Tokyo - The Last Megalopolis

[Foxbat]

Region 2 DVD - Japanese with English subtitles. Stereo sound.
Film released 1988

Set in 1912, the movie spans about twenty years and tells the tale of the struggle between Tokyo becoming a city of the future or ancient graveyard overseen by a restless spirit. It's the classic battle of Good or Evil on a grand scale and it employs many different types of special effects (including stop-motion animation). It seems to be a melding of Fantasy and Steampunk -and it's all acted out to the strains of Wagner's Das Rheingold. unfortunately the poor sound quality does not do credit to Wagner's wonderful music.

If you think this all sounds a bit of a muddle, you'd be right. On top of that, at approximately two hours fifteen minutes, there's plenty of time for the confusion to take hold. I spent much of my time split between enjoying certain sequences within the movie and the rest of the time wondering just what the hell was going on.

In summary, Big vision Good versus Evil which just ends up a bit of a mess. Only for the curious.

[HareBrain]

There's also an anime version called Doomed Megalopolopolopolis or thereabouts. Never made any sense of it.

[Foxbat]

Yeah, I noticed that on IMDB. Never seen it but I think it's either the same story or some kind of reboot. Don't think I'll bother with it.

[simfusui]

This site is called SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY CHRONICLES and yet nobody bothered to mention the source material?

TEITO MONOGATARI

From Wiki:
"...a fictional retelling of the history of Edo from an occultist perspective."

"...the novel was an immediate bestseller, selling over 3.5 million copies in its first few years of publication in Japan alone"

"...widely recognized as having ignited the beginning of a surge of popular interest in onmyoji and oni in the Japanese media."

"...educated an entire generation of Japanese readers about Tokyo's former status an Imperial Capital"

Likewise reading the Wiki page, it should be apparent why this film adaptation is so muddled and confusing. Some wise guy in the production staff had the great idea to adapt the first 4 BOOKS into a 2.5 hour film. When you consider that each book is about 250--300 pages long, that's compressing a lot of material.

There's also the cultural differences too. If it isn't from the description of the novel, there are a lot of references to Japanese history and folklore in this story. The Japanese audience might have a passing familiarity with this stuff, but it will undoubtedly be lost on English speakers. Many of the characters in the story are based on real people and much of magic is taken from old folktales.

Imagine if somebody were to write a story about the descendants of Merlin and King Arthur interacting with Agatha Christie and D. H. Lawrence in 1920's Britain. Now imagine if you read that story and had no idea who Merlin, King Arthur, Agatha Christie or D. H. Lawrence were and the narrative didn't bother to explain it? You would be a bit lost, right?

Unsurprisingly this film was a big hit in Japan and sort of begat a franchise of which the anime is part of.

@Foxbat

The anime version does elaborate on the character interactions more. But it's still confusing since the mythology and history are still not very well explained.

Since it seems like you had some difficulty with the subject matter, I would recommend this movie as a much more comprehensible introduction to the mythology referenced:
ONMYOJI: THE YING YANG MASTER

The books ONMYOJI is based on were written around the same time as TOKYO: THE LAST MEGALOPOLIS. I like to think of the film as sort of a prequel since the main character is the ancestor of the old man and villain in TOKYO: THE LAST MEGALOPOLIS.

@HareBrain

I'm assuming you watched the English dubbed version of DOOMED MEGALOPOLIS. The English dubbed version tries to get rid of the Japanese references in the dialogue, which is not exactly a wise choice since those references are an integral part of the story. The Japanese version is really the only way to go.

If you have access to the SPECIAL EDITION, I would also recommend you watch the three documentaries ("Roads to Darkness", "Mapping Out Tokyo", and "Ieyasu Tokugawa") included since they explain many of the references in the story.

A while back too, I started up a blog with the intent of explaining the references in the story to English speakers. I haven't updated it in a while, but what's there is there if you're interested. Just google "teito monogatari blog"

Hope this helps.

[simfusui]

A friend of mine who has a graduate degree in Japanese studies also recommended the manga/anime X by Clamp as an entertaining introduction to onmyoji. X was apparently inspired from the novel TOKYO: THE LAST MEGALOPOLIS was based on (according to him), but unlike the former has been translated in its entirety and is much more accessible. He specifically recommended Episode 9 of the 2001 anime series, which introduces the audience to the main onmyoji character.

[Foxbat]

Thanks for the recommendation simfusui. I'll see if I can hunt down a copy of X.