Okay, Darkside Blues was a show about the future of Tokyo as well as the rest of the world. In the future, a company owns about 99.9% of the worlds' land, as well as the people who live on the land. The company owner refers to the people who live there as "insects" or "parasites" because they are live off of what he owns. There is only one free place left in the world, and make a guess as to where that's located. That's right, they live in Tokyo. Or rather, I guess, in the prefecture of Shinjuku...
There's these people who want to go up against the company. I think they're a Rebel Faction or something... I can't really remember (that's what I get for writing a review a week after I see the movie!) and they want to try to keep the company from taking their part of the land, too. Some weird people appear out of nowhere, the company beats their inheritants for rising up against them, and more weird people run amok. After a severe beating of one of the company's own traitors, a man (who looks and talks like a woman) named "Dark-a side-o" (haha, that's how the Japanese people said "Darkside") appears and takes this little anorexic boy around for a "renewal." This starts a whole series of people wanting to know what a "renewal" is, trying to meet Darkside for these mysterious ritual cleansings, and still attempting to keep the ever-nosy company at bay as well.
I hope I made that movie sound alright, because I didn't like it. I thought the plotline was choppy, made no sense, and had absolutely no closure. The animation was pretty good on most scenes, and I liked the music. Other than that, I was really hoping throughout most of the film that it would JUST END.
There's a torture scene in the first... scene (redundancy sucks), where a girl is topless, there's blood and gore, some psychologically disturbing-type things, and swearing. There's really no reference to sex except for some flashback scenes where one of the girl characters remembers something in her past... which I can't say, because that might give something away (and I must live up to my claim of being spoiler-free, you know. This isn't like some bologna where you leave it in the fridge for three weeks and it gets spoily and rotten and STINKY. This is the bologna where you eat it within the first three DAYS of having it so that it's SPOILY-FREE!)
Storyline
3/5 It was choppy and at times, very difficult to understand.
Character Development
4/5 Ah... whatever. They were all there, and I had no particular attachment to any of them except the girl with the gun and Iiked Darkside on occasion.
Plot Depth
4/5 Um... I liked the concept of the company owning people, but that got wrapped up in way too many side stories that didn't really resolve themselves.
Music
5/5 I suppose it was good and stuff. There was really cheesy 80's stuff in it, which I like.
Sexual Content
4/5 Some flashback scenes in which nothing too gratuitous is shown, but you get the hint.
Nudity
3/5 There was the topless (and somewhat detailed) chick in the beginning, who was naked for way too long for my preferences.
Violence/Gore
2/5 Lots of blood and gore and things of the sort. Oh yes, and unnecessary shootings that rather reminded me of a side scene in Final Fantasy VII... *tear*
Animation
5/5 It was good.
Profanity
4/5 Some here and there.
Overall goodness
4/5 it was okay. I guess I didn't really like it that much, being it was kind of pointless and boring...
Totals: 38/50, not really recommended to anyone exept people who want to waste some money on a confusing rental...
Okay. This is one confusing movie. It starts out with a torture scene, I believe. There's a sadistic woman torturing a girl who apparently is from a rebel group that attacked this woman's base. She tells the girl some depressing news that makes her want to cry. Anyway, she sticks these weird rods in her side, and she starts to turn into gold. She's screaming bloody murder, and the woman laughs a lot over it. Cutting to a scene of a young boy gazing through a glass marble at the world, and punk-like people after him trying to kill him or something, he leaps into a portal that has opened up in the ground. His frinds, Mai and some guy, see him and get upset. They hear the clicking of horse hooves. (since this isn't Monty Python, they ARE horses, not coconut shells.) Well, back in the torture chamber, the woman who is turning the chick to gold, everything stops. She stops screaming and the other woman stops laughing. Everyone sees this freaky image of a man driving a horse-drawn carriage. We all get freaked out by this guy floating through out sky with his horses, since horses don't really exist any more. He comes out of the portal then, and stops near Mai and her friend. They basically give him the name "Darkside".
The woman is really mad. Turns out, she is the daughter of a man who owns 99.9% of the world and its people. They are mad. The rebel faction must be behind this or something! They also attacked us, and we need to find the sole survivor. We can try to buy them out! So they go to Mai's hometown, a village which is NOT owned by the government. They call them insects and ask them for their help. (a tried and true method - NEVER CALL SOMEONE AN INSECT WHEN YOU WANT THEIR HELP! It won't work) Mai shoots laser beams from her watch. Her and Sayuka from Demon City Shinjuku should get together and shoot laser beams from their hand decorations. Anyway, the government gets kinda freaked out. They apologize and the people offer their help to find the rebel faction which attacked the base. Blah blah blah. Darkside goes to a hotel and finds it odd. Mai thinks he's cute.
The rest of the movie revolves around hiding a rebel dude, the sole survivor, and finding out more about Darkside and his funky "cleansing". It's really weird and confusing; the ending is pointless. It's long and WEIRD. It's not too bad, but not incredibly good as I expected. ^_- It SAID "From the creators of Vampire Hunter D and A Wind Named Amnesia". I love both of those, so HEY! Sounds good. But, to some but no but a little avail. Darkside seemed so out of place. We've all got our weird moments, but this is an 88 minute one of those moments. If that was confusing, then this movie isn't for you. Then again. . . *drones on*.
Storyline
4/5 It was really weird and non-linear. Very difficult to follow for a brain such as me.
Character Development
4/5 Well, it was good in some places, but not in others. Mai's friend is pretty well-done, but the rest are just nuts.
Plot Depth
5/5 It was pointless and weird, but I'm sure the Darkside had SOME purpose besides looking cool.
Music
5/5 Nothing memorable, but pretty good, I think.
Sexual Content
5/5 Nothing but the torture scene, which wasn't really sexual.
Nudity
4/5 The naked chick in the beginning and a few see-through shirts.
Violence/Gore
3/5 Not a whole lot, there was some weird mechanical rippings, and some dead people, people getting really shot up and in bad shape, torture, blah blah blah.
Animation
5/5 Detailed on Darkside, and some on other characters. Very nice!
Profanity
5/5 Oh, your usual.
Overall goodness
5/5 It was good and all, but I'm indifferent. Leaning towards the liking, but there are somevery weird things I have to sort out before I really decide. I'll never sort them out, so this is an Utena draw. ^_^ Good points are that it's a unique and very different show, and the other good point is that it's interesting. Bad points are that it's confusing and another is that there's some weird things I really just didn't get. Those are about the same complaints. So, I think I liked it.
Totals: 45/50, I've decided I did like it, and I think that it was confusing. But then again, I'm no genius, so you might get more out of it than I did.
TOTALS: 41.5/50 Heather didn't really like it, and Megan did. So... decide for yourself. We both thought it was way too confusing for its own good.
***We rented it subbed, professionally done, and uncut!***
| Title: | Darkside Blues | ||||||||||||||
| Original Creator: | Hideyuki Kikuchi (yes, the man Heather told you to watch out for in her Wicked City review... maybe she was a LEEEETLE harsh on him...) | ||||||||||||||
| Year: | Not sure, but early 1990's. | ||||||||||||||
| Licensed by: | U.S. Manga Corps. | ||||||||||||||
| Length: | 83 Minutes | ||||||||||||||
| Rating: (not professional) |
PG-13 (some torturous scenes, nudity, violence, swearing, etc.)
|
Number of Tapes:
|
1
|
Price for individual tape:
|
$16.99 for the sub, $24.95 for the dub.
|
Box Set? Price:
|
No
|
Number of DVD's:
|
1
|
Price for individual DVD:
|
$29.99
|
Box Set? Price:
|
No
|
Comments:
|
Darkside Blues is a really weird sci-fi film that is about lots of things that never really tied together for us. Maybe it'll click later. Anyway, this is non-gender aimed. They don't care. It's not really aimed at anyone, except those of us interested in seeing it for whatever reason we have. There's nothing too objectionable besides the torture scene. It wasn't sexual or anything, she was just topless. It's easier to stab people's sides when there isn't any cloth in the way. There's a bit 'o' swearing and violence. Nothing too serious.
|
|