Genji Monogatari

Genji Monogatari is the type of film that will only be enjoyable to certain types of people. It seems to be the type of film that you either find brilliant or a waste of time, no in between. If you are patient and can enjoy a film for more than just its story, then I think you will find Genji Monogatari to be a valuable cinematic experience.

I came across this film randomly one night in my YouTube recommended. I thought the thumbnail picture was interesting, so I clicked it and only planned to watch the first five minutes to see what it was like so ... I could decide if I wanted to watch it some other time. (This was at midnight as I was scrolling my phone before bed.) Instead, I ended up watching the entire movie right then, staying up way later than I usually do just because I was too fascinated to pause it til tomorrow.

Sound 10/10
First and foremost, this movie is defined by its music. I am a huge fan of soundtracks and always take care to pay attention to the sound of a movie, and I promise that this soundtrack by Haruomi Hosono has to be the best film score I've ever heard -- American, Japanese, or otherwise. The mixture of natural ambience, Japanese folk instruments, and melancholy chord progressions manifests a unique vibe that defines the movie. At times the music feels almost vaporwave with its slow, moody '80s synths (such as the song "Kechigan"), and at other times it feels ethereal and heavenly beyond human capability (the song "Wakamurasaki" is particularly striking). If nothing else, this soundtrack demands admiration.

Art 10/10
The other major strength of this movie is its lovely art style. Faces, clothing, scenery, etc. are all drawn in such an interesting way. The color choice is also excellent. You can also notice the attention to detail in the artwork. For example, in the Heian Period, it was considered inappropriate for the inside of your mouth to be visible, so people would speak with their lips as closed as possible -- which you can see in how they drew their speaking, the lips barely move. The layers of beautiful clothing -- so much so that they are a burden to walk -- are also historically accurate of Heian aristocracy. There are parts of the film that are experimental, such as the strange opening credits and the ending. The visuals are really such a treat.


Story 6/10
Truth be told, the story itself is not that thrilling. I had never heard of Genji Monogatari before watching, so I couldn't figure out what was happening for a lot of the movie. The plot is best enjoyed if you read what it's about beforehand (like I send, I jumped right in without even reading the description) and I know some other reviewers said its not entirely loyal to the ancient classic. On the other hand, I understood what was going on well enough for the ending to have an emotional tug on me, so if you really pay attention you'll be fine.

Characters 6/10
While Genji isn't exactly likable, he does perfectly capture the quintessential "handsome prince" of the Heian Period -- angsty, reserved, polyamorous, and beautiful. If you ever read up on the Heian Period (or watch the Crash Course on YouTube) the aristocracy really behaved like this. They spoke in poems and slept around and acted sad all the time -- that was the culture. To that effect, the movie captured Heian life well. However, beyond the historical accuracy, most of the characters are pretty flat. I had trouble telling the various women apart because they were drawn very similarly (except their hair, I realized) and all acted basically exactly the same. No one had any flavor to them -- each character was interchangeable with all the others, personality wise.

Overall, Genji Monogatari is movie best enjoyed alone, in the dark, with the best speaker system and biggest screen you can access. Resist the urge to check your phone during the slow parts, don't pause it to go get food or finish a different time. I highly recommend watching John Green's Crash Course on the Heian Period prior to watching the movie so that you can appreciate (and understand) what you're seeing.

So let me be clear I hadn't read the novel, but what I did do was watched the anime series adaptation from 2009 Genji Monogatari Sennenki, I'd mostly enjoyed it and game it 8/10 (7.5/10, if there was the option), so that lead me to find that there was an older anime film adaptation and it peaked my interest, so I'd watched it and oh I was both impressed and kinda disappointed at the same time.

I felt that this film had compressed the original story too much, if I hadn't seen the anime series adaptation and read the wikipedia page of the novel, I wouldn't ... actually know what's going on in the film, there were some scenes which were cutted out and there's basically no character introduction which makes the film frankly hard to follow, so that's my main criticism really.

Animation wise though, even while watching in VHS tape quality looked amazing, the voice acting was good enough and the music was fitting too.

Personally I don't really feel I can judge the story aspects of the film or novel since well I haven't read the novel and the topics of Genji Monogatari is to me mostly a historic artifact, something not really to enjoy in a modern sense but to analyse society of Japan 1000 years ago.

So overall, it's a 7/10, if you haven't read the novel or know the story of Genji Monogatari already, I would say read the novel first (or even the 2009 anime series adaptation first), then watch the film, even though I criticized it for compressing the novel too much, the film still makes the cut as a classic anime film imo.

Tries toooo hard to be artistic!! Wayyy too slow! This is insulting to the original novel "Genji Monogatari"

The art and sound is fine, I don't have much complaints about it ^^
The story of the original novel is grim, fascinating while the movie just turns it into storyboarding hell!! Walking from one place to another should not take that long!

I get scenarios like Evangelion's elevator scene but this?? I don't see the meaning or purpose behind these dreadfully slow motions and I feel like it's just...pretentious.

The art itself is quite beautiful, I must admit. and there's minimal sound (or when it's used it's very appropriate). ... Just like Ergo Proxy and Evangelion, it doesn't really tell you what's going on- but with Genji Monogatari's case it's way too vague...someone who have not read the novel or at least know the contents and plots prior to watching the movie would most likely find a hard time understanding this story and plot.

Just go read the novel, don't bother yourself with this- I really don't recommend it