Gôruden taimu/Golden Time (2014)

I don’t imagine it’s easy being abandoned.  A television set is dropped of rather unceremoniously in a junkyard and basically left to fend for itself.  Soon after its arrival, it meets several other abandoned items.  There’s a fan, a windup toy, a chair and a bucket.  Each has presumably been discarded just like the new arrival.

The television has its only useful part, the CRT, removed by a recycling company.  (The TV set appears to be from the 1960s, but what I’ve read indicates that the story takes place in the 1980s.)  The TV set is   lonely and does try to escape, but does eventually find a new purpose.

The animation is only 21 minutes.  While some of that time is taken up with trying to dig under a fence, the five characters do have some interaction.  Most of that interaction is between the TV set and the windup toy, which is ostensibly a cat.

There’s no dialogue  It’s a fairly simple animation showing the five characters in a junkyard..  There’s nothing that parents would find objectionable.  (Netflix has the rating listed as TV-Y.)  It is a little sad at first, as we’re aware that the TV wants to get out, but everything seems to end well for the TV set.

I’ve been hoping to find more short films like this.  I don’t always want the commitment of a feature-length film.  Sometimes, I want something to watch before going to work or just before going to bed.  It can be difficult to squeeze a two-hour movie in sometimes.

It’s a shame that this is the director’s only credit.  I’d like to see more animation from Takuya Inaba.  I’m hoping that more might be forthcoming.  The movie was released only a few years ago.  It looks like there’s a corresponding book.  Amazon has the book release date as April 11, 2014 whereas Netflix has the movie release date as June 15, 2014.  Since animation takes so long to make, it’s possible that they were intended to be released together.  Information on either is nearly impossible to find.  If you come across anything, please leave a comment.

IMDb page

Kung Fury (2015)

There’s a scene in Ferris Bueller's Day Off where the principal, Ed Rooney, is out looking for Bueller.  In the scene, Rooney is talking to a man watching a baseball game.  Rooney asks the score, to which the man replies that both teams have yet to score.  When Rooney asks who’s winning, the man tells him The Bears.  Those that have no interest in sports might miss that The Bears are a football team.  However, you can still get part of the joke, as the score is tied.  That’s kind of how it is with Kung Fury.

The short film satirizes 80’s technology and culture.  The video quality is similar to that of VHS, with the rolling distortions and intermittent static.  Phones are the bulky, poorly designed monstrosities that you’d expect of 1985.  Dialogue is also the poorly designed monstrosity that you’d expect of 1985.  Those of us that grew up in the 1970s and 1980s will get a lot of the references.  Those that were born later probably won’t.  This isn’t to say that the movie is without humor.  My concern would be that many of the references will go over the heads of some audience members.   

The story is about a man, called only Kung Fury, who is a police officer in Miami in 1985.  He’s called in to defeat an arcade game that’s come to life and is killing people.  He saves the day, but of course, the police chief is having none of it.  An entire city block was destroyed and it’s all Kung Fury’s fault.  The chief is assigning Kung Fury a new partner, Triceracop, but Kung Fury would rather quit than take on a new partner.  (We learn that he lost his old one around the time that he picked up his kung fu powers.)

Before Kung Fury can leave the station, it’s shot up by none other than Adolf Hitler, the worst criminal of all time.  The amazing part is that Hitler is shooting up the station over one of those bulky 80s cell phones.  King Fury is able to shoot back and stop Hitler.  He now realizes that his only choice is to go back in time to stop Hitler.  He’s helped by Hackerman, who is able to hack time.  Kung Fury goes back too far and finds himself in the Viking Era, where women had big weapons and rode even bigger animals.

Fortunately, Thor is able to send him to the right time and place, where Kung Fury is able to dispatch with several dozen Nazi troops.  Hitler shoots Kung Fury, leaving it to Thor, Hackerman, Triceracops and a few others to seemingly save the day.  Hackerman is even able to hack away the bullets and save Kung Fury’s life.  The day is saved and everyone returns to their own time.

The entire plot reeks of 80’s references.  Aside from the VHS filter on the movie, the colors are as dull as you might expect.  The dialogue is similarly dull.  Every 80’s buddy-cop movie had the angry lieutenant/captain.  There was always that one scene where the main cop got chewed out.  The Nazi battle scene is even similar to the side-scrolling games of the era.  The script seems to play on a lot of the tropes of the era.

If you’re old enough, you may have heard of the bulky phones, which are featured twice in the movie.  The arcade game coming to life is probably going to look silly, regardless.  I’m not really sure what this is referencing in particular.  I think it’s meant to be silly, but I could be mistaken.

I will say that the nostalgia factor is dialed in almost perfectly.  There are a few cases where the CGI is barely visible, but it’s easy enough to push that to the side.  The jokes aren’t repeated to the point where they become old.  IMDb lists an upcoming sequel, Kung Fury II:  The Movie.  I’m not sure what that’s going to look like.  If it’s a feature film, they’re going to have to find more humor or else risk repeating themselves.  Then again, isn’t that what history is known for?

IMDb page

The House of Small Cubes (2008)

Sometimes, simplicity is the answer.  Why build a palace when a tool shed is enough?  What good is it to convey your message only to have it get lost in the details?  The House of Small Cubes is a a short that could best be called minimalist.  There’s no dialogue and it focuses on one person, an old man, who has to add on to his house due to rising waters.

The short starts with the Old Man realizing that the water in his world is rising.  The seems to be a recurring event, as his house, as well as all of the surrounding houses, are built up as the water rises.  Each appears to be just one room, but they are all built on much bigger underwater structures, all presumably comprised of similar rooms.

When the Old Man realizes that the water is rising, he gets to work building his new room.  When he drops his favorite pipe down a hole, he has to dive down to get it, which means donning diving equipment.  As he progresses down from one room to the next, he finds things that he’s left in previous rooms.  It might be a wine glass or an old toy.

He finds his pipe quickly, but decides to keep going.  Each old room brings back corresponding memories.  He remembers being with his family.  He remembers courting his wife and raising a child.  No mention is made of what happened to his family.  We’re left to imagine that the wife passed away and that his children moved out.

In terms of style, it looks like the kind of movie they might have shown on PBS or in grade school.  Since there’s no dialogue, there’s no offensive language to worry about.  None of the imagery is offensive, either.  Small children might wonder what’s going on.  It’s never explained why this world flooded.  The only implication is that time, and memory, keep marching on.

I was able to get this on Netflix and, to be honest, I’d like to see more shorts like this.  It’s not the kind of thing a studio might put on DVD outside of a collection and I haven’t seen too many of those on Netflix, as it‘s only 12 minutes.  (There’s no section for short films.)  It was an easy film to watch.  The animation and music are basic and the story was easy to follow.  It’s something you could easily watch with small children, yet be entertained by as an adult.

IMDb page