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Memories (film)
Encyclopedia
Memories is an anime
produced in 1995 by artist
/director
Katsuhiro Otomo
which were based on three of his manga
short stories. The film is composed of three episodes: , and . The latter story was directed by Otomo himself.
Once they are inside, they discover an opulent European interior and several furnished rooms (in varying degrees of decay), but find no signs of life. They discover that the station belongs to a once famous opera diva named Eva Friedal who disappeared after the murder of her fiancée, Carlo Rambaldi, a fellow singer. Continuing the search for the source of the signal, the engineers split up, with each experiencing paranormal encounters, including strange noises and visions of Eva. Miguel enters the dilapidated underbelly of the station, and in a cavernous chamber he finds a broken piano playing the distress signal. He begins to hallucinate and Eva suddenly runs up to kiss him.
Heintz finds a theater stage and sees Eva, who stabs him when he approaches. Suddenly paralyzed, Heintz relives a memory of his family, particularly with his daughter Emily. The illusion disappears when Eva takes his wife's form and tells him that he "will never leave". Heintz rushes to save Miguel, only to find that he had been seduced by Eva into thinking he is Carlo. Eva reveals to Heintz that she murdered the real Carlo for refusing to marry her and has forced others to look like him. She makes Heintz relive his daughter's death and nearly convinces him to join her, but he manages to resist and shoots the massive computer embedded in the ceiling, the source of the AI
creating the illusions and distress signals causing Eva, apparently a hologram, to malfunction.
The Corona has been struggling against a powerful magnetic field coming from the station, pulling the ship towards it. In desperation, they fire a powerful energy cannon, gouging the structure deep enough to reach the cavern. Heintz is ejected into space (along with Eva's past victims), as Eva hauntingly sings to a conjured audience. The Corona is crushed together to form a rose-like shape around the station. The episode ends with the robot "Eva" talking romantically with a hypnotized Miguel. Heintz is last seen drifting in space, still alive.
Directed by Kōji Morimoto
. Script by noted anime director Satoshi Kon
, based on a story by Katsuhiro Otomo
. Music by Yoko Kanno
.
This episode featured Maria Callas
' performance of Un bel dì, vedremo
.
. Meanwhile, the odor he emits grows stronger to where it affects several miles of the surrounding area, killing every living thing that smells his odor, except flowers and plants. His odor kills everything in the Yamanashi Prefecture
, including all 200,000 inhabitants of Kōfu city. Nobuo continues on to Tokyo unaware of the death his smell is causing, but the rest of the country is in a complete panic. The head of the research company and the Japanese military deduce that Tanaka is causing the poisonous gas and order him to be killed. The Japanese Military
tries in vain to stop Nobuo, causing immense collateral damage to the Japanese countryside, but to no avail.
The U.S. military
, who have been observing the situation to that point, utilizes Japanese policy
to take over the operation, and calls in a NASA
unit with space suits to try capture Nobuo alive. Unaware of this operation, the Japanese army collapses part of the bridge to prevent Nobuo from escaping, trapping him in a tunnel. They turn on wind generators loaded with Liquid Nitrogen in an attempt to freeze him. Tanaka becomes scared, disabling the machines while leaving the three astronauts unscathed. The soldiers force Tanaka into an exosuit and bring him back to military headquarters in Tokyo. Tanaka makes his way through the headquarters building, unaware that he is the source of the biological contamination. He then opens his exosuit, killing everyone.
It is mentioned the interview featurette that the story for "Stink Bomb" is based on an actual event. This may be referring to the toxic death of Gloria Ramirez
.
Directed by Tensai Okamura. Script by Katsuhiro Otomo
. Music by Jun Miyake
.
The city is surrounded by clouds of smoke and dust. The mobile "enemy city" is never shown despite continuous reports of great success. Is there really is an enemy at all, or is the city simply firing into the clouds to perpetuate a war that has become its entire means of economy?
In the end the boy comes home from school and hears a television news reporter talking about the near-destruction of the enemy city. The boy hops into his bed, saying that someday he wants to be the exalted officer who fires the cannons, and not be a simple worker like his father. As he sleeps, a blue light sweeps across the window. Is it from the enemy or the city?
Through unusual animation techniques the illusion is created that the film consists of one continuous shot or long take
.
Written and directed by Katsuhiro Otomo
. Music by Hiroyuki Nagashima.
ranked Memories 68th in their list of the 100 greatest anime productions. The film was met with positive reviews, although reception for each of the three stories varied. "Magnetic Rose" has generally been deemed the best episode, with critics at Anime Meta-Review and T.H.E.M Anime saying it alone made the film worth watching. Anime Academy thought it was "a pure symphonic treat from start to finish” and “running only forty-five minutes, it can still be compared with the greatest anime productions in every single aspect from animation to storyline." John Wallis of DVD Talk called it "a great opener, a strong, moving story of love, loss, haunting heartbreak, and horror chills." “Magnetic Rose” was also regarded as "a science fiction marvel" by Homemademech’s Mark McPherson, who praised its dialogue and realistic presentation of outer space physics. Chris Beveridge from Mania.com, however, felt that the story had "some feel of being done before to some degree."
Comments on "Stink Bomb" and "Cannon Fodder" were less favorable. T.H.E.M Anime reviewer Carlos Ross stated that "the other two entries don't quite equal the sheer excellence of ‘Magnetic Rose’". McPherson referred to "Stink Bomb" by saying "compared to the other episodes of Memories, it's the weakest and less creative of the bunch", while Anime Jump’s Chad Clayton thought "Cannon Fodder" did not "match the complexity of the preceding two films." "Stink Bomb" was nonetheless praised for its humour and high quality visuals. "Cannon Fodder" was viewed as "the strongest work in terms of its allegorical message" by DVD Talk, and visually "inventive" by both Anime Jump and Anime Academy. Tasha Robinson at SciFi.com
described the animation of every episode as "stellar", claiming the film as a whole went "well beyond memorable".
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
produced in 1995 by artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
/director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
Katsuhiro Otomo
Katsuhiro Otomo
is a Japanese comic book creator, screenwriter and film director. He is best known as the creator of the manga Akira and its animated film adaptation. Otomo has also directed several live-action films, such as the 2006 feature film adaptation of the manga Mushishi.-Biography:Katsuhiro Otomo was...
which were based on three of his manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
short stories. The film is composed of three episodes: , and . The latter story was directed by Otomo himself.
Magnetic Rose
The Corona, a deep space salvage freighter, while out on a salvage mission encounters a distress signal and decides to follow it. They soon come upon a spaceship graveyard orbiting a giant space station. The crew's two engineers, Heintz and Miguel, enter it to get a closer look.Once they are inside, they discover an opulent European interior and several furnished rooms (in varying degrees of decay), but find no signs of life. They discover that the station belongs to a once famous opera diva named Eva Friedal who disappeared after the murder of her fiancée, Carlo Rambaldi, a fellow singer. Continuing the search for the source of the signal, the engineers split up, with each experiencing paranormal encounters, including strange noises and visions of Eva. Miguel enters the dilapidated underbelly of the station, and in a cavernous chamber he finds a broken piano playing the distress signal. He begins to hallucinate and Eva suddenly runs up to kiss him.
Heintz finds a theater stage and sees Eva, who stabs him when he approaches. Suddenly paralyzed, Heintz relives a memory of his family, particularly with his daughter Emily. The illusion disappears when Eva takes his wife's form and tells him that he "will never leave". Heintz rushes to save Miguel, only to find that he had been seduced by Eva into thinking he is Carlo. Eva reveals to Heintz that she murdered the real Carlo for refusing to marry her and has forced others to look like him. She makes Heintz relive his daughter's death and nearly convinces him to join her, but he manages to resist and shoots the massive computer embedded in the ceiling, the source of the AI
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
creating the illusions and distress signals causing Eva, apparently a hologram, to malfunction.
The Corona has been struggling against a powerful magnetic field coming from the station, pulling the ship towards it. In desperation, they fire a powerful energy cannon, gouging the structure deep enough to reach the cavern. Heintz is ejected into space (along with Eva's past victims), as Eva hauntingly sings to a conjured audience. The Corona is crushed together to form a rose-like shape around the station. The episode ends with the robot "Eva" talking romantically with a hypnotized Miguel. Heintz is last seen drifting in space, still alive.
Directed by Kōji Morimoto
Koji Morimoto
, born December 26, 1959) is an animator and one of Japan’s premier anime directors.- Biography :Born in Wakayama, Japan, he graduated from the Osaka School of Design in 1979 and a couple years later joined the studio Annapuru as an animator for the TV series “Tomorrow's Joe”...
. Script by noted anime director Satoshi Kon
Satoshi Kon
was a Japanese anime director and manga artist from Kushiro, Hokkaidō and a member of the Japanese Animation Creators Association . He was a graduate of the Graphic Design department of the Musashino Art University. He is sometimes credited as in the credits of Paranoia Agent...
, based on a story by Katsuhiro Otomo
Katsuhiro Otomo
is a Japanese comic book creator, screenwriter and film director. He is best known as the creator of the manga Akira and its animated film adaptation. Otomo has also directed several live-action films, such as the 2006 feature film adaptation of the manga Mushishi.-Biography:Katsuhiro Otomo was...
. Music by Yoko Kanno
Yoko Kanno
is a composer, arranger and musician best known for her work on the soundtracks for many games, anime films, TV series, live-action movies, and advertisements...
.
This episode featured Maria Callas
Maria Callas
Maria Callas was an American-born Greek soprano and one of the most renowned opera singers of the 20th century. She combined an impressive bel canto technique, a wide-ranging voice and great dramatic gifts...
' performance of Un bel dì, vedremo
Madama Butterfly
Madama Butterfly is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. Puccini based his opera in part on the short story "Madame Butterfly" by John Luther Long, which was dramatized by David Belasco...
.
Stink Bomb
The comical "Stink Bomb" is about a lab technician, Nobuo Tanaka, battling the flu. He mistakes some experimental pills for cold pills and swallows them. The pills are part of a biological weapon program, reacting to the flu shot already in his body. Tanaka soon develops a deadly body odor and becomes a walking weapon of mass destruction. While taking a nap, the odor he emits kills everyone in the Lab. Horrified, he reports the incident to headquarters, as they instruct him to deliver the experimental drug to TokyoTokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
. Meanwhile, the odor he emits grows stronger to where it affects several miles of the surrounding area, killing every living thing that smells his odor, except flowers and plants. His odor kills everything in the Yamanashi Prefecture
Yamanashi, Yamanashi
is a city located in Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan. In spite of the name, it is not the capital of the prefecture, which is Kofu.On June 1, 2011, the city had an estimated population of 37,927 with 14,453 households...
, including all 200,000 inhabitants of Kōfu city. Nobuo continues on to Tokyo unaware of the death his smell is causing, but the rest of the country is in a complete panic. The head of the research company and the Japanese military deduce that Tanaka is causing the poisonous gas and order him to be killed. The Japanese Military
Japan Self-Defense Forces
The , or JSDF, occasionally referred to as JSF or SDF, are the unified military forces of Japan that were established after the end of the post–World War II Allied occupation of Japan. For most of the post-war period the JSDF was confined to the islands of Japan and not permitted to be deployed...
tries in vain to stop Nobuo, causing immense collateral damage to the Japanese countryside, but to no avail.
The U.S. military
United States Forces Japan
The refers to the various divisions of the United States Armed Forces that are stationed in Japan. Under the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan, the United States is obliged to defend Japan in close cooperation with the Japan Self-Defense Forces for...
, who have been observing the situation to that point, utilizes Japanese policy
Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan
The was signed between the United States and Japan in Washington, D.C. on January 19, 1960. It strengthened Japan's ties to the West during the Cold War era...
to take over the operation, and calls in a NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
unit with space suits to try capture Nobuo alive. Unaware of this operation, the Japanese army collapses part of the bridge to prevent Nobuo from escaping, trapping him in a tunnel. They turn on wind generators loaded with Liquid Nitrogen in an attempt to freeze him. Tanaka becomes scared, disabling the machines while leaving the three astronauts unscathed. The soldiers force Tanaka into an exosuit and bring him back to military headquarters in Tokyo. Tanaka makes his way through the headquarters building, unaware that he is the source of the biological contamination. He then opens his exosuit, killing everyone.
It is mentioned the interview featurette that the story for "Stink Bomb" is based on an actual event. This may be referring to the toxic death of Gloria Ramirez
Gloria Ramirez
Gloria Ramirez was a Riverside, California, woman dubbed "the toxic lady" by the media when several Riverside General Hospital workers became ill after exposure to her body and blood...
.
Directed by Tensai Okamura. Script by Katsuhiro Otomo
Katsuhiro Otomo
is a Japanese comic book creator, screenwriter and film director. He is best known as the creator of the manga Akira and its animated film adaptation. Otomo has also directed several live-action films, such as the 2006 feature film adaptation of the manga Mushishi.-Biography:Katsuhiro Otomo was...
. Music by Jun Miyake
Jun Miyake
Jun Miyake is a Japanese composer and trumpeter.-External links:* - official website...
.
Cannon Fodder
In a walled city perpetually at war, everyone's livelihood depends upon maintaining and firing the enormous cannons that make up most of the city. Nearly every building in the city is equipped with a cannon of varying size, able to fire huge artillery shells over the city walls. The story is centered around a young boy and his father, who works as a lowly cannon-loader.The city is surrounded by clouds of smoke and dust. The mobile "enemy city" is never shown despite continuous reports of great success. Is there really is an enemy at all, or is the city simply firing into the clouds to perpetuate a war that has become its entire means of economy?
In the end the boy comes home from school and hears a television news reporter talking about the near-destruction of the enemy city. The boy hops into his bed, saying that someday he wants to be the exalted officer who fires the cannons, and not be a simple worker like his father. As he sleeps, a blue light sweeps across the window. Is it from the enemy or the city?
Through unusual animation techniques the illusion is created that the film consists of one continuous shot or long take
Long take
A long take is an uninterrupted shot in a film which lasts much longer than the conventional editing pace either of the film itself or of films in general, usually lasting several minutes. It can be used for dramatic and narrative effect if done properly, and in moving shots is often accomplished...
.
Written and directed by Katsuhiro Otomo
Katsuhiro Otomo
is a Japanese comic book creator, screenwriter and film director. He is best known as the creator of the manga Akira and its animated film adaptation. Otomo has also directed several live-action films, such as the 2006 feature film adaptation of the manga Mushishi.-Biography:Katsuhiro Otomo was...
. Music by Hiroyuki Nagashima.
Production details
- Creator - Katsuhiro OtomoKatsuhiro Otomois a Japanese comic book creator, screenwriter and film director. He is best known as the creator of the manga Akira and its animated film adaptation. Otomo has also directed several live-action films, such as the 2006 feature film adaptation of the manga Mushishi.-Biography:Katsuhiro Otomo was...
- Screenplay - Katsuhiro Otomo, Satoshi KonSatoshi Konwas a Japanese anime director and manga artist from Kushiro, Hokkaidō and a member of the Japanese Animation Creators Association . He was a graduate of the Graphic Design department of the Musashino Art University. He is sometimes credited as in the credits of Paranoia Agent...
- Director - Kōji MorimotoKoji Morimoto, born December 26, 1959) is an animator and one of Japan’s premier anime directors.- Biography :Born in Wakayama, Japan, he graduated from the Osaka School of Design in 1979 and a couple years later joined the studio Annapuru as an animator for the TV series “Tomorrow's Joe”...
, Tensai Okamura, Katsuhiro Otomo - Music - Yoko KannoYoko Kannois a composer, arranger and musician best known for her work on the soundtracks for many games, anime films, TV series, live-action movies, and advertisements...
, Jun MiyakeJun MiyakeJun Miyake is a Japanese composer and trumpeter.-External links:* - official website...
, Hiroyuki Nagashima, Takkyū IshinoTakkyu Ishino, born December 26, 1967 in Shizuoka, Japan, is a Japanese composer and music producer. He is a member of the technopop group Denki Groove.- Singles :* anna - letmein letmeout （1999）* Stereo Nights （2001）* Takbam （2001）...
(the theme music "In Yer Memory")
Soundtrack
The original Japanese soundtrack of the three films is a 3 CD set, each CD corresponding to one of the three parts. The US version of the soundtrack however is spread over 2 CDs.- The soundtrack of Magnetic Rose, composed by Yoko KannoYoko Kannois a composer, arranger and musician best known for her work on the soundtracks for many games, anime films, TV series, live-action movies, and advertisements...
and largely influenced by Giacomo PucciniGiacomo PucciniGiacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...
's Madame Butterfly, is primarily operatic and highly involved, reflecting the serious, intense nature the film takes on as it progresses. - The soundtrack of Stink Bomb uses jazz and funk as its main influence, adding to the film's chaotic, comedic nature.
- The soundtrack of Cannon Fodder is difficult to categorise; blending brass bandBrass bandA brass band is a musical ensemble generally consisting entirely of brass instruments, most often with a percussion section. Ensembles that include brass and woodwind instruments can in certain traditions also be termed brass bands , but are usually more correctly termed military bands, concert...
, orchestraOrchestraAn orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
l and avant-garde compositional techniques.
Reception
In 2001, Animage magazineAnimage
is a Japanese anime and entertainment magazine which Tokuma Shoten began publishing in July 1978. Hayao Miyazaki's internationally renowned manga, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, was serialized in Animage from 1982 through 1994...
ranked Memories 68th in their list of the 100 greatest anime productions. The film was met with positive reviews, although reception for each of the three stories varied. "Magnetic Rose" has generally been deemed the best episode, with critics at Anime Meta-Review and T.H.E.M Anime saying it alone made the film worth watching. Anime Academy thought it was "a pure symphonic treat from start to finish” and “running only forty-five minutes, it can still be compared with the greatest anime productions in every single aspect from animation to storyline." John Wallis of DVD Talk called it "a great opener, a strong, moving story of love, loss, haunting heartbreak, and horror chills." “Magnetic Rose” was also regarded as "a science fiction marvel" by Homemademech’s Mark McPherson, who praised its dialogue and realistic presentation of outer space physics. Chris Beveridge from Mania.com, however, felt that the story had "some feel of being done before to some degree."
Comments on "Stink Bomb" and "Cannon Fodder" were less favorable. T.H.E.M Anime reviewer Carlos Ross stated that "the other two entries don't quite equal the sheer excellence of ‘Magnetic Rose’". McPherson referred to "Stink Bomb" by saying "compared to the other episodes of Memories, it's the weakest and less creative of the bunch", while Anime Jump’s Chad Clayton thought "Cannon Fodder" did not "match the complexity of the preceding two films." "Stink Bomb" was nonetheless praised for its humour and high quality visuals. "Cannon Fodder" was viewed as "the strongest work in terms of its allegorical message" by DVD Talk, and visually "inventive" by both Anime Jump and Anime Academy. Tasha Robinson at SciFi.com
Sci Fi Channel (United States)
Syfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...
described the animation of every episode as "stellar", claiming the film as a whole went "well beyond memorable".