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All On Display (Ocean Waves review)

Posted on May 10, 2017 by Tim Kuefler

The drama of a teenage romance is so well-trodden that we could put it in a shop window on display, and no one would look twice. But if we animate those figures, I bet you couldn’t help but stop and stare.

Ocean Waves (1993)

Cast: Nobuo Tobita, Toshihiko Seki, Yoko Sakamoto, Yuri Amano, Kae Araki
Director: Tomomi Mochizuki
re-released on blu-ray April 18, 2017
******* 7/10

IMDB: 6.9
Rotten Tomatoes: 86%, Audience Score 66%
The Guardian: n/a

Tomomi Mochizuki, sometimes incorrectly romanized as Tomomichi Mochizuki, is an anime director and producer. He is married to animator Masako Gotō and sometimes uses the alias Gō Sakamoto. Known for Ranma ½, Kimagure Orange Road and the Studio Ghibli movie Ocean Waves, he recently worked on the House of Five Leaves series.

I haven’t seen a lot of his previous work, but I’d definitely heard of Ocean Waves before, and as Studio Ghibli movies are generally well received, I thought I’d give this previously unreleased film a chance. To be clear, it was never released in North America, but it did come out in Japan. Put together by younger studio Ghibli team members in the hopes of producing a cheaper film, Ocean Waves tells the story of a love triangle that evolves between two friends and a new girl who arrives to their high school.

It’s been fairly reviewed since released in North America, but this film is not dubbed, so prepare to do a lot of reading while you watch.

At an airport in Tokyo, Taku Morisaki glimpses a familiar woman on the platform and we go into their backstory.

Two years prior, Taku receives a call from his friend, Yutaka Matsuno, asking to meet at school. He finds Yutaka at a window, watching an attractive female transfer student whom Yutaka was asked to show around. The boys discuss their upcoming trip to Hawaii. Taku is introduced to the new girl, Rikako Muto. She thanks Yutaka for providing directions to a bookstore. Taku teases Yutaka about his infatuation.

Rikako is academically gifted and good at sports, but also arrogant. Taku believes she is unhappy about leaving Tokyo and learns she is living away from home. His mother learns from gossip that a divorce brought Rikako’s mother to Kōchi.

The school year ends, heralding the Hawaii trip. When prompted, Taku loans Rikako ¥60,000. Promising to repay him, she warns not to tell anyone. But Yutaka witnesses this, and is visibly upset. Later, Rikako chews Taku out for telling Yutaka about the money, saying that he also loaned her ¥20,000.

When third year begins, Rikako has a new friend, Yumi Kohama. Rikako hasn’t returned Taku’s money, but at one point a distressed Yumi calls Taku, explaining that Rikako had tricked her into coming to the airport on the pretence of a concert trip, only to discover that their real destination is Tokyo, tickets paid for with Taku’s money. He races to the airport deciding he will accompany Rikako instead.

We learn that Rikako has visited her father unannounced. Her father thanks Taku, repays the loan and arranges a room at a hotel. Rikako explains that she used to side with her father, but had now discovered he wasn’t on her side. Taku comforts her, offers his bed and sleeps in the bathtub. The next morning, Rikako is back, kicks Taku out to change, and meets a friend for lunch. Taku wanders around the city. After catching up on sleep at the hotel, Rikako asks Taku to rescue her from a former flame.

Returning home, Rikako ignores Taku, but doesn’t hide their sleeping arrangement. Taku discovers this from Yutaka, who had earlier confronted Rikako to confess feelings for her, but had been turned down. Taku confronts Rikako about it… She responds by slapping him and he slaps her back.

Later in the year, Rikako has alienated herself from many of the girls, with one even accusing her of flirting with a boyfriend, to which Rikako defends herself. Taku comments that he is impressed with her response, but she slaps him. Then Yutaka confronts the confused Taku, but instead of helping, he punches Taku to the ground and walks away.

Back in the present, Taku’s plane lands and Yukata has decided to pick up, explaining he punched him because he’d realized Taku had hidden feelings for Rikako to protect him. At the class reunion Taku learns that Rikako was the woman at the station, and that Yumi had run into her too. Yumi tells Taku that Rikako couldn’t make it to the reunion but that she really wanted to meet someone from school that slept in bathtubs.

In Tokyo, Taku sees Rikako once more, but this time runs to her, realizing that he had always been in love with her.

It’s a short movie for sure, coming in at about an hour and 15 minutes, but like all of the master works of Studio Ghibli, this is a thoughtful and unassuming look at teenage years, as well as unrequited love. It’s subtle, simple, and sometimes boring, to be truthful, but as an animated feature, it manages to do the right things to pull on you.

Pros: The feelings of these teenagers are ever changing, and you can’t help but going through the same waves of emotion right along with them. An excellent depiction of the seeming beauty of teenage years, told in the same banal way that it actually unfolds.

Cons: If it weren’t animated, how engaged would we really and truly be with this story? And was it necessary?

Runtime: 1 hour 16 minutes

Points of Interest: This is the shortest Studio Ghibli film ever made. Though it was supposed to be made cheaply as it was crafted by young team members, it actually took longer and cost more than planned.

You definitely need to pay close attention to appreciate this story, because there are no fantasy elements to keep your interest, but the characters are details, the scenery changes are beautiful, and the mood as generated by the music, is quite lovely.

theories Summarized

Did this film change the face of Studio Ghibli upon release? Well no, but I have this theory that if they could make something as common as high school love triangles interesting back in the 1990s, it’s no wonder they have been able to produce works like Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle and Ponyo since then.

Tim!

I Could Get Used To This (Cross Talk Ep. 17)

Posted on February 5, 2017 by Tim Kuefler

You may or not be familiar with a band called The Veronicas. I wasn’t initially, not until I stumbled across a Virgin Records store in New York City back in 2006. I intentionally hit up the store hoping to find some local New Yorkers on the rise, thinking I could beat the fame train and know some “cool” music ahead of my Edmonton hipster friends back home. I grabbed Arctic Monkeys and the Veronicas, amongst a couple other picks.

I When I left the store, I immediately popped the Veronicas into my CD player, because people still had them at this time, and was pleasantly surprised to discover that I had landed across a couple of Australian identical twins that made a healthy mix of pop music. Electro, punk, rock, dance, prog, you name it, these chicks mixed with it.

Suffice to say, it was not my typical fare at the time. I was listening to mostly hip hop, punk rock, and the occasional foray into indie rock. Mostly because of my hipster friends.

I had some preconceived notions.

Thankfully those notions didn’t hold me back for too long, and before I knew it, I was a The Veronicas fan. After all, pop music can be just as powerful as any other form of music, especially when artists explore the genre and bring something new to the table.

Which is why today, Chris and I explore the importance of looking at films you expected not to like, but ultimately did, so that we can break down some of these weird ideologies, get outside of our realms of influence, and experience excellent films. Examples for us as two white dudes that grew up in the 80s, watching animated movies and romantic comedies, but even within genres we are “supposed to” like, there are examples which break the mould.

I’d give you some direct examples, but I think it’d be best if you just watched the episode, reader readers.

This is episode seventeen of Cross Talk, and we at the timotheories team know that you’ll enjoy it. It’s an excellent topic and one that I’m personally stoked to share with you. So grab some popcorn and some candy, and figure out with us how to challenge these stereotypes! Plus Chris looks crazy in that preview thumbnail, so I fully expect that will serve as satisfactory clickbait.

Before I wrap up my thoughts on this post, I just want to remind you all of how important you’re support of this website is for me. I operate timotheories out of my own pocket, and exchanging ideas with creative professionals like you are one of the major reasons why this thing even exists in the first place.

So thank you.

Another day, another theory realized my friends. I look forward to hearing your feedback on the episode, and I’m so ready to dig into this week and share some reviews on the new Train album, the blu-ray release of Queen of Katwe, some thoughts on Facebook, and a digital download of my experience at a concert.

As The Veronicas, like to say, I could get used to this.

Please comment, subscribe, and share this video with friends. We want to hear your feedback!

Tim!

Swordfish Doesn’t Even Taste Good Anyway (The Fast and the Furious 15th Anniversary)

Posted on June 30, 2016 by Tim Kuefler

Fifteen years ago my life changed, and for the better.

Last Wednesday marked the anniversary of that transformative experience and so I sat down in a theatre by myself to watch my favourite movie of all time and reflect on it’s impact on my own life – I remember that first experience like it was yesterday, dear readers.

My best and oldest friend, who we’ll call Rick for the sake of the story, was living in the city of Airdrie and I was visiting him for a couple of weeks at the start of the summer. We had grown up on the same block, living in mirrored houses of all things, and we spent most of our free time together, though we did go to different schools and had somewhat different hobbies, we were inseperable. Life was pretty good for two young boys, and we got into all kinds of adventures until he moved to Drumheller for his dads new job after the final year of elementary school.

So Rick and his family lived in Drumheller for the next 3 years and we would hang out for at holidays and in the summer, and we did our best to keep in touch. Initially with letters and phone calls, migrating to MSN messenger as new tech become available. And then Rick and his family moved a second time – now to Airdrie for another 3 years, right at the start of high school. I mention this because it helps bookend those memories for Rick and I and it REALLY helps me in the recall of this tale.

In the summer of 2001 Rick and I had both finished grade 10, hormones raging away. We decided to sneak into an 18A movie, but because we weren’t 18 yet, we needed to buy tickets for another movie first. What did we want to see you ask? Well if your memory is as good as mine, you’ll know that Swordfish had just come out that summer, and Halle Berry was paid an additional $500,000 to go topless in the movie. $250,000 per breast if you want to be specific.

As straight CIS males in the midst of puberty, and who didn’t have high speed internet, money, or legal adult status, nudity was in high demand for us. To put it another way the sexuality supply was short. And so, context given.

But we chickened out, and ended up in the theatre for The Fast and the Furious instead. Thus, my first taste of this franchise was born. On first pass I thought it was a fun action movie, but I didn’t make too big of a deal out of it, because I didn’t drive yet, and the actors were unknown. It was quotable though.

The summer concluded, and I went back to school, though I decided it was high time to get a part-time job at an arcade called Playdium. I learnt a lot about retail, people, and West Edmonton Mall working there, but most of all I watched a lot of partial movies on my breaks. I must of seen The Fast and the Furious in 30 and 15 minutes pieces over 15 complete times that year. This is because one of the older techs at Playdium lived on his own and would record movies from the movie channel onto VHS and bring it in for the staff. And so the quotes and culture of the first Fast became ingrained in my mind.

It was tough to invest in the franchise though, because as the as the first couple of sequels came out, I was entering into university, and getting involved with hipsters and philosopher king types. So my love of movies and brooding love for Vin Diesel and Paul Walker took a back seat. I would tell people it was my favourite movie, mostly under the thin veil of irony, and I also proclaimed that it was a standalone film.

Then I graduated from university and a couple of years later Fast & Furious came out in April of 2009 – I finally had a true sequel with the original cast and the beginnings of a tie-in with the 2nd and 3rd entries. As movies were added, the ensemble cast grew and the relationships between characters evolved. And then I realized that I had grown as well.

As a cultivators of the arts, a student of film, and a fan of this franchise, I can say confidently that The Fast and the Furious instills values of friendship, love, and family from it’s first few minutes all the way throughout its films and into the culture.

Best of all, in watching this limited release I had an opportunity to see advance footage from the set of the 8th instalment, and I was not disappointed. This is a franchise that has grown organically and so has it’s fanbase. I was so happy to see a packed theatre last Wednesday, and you really do feel like part of a family sharing with these actors and their characters.

Most of the already existing posts on this re-release have focused on the scale of the franchise and the “improbability” of it’s success. But what has been ignored time and time again is that at it’s core The Fast and the Furious is about heart and honour, it started out as films about car thieves, and slowly evolved into superheroes, but the heart has always been there, and I think that’s why it’s beaten the odds. But hey, that might just be a theory.

Tim!

An Unexpected Journey (Plants and Animals, Waltzed in from the Rumbling review)

Posted on May 9, 2016 by Tim Kuefler

What a strange sight to see – When fantasy meets reality and dreams became something more tangible.

We all have dreams. And while sometimes it can be quite therapeutic to take a break from the hard work of the world and think upon what could be.

But what if you were living your dreams right now? That’s what this week’s album review is all about.

Plants and Animals – Waltzed in From the Rumbling
released April 29, 2016
***** 6/10

Plants and Animals are a Canadian indie rock band from Montreal. A three piece act that began playing together as children and whom have now released four studio-length albums decades later.

It’s almost the perfect story isn’t it? We all had those sort of dreams as children. Each of us were asked that age-old question of what do you want to be when you grow up? It turns out that Warren Spicer, Matthew Woodley, and Nicolas Basque all got their wish.

And how fitting given that their fourth album heavily features tracks that were given form via a process akin to a playdate. Each member of the trio meeting up in their studio to play whatever they felt like at each session. This is the effort of P&A stepping back from the limelight after five years of touring and two albums made during that period; this is Plants and Animals setting out to record something real and wrought with emotion.

And it’s incredibly beautiful album to listen to.

All the mistakes, quirks, and cleverness of epiphany all rest inside of each track rather softly, a simple request that you take them in and ponder them over.

The results of childhood friends taking advantage of their shorthand to recognize when something isn’t working and then to push a song in ways unexpected is quite a wondrous thing to hear.

But the problem is that it isn’t entirely accessible at first playthrough or even during a second playthrough. Yes the music is fun and heartfelt and beautiful, but it moves at a variety of paces throughout and it’s shoegazing format is not something that is going to appeal to the majority of the crowd. P&A can’t quite figure out the tone to set on this one and it hurts the album for it.

But I’m willing to bet Plants and Animals aren’t concerned about what the majority thinks. Which is why they are willing feature summer tracks like We Were One, the horns infused Je Voulais te Dire, and the rather ironic Flowers.

Stands out tracks include No Worries Gonna Find Us and We Were One. And if you want to listen to a few of the tracks yourself they’ve already released a couple of singles – 1 2

As other indie bands explore heavy pop mixtures, opportunities to use synthesizers and older sounds, Plants and Animals are on a different journey and one that keeps them ever youthful.

Plants and Animals are fortunate to have the opportunity to live their dreams, and the talent to share with us what dreams can sound like when realized. That is why an album like Waltzed in from the Rumbling is so beautiful to hear. Yes, the melodies are quite lovely, but that conviction and success are sweet as well.

But should you buy this album? I think if you want to try something a little different, than absolutely yes… what dreams may come.

Tim!

Karaoke Corral (Karaoke at H2O Lounge)

Posted on December 10, 2015 by Tim Kuefler

Everyone has at least one long-standing friend. I count myself lucky to have many friends that I’ve known for a decade or longer, but having a life long friend is something special.

While he and I have never really shared the exact same set of hobbies, and our political and spiritual views haven’t been known as the ties that bind us together – those qualities are not why we are friends. At least it’s not why I think we are anyway. What it comes down to for me is that we both share a love of pop culture (largely music and movies), on of life’s great equalizers, and more importantly, we don’t judge each other’s life choices.

It’s quite a curiosity to me that something as simple as abstaining from obvious and unnecessary remarks can be what allow friendships to exist and then flourish. And that sometimes friendships become so strong that your friend won’t put up with your garbage behaviours and WILL call you out on whatever you are doing wrong in your life.

Think about it for a minute.

No one wants to go through adversity in life just because, there has to be value and a purpose for it. When we gain respect and trust with someone, that allows real connections to exist and we have a sounding board. So that no matter what the circumstance, that person will be there for you. They’ll see things through with you.

This is why friends are important dear readers. We all need someone for support and encouragement, a shelter to seek respite from our problems.

We all need people who can challenge us, encourage us, and share with us.

You never want someone in your corner that doesn’t let you grow and become a better version of yourself, and so it does help to have friends that challenge you – friends that will cheer for you, especially when life can seem difficult. When the chips are down and hope is in short supply.

This is why tomorrow night, I’m going to partake in one of my favourite pastimes for my oldest friends birthday. The musical kind of pastime that requires you to call up your favourite song on a screen and share it with a room full of strangers.

Ah the empty orchestra. A concept where you can sing along to known songs and pretend to be the lead singer all while you generate a fan-base and the accompanying cheers that arrive from hard-won admiration.

Websites like edmontonkaraoke.com exist for the people. It allows them to get their karaoke fix by location or date and to ensure this act of lovemaking never dies.

I love karaoke, because not only do you get to sing along and pretend you are an accomplished singer for 3-5 minutes, but there are challenges to tackle with it as well. It boils down to life choices really.

You have to decide whether to imbibe or not, knowing that you might lose your voice once you start down the path of yelling.
It forces you to think about sharing. Should you make friends with strangers and let them sing a song with you if they get super excited?
Know your audience. It might be better to sing a duet VS being a microphone hog.
Do you want an intimate affair with a handful of people or do you want to fill the room with your posse?
If you choose rock songs, there is a good chance you will be at the mercy of a guitar solo. You should have a game plan to fill that minute long silence
Which usually means you need to either commit to the song or know when to walk away. But don’t drop the mic.
Think about your song choices some. Theme songs and Disney songs are solid choices, and hip hop doesn’t require singing ability necessarily.
And last but not least – are you willing to give a performance to win the crowd over? Sometimes its a simple matter of having the most fun of anyone, and not how well you sing the song.

If you are looking for inspiration, this article about the 13 greatest movie karaoke scenes of all time might just do the trick. There is a particularily awesome live performance of Vin Diesel performing Stay by Rhianna in there as well, but I couldn’t just link to that. so I decided to share it with you direct.

I’ll be heading out to H2O Lounge myself this weekend, but don’t forget about this option to improve your social comfort zone. And believe it or not, you CAN sing karaoke without drinking, and it will build your confidence to perform in front of strangers. It’s a natural fit for it, but that’s just a theory. And one I’ll share another time!

Please leave some comments Have a great weekend folks!

Tim!