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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
It's not the movie's fault., June 20, 2007
A long-standing interest in anime, a glimpsed online review of a desperately obscure CG title, and the 5-year hunt was on. Well, today I finally managed to get my hands on this title and watch it.
Most user reviews, both here and on IMDB, have it depressingly wrong. This is not a hentai title with sci-fi pretensions. This is a much rarer animal - a true adult feature that that contains sex and nudity, as well as the monstrous and grotesque, as part of its philosophy and plot, and doesn't exist as an excuse for them. In light of this, the disappointment of the porn-hunters who were drawn to Malice@Doll through its mis-classification as hentai is understandable.
What of the film? A full review and analysis would take pages, but there are definitely shades of a much less-populated Blade Runner in its premise, as well as Chiaki Konaka's earlier work, "Serial Experiments Lain," in the denouement. One of the most distinct characteristics of the film is its full-3D CG animation, reminiscent, both in its style and graphical simplicity, of video cutscenes from role-playing games such as Final Fantasy VII. Such a style is rare even now, and for good reason, since full-CG movies haven't often been successes (see Final Fantasy: TSW and Kaena for example). It also dates extremely fast. All the more remarkable that a full seven years after its release, the graphics in Malice still work extremely well, and I can't think of a moment in this film when I found them jarring or distracting. Working within a tight budget, the filmmakers managed to wring every drop of visual performance from their technology. Even character movement, which much more recent CG films like Appleseed have ended up botching, is pulled off with aplomb, due in no small part to skillful editing and camera angles. The character, mechanical and environment designs, such as the nightmarish Leukocyte, are excellent though often very obscured and abstract, and owe less to glossy hyper-futuristic fare like Final Fantasy: TSW than to Dali, Svankmajer and Brothers Quay.
The plot has been subject to frequent complaints in reviews, and it is slow and, not atypically for Konaka, extremely oblique; however, anyone moderately well versed in cyberpunk philosophy should be able to make sense of it in the end. The film is, ultimately, dreamy, elegiac and intelligent, and, above all, it manages to create enormous sympathy for its nonliving characters. At its core, it's about the titular character's search for escape from her hermetic life. Throughout her transformation from a stoic sex droid to a passionate, tormented human, and beyond, I felt very moved by her plight, especially given her claustrophobic, hopeless surroundings. The supporting characters, like Admin Joe and Heather, are excellent as well.
The Japanese voice work is very good, and, last but not least, the soundtrack is very sparse, beautiful and fits the film perfectly.
All in all, this is not a flawless film, and I would give it 4 1/2 stars. It is, however, unique in several ways, not least in how wonderfully it works within the limitations of its medium. Definitely recommended for fans of unconventional, yet rewarding fare.
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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
a solution to plotless adult japanamation, March 6, 2005
I thought this film was the very best adult anime I have ever seen. Instead of disgusting scene after disgusting scene, this transports the viewer into a cross world of Alice in Wonderland (if she was a hooker) and the grim, ominous surroundings of Blade Runner. You get to know each character and there is an uncomfortable sense of forboding that no other film in this genre has ever even thought of. The adult scenes are mostly obscured, employing artistry within perversion. The setting and plot are already very grimmy subject matter. They don't need to make this film exploitive, and that is what makes it work. The emphisis is not on graphic sex but more about telling a strange and surreal story; the images are radical, surreal, violent, perverse, and ultimately wonderful. I will never again watch another piece of adult anime because there is no hope that it could ever compare to what I consider to be a masterpeice of modern surrealistic cinema.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
I really hope this helps, February 12, 2008
I was...impartial to this movie. Was not to my liking or disliking, but I could easily see how you might find yourself on either one side or the other. I didn't know what to expect and this was nowhere near what I expected anyway. My hopes is that you will not start this movie in the same position as I was.
Minor spoilers, but you wouldn't see it coming anyway.
What to expect when you watch this movie:
1 Lots of shadowy scenery
2 Slow story line
3 Many plot holes
4 Much twisted and dark imagery
5 Moderate animation
Now for greater explanation.
1 There is no sunlight in this realm, and with that, no distinction of time frames. I think this was meant to look like a dark and desolate world and that was defiantely how i percieved it. There were also many shots of just the scenery after an emotional peak of the main character. I wasn't sure what I was looking at because sometimes it would just be a hallway or door or mess of rubble and circutry, and the unlighted feeling of the movie doesnt help distinguish these things any more.
2 This is not an action film. This is not hentai nor anime porn, though it does contain pornographic material. Roughly 10 minutes of it at best, and well sepatered throughout the entire show. I would assume its a creepily dark suspence film.
3 The setting is a post apocolyptic world. No humans exist, but the machinces we created continue to perfom their tasks to the best of thier ability. There is not one explanation for anything in this movie. Robots seem to have opinions and even willed dislikings. There is also no inner monologues so simple and inane questions are asked aloud repeatedly. Even at the end, you won't know whats going in. I didn't get a moral to the story or fact that the director wanted you to get.
4 This film appears to be laced with symbolilism, though I was unable to interpret it. There is a scene of malice getting abused as she normally would, being the doll she was. One could also call the forms that the robots take on after recieving Malice's "gift" are rather grotesque. At its most twisted parts, its not far off from The Cell (New Line Platinum Series)
5 The animation wasn't horrible. it was equivalent to the saturday morning cartoon Reboot - Season III, Vol. 1 . Not a very fast frame rate so you could recognize the animation was not as smooth as possible, or at least whats possible now.
I probably won't watch this movie again. I liked the character Joe administrator, his body was cool and he got one brief fight scene at the end, very much to my surprise.
If you enjoy confusion, darkness, many sexual undertones with minimal eroticism to them, you may love this film. I might suggest as well, that if you do not need a firm plot, all questions answer or a fast pace to enjoy a movie, you might enjoy Blame!, Vol. 1: Ver.O. 11 - Salvaged Disc by Cibo or Cat Soup (Liquid Art Limited Edition)
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