Mind Game 2004
Directed by Masaaki Yuasa · 103 mins · 1,585 views
Synopsis
Trailers
Reviews (126)
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A mid-life crisis movie for twenty-something’s. Finding life moves faster than ever expected, even with so much ahead, Nishi feels like so much has already been wasted. With the imminent possibility of death he reflects on his passivity and decides to live life to the fullest, only to be completely separated from everything that makes life—life. Through this added and excruciatingly physical separation from society, learning only through radio—watching life but not experiencing it—the push towards the enjoyment and appreciation of all things and possibilities available in life can be attained. To call each moment and life unique because it is only lived once, and by one person. With a somewhat Kaufman-esque script, (the writer being the main character) and…
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Films like Mind Game, though incredibly innovative, are a reminder that the world of cinema is still very much a man’s world. One could argue, as I’m sure the fans of this movie will, that there are no “films like Mind Game.” Yes, there was something truly extraordinary about it: the animation was stunning and I very much appreciated the film-maker breaking away from modern convention. Yet, the story was so obviously conceived by a man’s mind – the crude sense of humor, the focus on the physicality of the female and her satisfying the man’s gaze. As I am writing this, I picture dozens of films by women that focus on more-or-less the exact same elements, and yet the…
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You know those parts in a Disney movie musical number where the animation stops pretending to depict things that are actually happening in the world of the movie and becomes a crazy abstract illustration of the music? This is a whole movie of that happening.
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Made me realize that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively and there’s no such thing as death, life is only a dream, and we’re the imagination of ourselves. Also, I’m out of dopamine.
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It is no surprise that Mind Game escapes from its slice-of-life beginnings and dives into its manic surrealism as soon as the main character makes the decision to start doing instead of dawdling, seizing back his missed opportunity and opting to take charge instead as life is far more rewarding when we’re the ones navigating it. Of course it’s not that easy, being active instead of reactive poses its own set of challenges which certainly include clashing wills with whoever stands against you, and this literal rebirth of soul forces our ex-loser to undertake trials of biblical proportions while also coming to terms with his own psyche (you don’t change yourself instantly, it’s a process that requires work). By the…
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Yuasa is talented and amusing. But he’s TOO talented to waste his time finding fantastical excuses too draw Balloon Boobs™️ and not amusing enough to make me forget that’s what he’s doing here. Yuasa’s NIGHT IS SHORT, WALK ON GIRL is a ✨fantastic✨ movie with an energy that’s bubbly enough to carry you anywhere, no questions asked–but MINDGAME’s insistence that a protagonist’s desire to touch a particular set of breasts is compelling is a stretch, especially when the narrative needs to make the owner of said breasts a near-rape victim so that Mr-Titty-Grabber can save her in hopes of copping a feel.
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Probably one of the most aptly titled and flawlessly animated films I’ve ever seen. It also has one of the better beginnings and endings in recent memory; the film, as a whole, is very good… but the opening and closing sequences, especially, are what bump this film up a notch. Highly recommended – not just for fans of anime, but for fans of existential films in general.
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CW: misogyny, sexism, sexual assault, attempted r*pe This film is probably the best example as to why I think creative animation alone doesn’t make a compelling picture. What’s happening on screen barely 20 minutes in completely marrs it with a pretty tastelessly framed and vile encounter where a woman experiences sexual assault and attempted rape. But fear not, we’ll quickly dispose of the perpetrator and focus on the sad ‘nice guy’ who was into her and died. Oh, and not to mention, of course we’ll be using the sexual abuse suffered by the woman as a vehicle and motivation for the man’s growth. A gross, slimy and quite frankly ugly picture.
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Un flingue dans le cul et une animation de nicheur, ça c’est de l’art
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L’animation mais l’animation !!! (C’est le beau)
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CLOCKWORK ORANGE + BRAND NEW TESTAMENT SLICE OF LIFE
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THIS STORY HAS NEVER ENDED have you ever wondered what your other part is doing in another universe? if they got to live the life you want because they so courageously stepped in? when i first watched this film i was enamored by the message it left and how it called out to the me i put away long ago. i have a hard fear that i would always say the wrong things so it turns out to be nothing…
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Giving this five stars for its message, creativity, and personality. I needed an animated movie to be crowned. This cartoon is the cartooniest cartoon. It really embraces the possibilities of the medium and it’s a lot of fun.
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It’s become a bad habit of mine to consciously avoid watching something that is guaranteed to infuse itself into my creative DNA. Why? Because I’d be burdened with debt. I’d become restless and wired and consumed by it until I’d attempt to make something of my own in thanks. And I feel like I already owe too many masterpieces. Here’s my I.O.U to Mind Game. It’s gonna feel like escaping a whale to pay you back. About time you left my watchlist. I wish to see the world like Masaaki Yuasa do.
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Rewatching this after about 10 years, I think I’m starting to get it
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“This story never ended.” È inutile provare a descrivere questo film in quanto è impossibile provare a decifrare la vita stessa, rappresentata nella sua interezza in questo capolavoro folle del maestro Yuasa, uno dei migliori registi di animazione di sempre.
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i like masaaki yuasa
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#LIFE #JOY #MISERY
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killer movie. the beginning and last 15 are peak. every montage clip in between is so absurd and entertaining. i don’t see the point of them being trapped in the whale. these parts are nowhere near as interesting. it still could’ve worked so well had they continued with life and shown mundane-ness through that. the last montage is the easily the best part and pays off well in comparison to the dull parts of the first 30. but being trapped in a whale is so boring
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Ser kritikken av filmen, men trolig verre ting som har blitt animert i Japan! Jeg ser forbi dette, og fant filmen ekstremt kreativ og med enorm underholdningsverdi! Simpelt filosofisk budskap, men både kuleste portretteringen av Gud og hva jeg tolket som en brytescene, jeg har sett!
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Didn’t expect to spend so much time in that whale. Had a very space dandy vibe for a lot of sequences which ruled, I thought the use of pictures and stuff was funny too
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Ok l’animation est bien… mais l’histoire…? Fin bon voilà quoi… ça commençait bien pourtant ! Mais franchement ROMPICHE Je le re regarderai peut-être un jour…
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no tiene sentido de la manera más lógica posible
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Loved ts, haven’t watch anime in a min
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absolutely unhinged! visually breathtaking and somehow the single most uplifting film about radical self actualization ever made masaaki yuasa’s acid trip masterpiece proves that getting shot through the ass by a Yakuza mobster is just the kick in the pants you need to start actually living :
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i still dream about this movie at night (been like 6 months since i watched this btw)
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absürttü
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interesting, for sure. but didn’t really connect with me. very incel coded movie.
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Pretty good, art is amazing, sexual stuff wasnt Needed so much, pretty boring really
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Insanely interesting movie if you can keep up with the deep meaning behind the frames, color selection in certain frames, music added on and the whole vibe of the overall scene immerses you in a world in which you have no clue whats going to happen next
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VVinicius 8 月 22, 2026
Por que tem uma música em português no meio disso?
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We all have this fragment of hope within us. Your life is a result of your decisions. We are always evolving and changing, and even when you feel overwhelmed by your suffering, you still have a choice, the opportunity, at every moment, every second of your life, to change. lol this film was litttttt, bit heavy on the male gaze at points but the animation is a cult classic for a reason
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FOLLIA PURA.
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Lo necesario que es para el arte el sentido del humor, la sensibilidad, el aprecio a la vida y la pepa doble gota Maravillosa, insuperable
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It would do good to spend some time in the mouth of a whale! Maybe yer one from moby dick could learn something
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Kkaav🐟 8 月 22, 2026
plot was too incel for me to enjoy the banger experimental animation sadly
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Super uneven but when it hits it’s flow state, it fuckin rips.
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Just bonkers!! At times uncomfortable and provocative yet completely ridiculous and visually stunning throughout. The last 30 minutes had me in death saves.
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ABSOLUTAMENTE NADA ME PREPAROU PARA ESTE FILME muito menos uma pessoa cantando em português (e essa é a coisa menos impressionante eu to deslumbrada ate agora
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vabbè il film è assurdo ma sai cosa è ancora più assurdo appena ho visto la tipa ho pensato chissà quanti hentai ci hanno fatto e la risposta è zero
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🍑🔫
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martin buddy ily but what’s this. i have very mixed feelings abt this movie. in the beginning it wasnt much to my liking but i wanted to trust the process it just kept on getting progressively weirder in the animation style, storytelling and plot. this is very cotl but in a way that i didnt much like. i feel like if they showed less nudity or adult scenes i wouldve liked it more. the ending is very nice tho that…
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Funniest shit ever hahahahaha
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Mind Game is a beautiful animated film with an interesting and thoughtful interpretation of god, unfortunately, the obsession with gigantic anime balloon boobs makes it harder to get into than it needs to be. If you put all the misogynistic stuff behind it, it’s a pretty good movie, but it’s easier said than done.
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Smelly ahh
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Truly one of the most creative movie I ever watched, it not the best but I could see that there is no movie like this one
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Quem nunca?
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If I ever get shot up the ass in front my crush is just stay dead
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El Sótano Cinéfilo Presenta Temática: Película del Año que Naciste Semana 24: Mind Game Pues al parecer la temática escogida de esta semana fue películas estrenadas en el año en el que naciste… esperen… que yo recuerde no nací en 2004… ¿Entonces quien si? Pues gano la propuesta Sean, ya no puedo esperar a que alguien proponga películas grabadas lo mas cercano a tu casa para doxearlos. No sabia que me esperaría al ver Mind Game, lo primero que pensé…
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This movie speaks to me
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L’auteur est en roue libre totale et peut en laisser quelques-uns sur le carreau. Personnellement, j’ai bien adhéré à ce trip réalisé sous LSD. Film de fumier ahaha
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Entre le génie et l’obsession sexuelle
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hate when creepy guys make good movies
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Insane animation. Hated how they sexualized the fuck out of Myon. Nishi is a loser but I guess that’s the point. He needs to go to a better barber if you ask me. Yan was cool and I loved when she was having fun with her art and the weird water balloon dicks.
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Toute résolution porte en elle le deuil des possibles auxquels elle nous contraint de renoncer. Mindgame nous offre toutefois un exutoire : l’imagination. Merci pour les couleurs.
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Yuasa con il suo primo film fa uno dei migliori esordi alla regia in assoluto. Con questo film ci mostra già la sua cifra stilistica che viene poi fedelmente riportata in ogni suo altro prodotto. Qua dentro c’è già la sua follia, la sua fantasia, il suo stile unico, il suo modo di scrivere i personaggi, il suo uso dell’erotismo e delle perversioni che ritroviamo poi in prodotti come Kaiba, Tatami galaxy e Devilman. Questo è uno di quei film che vuoi riguardare appena finito, e vorrai rivederlo per sempre
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CCriticalTina 8 月 21, 2026
You would treat this movie the same as someone who’s extremely talented and creative but is also a perverted misogynist.. when you have to look past the shit to get to the golden bull
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Non avevo mai visto nulla di simile. Questo film è la vita. Il fantastico e dannato caos che è la vita. L’ho visto una sola volta circa 4/5 mesi fa, e da allora non c’è stato un singolo giorno in cui non ci ho pensato. È qualcosa che ti rimane dentro. Lo consiglio specialmente a tutte le persone che hanno paura di vivere. Ps. Fumate una cannetta prima di vederlo, buon trip❤️
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If drinking an ice cold cup of water in the early a.m’s was a movie then this would be it, except imagine what you actually just drank was Everclear, and in fact you just experienced a concussion… or maybe that’s just psychosis.
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Bir şeyler anlatılmaya çalışılmış ama ben anlamadım ama izlemesi eğlenceliydi sürekli bir şey olduğu için tiktok kaydırmak gibiydi film benim için
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Saw somebody say this is like a part of a musical where it turns otherworldly during a song, but for an entire movie. I completely agree. What a fever dream of a movie Low 4.5/5
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Les japonais avec les femmes c vrmt compliqué dmg pck l’animation est all time
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SSamuel 8 月 21, 2026
The narrowing of imagination we face is truly a travesty. What a wild and beautifully life-affirming movie
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i just can’t w the assault stuff like why
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Man versus the whale is a historic trope. I assume due to the whale being the largest living creature the modern man has experienced; a representation for the force of nature, challenging the comfort of mankind. Charles Dickens did it in Moby Dick, Pinocchio also faces off against a whale, Yuasa continues to explore this trope in Mind Game once again in service of exploring the human condition. This film seeks out to answer the question of what does living…
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“japan try not to be misogynistic perverts fucking once” challenge (impossible)
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Trippy
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La animación es una locura. La sexualización desmedida… Es innecesaria. Nunca había visto una peli TAN rara JAJAJA
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Chore dzieło o ważnych rzeczach. Bo w życiu nie chodzi tylko o to co bezpieczne i przyjemne, lecz o przełamywanie granic i dokonywanie zmian. To wszystko podane w maksymalistycznej formie, gdzie zamiast kropki nad i stawia się cały wykrzyknik.
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Watched this on an edible just as god intended
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Aw. Crazy. Took me a minute to get into the style changing every 5 seconds but I grew to like it. Everybody is naked and has a little tiny penis and balls. How wonderful The way god is depicted in this is so cool. If you had the chance to change your fate.. would you.. very good
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life is so beautiful, make the most of it.
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Shoutout anime Pinocchio. This shit rocks
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Se c’è un film che è in grado di curare la depressione è questo. Un inno alla vita. O alle droghe. Libera interpretazione.
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why tf did i watch this
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j’me suis endormi pendant la fin sinon très drôle très très cool la da
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Yeah accurate representation of how it feels to lose your virginity in the stomach of a whale
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Dazzling and vibrant, with an incomparable imagination — true to Masaaki Yuasa’s consistently poetic, unbound, and life-filled visual and narrative style. Everyone’s confusion, struggle, despair, and courage, and the connections between people, are unbelievably moving. The timeline and spatial lines are shattered, and every supporting character’s – every passerby’s – life story branches out into a parallel universe. Animation becomes the ultimate medium for realizing boundless imagination, breaking free of linear narrative, and bridging heaven, the mortal world, and the…
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I love the Absurdest movie
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The world all came together in unison to say yolo
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Took me a second but I got there. Insane animation style. I can’t believe they created every single moment. There are so many of them. I would kill to be in the editing room. The way he manipulated the gun with his butt cheeks???? Everyone’s naked….sometimes not in a good way… that’s Japanese animation for ya
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I had a weird feeling the whole movie I’d seen it before cuz so many scenes were there in my mind but blurry fr. Kinda ironic considering the title. The art direction is what initially drew me in and I’m ngl , that’s the best aspect. The story is good enough but I think the director just wanted a reason to make some real trippy/extra horny shit. The tone shifted soooo drastically in the 2nd half that it felt like…
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note to self to watch this again
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Yeah dude
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the first half of the movie is adrenaline fueled perfection. Wong Kar-Wai if he was into fast cars. Tatami Galaxy if it had better pacing. Immaculate sense of style. XX
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ganito pakiramdam kapag uminom ka ng cetirizine bago matulog anyways—my type of film (angas mo tlaga masaaki ha)
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I’d always choose life.
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это просто…… реально игры реального разума
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tried to show the gf…
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Most fake deep shit I’ve ever seen. Yeah maybe if I was 18 I would’ve found this eye opening. Idk how you can excuse a lot of the immaturity and blatant misunderstanding of like…women… Very pretty I guess.
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holy shit epic movie would watch again over and over. amazing art amazing story amazing everything 10/10. i love the possibly gay boat man!
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Assault scene at the beginning is too much late 90s/early 2000s edge for the sake of it, and almost derails the whole thing for me. But a lot of the rest works in spite of it, and some sequences are just amazing pieces of animation that are a joy to watch. I wish they could have done that part differently, then I could recommend this more wholeheartedly with just the standard early 2000s/male-director-writing-women warning. I will be watching the opening and closing montages many times throughout my life, I think.
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Mixed media animation is so very cool and this film introduces/integrates some wild concepts. There are sections that certainly lost me a bit, but while the more straight-forward bits were my favorite, I think this would lose something if it strictly stuck to it. Very interesting and inspiring and exhilarating.
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No puedo describir lo genial y espectacular que fue ver esta caleidoscópica película. Es de esas peliculas de animación que exprimen al máximo su medio y terminan brindando un desfile psicodélico de planos y secuencias tan bakanes, que me dejaron embobado la hora cuarenta que dura Btw noté unos de los mejores y más desapercibidos foreshadowing, en la secuencia de recuerdos de infancia del prota que se ve al final: ese donde se ve al prota corriendo sobre el agua unos pocos segundos. CINEEEEE
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Probably the most beautifully confusing visual exploration of the human consciousness I’ve ever seen
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Yes the movie objectifies the lady characters, and it is completely valid to hate the movie cause of it (especially early on). Still i can’t help but love this movie to death. It’s so fun, creative, and surreal. I’ve only seen TNISWONG and like 3 episodes of kaiba. After this movie imma definitely try to finish kaiba and start his other works. Shoutout crest $2
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Masaaki Yuasa always makes such a perfect blend of depth and imo the best humor. The animation is fucking amazing. Makes you feel so alive the whole way through. What a treat. And i love how is constant messaging in his work is to live your life no matter what. 🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈 I made you on a whim.🍰
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I dont think i can even hallucinate something as creative and flamboyant as this
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The start of the movie hurts to watch, but if you can power trough it’s worth it. One of the most interestingly animated movies I’ve ever seen, it goes absolutely crazy. The story is kinda ambiguos and very fantastical but also inspiring. Clearly made with passion and it shows.
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no idea what just happened
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Gotta be the coolest depiction of God in anything i’ve seen before, and the animation is insaneeeeee
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Trippy AF!! So many beautiful moments
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Ngl didn’t like it as much as I would like
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Aartem 8 月 16, 2026
It was so mind-boggling i deadass fell asleep
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am I… high?
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Um. Maybe I’m just not down with the culture. A bit too wild for me at times. Great visuals!
- Synopsis
- Nishi is a loser who has a crush on his childhood girlfriend. After an encounter with the Japanese mafia, he journeys to heaven and back, and ends up trapped in an even more unlikely place.
- Director
- Masaaki Yuasa
- Writer
- Masaaki Yuasa
- Studio
- STUDIO4℃, Asmik Ace Entertainment, Rentrak Japan, Beyond C.
- Country
- Japan
- Language
- Japanese
- Year
- 2004
- Runtime
- 103 mins
- Japan28 Jul 2004
- USA24 Jun 2005
- Italy22 Jan 2006
- Belgium07 Aug 2004
- Japan07 Aug 2004
- Germany06 Feb 2011
- Netherlands01 Aug 2024
- UK30 Apr 2018
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