I decided to copy-paste one of my Letterboxd reviews to here cuz why not.
I’ve watched this movie many times, and I keep trying to attack this movie. I keep trying to find an opening in its defense.
But I just can’t. It’s ridiculously solid.
This isn’t just what animation was made for, it’s what movies as a whole were made for.
They fixed everything wrong with the show, not just from the character dynamics, but, well, everything. There’s so much about this movie to just geek out about. Everything, every part of the production is treated with care and is in such amazing coordination, the blocking is perfect, the film score is perfect, both composers and storyboarders made a distinct effort to work together on it and it’s just genius.
The story is a perfect mix of both melancholic and spectacular, emphasized by just the right amount of different styles of abstraction from Ikuhara-esque, to Yamada-esque, to Takeshi Kitano, to golden age Nikkatsu, to imitation of actual Takarazuka stage play productions, f*ck man he even has a scene homaging Chariots of Fire, a 10-minute sequence that is legitimately just him geeking out over Mishima and Lawrence of Arabia, and a scene directly pasted from Mad Max Fury Road; to say Furukawa is just Ikuhara 2, and to say Revue Starlight is just about Takarazuka, these are both massive understatements.
Furukawa is a nerd about movies and this movie turns people into nerds. He knows exactly how to use each element because he knows how to factor out scenes and reuse techniques appropriately. It works perfectly with the theme of the movie, that we don’t let go of the past and instead constantly borrow from it, and what it means to just be someone’s fan.
And yet, Furukawa puts the aesthetic rather than story on the foreground, adhering strongly to an experience-centric philosophy, in which the trick is to make the core material simple, but the presentation wildly abstract and fun. The movie is drastically overflowing with repeating motifs, leitmotifs and rearrangements, and fun, interesting imagery.
And for as unconventional as the movie gets with its format, the story still secretly follows rules of repetition and even a three-act structure.
It’s a god-damn masterpiece. This movie did NOT need to be this raw- it’s the most speechless I’ve been coming out of a movie, and it’s the most fun I’ve had, and keep having- because every time I watch it, I enjoy it more, and I’m still studying everything Furukawa and the Starlight team put into this.
I don’t get enough of it and this movie keeps remaking my passion for movies every time I see it.
This movie isn’t just 5 stars, it’s overwhelming starlight.
“I think if a person can find a dream worthy of a lifelong commitment, that person is lucky.
If one can find friends with which to spend one’s life, that person is also lucky.
But also, a ‘lifelong friendship’ is not so weak a thing that it must be surrendered to one’s ‘lifelong dream.’
I believe that those who have the strength of spirit to commit their lives to a dream should also be able to make room for lifelong friends.”
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