The Life of Budori
Gusuko: Written and directed by
Gisaburo Sugii. Starring: Shun Oguri, Shiori
Kutsuna, Akira Emoto, Kuranosuke Sasaki, Tamiyo Kusakari. Running
Time: 108 minutes. Based on a novel by Kenji Miyazawa.
Rating: 3/4 Stars
Budori
Gusuko lives in a world of cats. I don’t
mean that there are humans, who are dominated by cats, I mean that cats are the people
themselves. They walk on their hind legs
and use their front paws as hands, but aside from that, they look like
perfectly normal cats. He and his family
live in the woods on a mountainside, where the father is a popular
lumberjack. The land is rich and
fertile, and although their life is simple, they lack for nothing. Until the cold comes, that is- a combination
of freezing, snowy winters and too-short
summers prevent anything from growing for a long time, until, in the midst of a
desperately bitter snowstorm, Budori loses his entire family- the father
wanders off, the mother goes missing searching for him, and his little sister
vanishes shortly afterward.
As a
result, when the winter finally ends, Budori lacks any reason to stay in the mountain,
and he begins traveling and searching the world for a purpose in his life. This leads to a series of adventures where he
meets an assortment of oddball characters- a red-bearded cat who is way too
cheerful about how terrible his business skills are, a zany professor in a
top-hat who gives what is either the stupidest or the most accurate breakdown of
the study of history ever uttered, and a tall, demonically wide-eyed cat in a
swirling, dark cloak, who may or may not be Death himself.
The
animation is one of the primary strengths of the film- it’s a more traditional
hand drawn style with watercolor backgrounds (although there was some CGI
thrown in at times). We start in a
peaceful, idyllic forest, and finish in a massive, futuristic city filled with
enough flying machines to make Miyazaki green with envy. Each new setting is detailed, and interesting,
the flying machines are quite memorable, and the designs of the cats-as-people
look surprisingly natural. Despite the
vast difference in the settings of the story, every location feels like an
organic part of the same world.
The
overall plot of Budori, much like the
animation style, is very episodic- the audience simply follows Budori himself
through the major events of his life. His
presence is more or less the only connecting thread between the three major
sections of the film, with previous experiences rarely, if ever,
mentioned. I was flummoxed by this at
first, but then I reminded myself that two of my favorite films of all time are
2001 and Waking Life , both of which utterly defy traditional narrative
interpretation, so I can hardly criticize Budori
for splitting up the narrative like a TV show. Where the film definitely delves into the
realm of the bewildering, however, is in the cracks between the major story
arcs. Between each part of Budori’s
journey (and sometimes during one), he falls asleep and (seemingly without
cause) begins to have fantasies that should make acid-trippers feel quite at
home. These fantasies themselves bear no
clear connection to the “real-life” experiences in the rest of the movie, so
the purpose they are supposed to serve is very much up to individual
interpretation. They are at least
intriguing to try and pick apart, and they also feature the appearance of the wonderfully designed Cat That May Signify Death mentioned above.
What
ultimately does hurt the film is Budori
himself, who very much comes across as an empty vessel for most of the
film. I’ve racked my brain for several
days, but I still can’t recall a single expression crossing his face other than
a very faint smile. And that’s not
something I can pin on the animation, because the other characters are
plenty expressive- part of what makes the aforementioned bearded cat so much
fun is the idiotic grin that never leaves his face. The voice actor is also rather underwhelming,
barely emoting more than Budori’s face does.
It’s not a deal-breaker, and it doesn’t make him a weak character, but
it does limit the extent to which the audience can really identify with
him.
Both
Budori’s personality and actions in the movie as a whole made a lot more sense
to me after I shoehorned the whole film into my own highly-probably
interpretation; I posit that the loss of Budori’s family has left him with a
severe case of PTSD. The repression of
his guilt, as a result, leads to both the bizarre fantasies and the decisions
he ultimately makes about his life. Is
that what Sugii intended? I highly doubt
it, but it certainly made the film a lot more interested for me. I don’t know if or when this film will get a
release in the States, but I definitely recommend this film for its sheer
strangeness- I suspect this movie could be another one that people either love
or hate, but it will get you thinking regardless.
-Noah Franc
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