Apr

2

2008

Mushishi (Bugmaster)

Posted by luna6


Movie: Bugmaster | Mushishi
Release Date: May 24, 2007
Country: Japan
Director: Katsuhiro Otomo
Starring: Joe Odagiri, Yu Aoi
Runtime: 131 min
Editor Rating: 5.5
Users Rating: 6.17 1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars6 Stars7 Stars8 Stars9 Stars10 Stars (6 votes)

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From the country that has produced such recent sci-fi / fantasy pieces like “Dororo” and “Gege Kitaro,” comes another film of that ilk but with a far more mystical feel named “Mushishi” (literal translation Bug Master). “Mushishi” is a fantasy piece set in the early 1900’s, but you could easily mistake the setting to have taken place several centuries earlier. The film was helmed Katsuhiro Ôtomo, best known for his groundbreaking animation film “Akira.” Joe Odagiri stars as Ginko, a person able to master the mushi (phantom souls of nature breathing inside the living and the dead).

As a young child, Ginko (born with the given name Yoki) is separated from his mother by a landslide. He’s then taken care by a silver hair lady named Nui and learns the art of the Mushishi. Fast forward a decade or two later, young Yoki is now a grown man, goes by the name of Ginko and is a full fledged Mushishi. He travels from town to town, somewhat like the David Carradine character in Kung Fu, helping out folks against those mystifying sentients. Ginko stops in at a lodge and helps the local villagers rid themselves of the pesky sound eating mushi. After he rids the villagers of the mushis, the inn keeper asks Ginko to solve a tougher problem. Her young grand daughter has grown horns and constantly hears voices in her head.

After Ginko helps the grand daughter, he travels to visit a fellow Mushishi named Tanyu (Yu Aoi). Tanyu herself has become seriously ill and Ginko works his Mushishi magic to rid Tanyu of the evil sentients. During this time, he starts to uncover the secrets of his own past.

Unlike Dororo or Gege Kitaro, Mushishi aims for headier territory. There’s none of the campy humor found in Dororo or the adolescent thrills of Gege Kitaro (though Ginko looks like Gege Kitaro older brother). Rather “Mushishi” wields a far more mystical feel, that moves along gingerly and let’s the story unfold without giving explicit explanations. Joe Odagiri was well cast as main character Ginko. Even though his character is largely sullen, Joe Odagiri being Joe Odagiri was able to infuse a good dose of his own charisma into the character. Yu Aoi also gives one of her stronger supporting role performances as Tanyu. The movie’s soundtrack consists primarily of the trippy sounds of the Aussie wind instrument Didgeridoo. If you’re unfamiliar with that instrument, just imagine the sounds from plucking a large rubber band, but hearing its sounds played back at a slower speed. Visuals were mostly plain, but spiced up by moderate amounts of CGI effects, which looked good when used.

The first hour or so of the movie was the movie’s strong point. The episode at the inn interspersed with the flashback scenes worked well to lay out the foundation of the story. Once Ginko left Tanyu and the movie still meandered along, the movie started to drag noticeably. So much so that with each successive scene I expected the end credits to roll around … but they never did (literally morphing into the Neverending Story). The movie would have benefited noticeably with the excise of the last 30 – 45 minutes. Some of the supporting cast, specifically Nao Omori’s “Nijirou” character, were extraneous and downright annoying. Lastly, I didn’t mind that the movie didn’t explicitly explain everything with simple voiceovers, but the sudden inclusion of “Wn” and “Anh Wn” and other things of that ilk felt jarring and disjointed.

“Mushishi” is a unique film, that enthralled in the first half but bored thoroughly in the second half. The second half seemed saddled with extraneous scenes and characters , while torn by its wishes to stay true to its manga origins and its desire to create a unique cinematic feel. Even with that stated, the movie’s charms will likely enthrall a small subset of movie goers who are drawn to the movie’s obtuse mysticism and unique storyline. A small subset though.

Cast:
Joe Odagiri - Ginko
Yu Aoi - Tanyu
Nao Omori - Nijirou
Makiko Esumi - Nui
Reisen Ri - Tanyu’s nanny
Lily - Lady of the House
Makiko Kuno - Maho’s mother
Reia Moriyama - Maho
Hideyuki Inada - Yoki

If you like this movie you may enjoy: Dororo, Gegege no Kitaro


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2007 Movie Reviews, Movie Reviews, Movies |

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  1. 1 elvyse Says: April 2, 2008

    Well seeing that I’m a huge fan of the manga and the anime, I’ll be sure to watch this. And I’m curious to see what Otomo has in store when he’s not directing animated movies.