I'm writing this down just because of the reviews of the hardcore fans of the guy praising this thing like it's the second coming of Citizen Kane when in reality it's just overblown, pretentious, boring like it was his previous "movie", Love and Pop. And it's also laughable that the same people pretend this is different from Evangelion because of the lack of mechas while in reality the themes and the in-your-face, navel-gazing oriented writing style are the same the dragged down the second part of Evangelion, overdepressive stuff that is even more laughable this time because there are no real consequences from it. Mix the package with overblown classical music that is completely out of place and dialogues that are repeated over and over and over and over and you have a recipe for a failure, failure that is better than the atrocity named Love and Pop simply because there are no "experimental" - read: unwatchable - camera shots this time. When the female protagonist made a dissertion out of a pRoN magazine with Giant Boobs stamped on it about the unnecessary nature of sex I quit this crap for good, because this is directed from the same guy who created the giant-breasted (complete with full nude showing) Jung Freud in Gunbuster - also used as the protagonist of an X-rated game designed by him - and the same person who put several gratuitious fanservice in Evangelion just for the sake of it. Me thinks I'll stick to the first part of the Evangelion series (except a couple of good episodes in the second part),the first five Gunbuster episodes and to the Cutie Honey live-action movie as the best things Hideki Anno ever made in his whole life, I leave the rest to the fanboys going crazy for "cool" words and pictures that don't mean absolutely nothing at the end of the day.

When I say this movie is for "fans of poetry", I mean simply that it is for people who enjoy delving into the subtlety and brevity of thoughts, for people who enjoy symbolism and are unafraid to dive into a challenging puzzle of seemingly disjoint ideas, for people who can appreciate the fantasy in--as Anno puts it--"the ennui of everyday life".

And if you were bored by the first sentence of my review, then you're probably not the person I'm describing. If you haven't guessed, I'm trying to scare off most of the crowd. ;)

Yes, people who rely heavily on plot shouldn't bother. But I'm not saying that this film lacks in plot. On the contrary, it has one of the most complicated plots if you manage to piece it together. This is not a movie to be taken lightly, and its beauty & meaning runs not on the surface but somewhere deep beneath--as in the movie where her innermost thoughts are stashed away in the "secret basement" of a 7-story building.

I would compare this movie to Fellini, Godard and Tarkovsky--except that I generally don't like any of those directors at all. In this case, however, Hideaki Anno is able to take all the brilliant elements of those classic directors and fuse it with vivid colours, imagery, a spectacular dialogue, and phenomenal acting, which is something those European directors may have overlooked in their unidirectional approach to "New Wave" cinema back in the 60s-70s. This is a film unlike any I have ever seen, because it challenges the mind while keeping the senses alive. It can be taken either philosophically or simply as a feast for the eyes, whichever you like.

The dialogue, which I've already mentioned, bears further mentioning. Unfortunately I had to rely on the English subtitles, but even that was a work of literature. It's as if the philosophical works of Confucious, Descartes and Kant had been given a real-world, human voice. Heady stuff. And the script is expertly delivered by Ayako Fujitani in a performance that ranks up there with the best portraits of creeping madness I've ever seen.

On a final note, I just want to touch on the ending--don't worry I won't ruin a thing. I've read some criticism; apparently people have been disappointed. I admit that I, too, had been expecting something different. But now, having watched the film several times over (a requirement!),I see that the ending couldn't have been more perfect. I can't find a single flaw in this movie. 10/10.

One thing is for sure, this film has some of the most gloriously thought out and constructed set designs ever. A lot of the film takes place in the young girl's "apartment" which is about the size of an average K-Mart. Each room is like a different department but it doesn't seem strange once you give in to the world Hideaki Anno has created. Anno comes from years working in Anime so his visual imagination works on a different level than most. Why not have the girl sleep in a bathtub in a big empty basement that's constantly and willfully flooded? This is a beautiful film with lots of stunning photography. When the couple are outside they're usually hanging out on or near railroad tracks, creating all kinds of wonderful lines and framing. The cinematography may not be something that grabs you but the composition of shots will.

On the downside, the story is standard "crazy free-spirited girl captivates man" stuff with a little "here's what happens to victims of abuse (real or imagined)" thrown in. The dialog and philosophy get a little precious from time to time, neither of the two can really act—they're just supposed to be attractive cool people (they are)—but Anno makes the best of their limitations. It's fairly easy to spot the scenes where the girl, Ayako Fujitani, (who wrote the original novella the film is based on, co-wrote the screenplay, AND is Steven Seagal's daughter!) is left to her own devices to be charmingly a little off kilter versus the ones where she is supposed to act a scripted point of story or character development. I don't mean to dis her too hard because she is an interesting soul to spend a couple hours with. No doubt. Shunji Iwai (real life director of a number of highly rated Japanese disaffected youth films, most notably All About Lily Chou-Chou),who plays the guy, a film director (!),isn't given too much to do or say. He's just intrigued by the girl so he hangs around all intrigued and artistically stressed. He's less of an actor than Fujitani but equally as cool and worth spending a couple hours with. This is definitely an indie/arty bag of ennui, but it does do some interesting things and even goes all Dogma 95 for a scene at the end.