Message from ndaza

[Anonymous]

Film Review

Film: Jellyfish Eyes
Director: Takashi Murakami
Story by: Takashi Murakami
Screenplay: Yoshihiro Mishimura and Jun Tsugita
Producers: Yoshihiro Nishimura, Chiaki Kasahara and Mana Fukui
Genre: Science Fiction/Fantasy
Release Date in the USA: April 8, 2013

Jellyfish Eyes is a film about a boy Masashi, who has lost his father recently. Two main factors happening in Masashi’s life force him to create an imaginary creature: his dead dad haunts him in his dreams and the mother’s decision to move to a new town. Masashi creates a creature that is a cross between a jellyfish and a toad with green eyes to help him cope with his issues. This creature becomes his pal and his protector. When Masashi goes to his new school, he discovers that there is a trend among his classmates. They all have a creature. As a species these creatures are part of F.R.I.E.N.D (Form Resonance Inner Energy Negative emotion and Disaster prevention) and the plot continues with Masashi finding out that the rest of his classmates communicate with their F.R.I.E.N.D with a device similar to a Smartphone. He also discovers that these creatures love to enter battles among each other.
Jellyfish Eyes is not worthy of an Oscar nomination. It is actually a very bad coming of age story with good vs. evil elements as well as a religious cult and four young villains dressed in all black thrown in the mix.
I chose this film to introduce my unit on Japanese Art. This film has a strong Japanese flavor that combines human actors and animated characters. The fantastical creatures are drawn using otaku techniques (comic book like) as well as kawaii techniques (a term that refers to the meaningful of cuteness) This film is full of creatures that are playful and Pokémon- like that makes it highly relatable to students.