Travis' Talk

Amazing Lives of Fast Food Grifters (Tachiguishi retsuden)

Mamoru Oshii's "Tachiguishi-Retsuden" is a film that can really only be appreciated by an American audience only if they are familiar with the directors earlier work - most notably "The Red Spectacles". It's a faux-documentary chronicaling the adventures of the fast-food grifters; basically, people who live life by stealing food in Japan throughout the country's history. The film is divided up into segments, as it moves from each 'tachigui' to the next, from characters such as Moongaze Ginji (who appeared in "The Red Spectacles"), Foxy Croquette O-Gin (my personal favorite of the bunch), and Hamburger Tetsu (played by Oshii's frequent composer Kenji Kawai, who also contributes another fabulous score, as per usual). The whole film is animated in what Oshii calls 'Superlivemation', which is basically applying the "puppet theater" animation style he concieved with the MINIPATO shorts, to the CGI effects work he experimented with in Avalon. The animation itself is frequently quite beautiful, and always unique. A constant stream of striking images and clever visual puns, as well as Oshii's usual philosophizing and social commentary, "Tachiguishi" is almost completely inaccessible to anyone who is not at least marginally familiar with Japanese history and pop culture - as well as, again, Oshii's work, but for his loyal fans, and film lovers who yearn to see strange new sights, "Tachiguishi-Retsuden" is certainly worth a look; and if nothing else, it provides another rousing game of "Spot the Bassett Hound!"

I Am David

Moving story of learning how to trust again.