Mushi-Shi: The Movie (2007)

This Japanese film tells the story of Ginko; he is a 'Mushishi' or 'bug-hunter'… these aren't normal bugs but supernatural creatures that can affect the population. As Ginko travels he cures people who have been affected. One day he learns that Tamyu; a woman who records historic details of the bugs has been affected. He heads to help her, travelling with another man who is hoping to catch a rainbow; somethings others mock him for but Ginko understands that what he is after isn't an ordinary rainbow.Intertwined with this story is the story of a Yoki, a young boy who is looked after by a mushishi named Nui after the death of his mother. Nui cautions Yoki to stay away from a pond where strange one-eyed fish live. She tells him that her study of the bugs in the pond caused her to lose an eye and her hair turn white. It later emerges that what this story is very much linked to Genko's story.The first thing that must be said about this film is that it looks absolutely stunning with magnificent rural Japanese scenery and seamless CGI special effects that look great. The story is told at a gentle pace, some might say it is slow, but that didn't bother me. I liked how the two stories are told and ultimately shown to be linked. At times the story does get a bit confusing but not overly so and the ending is more open than some viewers would like. Director Katsuhiro Otomo did a fine job capturing the story and his cast are equally good at bringing the characters to life. Overall I certainly enjoyed this, I can't comment on how it compares to the anime as I've not watched that.These comments are based on watching the film in Japanese with English subtitles.

Already the beginning of this movie is amazing. The mystic forested mountains covered in fog, two people marching through the rain, mystic cloudy shapes emitting from the earth, a sudden landslide, all accentuated by this music. Impressive.The cinematography is definitely one of the highlights. The scenery and costumes are also superb. The special effects are simple and of low quality (except for the landslide), but yet they work out very very well. Visually and acoustically the movie is wonderful. For real! I also like the cast, especially Aoi Yuu and Ri Reisen.I haven't read the manga or watched the anime, though I was aware it existed, before I watched this movie. But I had no problem at all to follow the storyline. Yet, it is a demanding movie which only works on a spiritual level.I think a problem many people will have with this movie is, that it lacks a dramatic structure, an arc of suspense.It's not for everyone, but I enjoyed it.

The movie 'Mushishi' requires a certain amount of patience to watch, if you're expecting fighting and major heart-racing theme then this is not the movie for you. Mushishi is a beautiful movie, got me to tears. Simply the movie is slow-paced but has a lot of positive points like the animation being used and color textures and mostly being pointed out by viewers are the scenery. At first the movie gets a bit boring but it does get interesting later, it took me while to figure out the scenes with the woman and the little boy was flash-backs of Ginko's past, and the flash-back did play a powerful role in the story of the movie.If you're a patient type of person with a broader understanding and tolerance for films, Mushishi would be a film for audiences like so, but if you're searching for fighting scenes or something that makes your heart race from Mushishi then make a pass on this film.Another thing is that please do not even comment on films just because you simply hated it or it did not have what you wanted because it's pretty useless to comment on something that doesn't hold your interest, instead simple make a pass and forget about the movie, it'll help calm your unsatisfied heart.

Otomo Katsuhiro's "Akira" (88) was truly a landmark film in Japanese animation and helped to bring cyperpunk animation to the forefront of sci-fi cinema. Unfortunately Otomo's numerous other projects thereafter (World Apartment, Memories, Steamboy) haven't really been able to match nor capture the excitement and wonder of that film. Which brings us to Otomo's current film "Mushishi", a truly bizarre and confusing film and one that is likely to test a viewer's patience."Mushishi" is based on Urushibara Yuki's long running manga of the same name published by Kodansha starting in 1999. It told the story of a young, white-haired shaman/mystic by the name of Ginko who had the unique ability to see ghostly and supernatural insects ("mushi") who would inhabit and afflict their human hosts with a number of mysterious ailments and sicknesses (some bordering on the grotesque). Using his supernatural abilities along with his medical/mystical knowledge, Ginko would travel feudal Japan to cure and treat those afflicted by the strange "Mushi".It's one part the "Ghost Whisperer" mixed in with Tezuka Osamu's classic medical thriller "Black Jack".The movie is visually very stunning with beautiful locations showcasing the colorful, lush and rustic Japanese countryside. The CGI effects for "Mushi" in particular are convincingly creepy and unnerving. The medical ailments range from the uninteresting (ear infections) to the painful (massive infections, protrusions) to the very bizarre (irratic behavior, tissue degeneration).Yet as with his anime projects like "Memories" and "Steamboy" Otomo seems to get too caught up in the visual styling that the storytelling suffers from it. The story is told in a deliberately slow and methodical pace that may try the patience of modern audiences and the MTV crowd already accustomed to more frantic and faster pacing.I'm not familiar with the source material, so it was very hard at times to follow the crux of the story. We never are told where these "mushi" come from and/or why they they do what they do which was a bit frustrating.At two hours, the movie is overly long and I often found myself struggling to keep awake, hoping for some sort of exciting and climactic event that will hopefully shed light on all of these proceedings. That unfortunately never materialized.Odagiri Joe doesn't really do much in his portrayal of Ginko rather playing the character as a atypical, stoic, silent hero who deals with the fantastical events he encounters with a disengaged almost bored manner.Manga/comic adaptations are becoming all the rage now with "Death Note", "Dororo", "Nana" and the recent "Ge Ge Ge No Kitaro" having had much success on the big screen. "Mushishi" may be a case-in-point to producers that not all manga were meant to be adapted and that perhaps some stories are better kept to the confines of print publication or anime.