Entry 131: "Spriggan" (1998)

I was disappointed at the lack of Cornish faeries.

Dear Internet,

                Later this month, the film "Noah" will be making its theatrical debut across at least one country.  Lo and behold, it will be following the Biblical story of a non-unioned carpenter taking a divine interest in animal husbandry and fresh water traveling.  Now, what does this have to do with the animated film "Spriggan," based on a seven year running Japanese comic?  Well, I'll get to that point in a paragraph or two.

                "Spriggan" is very open about its brutally violent nature.  The opening scene includes at least three deaths by ultrasonic vibrations.  This is one of those films that makes me want to have a body count ticker in the bottom right corner of the screen.  Unless the character has got a name, they are most likely going to be cannon fodder before the end.  Considering that there is at least one secret paramilitary organization in the film, it only makes me wonder how such an organization could exist considering that the sheer amount of people that are dying would probably guarantee them a reserved position at the local unemployment office.  People die left and right in such numbers that it is boggling to think that they are not nearly as secret as they hope to be.

                But let me start off by telling a little about the plot.  "Spriggan" centers around Yu Ominae, a high-school student in Japan and a member of the secret military organization known as ARCAM, a group created to keep under wraps a number of ancient artifacts from a forgotten society.  Early on in the film, Yu's classmate is shown to commit involuntary suicide by means of an incendiary vest.  Yu is mildly injured in the resulting explosion.  This event prompts Yu to take action within the organization to find out the details despite his superior denying Yu to take on any missions while being injured.  He learns that ARCAM has discovered the remains of Noah's Ark.  However, unlike the scriptural description of the vessel, this ark is at least four times larger and made from a material that cannot be affected by traditional human means.  What follows is a struggle between ARCAM and another secret organization that wishes to gain possession of the ark for their own personal reasons.  Between cyborg soldiers, inhuman levels of pain tolerance, telekinetic children and the occult, "Spriggan" pulls from a variety of different angles in an attempt to keep the audience glued to the screen.

                This is all well and good, but there is an important fact to remember about the film.  It is being based on a specific arc that occurs in the source material.  The film is not the entirety of the story that the original manga wished to tell.  This of course does not allow it a handicap in any sort of way.  A film has to stand on its own merits and present itself to an audience as a standalone item.  It cannot rely on hoping the audience is caught up with some other medium to be able to tell the story.  "Spriggan," thankfully, does not do this, but certain elements do highlight the fact that the film is but one of a series of tales in an overarching plot.  Some of these elements include the character Jean Jacquemonde, a number of lines made by the film's main antagonist, and the back story of main character Yu.  While these do not create a whole detraction from the film, they do create a nagging feeling when viewing the film.  I found the character Jean to be most notable of these nagging sensations, mostly due to his repeated appearance whenever the film wrote itself into a corner and needed a way out.  Has Yu got into a fight he might not win? Jean shows up and nearly solves the problem single-handedly.  Yu snaps and goes on a personal vendetta?  Jean stops him from going crazy.  Yu gets caught in a collapsing structure?  Jean appears out of nowhere to help Yu hobble away.  It feels artificial in the very least and just makes me wonder if the character was thrust into the film to appease the original fanbase of the manga.  

                I mentioned the film "Noah" at the beginning of this rant for now obvious reasons.  "Spriggan" takes a science fiction approach to ancient stories.  I have no qualms about this.  It is an interesting take, even if it is not all that original.  Pointing the finger at prehistoric aliens has been around for decades prior.  The only thing that the film, or at least the subtitles, constantly irked me was the fact that the characters would constantly refer to the ark itself as "Noah."  They would only sporadically call it the arc or refer to it as a ship.  It is as silly as referring to Little Bastard as James Dean.  But I should not be so critical of this.  It probably stems from a Japanese habit or something of the sort.  One thing that the film does interestingly enough is being able to spin the ark from being a solution to being a problem.

                The film does have one pivotal problem.  The film is suspense based, deeply encroached in mysteries and secret societies, which means that quite a lot of information is not readily made known to the audience.  The balance of knowledge, ignorance, and revelation is a delicate game where if one begins to outweigh its position all three topple.  There is no other element that so strikingly comes across as poorly balanced as does Yu's back story.  Throughout the film, there are numerous references to where Yu came from, why he is a teenage soldier, and his various previous interactions with the film's antagonists.  If the audience is even paying attention, they can piece together what the characters are saying into a reasonable understanding of how Yu got into the position he is currently in.  The only hole maybe being the reason as to how Yu gained superhuman abilities.  Instead of treating the audience as having two brain cells to rub together, it decides to completely illustrate Yu's background as a child soldier in the middle of the film's climax.  This in turn slows down one of the most pivotal moments of the film so it can display information that could have already been reasoned out or just plain out neglected due to the minutia of its importance.  This deluge of character exposition is poorly placed and halts a climatic confrontation that also sadly gets slammed to the ground quickly.  The final fight is just plain uninteresting and does not logically work considering that Yu overpowers his enemy despite being in a clear disadvantage.  

                "Spriggan" is not a bad film.  The entire narrative works, and it can be entertaining at times.  It pulls from the hardcore 80's era of graphic violence and cannon fodder individuals.  I am reminded in part of "Genocyber" and how that treated non-named characters.  However, it also makes me think of the "Full Metal Panic" series, which came out a few years later, and was able to explore many of the same elements expertly.  Overall, I am underwhelmed by "Spriggan." It aims for a lofty narrative by interjecting numerous elements throughout the film, but fails to culminate into a story that can stand on its own.  Too many elements causes the film to feel spread out too thinly.  Perhaps the manga had better pacing and was able to introduce the various themes well, but the film feels too much like a segment of the comic was ripped to make a movie.  At the same time, if there are plot-holes, they are patched over with either a 30 second scene or a line to smooth things over.  Both are true and sadly work against each other.

Yours in digital,

BeepBoop

P.S. Next is "Sympathy for Lady Vengence."