Memories

Three pieces, three themes, three viewpoints and three different experiences. Memories is something that could evoke all kinds of varying responses from the audience. All three stories have their own qualities, and those stand out on their own without having to dig into them too much. It is necessary to summarise the plots to properly talk about these stories, so there are some spoilers ahead.

The first story, Magnetic Rose, is just sheer brilliance. It's a story of a spaceship crew that stumbles upon the unbelievable site of an almost royal European interior in the middle of the terrifying space known as "The Graveyard of Ships", while searching for the source of a distress signal they encounter. Inside this place, the two engineers that carry out the search comes under all kinds of hallucinations. They eventually unveil the mystery surrounding the place and finds out about its owner but one succumbs to the hallucinations while the other having to relive the pain of a past loss. The elements of yearning for love and inability to forget what is lost can be seen in this piece. A highly advanced computer system capable enough to force realistic illusions can also be found in this. The technical part of this short is also just as brilliant. The ruins from a century ago are portrayed with incredible detailing. Each and every part is a visual treat. The interchanging quiet and classi musics and the animation that makes abundant use of shadows as an element and debris as a prope evokes the terror of engineers brilliantly. It's a story full of mysteriousness, carrying the emotions of love, obsession, surprise and horror. It is worth watching Memories simply for this one short alone.

The second story is Stink Bomb. Compared to the heavy mood of the first piece, it is instead comical. This is also a story that is inspired by the "Toxic Lady" incident. It is a rather straightforward story; the gas effect of a secretly developed biochemical weapon, unknowingly consumed by a lab employee, kills tens of thousands of people. While this mayhem occurs, all kinds of methods are tried to put an end to it. It is funny how the discussions easily end up in "In other words, we have to kill him". This is a simple portrayal of how ridiculously big incidents are often taken care of by those with authority. And the following fiasco with all kinds of heavy artilleries and weapons simply reminded me of a local saying that roughly equates to "Burning the house to smoke out a rat" (The literal transliteration would be more or less "Putting the house on fire fearing a rat"). The stormtrooper logic of the person of interest never suffering any sort of damage even under such heavy artillery barrage is a bit ridiculous but it caters to the funny nature of the film. Not only that, a foreign country propaganda also is in play behind the scenes, but in the end, poetically enough, the ones behind it also falls victim to their creation; you reap what you sow. The whole story, its joking manner aside, can be considered a warning to remember how terrifying the careless development of bioweapons can be.

The third story of the lot is titled Cannon Fodder. It tells the story of a city where everyday life is fighting a perpetual war against an unseen/unknown enemy and the civilians all dedicate their life to making and loading cannons/missiles while the person of highest position ends up firing it. It is a place populated with pro war posters, media is controlled by the state, civilian life is dictated by the state, and almost all buildings are made ready to produce shellfire. The poison from the creation and usage of the weaponry has made the life terrible and the people at the lower levels suffer from physical issues, visible plainly from their appearance, and they are not financially stable either. They toil all the day but simply suffer, but the higher authority that only appears to fire the shell looks healthy and his attire is incomparably better. It is a simple and classic portrayal of the hierarchy where working class slaves themselves to provide for the upper privileged class. The kid of a working man can be seen saying that he wants to fire the cannon when he grows up and not be a cannon loader like his father. Even kids has the realisation that common people are simply cannon fodder in such a ridiculous society.

Memories is a very strong anthology with short stories that speak volumes. While Magnetic Rose is the best of it with pure quality and the one that goes best with the anthology title, Stink Bomb entertains with its funniness and satire, and Cannon Fodder draws a very strong picture with it's powerful allegory. The first short is leagues above the rest, and it is notable that there is a drop in quality throughout the story changes. But this only applies to the story. The technical aspects of all three, again Magnetic Rose being head and shoulders above the others, are beautiful. It is something that only vintage animation could pull off. Wide landscapes, attention to details, lazy color palettes and abundant yet brilliant usage of shadows are but some of its brilliance. It is an anthology that holds out and transitions to the next story very well even with stories that has no real relations. It also makes brilliant use of the sci-fi genre to tell a variety of stories that covers all sorts of topics from emotional to political and even class difference all the while not straying too far off from sci-fi itself. While the title of anthology is arguably not fitting when applied to the whole, it is no doubt that this is a very memorable watch.