paradise lost

“My wish isn’t a shooting star, please let it reach you. If everyone is alone, we wouldn’t have met”

Aquarian age was released in 2008 starring Dori Sakurada, Rakuto Tochihara, Takuya Uehara, Keita Kimura, Akio Fukuhara and also a special appearance by alice nine. and Takeru from SuG. I watched the trailer for Aquarian Age a long time ago, and it intrigued me. Now finally I got to watch the movie. At the end of the day you remember the good things about a movie the most, and this movie though not without flaws also had some pretty awesome parts to it that overall come together for a decent film worth watching.

The movie focuses on several high school boys who discover that they inherited latent genetic traits — among other things, wings that sprout out of their backs. They soon find themselves caught in a millennia-old war between secret organizations who have been fighting each other since the beginning of human society.

The movie opens with a basketball match between two high schoolers, who appear to be friendly rivals. The one boy, Naoya, tries to get the other, Kaname to make a bet with him but Kaname refuses. Later Kaname is walking home with another friend talking about this when suddenly, a boy dressed in white collapses in front of them…covered in blood. The boy gets up and runs off again, clearly being pursued- but by what? Kaname and his friend are concerned for the boys’ safety and go off after him. Cue the opening of the film, and possible one of the best movie openings I have seen for a long time. Watch it here. Currently in a small club alice nine. are holding a concert. The movie credits begin showing the outside of the club, as the song begins the camera leads you inside as the concert starts up. You see the boy running, the other boys searching for him… in between scenes alice nine. performing their song “mirror ball”. The film is beautifully shot; not only the angles and stuff but it’s gloomy and filled with shadows contributing to the dark, mysterious atmosphere. This gloomy atmosphere combined with the epic “mirror ball” and the performance itself alongside the boy running, finally ending up at the club and calling for his friend before being attacked by a mysterious stranger (actually one of the members of SuG ^^). It’s really exciting to watch; it lured me into the film and made me hooked on this mystery. I went into the film with low expectations, but this opening made me more than a little enthusiastic about watching it.

The boy being attacked in the club is where it starts and the key to the story (sorta). Kaname and his friend search for the boy, and one of them ends up at the club and inside, the concert now over, there are scratches on the wall where the boy was standing as well as black feathers lying down on the ground. He comes back to the club the next day, concerned for the boy and wondering what is going on, now finding fresh blood outside. Meanwhile Kaname as he is walking home is also attacked, and wakes at a mysterious hospital where he informed of what he is. A member of the black feather clan, those who carry the blood of demons since the beginning of time. He has been taken in by an organization working on studying their DNA blueprint. Kaname has suffered back pains for a while, but it seems that it is not until this incident that his wings to begin to grow. Scared that he could have been the one to attack the boy in the club, because his personality switches when his wings reveal himself leaving him no memories of his actions, he becomes part of this organization.

Meanwhile there is, of course, a rival clan determined to destroy them (the black feathers). But their heir Naoya doesn’t see the point in their fighting. Naoya has even becomes friends with boy Kaname, who he soon realises should be his rival. So whilst Kaname struggles to deal with what he is and what he potentially could have done, Naoya also has to struggle to try and do the right thing- but what is that?

And then there is the boy who was attacked- Tsukasa. He is taken in by a mysterious priest Nakuara. There are a group of them, these preists, and their purpose is never revealed and well the priests were pretty stupid and seemed a bit pointless and OTT, apart from Nakuara. Nakuara doesn’t even believe in whatever it is the priests are fighting for. The injured boy Tsukasa is hinted he belonged to the rival clan who think black feathers are attacking them. After being taken in by Nakuara Tsukasa escapes again to protect him. He is also growing feathers and runs to the hospital organisation, the only place he can remember in his lost memories. There he is told he now has the blood of angels in his veins- a white feather. They are similar to black and can be just as malicious.

A member of the hospital then gets attacked in a similar fashion to Tsukasa.

And so the mystery remains- just who is the perpetrator of these crimes? As the mystery continues to build and the threads that connect each character are slowly revealed the more the movie starts to make sense yet at the same time the movie loses some of the tension of the opening sequence, and excitement created in its first few moments. However even if it not as exciting or action packed as the first bit of the film, the film remains intriguing and eventually picks up again for the surprising ending. Although the movie at first appears fairly innocent, soon you realise there is a lot more going on. At first it is confusing but soon it comes together, leaving enough information out to create a bizarre mystery that kept my attention until the end (I didn’t move from my chair for the full hour and 20 minutes)

On the whole what I liked about the film was made to be rather realistic, or at least believable. It is a beautiful film: gorgeously shot, and I love how dark and gloomy the lighting is. It suits mood of the film and makes it very beautiful to watch. But not only is it aesthetically beautiful, but what I really loved about this film was the relations between the main characters and the characters themselves. Nothing is as it seems, mystery makes the film because you have got to keep watching to find out the truth and see what happens. But the family relations, friendships, and a lot of the characters themselves were so interesting, too. From the beginning I liked them (the characters) and watching them deal with their circumstance, was often moving. Scenes like with Kaname, alone in his room getting up and nervously turning to see the scars on his back where his wings are. Scenes like the ending between Noaya and Kaname where they decide not to harm each other, but to join forces to do the ultimate good. These scenes and others were not only beautiful to watch, but also gave the film a bit of depth and emotion. I guess this human element to it also contributed to how believable it was.

Of course this film had the potential to look cheap, but there is clearly high budget here again making it look wonderfully realistic. The wing scars are so believable that they are almost grotesque, and other effects are also done very well. Right at the end the actual wings were freaking awesome too o_o There are also brilliant and varied settings to again make it feel very real: and hinting at a large budget. Of course there are a couple of things that did ruin this overall believability of the film. For instance, where is everyone else? Apart from the concert crowd at beginning, the streets always strangely deserted which is weird. Did they spend everything on effects and setting instead of wasting it on some extras or something? XD Other instances also made it obvious what it was based on e.g. evil priests. I did not get those evil priests, and they were laughable. I loved Nakuara, and I think the setting of the church was gorgeous but the evil priests…no just no. The priests also got the typical OTT ‘evil guy’ music which didn’t help. The music sometimes, not just with the priests, was too obvious but other times, modern and awesome and totally fitting. Again, I loved the opening with the alice nine. song. This is possibly the best song I’ve heard from alice nine. (minus rainbows) and I am now listening to it on repeat.

The actors themselves were decent. It didn’t help the three main characters looked so alike because gloomy footage and heavy shadows made it hard to distinguish who was who, and I admit because of something this stupid I was confused at the beginning. But apart from that weird observation, the acting was generally good, only sometimes feeling forced (with the doctors, organization members, and of course…the damn priests). Maybe linking back to how empty this film was (no people on the streets at all) I think sometimes things were just too convenient. Everything linked together too well. And it was never explained why Tsukasa knew Nakuara, and was also a bit strange how Kaname seemed friends with the one guy, and didn’t really know Naoya then suddenly he was best friends with Naoya (BL vibes included) and other guy just disappeared until he was needed again. That guy was one obvious plot device, I didn’t even catch his name, although thankfully they gave him a bit of family background which saved him from being too generic.

Lastly, I’m glad that by the end the film surprised me. I totally did not expect the ending. I was suspicious of the culprit, but not in the way it ended up. Throughout the film, the perpetrator was made out to be anyone and so of course it is good that it wasn’t too obvious.

So despite its flaws Aquarian age is going to be a movie I recommend. It started well, dragged a little, and then ended perfectly. Although not a unique storyline in the world of fantasy, it was done pretty well. I had low expectations for this film, but I ended up enjoying it.