Forum - View topicREVIEW: Harmony
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blue cloud
Posts: 1 |
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Personally, I liked 'Harmony' better than 'The Empire of Corpses'. It may be because I don't have any background knowledge to these movies. I don't know the reputations of the people involved, nor did I know of Project Itoh before, as I haven't seen enough anime yet.
But I liked 'Harmony' better since I could at least understand what was happening. It may be because I didn't read the novel, but 'The Empire of Corpses' made no sense to me. I'm not exactly sure what happened even now. I was pretty disappointed and confused by the end. I plan to read it soon though, since I'm really interested. The animation of both 'Harmony' and 'The Empire of Corpses' are really nice, a real sight for sore eyes as far as I'm concerned. But I didn't like 3D animation before and that there's no way someone like me, who likes hand-drawn animation, could ever like 3D. The animation in 'Harmony' has changed my mind though. I think I'll remember it as the movie which changed my opinion on 3D animation. And I loved the sound done in the whole film. Pretty animation and good sound are my weaknesses. I think I have fallen for that. Well, in short, I liked the movie and think some people might like it too. 
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lavmintrose
Posts: 90 |
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Dystopia in a nutshell, especially in recent years. I couldn't even begin to be interested in something called "Genocidal Organ", though, so I'm probably not part of the target audience for this series. |
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LightYapper
 Posts: 131 Location: Somewhere on Earth |
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This is a really unpleasant surprise since Itoh Project is a pretty big project, if not a global one. I'm never big for CGs, but I can still watch a show with CG models as long as they don't bug me. After Nick's review for Empire of Corpses, I was pretty excited for the other two too. Harmony sounds like it's all monologue and less substance, so it's not for me. Now I hope Genocidal Organ doesn't get into the same pitfall, after Manglobe's bankruptcy and all.
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Harleyquin
Posts: 2906 |
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Comparing this film with the Empire of Corpses is in my opinion detrimental to enjoyment. I agree that the last film could be enjoyed more as an old-fashioned adventure film with some philosophy thrown in as a bonus, but this one is really about the dialogue and the characters which feature in it. There's hardly any action to speak of and what little there is passes by very quickly for a change of pace (without the action scenes only the most attentive viewer would find their attention wandering).
The review appears to have grossly simplified some of the ideas in this offering (whether it's the subtitles or the reviewer's bias coming into play I cannot be sure) which seems to have affected the tone of the review (a common occurrence for the reviewers who work on this website). My take is this: viewers don't need to have read the novel which inspired this adaptation, but they should respect it by paying attention to what the characters have to say and the circumstances that led them to their present state. This is NOT a film which can be enjoyed with half the brain switched off or on autopilot. Like all adaptations, suspension of disbelief to some degree should also be maintained to get some enjoyment out of it. Anyone walking in expecting reality to be faithfully represented in every last wrinkle in what is effectively a work of fiction set in a very different future to the present we have is certainly going to walk away feeling disappointed. The twist which was invoked about 3/4 of the way through the movie was something I did not expect but which eventually made sense once Tuan's father explained it afterwards. The third film in this trilogy will be a while in coming (what with Manglobe's bankruptcy and all) but it is again very different in its theme and approach (it's probably closer to Empire of Corpses in its essence than Harmony). Either way, I'm looking forward to seeing what the final product looks like. |
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Lord Dcast
 Posts: 644 Location: 'Straiya |
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Haven;t seen Empire. Just took the film for what it was.
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darkchibi07
 Posts: 5480 |
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That reminds me. Takashi Nakamura (who also did Fantastic Children) was also the director of the movie so I was wondering how much he contributed in the film. |
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Shaone
Posts: 21 |
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Well I'm still trying to process the last 10 minutes of Harmony, because up to that point it was a passable show. Not great, but passable. it has an interesting setup. All will/morality reduced to Pavlovian dopamine overdosing. Ok, I'll buy that hypothesis. Could make for an interesting climax, but ti didn't. Tuan acting like the rebellious teenager who hates the system-then fast forward 10 years and she still jaded-but with a gun. I just didn't buy the performance. Miach is a sociopath who finds a conscience while Tuan claims she's now a sociopath but never lost her conscience. The story moves with amateurish detective work to their final reunion only to end the way it did. Really? That was your answer to the question of the human equation. The system works but we're hitting the nuclear option anway. Too bad it down't work int he 3rd world, but they forgot about that it the end, along with a bunch of other things.
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RogerSmith2004
 Posts: 22 |
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Honestly, I found this film to be far better than Empire of Corpses. Empire of Corpses was a confusing mess that, while starting strong, ended up falling flat on its face in the final act. Not to mention, its directing felt like it had a massive identity crisis, in which it was having a hard time deciding if it wanted to be a fun action spectacle or a serious sci-fi story.
Harmony, on the other hand, I'd call a good film. It had some "pretentious" dialogue, sure, but at the end of the day, its themes were developed, and its characters were also a lot more developed. I got a good idea of what Toua valued at the end of the film, and the ending to me was very powerful, and while not exactly happy, it felt more real. One could criticize the film because it is less focused on its setting than it is its characters, but I actually preferred that. I feel like a lot of similar sci-fi stories are a lot less character focused, so this was a nice change of pace. Furthermore, while its directing felt a little "try-hard" at times (specifically with the crazy movement in camera angles, almost as an attempt to make dialogue-driven scenes more interesting), I do think it did create some moments of brilliance, particularly during the scenes in which spoiler[people were killing themselves]. It's by no means perfect, but I think it succeeded at what it set out to do. 7/10 |
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