A visually impressive, but confusing animated movie about a man going by many names.
“Jinsei” means “life” in Japanese, and I guess the new animated feature deserves that title. As we begin to watch the film, we might be reminded a bit of the animated segment in Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch,” and it would have his influence based on how the characters are placed and how the color palettes are displayed, but with some grayscales and muted colors. But the artist behind this movie is Ryūya Suzuki, who is in his early 30s, and through the COVID-19 pandemic, started animating on an iPad through the Procreate app. His feature debut has him doing almost everything: directing, editing, photographing, composing, and animating, and while he sure provides an eyeful of ideas with a certain “2001 A Space Odyssey” vibe, the story is too meandering and confusing for it to be a complete gem.
We have a blue haired teenage boy (voiced by rapper Ace Cool), who seems indifferent and goes by many names in the film. And they change periodically, so to avoid confusion, we’ll labeled him as “the protagonist” for the rest of this review. Sei-chan is the last name his dying mother referred to him as and he’s soon nicknamed “The Grim Reaper” by his classmates, because of the way he stares at them and how he blames himself for his mother’s death. And he also makes a new friend-a transfer student named Kin-chan and both of them earn an audition to be part of an J-pop idol group known as ZENROKU.
His journey continues next in the year 2035, where we get a little more color in the baby palette section. You know like baby blue, baby green, baby red, that sort of thing. It also reveals that the protagonist has gained more success through fashion, movies (the superhero movie “INAZU-MAN” is the movie’s “Iron Man”), and volunteering. And then, it’s 2050, when war has broken out, and he still stares out, while in an underground bunker.
As far as I’m concerned, he may have a connection with the transfer student, but the only character the protagonist seems to care about is his stepfather Hiroshi, who is as caring as he is emotionally warped by the pathos in the young man’s life. And even through his indifference, he is able to show some affection for the old man. The protagonist’s tears in their reunion prove it.
“Jinsei” is visually impressive for not just how Suzuki does most of the filmmaking process, but also for the way he designs the characters and the world they live in. It’s difficult to imagine if this film were live-action, but the voice actors have a lot of authenticity to convince a little about that. And even some of the music segments, like one set during the film’s war, reminds me a little of “Heavy Metal” when it combined music with Sci-Fi fights.
This is an eyeful movie, but the story doesn’t really distinguish itself as it tends to go all over the place with the protagonist’s fame kicking in and the names changing. We do get title cards of the years and names, but it seems too fast for us to stay completely focused. I wanted to like this movie for what it’s trying to accomplish-being a different kind of animated film, but I think one name should stand out.
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