Goemon Review

Synopsis:

Goemon is a movie from the director of Casshern: Last Day on Earth, Kazuaki Kiriya.  It is a film filled with love, fighting, comedy, oh hell pretty much everything that can be in a movie other then zombie alien transvestite cyborgs.  But you never know, that could be the plot to his next movie.  Anyway... Goemon is the name of the protagonist.  He is a self proclaimed master thief, and later revealed to be all around badass ninja.  Now time to brush up on your history because this is a historical fiction movie.  The main plot of the movie revolves around the assassination of Oda Nobunaga, the man who basically thought up the idea to unify Japan.  After his death, his successor, named Toyotomi Hideyoshi, took over as ruler of Japan.  As the rift between rich and poor widens, Goemon takes it upon himself to become a regular robin hood.  He steals from the rich and gives it to the poor (but not without taking some off the top for himself.)  One thing he ends up stealing is a small box nicknamed "Pandora's Box."  After he opens it several unfortunate events start to occur.

Look/Lighting and Such:
I don't know if I can describe this one.  The word I can best use is divine.  I realize most of the backgrounds and such are digital, and I normally don't like that too much but Kiriya makes it work and then some.  There are some scenes in this movie where I almost started clapping at just how beautiful they were.  Now you're probably saying, "But Carl too much of a good thing can be overwhelming and just plain annoying," And you know what my response is?  ...I'll get back to you when I find a good one... But seriously there is so much beauty to be had here it's incredible and worth watching just for the visual amazement.

Now I'm not exactly a fashionista by any means.  If there is a nice outfit in a movie I may think oh that's cool and never mention it again (I still don't see what's so great about matrix leather trench coats).  So if I take the time to mention a great wardrobe, you better believe it has to be good.  Many of the outfits, like the story, are re-imaginings of classic Japanese kimonos and armor.  Many of them consist of eccentric neck or head pieces and are just out of this world on how good they look.  My personal favorite outfit in the movie was Nobunaga's armor.  He only wears 2 types of armor, a red one and more ceremonial silver/white armor. His army and himself all have a very western influence looking more like a Japanese man beat up a European knight, fixed up the armor and the trend spread among the troops.  And it works so well.  When he or Goemon has the red armor I could only think about how awesome he looked and kind of lost focus on what was going on in the story.

Plot:
Ah plot.  Like I said earlier this a historical fiction piece, and also like his last film, is based off an Anime.  Now I will tell you I never saw the original anime because I always thought Goemon looked like a Flintstones reject.  But I do know a bit about Toyotomi and Nobunaga and that time period.  If you know anything about Oda Nobunaga, you know he is not a very nice man.  He is known for being ruthless and cruel and his successor, Toyotomi, being the fluffy teddy bear ruler compared to him.  But this movie does a complete 180 on both personalities.  This movie makes Nobunaga out to be the nice guy and Toyotomi be the insane emperor.  Not to say this was a bad thing, actually I found this quite interesting.  I found the main plot to be a little stereotypical.  Basically it is all a giant revenge plot a decade or two in waiting.

What did interest me is this whole "Pandora's Box" motif they tried to weave into the story.  When Goemon first opens the blue box he steals, you soon find out it is considered "Pandora's Box." Naturally I was excited.  My first thought was "Okay sweet, weaving some mythology into this, Carl likey." But as the movie kept going it was a very long time before they even mentioned the box again.  So my problem with this motif was that it wasn't touched on enough to really be something to get overly excited about.  That being said, there is no lack of plot.  It is kinda like there is several very small motifs that are all tied together very well.  I actually found myself more interested in the origin of Goemon and how he meets Nobunaga than what was going on in the main story in the present.  Again its not breathtakingly original, basically Goemon's family is killed and Nobunaga finds him and takes him under his wing and he becomes a ninja, but it works.


Sound:
There is something I want to mention right off the bat.  There is something about traditional Japanese songs that give me a funny feeling.  Yes I mean haha funny but at the same time they are beautiful pieces of music.  I'm not making fun of them, its just when I hear the odd yelping and humming I do chuckle at first, but then I get into the song. Now there was a point to this.  Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu start to sing a traditional japanese song to honor the troops going to war or something like that..  And the song is (as you can guess by now) very very good.

And now that I have geeked about music lets get back to the important stuff... The rest of the soundtrack Goemon is very orchestral.  And if you read this week's review of Code Geass, you know I have no problem with this.  Orchestra was the beginning of rock (my favorite type of music) and should always be appreciated.  I also felt like the soundtrack took a bit of a back seat to everything else.  Between the visuals and the story, the soundtrack just wasn't that memorable to be honest.  And that really is a shame because it would have made the movie even more magical.

Overall Rating: 10/10
For once the quotes on the box don't lie.  This movie is stunning/astonishing/ however else you want to describe greatness.  With amazing visuals and a solid story this is a definite buy. Especially if you are like me and enjoy a re-imagining of history or another series.  The only thing I wish was that the soundtrack was a bit more assertive.  But either way, Kazuaki Kiriya keep up the good work my friend, and hat's off to your brilliance.  And i look forward to your future movies.

 
Goemon - Teaser