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PATLABOR 2: THE MOVIE
I saw the first Patlabor movie a little under a year ago. I enjoyed the characters well enough that I put the second movie on my wishlist, and I picked it up recently. I got more excited to see what I was in for as the name "Satoshi Kon" and "Directed by: Mamoru Oshii" appeared in the credits. Okay, maybe Kon was only credited for "Layout," but that still didn't matter to me. I had totally forgotten Oshii ever had a part in these, so I was constantly on the lookout for his calling card. He didn't disappoint.
Story
In the year 2000, the Yokohama Bay Bridge is temporarily on lockdown while officers investigate an anonymous car bomb tip. However, the officers are unable to reach the car before it explodes. However, evidence surfaces of a jet having potentially fired a missile that was actually the cause of the destruction of the bridge. Commander Goto and Commander Nagumo are contacted by an Intelligence Officer named Arakawa, who suspects Nagumo's old teacher, Tsuge, of being behind the attack. The SV2 are tasked with finding Tsuge before he is able to follow through with whatever it is he has planned for Tokyo.
I have to say, I really liked this movie. It had a good balance of content and was well paced. The characters (well, the primary ones), felt well developed and were great to watch bounce off each other. It felt intelligently written, but perhaps they got a little too into throwing around terminology from time to time. It didn't feel out of place, but I felt a little left behind at moments because of my own personal lack of knowledge. The ending, much like in the first movie, felt a little sudden and left me wanting more, but it didn't hamper my overall enjoyment of the film.
The thing that bothered me about the first movie was it felt a little unfocused. There felt this underlying desire to give all of the people on the team their moments or get you at least acquainted enough with them that you would care about what was going on. I'm appreciative that they did that, but it felt like they spent too much time on it. Patlabor 2 felt much more focused on telling the story it wanted to, and it trimmed (for lack of better word) the cast down. It came across as a much tighter experience overall, and I think it really benefited from that. However, when things started to reach the climax of the movie, I didn't really care as much about the actions of the team. They had been largely absent the duration of the movie, so it was a little off-putting to have them suddenly thrown into the limelight. I guess I can't be happy either way, but I think I liked the second's approach more. I'll always take more Goto and Nagumo over getting everyone some screentime, haha.
I think I'll save my thoughts on themes for my "final thoughts" part at the bottom...
Presentation
Wow. I think I would recommend people watch this purely on the basis of how good the presentation was. The animation and background art was fantastic, the camera work and framing of scenes was excellent, the attention to details (like reflections showing up in a car window when interior lights came on or the slight shift in balance a person makes when an elevator stops) were really above and beyond. I listened to it in japanese, but the voice work was really well done, from my ignorant perspective on the language. Really, just everything about this was spectacular. The minutia they put so much work into really helped to sell the entire package, and the really grand strokes they put hard work into were complimented even more by the smaller parts.
Scenes really sold the tone immediately, and there were some really well constructed (I guess montages? I'm not sure if they would classify, but I'll call them montages) montages that paralleled spoken and unspoken content very well. It's nice to have animation that remembers it's a visual story telling medium and doesn't fall back entirely on exposition to relay everything. That's not to say that doesn't happen (oh boy, does it), but it's used much more for expressing attitudes and character opinions more than the philosophical stuff the actual dialogue dumps do. Thank you for showing me character reactions instead of telling!
Heck, the amount of work they put into recreating video distortion effects and shots with reflections on the exteriors of buildings were worth watching this for. Just really top notch stuff all around.
Final Thoughts
Okay, let's talk on some themes!
I don't intend on making any real significant points or draw any extreme conclusions, but this is more just me thinking aloud, and I'm letting you read along, if you want. : )
I wanted to cover the visual themes first, but I realized they all tied back into the central theme of the movie too strongly to bother discussing them without at least examining the central theme. Just going to spoiler everything to save myself the effort, haha.
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Visual themes, now! Probably the two things that came up the most commonly over the course of the film were the use of birds and lights/reflections.
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Okay, my real final thoughts-
Excellent film. It was really great coming off of Garzey's Wing to something written intelligently, executed gorgeously, and was just a nice alternative to something so silly. I think this is my favorite of the two Patlabor movies, and I'm pondering looking into the series now. Goto feels like an unsung hero of anime (or, at least I never see enough of him in discussion, but I'm not the most savvy in anime circles), and I wouldn't mind seeing the characters in a full tv run.
I'd really recommend this to anyone that liked something in the vein of the Ghost in the Shell movies, or if you just like the type of work Oshii is known for.
And just because the movie was so gorgeous, here's the rest of my non-spoilery screenshots, if anyone wants to see them.
I saw the first Patlabor movie a little under a year ago. I enjoyed the characters well enough that I put the second movie on my wishlist, and I picked it up recently. I got more excited to see what I was in for as the name "Satoshi Kon" and "Directed by: Mamoru Oshii" appeared in the credits. Okay, maybe Kon was only credited for "Layout," but that still didn't matter to me. I had totally forgotten Oshii ever had a part in these, so I was constantly on the lookout for his calling card. He didn't disappoint.
Story
In the year 2000, the Yokohama Bay Bridge is temporarily on lockdown while officers investigate an anonymous car bomb tip. However, the officers are unable to reach the car before it explodes. However, evidence surfaces of a jet having potentially fired a missile that was actually the cause of the destruction of the bridge. Commander Goto and Commander Nagumo are contacted by an Intelligence Officer named Arakawa, who suspects Nagumo's old teacher, Tsuge, of being behind the attack. The SV2 are tasked with finding Tsuge before he is able to follow through with whatever it is he has planned for Tokyo.
I have to say, I really liked this movie. It had a good balance of content and was well paced. The characters (well, the primary ones), felt well developed and were great to watch bounce off each other. It felt intelligently written, but perhaps they got a little too into throwing around terminology from time to time. It didn't feel out of place, but I felt a little left behind at moments because of my own personal lack of knowledge. The ending, much like in the first movie, felt a little sudden and left me wanting more, but it didn't hamper my overall enjoyment of the film.
The thing that bothered me about the first movie was it felt a little unfocused. There felt this underlying desire to give all of the people on the team their moments or get you at least acquainted enough with them that you would care about what was going on. I'm appreciative that they did that, but it felt like they spent too much time on it. Patlabor 2 felt much more focused on telling the story it wanted to, and it trimmed (for lack of better word) the cast down. It came across as a much tighter experience overall, and I think it really benefited from that. However, when things started to reach the climax of the movie, I didn't really care as much about the actions of the team. They had been largely absent the duration of the movie, so it was a little off-putting to have them suddenly thrown into the limelight. I guess I can't be happy either way, but I think I liked the second's approach more. I'll always take more Goto and Nagumo over getting everyone some screentime, haha.
I think I'll save my thoughts on themes for my "final thoughts" part at the bottom...
Presentation
Wow. I think I would recommend people watch this purely on the basis of how good the presentation was. The animation and background art was fantastic, the camera work and framing of scenes was excellent, the attention to details (like reflections showing up in a car window when interior lights came on or the slight shift in balance a person makes when an elevator stops) were really above and beyond. I listened to it in japanese, but the voice work was really well done, from my ignorant perspective on the language. Really, just everything about this was spectacular. The minutia they put so much work into really helped to sell the entire package, and the really grand strokes they put hard work into were complimented even more by the smaller parts.
Scenes really sold the tone immediately, and there were some really well constructed (I guess montages? I'm not sure if they would classify, but I'll call them montages) montages that paralleled spoken and unspoken content very well. It's nice to have animation that remembers it's a visual story telling medium and doesn't fall back entirely on exposition to relay everything. That's not to say that doesn't happen (oh boy, does it), but it's used much more for expressing attitudes and character opinions more than the philosophical stuff the actual dialogue dumps do. Thank you for showing me character reactions instead of telling!
Heck, the amount of work they put into recreating video distortion effects and shots with reflections on the exteriors of buildings were worth watching this for. Just really top notch stuff all around.
Final Thoughts
Okay, let's talk on some themes!
I don't intend on making any real significant points or draw any extreme conclusions, but this is more just me thinking aloud, and I'm letting you read along, if you want. : )
I wanted to cover the visual themes first, but I realized they all tied back into the central theme of the movie too strongly to bother discussing them without at least examining the central theme. Just going to spoiler everything to save myself the effort, haha.
The central theme of the film comes up during a conversation off-screen between Arakawa and Goto. In it, they talk about "illusory peace vs. just war." They discuss how, though Japan has not actively fought on the front lines in any war for over fifty years, they fool themselves into thinking they're innocent, despite their advancements in technology contributing greatly to the wars of other nations. Goto states he would rather live in this illusory peace than take part in a just war. Most just wars, Arakawa reasons, are easy to have justified at the time, given that all major wars were done in such fashion. It becomes easy to lose perspective when you're so far removed from what your actions are eventually resulting in. Goto asks if he believes Tsuge's goal is to start a war, but Arakawa tells him the war has been going on ever since Tsuge returned to Japan from a Labor exercise in an active war zone.
This specific theme is the very last part of this post I'm writing, as I wanted to get my thoughts down on everything else before I read up on the history of this matter. The very first scene felt much too deliberate in its setting for it to just be some arbitrary choice, so I read up on wikipedia some. It really helps put a lot of the movie into context, and makes a bit more sense why this would be the sort of things Oshii addressed in the film. I didn't think it too out of character, but I just thought it to be a rather interesting decision to examine things like a possible militarization of Japan and the results of what such events could cause or lead to.
Examining Japan's part in both local and global military was something I felt under-qualified to comment on, but I still found the movie's poking and prodding on the ideas to be worth watching. My personal knowledge of Japan's demilitarization is extremely limited, and I still think Tsuge wanting to expose this conversation to the people of Japan as being his only motive was a little weak, but worth looking into. I'm not really sure where my own personal feelings fall at the end of the film, as I'm want to side with Goto's perspective, but Tsuge's desire to make people see the "reality" of things is important. I definitely disagree with his methods, and both raise good points. I suppose I should more applaud the film for leaving me uncertain rather than telling me how I should feel.
Either way, I feel the more universal message that can be taken away from it is the danger of losing perspective of how far your hand reaches and just who really takes the consequences of our actions. I'm glad they ended Nagumo and Tsuge's part in the film with Tsuge looking out at Tokyo from afar, commenting on how it looks like a mirage from where he's at. Despite his intentions, even Tsuge isn't completely safe from falling under the same trappings as others in high places of power.
This specific theme is the very last part of this post I'm writing, as I wanted to get my thoughts down on everything else before I read up on the history of this matter. The very first scene felt much too deliberate in its setting for it to just be some arbitrary choice, so I read up on wikipedia some. It really helps put a lot of the movie into context, and makes a bit more sense why this would be the sort of things Oshii addressed in the film. I didn't think it too out of character, but I just thought it to be a rather interesting decision to examine things like a possible militarization of Japan and the results of what such events could cause or lead to.
Examining Japan's part in both local and global military was something I felt under-qualified to comment on, but I still found the movie's poking and prodding on the ideas to be worth watching. My personal knowledge of Japan's demilitarization is extremely limited, and I still think Tsuge wanting to expose this conversation to the people of Japan as being his only motive was a little weak, but worth looking into. I'm not really sure where my own personal feelings fall at the end of the film, as I'm want to side with Goto's perspective, but Tsuge's desire to make people see the "reality" of things is important. I definitely disagree with his methods, and both raise good points. I suppose I should more applaud the film for leaving me uncertain rather than telling me how I should feel.
Either way, I feel the more universal message that can be taken away from it is the danger of losing perspective of how far your hand reaches and just who really takes the consequences of our actions. I'm glad they ended Nagumo and Tsuge's part in the film with Tsuge looking out at Tokyo from afar, commenting on how it looks like a mirage from where he's at. Despite his intentions, even Tsuge isn't completely safe from falling under the same trappings as others in high places of power.
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Visual themes, now! Probably the two things that came up the most commonly over the course of the film were the use of birds and lights/reflections.
The birds were something I figured were going to be a theme before it ever really started repeating because of how prominent the first one was. Early on in the movie, there is a HUGE image of a hummingbird on the side of a moving truck as a police officer goes to get footage from a group that caught the bridge bombing on film. Next, there were the slow-mo footage of birds in flight on the screens of the station, the bird posters on the wall of the station, the shots of birds on labors (actually had the glowy eyes too), sitting on things in the environment, birds on television before the actual broadcasts came on, circling the blimps, and even in the area of the final showdown. They were everywhere. It was kind of obvious. But what did it mean? I'm still not entirely certain how I feel about my own conclusion, but I would like to think it tied back in with the core theme of Illusory Peace vs. Just War. The birds in the environment were always stationary, while the birds depicted on television, print, or whatever media medium were always engaged in flying or some kind of action. Birds are, of course, a symbol of freedom, so this really easily parallels the illusory peace that the Japanese people are deceiving themselves with. When it comes to the stationary, I'm not entirely sure. Tsuge was completely surrounded by gulls at the end, so they're supposed to have some kind of tie to him, but I'm not sure about their role in the environment. I suppose it was supposed to be more of a real vs. fake, but it just feels like an incomplete execution or I'm not making a connection. Probably the latter, but I'll assume the former until someone tells me otherwise, haha.
The reflections/lights I won't go over much, especially since I'm not even sure it was meant to be a motif, but whatever. During the film, I found myself noting the regular use of lights reflecting either in eyes or hiding eyes from the strong glares on glasses. There were also many cases where reflections of people would show up in windows, cars, or whatever that would most generally not be bothered with. This could just be I.G doing their thing, but I would like to believe it was intentional to match the illusion vs. just stuff. The hi-tech and modern things of society are these very vivid and bright sources of light that very clearly display what is on screen. However, there were two or three (one of these is cheating) cases where the reflection was broken and distorted. When helicopters were invading Tokyo with the express purpose of eliminating the SDF's labors and crippling communication, we got some shots with helicopters passing by skyscrapers where their reflection was fragmented. As well, the initial footage of the jet that had bombed the bridge was shown on a wall of televisions where it was displayed on each screen then filled the entirety of the sets as they flickered on and off with static. Is this meant to show that the world dictated by this illusory peace is unable to comprehend or reflect the ideas and actions of this opposing group? Could be.
The only real disappointment I had in the movie was that Oshii had a big discussion between Goto and Arakawa over shots of the city, bay, and surrounding environment right after they left talking with one another. The reason this scene bothered me was that it introduces the core theme of the movie in it. Perhaps Oshii didn't want any distractions for the viewer while laying it out, but it felt handled rather clumsily in comparison to the rest of the movie. There were only two instances where they used this type of sequential shots of environment, and the second one was very powerful as it showed how people were responding to the occupation of a military presence in their every day lives/city. There were some really powerful moments, but the scene with the philosophical discussion just felt really flat in comparison. I guess it did its job if it was meant to reduce distractions, but I just hope that wasn't the intent, because I don't think viewers would have had a problem with digesting it with different visuals accompanying it.
Not really a visual theme, but probably the most well executed part of the film was the series of short moments we see Japan deploying troops around the city. Seeing people in legitimate shock, some taking photos in front of tanks, and even school children waving to a soldier that waves back whilst glancing off at the sky for a second. It was great seeing this force they like to not think of being thrust right into the middle of their streets and lives. Yeah, didn't really have a good spot to add this, so it's going here, haha.
The reflections/lights I won't go over much, especially since I'm not even sure it was meant to be a motif, but whatever. During the film, I found myself noting the regular use of lights reflecting either in eyes or hiding eyes from the strong glares on glasses. There were also many cases where reflections of people would show up in windows, cars, or whatever that would most generally not be bothered with. This could just be I.G doing their thing, but I would like to believe it was intentional to match the illusion vs. just stuff. The hi-tech and modern things of society are these very vivid and bright sources of light that very clearly display what is on screen. However, there were two or three (one of these is cheating) cases where the reflection was broken and distorted. When helicopters were invading Tokyo with the express purpose of eliminating the SDF's labors and crippling communication, we got some shots with helicopters passing by skyscrapers where their reflection was fragmented. As well, the initial footage of the jet that had bombed the bridge was shown on a wall of televisions where it was displayed on each screen then filled the entirety of the sets as they flickered on and off with static. Is this meant to show that the world dictated by this illusory peace is unable to comprehend or reflect the ideas and actions of this opposing group? Could be.
The only real disappointment I had in the movie was that Oshii had a big discussion between Goto and Arakawa over shots of the city, bay, and surrounding environment right after they left talking with one another. The reason this scene bothered me was that it introduces the core theme of the movie in it. Perhaps Oshii didn't want any distractions for the viewer while laying it out, but it felt handled rather clumsily in comparison to the rest of the movie. There were only two instances where they used this type of sequential shots of environment, and the second one was very powerful as it showed how people were responding to the occupation of a military presence in their every day lives/city. There were some really powerful moments, but the scene with the philosophical discussion just felt really flat in comparison. I guess it did its job if it was meant to reduce distractions, but I just hope that wasn't the intent, because I don't think viewers would have had a problem with digesting it with different visuals accompanying it.
Not really a visual theme, but probably the most well executed part of the film was the series of short moments we see Japan deploying troops around the city. Seeing people in legitimate shock, some taking photos in front of tanks, and even school children waving to a soldier that waves back whilst glancing off at the sky for a second. It was great seeing this force they like to not think of being thrust right into the middle of their streets and lives. Yeah, didn't really have a good spot to add this, so it's going here, haha.
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Okay, my real final thoughts-
Excellent film. It was really great coming off of Garzey's Wing to something written intelligently, executed gorgeously, and was just a nice alternative to something so silly. I think this is my favorite of the two Patlabor movies, and I'm pondering looking into the series now. Goto feels like an unsung hero of anime (or, at least I never see enough of him in discussion, but I'm not the most savvy in anime circles), and I wouldn't mind seeing the characters in a full tv run.
I'd really recommend this to anyone that liked something in the vein of the Ghost in the Shell movies, or if you just like the type of work Oshii is known for.
And just because the movie was so gorgeous, here's the rest of my non-spoilery screenshots, if anyone wants to see them.
