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| From left to right: Izumu, Taico, Box, Akiba, and Page. |
Dear Internet,
Do you
like Japan, Internet? I am sure there is
plenty of content coming from there to keep you busy cataloging it. But what about the user base? Can they access a way to obtain the data that
they are looking for? Beyond directory
and index style search engines, is there not a better way for the end user to
go through the oceans of information? When
watching "Akihabara@Deep," you could say the story is of five
individuals who attempt to create a new solution for just that. But if you were to attempt that you would be
pretty wrong and be ignoring the message that the movie tries to tell.
"Akihabara@Deep"
is much more than the premise lets on.
There are five individuals, each who receive adequate character explanation
through the course of the film. There is
Page, the stutterer, Taico, the fainting prone one, Box, the germaphobe, Akiba,
the only female of the group and boxer, and Izumu, the prodigy on sabbatical
from MIT. The five get together because
of a sixth individual, Yui, brought them to one another, which occurs before
the story begins, and she is dead as soon as she is introduced. The five decide to create a website and
develop an artificial intelligence program that can help people in the same way
that Yui did. Soon, they catch the
attention of Nakagomi Takeshi, eccentric billionaire and CEO of Digital Capital,
who creates a deal with the group to advertise Akiba as a model. What happens afterwards is a downward spiral
into corporate greed and exploitation that ignores the lightheartedness from
the earlier half of the film.
There
are a number of things that the film has going for itself. There are numerous pop culture references
spread throughout the film. From Gamera
to Gigantor, numerous statues and images dot the settings around the film. They serve enough of a purpose, especially
with being able to identify the nature of Takeshi as similar to the
protagonists, at least as far as tastes in entertainment. Beyond that, they function as a nice sort of Easter
egg hunt, trying to name all the various references. The film has a nice amount of humor to keep
things light and knows how to deliver the jokes without coming across as trying
too hard. Half of the main cast gets some
sort of backstory that elaborates why they are the way they are.
On the
other hand, "Akihabara@Deep" has numerous rough edges that require
cleanup, especially since it has ample length to do so. The first is the same backstory that I just
mention. Three of the five protagonists receive
enough elaboration for them to be understood, but the other two receive next to
nothing. The other two come across as
tag-a-long members because of this, despite the fact that they are central to
the main plot. Then there is Yui. Shi is introduced in the very beginning and
is promptly told to be dead. While her
funeral does serve as a reason for the group to come together, it gets glossed
over very quickly. Her death only serves
a reason for the group to model the AI program after her. Beyond that, Yui is almost completely
forgotten and is very rarely brought back up.
The film is also too long. A
quarter of it could be cut off or compressed and made it more manageable. When it does move, it moves slowly and
sometimes awkwardly.
The
best aspect of the film is the fact that it becomes more than just about the AI
program, especially considering that the audience never really sees it in
action. Instead, the stress of the film
analyzes the ".com" monopoly that occurs when large companies buy out
there competition or force them to fold.
There is the emphasis on the worker that gets caught up in the buyout
and what happens to them when the project is over. There is the concept of an employment caste
system which occurs in such takeovers. There
is the two-faced nature of rich individuals who are able to play multiple roles
to suit the situation. There are a bunch
of these little focuses that the film wants to highlight. In most regards, it does a good job with
attracting detail to these themes.
However in many cases, the group of five seems to be stepping into a
much bigger picture than they realize.
They feel out of place for most of the film and only have a few scenes
that directly deal with them and the bigger scheme directly. When the circle does clash with the world, it
is done wonderfully. Page gets two scenes, particularly, where he
must stand up and deliver a monolog despite his stuttering and becomes defining
scenes of the film.
"Akihabara@Deeep"
is a good movie that has a few hiccups along the way that holds it back. Despite being knee deep in Japanese pop culture,
it never requires the audience to know the reference to understand the
plot. It is just there for aesthetics. The biggest problem of the film can be summed
up with it trying to do too much. Most
likely the film was trying to cover all the bases that the source material was
covering, but even with the content cuts, which are obvious, the film is still
reaching its fingers into too many pots.
The film can be enjoyed as a criticism of corporations and even on a
social level, but it has trouble wrapping itself up as a complete package.
Yours in digital,
BeepBoop
P.S. There will be nothing for tomorrow. I will detail why in my next post.
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