Yurîka

Yurîka Review

After three and a half slow paced, sepia toned hours experiencing emotional pain and anguish I still watched the credits roll. This film starts off with a man hijacking a bus and killing most everyone on it for no apparent reason. The driver and two middle school kids survive, and we spend the rest of the film watching them live with it. We watch them fall asleep watching television and other mundane matters but there is not a wasted frame in this film. There are a remarkable number of plot points to keep things moving forward but it still feels like suspended animation, like time is moving inward instead of along. Koji Yakusho is sublime and Aoi Miyazaki, at like twelve years old--and without saying a word for nearly the entire runtime--is mesmerizing. This film is a masterpiece, a journey exploring the myriad layers of trauma, of metaphorical death, and what three people endure on a path to renewal and emergence from a world of silent suffering. It will take your breath away. As the mecha-fantasy Eureka Seven begins building to its finale, the story grows increasingly metaphysical. Norb, the laconic monk, is calling the shots aboard the Gekkostate: even Holland listens to him. After pausing for an incongruous soccer game, the crew heads for the Vodarac temple where Eureka and Renton meet Sakuya, a Coralian who dwells within a giant lotus blossom. After conferring with Eureka, Sakuya decides the duo will be allowed to pass through the barrier of the Great Wall to the Zone and beyond: "the genuine promised land." No one seems to know what Renton and Eureka will find there, but everyone believes the fate of the planet depends on their journey. Preparations for the trip are complicated by Colonel Dewey's maniacal attempts to destroy the Coralians: he sends Dominic and Anemone in a desperate race to overtake Eureka and Renton. The Special Edition comes with a T-shirt and the first volume of Eureka Seven: Gravity Boys & Lifting Girls, a manga by Miki Kizuki and Dai Sato that serves as a prequel to the series, the original PS2 game, and the manga by Jinsei Kataoka and Kazuma Konduo. (Rated 13 and older: violence, risqué humor, alcohol and drug use) --Charles Solomon