Colorful (2010) - Basically my first Anime Movie
This movie was recommended to me, and if you reading these by now you should have figured out who this mystery person is, she knows who she is. Colorful is a movie unlike any other series that I've watched, there is an aspect of realism in this film that transcends the screen, and grabs you by your heart strings. The premise of the movie is that a soul that's been condemned to reformation is sent to the world to live life through the eyes of a boy named, Kobuyashi Makoto, an eight-grader who is struggling with the loneliness of school life without a friend. The story is that he committed suicide on a day when he had been witness to the moral short coming of both his mother, and the girl he adored. From what I've read about this film it says that the story is based on common events in Japan, young girl prostituting themselves to older men, so that they can have stuff they want. While there are part of this film that seem really weird, like Did you understand why Makoto's mother was crying at the dinner table, and no one even blinked? There is a bit of sexual content in his movie that really unsettled me, A) Makoto's love interest relationships for profit, and her almost soulless appearance when Makoto tells her that she shouldn't go through with it, she offers to give him a reduced rate at 20,000 Yen, and Makoto embarrassed denies it. B) Makoto's mother, for me she was the real victim in this movie, the age of modernization has brought about some great strides for Women's rights but in my opinion has only increased the burden on them, adding work to their traditional gender role, and leaving many married women emotionally malnourished, I apologize if I offend anyone but that's my opinion, as Makoto's brother says "you could at least try to eat the meals mom cooks, before your accident we always ate take-out, and now she's slaving over the kitchen making several dishes a day". She was the one who needed help and I was more interested in her story than anything, I believe that there was a subtle hint of rape, since as she left the "hotel" with her flamenco instructor she looked unhappy, maybe she just wanted an ear to talk to and he took advantage of her, thus when she found out that Makoto had been aggressive towards his classmate, Sano-san, she was crying, not literally but on the inside, she had been taken advantage of and left out to dry. Overall the movie is very interesting though I have to be honest, I wasn't that interested in Makoto at all, he just seemed like an adolescent teen with too much energy ready to burst. I will say this though, the movie did touch upon topics which are traditionally classified as unpleasant to discuss in Japan, and did it with a lot of emotion, and cruel reality. The main theme for this movie is something which I think, we in the Anime Community can relate to, friendship, it is through these friends that we can discuss things that we like, things that bother us, and things that we hope to achieve. The Butterfly Effect comes to mind, that when someone recommends an anime, or a movie to us, they change our lives permanently, this is power of our medium, Anime. In addition to, the most important thing I can take from this film is the people who look out for us, especially the people we never notice, just like Sano-san and Makoto, he never realized who she was, but she was literally the most important person in his life, even thought she was admiring his courage at the start, she became the foundation that Makoto ultimately needed. I think this also describes us, we on MAL are consistently talking with people, and we really never know how much we mean to them, so the next time you get a chance, tell them that, I'm gonna take this opportunity myself, Thank You so much for all the wonderful recommendations, they all meant a lot to me!
