Let's talk about the Oscar nominations

Yeah, it's that time of the year again. Oscar nominations time always gets people up in a jiffy. So let's get back to this blog and give my two cents.
Also, there's also a bit of misinformation going around (including coming from some famous anitubers), so let me try to set a few things straight while stating my own opinion.

#1: Your Name could NEVER get an Oscar nomination this year!

NO, I am NOT dissing the movie. Your Name is a good movie. But it got submitted for the Oscar nominations LAST YEAR. And if you know a little bit of award shows (of any kind): You can only submit a movie ONE TIME ONLY!. And since the studio behind Your Name did that last year (see my previous Oscars blog post for more on that).

It's as simple as that: It was already submitted last year, so it cannot get submitted again.

Would it have been better if the studio/distributor had waited until 2017 for submission? Yes, defintely! They got way better word-of-mouth this year, made several headlines and so on. They might have had an actual fighting chance for that nomination.
But as they say: Hindsight is 20/20.

#2: There is NOT a bias against anime in America, there's a bias against animation

The majority of the academy voters historically don't like the Animated Feature category at all (like EVERY movie in this category). Don't forget: this category is one of the few that has its own set of submissions, compared to the other categories. This means the voters need to watch more movies. Dozens of more movies that they probably did not watch while they were in theater.

It's a public secret that many of the "old gray voters" hardly watch ANY off the nominees (let alone every submission) and just vote for whatever their (grand)kids talked about the past year or whatever was the hottest take in the movie festival circuit. And unlike the Short movie or International movie categories where there isn't a word-of-mouth or "hot take", this is one category where they CAN skip most movies on their to-watch list.

And recently it's only gotten worse now that not only "animation veterans" can vote for the nominees, but EVERY academy award voter has a say. In other words, less good quality movies and more mediocre movies like Boss Baby & Ferdinand.

No, this is not fair. But until the Academy finally cleans house in their voting public this practice is not going to change. And on the other end, there are a lot of (internet) critics that feel the same frustration and want to get in to make the awards more fair, but seem to hit the wall of "you need to know the right people".
Youtube movie critic Chris Stuckmann is known to be one such person and has been trying to get into that circuit to help reform and improve the awards. I can only hope people like him do get in and make it better on the long run.

#3: Several anime movies already got nominated in the past, so why not this year?

All nominated anime movies were Ghibli movies or Ghibli-produced movies (ref: The Red Turtle - see this blog post for more info).

And the only reason Ghibli movies end up being nominated is because John Lasseter of Pixar (now Disney) really pushed the Academy to get a nomination for Spirited Away. Don't forget: in order to get a nomination, you need to know the right people. And once you receive an Oscar, the Oscar door will always be open in the future. So that is why Ghibli films will always be considered for nominations in the future.

Yes, there is still that chance to be nominated as part of the 1-2 art-house-movies that get nominated each year (e.g. this year's The Breadwinner & Loving Vincent). But those nominations are mostly done by the critics to save face in the movie festival circuit since they've received TONS of praise over there. So the chance of those two winning is close to 0%.

#4: Boss Baby & Ferdinand did NOT deserve that nomination

Yes, I feel the same way. But read #2 again. Not enough people elegible for voting watch animated movies. If their grandkids talked about Boss Baby a lot, there's a chance it will be nominated. And due to the huge box office success of Boss Baby (almost 500 million dollar worldwide), the chances for a nomination were real. Just be glad the Emoji movie didn't get a nomination (*shudders*).

#5 Do the Oscars even matter anymore?

I can hear many people say "The Oscars don't matter anymore" or "they're always wrong or choose wrong anyway".

And yes, there is a lot of truth in those statements. You don't hear people talk about Oscar-awarded movies at all, safe the next Oscar period. BUT having an Oscar (or even a nomination) for your movie or the category you worked in IS a status symbol and the best possible addition on your resumé.

In fact, of all award shows out there, the only one that people in the industry or in the press will keep referring to IS the Oscars. You won at Cannes/Sundance? Nobody cares; you had great feedback at the Writers Guild awards: Who remembers that? You got nominated for an Oscar? AMAZING!

I mean, no matter what Crunchyroll is going to do with their anime awards, is anyone going to refer to certain anime as: "anime-award winning title"? No. But with Oscars, that is a Yes.

And that is why the Oscars will matter, even if they keep making shitty decisions and award all the wrong movies, year after year.

#6: What movie do I think is going to win / should have been nominated?

• Anime movie that should have been nominated: A Silent Voice and In This Corner of the World.
• Will win: Coco, without a doubt.

I haven't seen A Silent Voice yet (have it on Blu-Ray, ready to be watched), but I did see ITCOTW last year at the Anima festival last year (read my review here). But from what I hear / have seen both movies would've been award-material... if they were done in Live Action in Hollywood.

A movie about the consequences of bullying and about deaf people? That's right in the Oscarbait category. A period piece about the consequences of war in Japan? Yeah, definite nomination! If only those grey oldtimers would bother to watch these movies... sigh.

#On a side-note: What does an anime movie have to do to get a submission/nomination?

Well, read the rulebook: http://www.oscars.org/sites/oscars/files/90aa_rules.pdf

If you don't want to read it all, I'll list up a few important rules (for the full list, RTFM!):

• The movie must meet feature length (thus >40 minutes runtime).
• Image & Sound must meet DC (Digital Cinema) standards. Thus direct-to-video movies cannot apply.
• It must have been released in at least 1 L.A. County commercial theater in the past calendar year (January 1 - midnight December 31st). Note: Special previews and festival screenings can count as well under certain circumstances (too many to list here, rtfm).
• Only the first and earliest theatrical run in LA county counts. Re-runs on later dates, or runs in other theaters in the same county do not count.
• The movie must have run at least 7 consecutive days in that year with at least 3 screenings per day, including one in the primetime hours (6-10 pm) and those showings must be with paid admission (promo/press showings do not count).
• It must have been advertised & exploited properly, like any other movie during that period.
• The first screening of that movie must be (completely) shown in theaters. Movies that are first spread via TV, DVD/BR or Internet (read as: Netflix movies) are exempt. Note: After that first screening, everything is allowed again.
• Broadcasts must be either with English audio or with English subtitles if English audio is not available.

There are other (administrative) rules (filling in forms, exact timeframes, ways of submitting the films and actors, etc). But if you're in need of those, you're better off reading the rulebook yourself.

Not to mention that if you want to get in favor of the Academy, you'll need the dreaded "Oscar Tour", going on promo tours; handing out free copies of the movies to all the voters, etc. Not every studio wants to do that effort.

Afterword

Yes, another post since months! Hurrah!

I can't help it. If I see something that bugs me, I feel the need to write about it. But I'll probably skip doing anime reviews. I got bored out after trying to watch every series of the last Spring season (watching to many "meh" anime is bad for morale) and never really got back "in". Not to mention that past few seasons were pretty mediocre. Yeah, even the current one. I've seen the best anime, but that's about it. I do have a few more topics I wanna talk about, but that will be for a later post.

Until that time, V out.

V reviews - In this corner of the world: A better war movie than The Wind Rises

For the past two weeks, the Anima festival was happening in Brussels. Too bad I found out about it a little too late. Why? Because the festival had the first Belgian air dates for "Your Name", and I was just a little too late to get to see it.

But after biting away my disappointment, I found out there were still some tickets left for another anime movie that was recently released: "Kono Sekai no Katasumi ni", which is released in Europe as "In this corner of the World".

The movie information and trailer caught my attention. And since I totally missed out on Your Name, I wanted to double down on watching this film. So I drove to Brussels through the pouring rain, parked my car in the overpriced Flagey parking, sat down in these worn-out uncomfortable theater seats and watched it. But the end result made the entire trip worth it!

"In this corner of the world" is kind of flying under the radar in the west, since its name is not "Your Name", nor "Sword Art Online the Movie". But it is a movie that requires your attention. So let's review this and get the show on the road!

V Reviews - In this corner of the World

Backstory - The manga

"Kono Sekai no Katasumi ni" is a Japanese seinen manga created by award-winning writer/mangaka Fumiyo Kōno.

Her published works tend to be on the short side (1-4 volumes) and usually tend to be slice of life dramas. And since she was born and raised in Hiroshima, most of her stories are about the atom bomb and the aftermath of it. While she is too young to have experienced the bombing herself (°1968), she grew up in a city that has experienced this drama first-hand. This means that she has heard lots of first-hand stories from people around her. Family members, neighbors, everybody who lives in Hiroshima has their own story. And Fumiyo absorbed those stories and turned them into works of her own.

Until now, Fumiyo's most recognized work was "Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms", which received several awards and was turned into a live-action movie as well (which also garnered lots of praise and awards). This story was about a family of survivors of the atom bomb.

"In this Corner of the world" on the other end is the story of a young woman that has to experience the hardships that the second world war brings to a family of common people. And once again, the manga has gained lots of critical praise.

Backstory - The movie

In 2012, a project to animate this manga was first announced, but then postponed due to lack of resources. In 2015, a crowdfunding campaign was launched in order to help finance the project... and by god, it got almost double the requested money. Calling this a success is an understatement.

By October 2016, the movie was finally released in Japanese theaters. And now the producer is taking the movie all around the world, to show it at movie festivals.

And this movie adaptation is aiming to become a big success. Seriously, look at the Accolades of the wiki page. It's only been released for less than half a year and the list of awards already are too long to mention on a single A4 page. In the Japan Academy Awards, it even beat out films like "Your Name" and "A Silent Voice" in the category of best animated movie.

And this is just the beginning. I'm curious what it's going to do at the big Film Festivals (like Cannes, Sundance, etc), not to mention next year's Academy Awards (it will be nominated, mark my words).

The Story

The story of this movie portrays the life of Suzu, growing up from a kid in Hiroshima into adulthood. She's a dreamer and an talented artist. But most of all, she's an airhead with little to no care in the world.

But as has long been tradition in Japan, a young man (Shuusaku) asks for Suzu's hand to her parents and she is being married off without even seeing the guy once. Okay, she sees him once while being "disguised".

Master of disguise, everyone!

Shuusaku and his family lives in the harbor city of Kure, which lies in the south of the prefecture of Hiroshima. So Suzu has to move to Kure and shortly thereafter she has to marry the man (with a hilarious joke concerning the "marriage night" and umbrella's - you'll get it once you see it).

Wait, is she starting to strip...? During her wedding?

Suzu has to live in this new environment, while proving herself to be as useful as possible with this new family. And that isn't easy, especially when her sister-in-law (Keiko) returns home after her husband died early and Keiko got into arguments with her in-law family. In this process she had to leave behind the shop of her late husband (which was forced to close down anyway) and she had to leave behind her son with her in-laws (in order to inherit the family name, I guess?).

But while this setup of a movie would be somewhat stale, I didn't mention the name Hiroshima without it playing a pivotal role in this story.

Yes, this is wartime Japan in World War II and everyone somewhat falls victim to it.

Shops start to close down, food supplies are being rationed, black markets flourish, bomb shelters are being built, the military police is being suspicious of everybody and so on and so on.

Yup, that's all that is left to eat today...

And while the majority of the movie consists of Suzu getting used to her new life, the second half of the movie starts to become more dramatic.
The moment you really feel you got to know the characters in this movie well, the war starts to creep in... really close.

Air raids become more frequent, people are being torn away (quite literally) and tears are being wept. Even Suzu herself is unable to escape unscathed.

This is only the beginning...

And after tragedy hits her really hard (no spoilers), she wants to return to her family in Hiroshima. All this while the movie makes sure to show you it's just a few days before the bomb is dropped...

The only thing you're wondering when all this drama starts, is if Suzu will make it out alive. But for that, you'll just have to check the movie out yourself.

Characters

	Suzu: Innocent airhead who is being pushed into adulthood, but still has the mindset of a child at times. She's our main character and is quite enjoyable to follow.
	Shuusaku: Suzu's husband. A quiet man who respects Suzu for who she is. Seriously, in a world where women are just married off to random people, I kind of expected this guy to be either a scumbag or predator of sorts. But overall, he's quite an okay guy. He does kind of idolize the military and wants to train to become a marine later on.
	Keiko: Shuusaku's sister. Keiko is a woman with a strong personality. She's not evil or malicious, but her personality can be a bit overwhelming for Suzu at times. Keiko is a young widow who got separated from her son after falling into an argument with her in-laws. After this breakup, she returns to her own parents home together with her daughter (Harumi). This leaves her somewhat bitter and jealous of Suzu. But Suzu makes it really hard for people to hate her.
	Entarou & San: Shuusaku's parents. They gladly welcome Suzu into their family. Entarou works in a military factory. San stays at home most of the time, but has health issues. Due to this, she relies on Suzu to do the household chores.
	Harumi: Keiko's daughter. She gets along really well with Suzu and vice versa. While not said out loud, it's clear that Suzu sees Harumi as a replacement for her sister. She really cares for this little girl.
	Sumi: Suzu's younger sister. The two get along really well, but they get separated when Suzu marries. They do see each other a few more times in the movie and you still see the close bond these two have. She is considered to be a beauty and does take advantage of her looks by charming soldiers into obtaining goods and even a ride to Kure.

There are more minor characters floating around in this movie, but less time is spent on them. These include Suzu's parents and grandmother, Suzu's "evil" big brother, Suzu's early boy-crush (Tetsu) and a few others.

Animation and sound

This is really a well animated movie. It's animated by Studio Mappa, known for recent hits like Yuri on Ice, Rage of Bahamut, Kids on the Slope and Hajime no Ippo the Rising. If anything to compare it by, I think Kids on the Slope does come the closest. It uses a similar color palette.

The character design require some getting used to (they feel a bit chibi-like at times). But once you get used to the art style, you can get sucked into the movie.

Other than that, the environments are amazing to look at. It sometimes feel as if I'm looking at photographs instead of animated backgrounds.

The music is created and performed by singer/composer Kotringo (Rieko Miyoshi), who has also received some awards for this score (which should say something about the overall quality). If you want a feel of what the soundtrack sounds like, take a look at the trailer.

One song that did jump out from the movie was the opening track, which is typical Western church music (kind of a weird choice). It's probably a coincidence, but I couldn't help but notice it.

Analysis

This movie is adorable to watch, yet very captivating at the same time.

Yes, it does tend to drag itself a bit halfway through. But when the tension of the war comes, it really makes you live the emotions along with the people who are experiencing the tension.

And while the movie makes sure not to show too much of the bloody results of the war, the few times when war does chime close to our family, it really packs a punch. While I did not cry myself, there will be plenty of people who will be needing their Kleenex.

Also, the last 5-10 minutes are a bit weird. The movie does it best not to show too much of the war horrors that happened post the A-bomb (not unlike the infamous first few volumes of Barefoot Gen). But then there's suddenly a few scenes with a girl and her mother which are utterly disturbing and kind of misplaced in this movie. It comes out of left-field and has a big impact on the final moments of the movie. But it also makes you wonder: "Was that really necessary?"

But overall: Do I like this movie? Yes, Yes I do.
In fact, I find it to be better than The Wind Rises. The Wind Rises is the Oscar-winning Ghibli movie that is also a "slice of life" drama set in World War 2.

But I personally found The Wind Rises to be a bit boring. Yes, it has pretty visuals and it was Miyazaki's (supposed) last movie (now we know better!). But that's about it. Outside of the plane building, there's not much substance to that movie. The love story and drama is just mediocre at best.

tl;dr? This review in one image

In "In this Corner of the World" there's so many things present that one part does not outweigh the other. It's a better overall experience and a must-watch if you want to learn anything about Japan during World War 2 and how living in Japan during the wartime was like.

Overall, I'm giving this an 8,5/10. If this movie plays in a theater or film festival near you, go and watch it! You will not regret it!

Until next time, V out.