Hideaki Anno’s Ritual
Hideaki Anno is still best known for Evangelion, but of no less significance is his gorgeous live action film “Ritual”. Unknown to me at the time of viewing, Ritual is based on a novel written by the female lead Ayako Fujitani – Japanese daugher of Steven Segal, and the Director is played by an actual indie director Shunji Iwai. The cinematography is absolutely jaw-dropping, and the plot is wonderful as well. While some of the film’s trailers seem to have marketed it as a horror film, this is not the case at all. Instead, Ritual explores human nuance.
After a chance meeting a jaded filmmaker finds inspiration as he documents a strange girl who dresses up in costumes, paints her face, calls every tomorrow her birthday and lives alone in a huge abandoned warehouse she’s made her world. He communicates with her through his video camera, drawn slowly into her psyche and her fantasy life. Without giving away too much, I propose you stay away from too much research and reviews, and see this film with fresh eyes, as I did.
A few more stills and the only decent video-clip I could find, after the jump.
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October 24th, 2007 at 9:46 pm
Ohh…I absolutely love Ritual! I saw it about a year ago and it is such an amazing film. One thing especially wonderful is how perfectly Anno’s idiosyncratic cinematography and general style made the transition from animation to live action. Also I want Ayako Fujitani’s character’s abandoned building to live in.
October 25th, 2007 at 2:31 am
Not to encourage thievery, but if for some reason you wanted to preview it a bit more before buying it, this (German?) torrent site appears to be the only one I’ve seen that has it:
http://www.lister.torrent-galaxy.to/torrent/details/410174225d085d395962c441e8af769e7dd7a63d
October 25th, 2007 at 4:06 am
I definitely want to see this now. It seems like something I would completely fall in love with. Not many movies do that for me these days (most stuff is wham-bam-and-no-thank-you-ma’am).
October 25th, 2007 at 5:12 am
Ah, how fondly i remember the first (couple) times I watched this – I can’t wait to see it again. Maybe this German site has it in better quality than my ancient rip.
October 27th, 2007 at 4:20 pm
Thanks for that linkage, IG. Watched it, loved it.
October 28th, 2007 at 5:55 pm
D – glad you liked. It’s one of my top 20 favorite films, if not top 15.