Breaking out of his shell allowed him to be on the outside the way he's always been on the inside, and to enjoy his daily life. He did change quite a bit (his outlook on life in particular did), but he didn't become a different person at all.

And yes, the message is pretty naive and corny. With poorer execution, it might have been a terrible movie. Thankfully, it was great.

Before I begin to watch an obscure Japanese animation movie, (this is the first time I've ever heard of Colorful) I have a few questions. Would you say the strength of this movie is compelling screenplay, or beautiful visuals? Based on the above comments, Colorful's storyline is extremely corny and melodramatic, but it's art quality is superb. On another side, I see Colorful has won many awards for Best Script/Screenplay. So I write rather confused... which one?

I thought the story was compelling. Even though it's basically an anti-suicide movie hehe. I also really liked the backgrounds. I hated that they put CG stuff like cars in backgrounds. They didn't blend in perfectly. I agree about the simple art. This movie could've used a different style, that suit the backgrounds more.
One scene that really stood out in this movie for me, was a scene where Makoto's mother is crying while they're having dinner. Everyone just calmly resumes like they don't hear her crying. Really weird scene if you ask me.

Still not as awkward as the Haruhi movie. I though that one had among the bizzarest character to background blends that I've ever seen in a film not called Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace. You know how when a background looks flat and like the characters are really obviously superimposed over them as opposed to looking like a part of the background? That should never happen in an animation.

Anyway I thought the characters in this movie suited the backgrounds just fine. Then again I'm kind of used to this art style from watching older anime. Also I don't think this movie works as well without the somewhat muted color pallet and character design comparing and contrasting with the title and premise. It's wholly appropriate.

I actually just got around to watching the film. Now this is what I call an elegant drama. Just an overall, really nice story. 9.2/10

I wish more stories like this would be made instead of the usual otaku pandering garbage you see out there.

Him choosing a highschool was a bit of plot-point, so they should still be going to middleschool, which makes them about 14, maybe 15 max.
And my point wasn't that enjo-kōsai or even prostitution was uncommon amongst schoolgirls in Japan, but rather how the protagonist was quite accepting of it.

Both. The visuals were pretty and the screenplay was excellent. The final message may be a little corny, but the overall storyline and its execution were flawless.

Accepting that a person does "x" doesn't make the action "right". It just means that as her friend he has accepted her flaws. Just like he accepted his mother's extra-marital affair and his mother being sorry for it.

Loved this movie. :D