Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
unique and memorable., August 10, 2000
This video should come with a warning - those of you expecting to be able to watch this and not go away reflecting on the contents will be very surprised. Amnesia is a surprisingly thought-provoking exercise in "what if" -- what if man was stripped of all knowledge and preconceptions, and thrust back into his environment? While many anime are content to merely use the concept as a plot device, this movie uses the topic to explore and ponder some interesting aspects of human sociology and development. Material is very well considered, almost to a fault -- at times, you'll feel like you're in the middle of a textbook. That's not so much the fault of the writers, but more the direction. The story is presented in a very matter-of-fact, clinical manner. This is rather unfortunate, since the underlying story is quite well realized.Animation is very well done, with some effort put into making the backgrounds part of the story telling device. Some will undoubtedly find part of the entertainment coming from figuring out the various landmarks depicted in the movie (I'd be willing to bet that the town in Montana is actually based on Banff, Alberta, a very popular destination for the Japanese.) Acting is something else. Like the directing itself, most of the vocals feel out of place and forced, lending an even more detached feel to the movie. While this may suit the Sophia character (played by Toda Keiko), it doesn't suit the rest of the players, with the possible exception of Johnny (played by Yamaguchi Kappei). One other aspect of this show bothers me: the subplot involving the out-of-control gaurdian chasing Wataru and Sophia across America. The writers have already crammed a lot of philosophy into this production, the addition of this sub-plot was extraneous and feels entirely out-of-place. While the message about technology is fairly clear, I can't shake the feeling the the only reason that this was included was to add some action to what is effectively a cerebral work. The show is most effective when it sticks to its exploration of the nature of mankind, and the possibility that the various aspects of human nature are inescapable. Sometimes preachy and sometimes sublime, Kaze No Namae Wa Amnesia is a very thought-provoking film. This is one of those movies that you watch over biscotti and latté, not popcorn and Coke.
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10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Credit where credit is due, July 19, 2003
You can not argue with an anime that has such beautiful imagination. It reads like an Arthur C. Clarke story, earth's first encounter with alien, and its impact economically, sociologically etc. Like his novels, its a subtle thriller, never revealing too much too soon and always leaving more questions than answers.
To complain about its animation is as shallow as complaining about 2001:space oddysey's special effects. This is an anime that will stimulate the introvert. Those with a vivid imagination will lose themselves in this fantasy. The imagery is is beautiful to me, the sunny blue-green landscapes, cold deserted cities, long stares into the night sky, and the soothing loneliness (an escape from modern chaos)
Although I wish they had made this into a series, and prevented the abrupt ending that inevitably occurred... squeezing the future of mankind in a 90min screening!
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
If only a director with talent got a hold of this plot, August 17, 2008
Don't you absolutely HATE it when you find a movie online with an absolutely irresistible plot that's almost too amazing to be bad, and then see it only to realize the person who made it had no artistic talent whatsoever? I don't know about you, but it happens to me a lot, and all I can think when finished is how much better I could have made it.
A Wind Named Amnesia is one of those kinds of movies. Set in 1999, six years after the movies original release, humanity has been completely devastated by a mysterious wind which blows across the world, wiping clean the memories of every person on the planet. In an instant every bit of knowledge we as a species have gained over the course of millions of years is gone, even our language and family ties are severed in the chaos that follows. Planes fall from the sky as pilots forget how to operate their aircraft, cars crash, the world burns. In an instant the thriving civilization we've created is reduced to rubble and its creators to bloody savages who poses nothing but their most basic and unexplainable instincts.
Wataru is just another helpless victim to this terrifying disaster; alone and starving he stumbles upon an old military facility where he meets the one person left alive that retains some memories. His name is Johnny, a genetically enhanced boy whose brain acts as a super computer which allows him to function like a normal human. Johnny teaches Wataru as much as he can and sends him on a journey across a deserted world to observe the human being in its most basic state and find what it is that drives us. Is it pleasure? Life? Power? With the protection of civilization stripped from us what is it that will motivate us to act?
A Wind Named Amnesia is has a lot in common with Kino's Journey - The Complete Collection. The main character, Wataru, travels across America in a jeep with a strange women he meets in Los Angles. There are about three different mini stories within the film giving it the feel of a much longer show. It was have been a lot more interesting had it been an actual show, or at least an OVA. There is simply too much potential for this story to be packed into a two hour movie and it often felt rushed and jumped around far too much. One second their sitting at the Lincoln Memorial discussing life the next their in New Your City running from a killer robot. It was just too fast and way too ill conceived to make a satisfying film. The entire journey through the Midwest and from Washington to NYC is skipped completely leaving the viewer wondering just what happened. Weren't they just in Las Vegas? What are they doing in DC? Very, very annoying.
When I first saw this plot line my first thought was "I have GOT to see this movie" and can you blame me? I mean really, is this not one of the best ideas for a sci fi film ever? If this film had been made by someone with even an ounce of creativity then it would have been great, but NOOOO! Whoever did this film is, quite frankly, a moron and I mean that in the most literal sense of the word.
The beginning of the film was pretty good when the Amnesia Wind blew in and the world collapsed in chaos and confusion. I'll admit it was more then a little bit bone chilling, but that's about the only good thing I can say about the film. So for pros we have amazing idea, and a good beginning. So now lets get to the cons.
First off, the main characters. I've seen my share of bad anime characters, and while this lifeless bunch may not be the worst I've ever seen, their far worst then average. If the film had been plot driven I may have been able to forgive this flaw to an extent, but as good as the plot is they decided instead to make the film character driven. Wataru himself is your stereotypical male lead from any old anime film. I you've been watching anime for a while you'll know his type; young, handsome, impulsive, moralistic, and extremely stupid. In his defense he's still smarter then the mindless cannibals running around, but by our standards he's dumb as a brick. Oh I'm not talking about his lack of knowledge, I can certainly understand why he doesn't know a lot of things, I'm talking about his lack of common sense. Really, who gives a gun to a cannibalistic savage? You guessed it, Wataru does. Yeah stupid, nets just wait until he decides to turn it on his little tribe.
Sophie, his companion, isn't much better, and neither are any of the supporting casts, such as they were made up of mostly crazies. More stereotypes.
The biggest disappointment though was that the plot was barely fleshed out. The film got bogged down in these silly mini stories that it lost focus on the overall theme of the film. What is humanity? What drives us to do what we do? How would a world such as this look like? Wataru starts out on a journey to discover answers philosophers have been arguing about for centuries but gives up quickly saying "it's too complicated for me." You have got to be kidding me. A film with so much promise to dig deep into the human mind and really examine what it is to be human and they decide to make it about car chases and scantly clad women. Give. Me. A. Brake. Like I said, no imagination.
SPOILERS.
And don't even get me started on the end. It wasn't that big of a shocker to figure out aliens were responsible for the amnesia and that Sophie was one of them, but when she tells him (Wataru) that her people destroyed the world and might not give them back their memories he just sat there. Didn't get mad, didn't want to kill her or rip her head off, just asked why and when she told him they don't even know he just sat there. *sigh* how unrealistic. And then the, uhh, love scene at the end was completely unnecessary, not to mention random and unexpected. I'm telling you it came out of absolutely nowhere as if the creators just wanted to "spice it up" a little bit. It was stupid, didn't add anything at all to the film, and was out of place. Bad idea.
I'm a sucker for apocalyptic films such as this; unfortunately though most turn out to be pretty awful, this one included. Two stars for an interesting idea and a good beginning and nothing else. Beginning good, middle bad, ending HORRIBLE!
Replay value; VERY low.
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