Tekkonkinkreet.

Directed by Michael Arias

Once again, we’re presented with a visually stunning narration of a half fictitious fantasy which is a renown trait that can only come from Japan’s creative furnace. Inspired and based on the comic by Matsumoto Taiyo, Tekkonkinkreet is an eastern-western hybrid anime directed by American, Michael Arias who is the first non-Japanese to direct a major anime but knows no less of the nooks and crannies of the yakuza culture and dark underside of Japan’s downtown traditions than any native.

The story tells of two orphans who roam and protect the streets of Treasure Town from thugs and yakuza with such passion that is sometimes mistaken as malicious. Things take a turn for the worse when a group of foreign entrepreneurs threaten to bulldoze their town and turn it to an amusement park. The orphans, aptly named Black and White, are connected so strongly with what seems like an invisible and spiritual bond that makes us wonder if one could live if without the other. As the main story unfolds, the many sub-plots also take turns to bloom in gradation dismantling obvious meanings, drawing us into experiencing a rich amalgam of emotions that many animated film attempted but failed to do so. This film has an uncanny ability to make us ponder upon and question our own spiritual battle of darkness and light, even to a point where it is strangely disturbing for a composition of the fantasy genre featuring children as main casts. Perhaps the idea was to masquerade the disconcerting truth of Man’s shadow with the purity and innocence of a child so that if forces us to think and rethink of our own closet phantom, layer by layer as we dive deeper into the plot.

Tekkonkinkreet had been greatly applauded at a trail of film festivals worldwide and was the winner of the prestigious Ofuji Noburo Award at the 2007 Mainichi Film Concours.
Get it from: Sun Comic, Lot LG-12, Cineleisure Damansara, T: +603-77221936