Dir. Mizuho Nishikubo; Screenplay Mamoru Oshii; Japan; 2009; Animation/Action.
From Production I.G, the creative team behind anime features such as GHOST IN THE SHELL, INNOCENCE, and THE SKY CRAWLERS, comes a tale of the life of legendary real life swordsman Miyamoto Musashi (1584-1645).
The legend of Musashi has been passed down through the generations and, as is often the case with legends, has perhaps received some elaboration along the way. His skills as a swordsman appear to be beyond doubt, and his book “The book of five rings”, on military strategy, tactics, and philosophy, is still studied to this day. However, as legend would have it, some believed he could run at super-human speed, walk on air, water and fly through the clouds (did somebody say “Monkey”?) so perhaps a new take on the man and his ways is required. Step forward Mamoru Oshii and Mizuho Nishikubo.
Oshii, who brought us GHOST IN THE SHELL and THE SKY CRAWLERS, developed the story and screenplay but has this time handed directorial duties over to Nishikubo, who has worked along side Oshii on a number of previous projects. With these two then we can perhaps expect something visually special, however, throw into the mix Kazuto Nakazawa, director of the incredible animation segment in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill Vol. 1, for MUSASHI’s character design, and we could raise our expectations a notch or three.
The teaser trailer (below) does indeed look lush, however, some words from the wise (see Twitch link below) have left me in doubt as to how much visual mastery we’re actually dished up, and whether that’s sufficient to brush over an otherwise uninteresting story/documentary.
Animation is generally a bit thin on the ground for Corridorstyle at Sitges so, if we have to see only one, this may not get the vote.
But hey, maybe that’s just us. Here’s more for you to chew over……
Production I.G press conference
Wise words:
corridorstylefilms.com 