Amrita no Kyouen

Feast of Amrita is a prequel to the surreal horror film Aragne: Sign of Vermillion, seeing a return of the oppressive apartment complex as the primary set piece and neatly tying the two together with an ending sequence that readapts the opening of Aragne, where the protagonist finds her "dream apartment." While this prequel fails to rehabilitate Aragne or ameliorate its flaws and deficiencies, Amrita might make that frustrating experience more understandable. True to most memorable horror, the sound design and atmosphere are the dominant aspects of the film.

Aragne, like Amrita, had compelling imagery, but the CGI was frequently rough, and some parts suffered from ... drunken camera work. The camera in Amrita is more restrained and cinematic in its exploration of the setting, and the animation is an improvement by using rotoscoped characters composited onto CGI backdrops. There's occasionally a mixture of CGI with the character movement, such as the eyes in a few scenes, but it's subtler. The frame rate is low, except for the chase sequence in the trailer, and the dialogue doesn't appear to be in sync with the characters' mouths much of the time. The film is far from perfect, but Amrita represents a decent bridge between the train wreck that was Aragne and whatever future project Sakamoto will work on. Yes, several horror anime films and series are better than Amrita, but Sakamoto appears to be the only true horror auteur in the industry.

Aside from smoothing out the incomprehension prevalent in Aragne and general visual tweaks, the most vital improvement is that the character designs and movements are far less robotic, lending the film a warmer contrast to the cold, dark, and gray 3D environments. As expected, with the short running length of 46 minutes, the three characters have simple dialogue to indicate their connection as friends and drive the minimalist plot forward. They lack distinct personalities, but they don't require them. The director only needed to emphasize their pre-existing bond in a struggle against cosmic horror entities. We're shown many disturbing sights in a dimension with a unique ecology. The scenes are grand in scale and call to mind the paintings of the Polish painter Zdzisław Beksiński, who depicted grim landscapes, perversions of lifeforms that resemble humans or other familiar creatures, cosmic entities, and body horror. Incidentally, Beksiński experimented with 3D models toward the end of his life, so had he made a film, it might have looked like this.

The film starts in a cliche manner typical of most horror films, but the reference to a Calabi-Yau space quickly becomes the core theme of the horror; the only thing one needs to know about this idea for the context of the film is that it applies to geometry and theoretical physics, and the reference succinctly details the complex structure and multiple dimensions of the film's world. The process of what happens is shown to us rather than told, and while one should end the film understanding the essence of what happened, an aura of mystery leaves it challenging to explain. Hence, Sakamoto strikes the right balance of being mysterious yet comprehensible.

Cosmic horror tends to be bleak and nihilistic, and with Amrita being a prequel that sets up Aragne, we know this can't end well. I've seen a few of these "Sisyphean" horror films that are repetitious, involving time loops or alternate dimensions folding in on each other, acting as an existential prison the characters hope to escape, but the experience tends to be banal. This film has an appropriate amount of mixed emotions to make the struggle meaningful, as the main character has a determination that is brilliantly shown in a simple but effective way, detailing the pain of an untold number of cycles in moments. Even the eventual capitulation has a surprising grace, elevating the characters above inconsequential meat bags whose only purpose is for the viewer to revel in the thrill of splatter.

Saw this at a recent animation festival. Was not disappointed.

I will mention right of the bat that this movie isn't perfect. The occasional use of 3D character models compared to the traditional medium that is mostly used makes some scenes stick out like a sore thumb. For what it was, it perhaps could have been briefer too, and voice acting, though not a lot of it, is sometimes over the top in the wrong places. As a prime example of this, all the character breathe and gasp really loudly and much too often. It's more of a personal gripe, but I do think it detracted ... from scenes of horror that would have benefited from shocked silence.

All that being said, this is some good shit.

I should also point out that if you're here for a very straightforward narration technique, you might not - in fact, definitely will not get what you want, but considering this movie is very quick to turn from what seems a typical ghost story into a fairly trippy horror escapade, I think the vagueness of everything that took place in it is really makes the whole thing that much more interesting. Not everything needs to be unveiled and clear from the star or by the end, for that matter. That very ignorance gives some otherworldly charm that mystery genre in general could benefit from, because by the end it'll make you both (sort of) understand AND question what the hell just happened. I don't want to spill too much, because I truly believe it's good to see it without any expectations, so you can enter the experience with an empty mind. The story of it, depending on your interpretation, could be as straightforward as you like, or a mere glimpse into something beyond human comprehension. And isn't a personal interpretation just the best way to approach any mystery?

The visuals are pretty consistent in being spook-inducing, and sometimes downright unsettling even when nothing of immediate terror is taking place. I think the beauty of the scares in this movie is about the implications of it rather than the events, and the visuals will serve as a very good point to tell you what I mean.

Last but not least, the movie even managed to squeeze in a bit of personality into the characters, just enough to make you feel for them when you see them struggle.

All in all, a very solid short movie that took me by surprise.

First of all, I don't speak English.
To begin with, I will say that compared to its predecessor, I did have perhaps a little higher expectations, but even so it did not disappoint, it has its touch, and for the duration, it is a pretty good short film.

I would recommend it if you know in advance what type of footage it is, since perhaps it is not to the general liking, due to the fact that it is not very literal in its narration, it is more figurative.

In any case, it has an animation that can be annoying, at least I am used to this type ... of style, with a certain anime of a flower, and the way the story unfolds or is narrated is intertwined in various ways, although always making it clear what is happening. , does not leave you much interpretation and is abusive, taking advantage of the same history of recycling.

As for the characters, the truth is that you don't go too deep into any of them, but you still manage to more or less understand them, and it makes it a little easier to know what happens with each one.

Although I liked it, I think I could describe bad things more than good, since they are more visible, but if you don't have much to do, you don't waste your time watching it, as it is short and from the beginning it gives understand how it will happen, making sure that if it didn't attract you from before, you can abandon it and if it catches you, continue

In short, a remarkable short film, without good things, but wonderful in its own way.