I consider myself to be a reasonably intelligent man. I’ve watched a lot of movies in my life. Some of them have been difficult and challenging. I love a good arthouse film. I spend a good part of my days thinking and writing about movies. Still, I feel utterly unprepared to write about Jinsei. When we finished watching this film, I turned to my wife and said, “How the hell am I going to write a review of this?” At the same time, she turned to me and said, “Have fun reviewing this.”
Buy JinseiThe very basics of the plot are fairly simple (though I admit I turned to Wikipedia and then several other reviews to confirm those details before writing this). It follows a man named Se-chan (voiced by rapper Ace Cool) through 100 years of his life. He suffers a tragedy as a young boy and becomes sullen and quiet. This leads his schoolmates to dub him “The Grim Reaper,” the first of many different names he’ll carry throughout his life. In his senior year, he’ll meet Kin (Taketo Tanaka), another outcast, and they’ll bond over their mutual love of Japanese pop-idol culture. They will try out and be groomed by a famous idol producer, Shiratori (Kanji Tsuda). But just before their big debut, on the cusp of stardom, Se-chan (now dubbed Kuro) quits, giving Shiratori a beating in the process. The first of several violent outbursts he’ll have over the course of the film.
From there, he’ll become a homeless drifter whom the local children dub “God.” When an earthquake breaks out, he’ll heroically save many people. He’ll eventually become a famous movie star. Finally, we’ll follow him many years into the future. Japan has been devastated by war, and Se-chan is living in an underground bunker with many other rich and famous people. There are also aliens and floating robots.
The movie is so much more than those plot beats. It is weird, wild, sometimes funny and moving, but often incomprehensible. It begins with a long, wordless montage that follows his parents through courtship and difficulties and ultimate tragedy, all seen through Se-chan’s eyes sitting in the backseat of their car. First-time filmmaker Ryuya Suzuki wrote, directed, scored, and hand-drew the entire film by himself over the course of two years. The animation is simply drawn with fine lines that often take shortcuts. It reminded me a bit of those old Hanna-Barbera cartoons where a character was supposed to be running through a forest of whatever, and you’d see the same trees pass by over and over again because it was cheaper to just recycle the same background rather than draw something new.
There are several scenes where characters will stand like paper dolls while the background shifts from one thing to another over and over again. Or different characters will come in and interact with Se-chan, but if you pay attention, you’ll see it is the same drawings being repeated. It also felt like a much longer story that was edited down to its essence. I don’t know if any of this came about due to budget constraints and time allotments, or if it was an artistic decision thoughtfully made by Suzuki.
This is a bold, interesting film. It has been a full day now since I watched it, and I honestly don’t know if I liked it or not. I am glad that I watched it. I love that there are people making films like this. We need more films, more animation that isn’t afraid to take big swings and do something completely different. So, consider this a recommendation. Jinsei deserves to be watched by more people. Even when they come away from it like me, unsure of what to think about it.
Kino Lorber has released Jinsei with a nice-looking transfer to Blu-ray. It comes with Lawless Love, a short film by Ryuya Suzuki; and several trailers.
