6/11 DYRL & Frontier Movie Ropongi Anime Night

[Save]

Egan just sent me this link for next Friday's DYRL & Froniter Movie screening. It starts at midnight so does anybody here want to meet up for DYRL and some drinking till dawn?

[Jasonc]

Damn, wish I could be there. That sounds like a lot of fun. One of these days, Cheryl and I will be out there for one of these events.

[Renato]

Goddammit, you know how to torture me. I'll get back to you on this.

(Egan's got the inside on everything, doesn't he?)

[sketchley]

Gah... sometimes it sux not to be in Tokyo. Mind you, with that play schedule, I wouldn't be able to make it anyways (work on Saturday, and once you have kids, going to movies after 24:00 begins nigh impossible. Sleep becometh a valuable commodity.)

[Tochiro]

Count me in!

[Renato]

Tickets are on sale from Wednesday. Apparently you have the option of buying online from Tuesday midnight or getting them at the cinema when it opens on Wednesday morning.

I hope this thing doesn't become another instant sell-out fiasco.

[Save]

Tickets secured!

[Tochiro]

Tickets secured!

Excellent! Will be coming straight from the airport on Friday night. Its raining cats and dogs here in Macau.

[Renato]

OK, now that the excitement of the combined forces of DYRL and Japan's World Cup triumph has subsided somewhat, I guess I will provide a brief report on the magical night.

The silky curtains opened on the heavenly, pearly screen, where upon the small figure of God incarnate Shoji Kawamori Esq. appeared before a roaring crowd of all ages and mixed gender. As he was bathed in adulation, he introduced the feature presentation with the words "Without further ado, I give you.... Robotech the Movie!!"

And then I woke up.

No, OK, here's what really happened. I arrived at Roppongi with plenty of time to spare so I could get a hold of the final issue of Macross Chronicle, which could also be used in the occassion, should any autograph opportunity arise, I could at least push that into the celebrity's face. Luckily Roppongi is one of those towns that never sleeps so I had no problem finding bookstores still open at that time. Unluckily, the area seems far too trendy to openly put such embarassing trash such as Macross magazines on their aristocrat shelves, opting rather to devote the space towards porn and hacker publications. After a good 5 minutes of searching, I asked the cashier, who responded with the ubiquitous "Macro... what?" He had to call the manager who went round the back and fetched it after what seems like an eternity. Anyway, with that and the latest issue of Shuukan Diamond (with a huge feature on the possibilities for space business, including the feasibility of the orbital elevator -- Katsuragi Kei, eat your heart out!!), I was on my way.

I made my way past the footballing chihuahua (I kid you not) to eventually arrive at the cinema. Wow, the A-Team's FACES sure were big that night. After printing out my ticket at the robotic clerk in true Macross City style, I got a message from Save saying that he was cashing in his Birthday Steak at Outback Steakhouse. Of course, I warned him of the inpending doom at the hands of evil giant alien women that this forebode, but he seemed to have survived the omnidirectional barrier overload without a scratch when he did arrive a while later. So after Tochiro joined us DIRECTLY FROM GETTING OFF A PLANE AT NARITA (bow in his sleep-deprived endurance) and we greeted a few familiar faces including Valk-artist extraordinaire Tenjin Hidetaka, we were on our way to watch the show.

The night opened with an announcement from a staff member telling us to be aware that they were going to project an original print which was over 20 years old, so the quality of the visuals and sound would suffer in many places. Admittedly it was pretty bad. I'm kind of on the fence about this. On the one hand, it is true that it makes the texture of the film itself seem much more "tangible" in a way, and it gives you a warm feeling. On the other hand, it made me sad to think that this masterpiece has obviously been given far less attention than it deserves in the years since it was released, and more than ever I think it would benefit from an entire remaster re-release, if anything for culturally celebratory purposes. Yes, that boldly. Japan has been embarassed for too long about its animation, and now that they are finally beginning to think of it as a form of capital, they could do worse than to promote the best of the best.

Anyway, the film itself was magnificent. The pacing is excellent, as the two guys sitting next to me (not Save and Tochiro because we were not sitting together) noted -- "there is no filler". It was their first time to see the film on the big screen in 25 years.

Save and Tochiro later mentioned lots of visual details they had never seen before, but I had already noted most of them as I had recently rewatched the remastered DVD on my HDTV a couple of months back. That is not to say the visuals were not arrestingly clear and vibrant despite all the damage the film itself had suffered over the years. The first thing I was struck by, however, was how much English is actually in the movie. It is FILLED with it. Now of course we all know about the "All systems green, good luck!" and "This ship is to make a transformation..", but I was amazed at all the other tiny soundbites such as the "I need some coffee" and "Got a cigarette?" which were crystal clear during the peace conference scene. One of these weekends I'm going to watch the monaural DVD version of the film that I have gathering dust on the shelf to compare, because I think I'm too used to the Surround Sound master, and it seems that some details may have been either lost or are just not as prominent as they were.

The credits rolled (without the Lynn Minmay concert animation, as it originally was) to a crescendo of applause. OK, so it wasn't exactly a standing oveation with cheers and chants praising the Froating Head, but for usually-subdued Japanese cinema audiences, quite exceptional.

And then after a break we watched some Macross Frontier movie, I dunno, the end, bye.

(Just kidding, will post part 2 soon!)

[EXO]

Man... I wish we can do a DYRL screening here...

[Renato]

Dude, you've got to do it at the con. It's a staple.

[yellowlightman]

Was it playing at the cinema in Mori Tower? I think Tochiro and I watched Kawamori's OVA Kenji's Spring there a couple years ago.

Also, pretty impressed a Japanese theatre audience applauded after a film.

[Million Star]

I am so jealous and sad that I dont live in Tokyo anymore. That sounded like a once in a lifetime opportunity to go back in time to the summer of `84.

Edited June 16, 2010 by Million Star

[Renato]

Part II: "And now... The conclusion."

After the applause, people started getting up for their bathroom break. I spoke to Tochiro and Save who were elated that they had noticed so many tiny details that had previously eluded them, among them being Hikaru's fourth-wall-breaking shifty eyes during the scene in which he and Misa return to the Captain's room on the SDF1 after wandering on Earth. I always thought he was just looking at Claudia, though, since there is no other indication that she is in the room until her close-up.

Anyway, after chatting for a bit with the two guys next to me (one of which had seen the MacF movie already but the other was a first-timer) about how one of them bought the VHS tape of DYRL when it first came out and made a copy of it for the other guy, because they were hella expensive back in the day, the MacF movie began... no introduction nor nothin'.

So, what can I write? Shall I put spoiler tags? Ah, you know what, just read my thoughts on it in the MF Movie thread, because even though this was my second time, I had exactly the same impressions. I took the opportunity to leave during one of the more, er... Macross Frontier-ish scenes and gargle, because the air was getting pretty intense in there. I came back a good few minutes later and we were still in that interminable scene.

So, after Michael Bay's Macross wrapped up and the credits rolled... we got a deafening silence. No-one spoke, let alone applauded. This was so funny, we all could feel it hanging in the air.

I went over to Tenjin's seat and congratulated him on the technical art in the MF movie, because that is the stuff that truly is amazing about both MacF and MacZero, and it's the reason to watch it on the big screen. He was like, "what do you mean? That was easy. After watching DYRL, nothing compares."

Then as we stepped outside of the theatre we were struck by daylight. It was only like 4am or so but it was so bright out.

We then embarked on the epic quest, a search for somewhere to grab a bite -- which turned out to be McDonalds -- and after an hour or so talking about 25-year-old cartoons, Sammo Hung, the similarities between Macross II and Frasier, and finally how I'm seemingly the only idiot who actually likes the movie "Kung-Pow: Enter the Fist", we decided it was time to go our separate ways. On the way out, Tochiro got chatted up by a straight-out-of-Eastwick 60-year-old hag out turning tricks. I didn't catch what she said, but I'm sure it was "Wanna see my cauldron?" or something equally non-sequitorial-like.

And that was the highlight of the night!

[Renato]

Was it playing at the cinema in Mori Tower? I think Tochiro and I watched Kawamori's OVA Kenji's Spring there a couple years ago.

Yeah, that's right. Well, technically, it's in the building behind Mori Tower. It was actually my first time there.

Kenji's Spring, huh? You know that is only out on VHS (to my knowledge, anyway). A while back I rented the tape and copied it (in abysmal quality as usual) to my hard drive so I do have the film somewhere. I never got round to watching it, though. I will do one of these days. You were lucky to catch a showing on the big screen!

[Save]

Yeah the Frontier movie didn't get any applause but it has the funnest scene that most foreigners would bust up at "GOD DAMMIT".

Being that I was a former theater projectionist and theater manager the DYRL print was actually not in that bad condition for its age. All the imperfections in the print made the film more memorable.