Bugmaster Movie Review

Japanese Director Katsuhiro Otomo's Bugmaster is an interesting, yet hard to follow story about letting go of the past and embracing a better future. The film abounds with undertones of humanistic concerns such as losing a loved one, coping with grief, living a full life despite illness, and the healing power that people can bring into life.

After watching his mother swept away in a land-slide, Yoki is taken in by Nui, a gray-haired mushishi (bugmaster), an expert in controlling mushi, "the phantom soul of nature breathing inside every living thing...and the dead." Nui begins to teach Yoki the ways of the bugmaster until another freak accident causes Yoki to lose his memory. Having lost all recollection of his past Yoki, who is now called Ginko, scowers the country-side of 19^th century Japan in search of mushi to control and ailing people to heal. During his travels he encounters several equally random and diseased households that he sets out to heal; as well as bumping into several important figures from his past.

In general the film is very random and tends to wander, although it does have its good elements. The screenplay, drawn from a Japanese Manga (graphic novel), capitalizes upon the recent success of comic book and graphic novel turned hollywood blockbuster and is reminiscent of Kurosawa's Redbeard; in that it is more like a series of vignettes that combine to make one film. The characters are well written, dimensional, interesting, yet hard to figure out and seem to lack motivation at times. The first act starts off strong but as the film progresses it begins to fizzle out and become more obscure by the second; making the film feel thirty minutes too long. The intricate nature of the adapted screenplay makes it extremely difficult to follow and requires a base knowledge of not only the graphic novel that it is based upon, but also Japanese culture and folklore.

Aside from the Screenplay, Bugmaster was truly one of the more technically sound films at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. The Cinematography was first-rate and captured the lush texture of the Japanese country-side with a unique and pristine vision. The Editing kept the film flowing; precisely melding together the past, the present, and the paranormal world in a somewhat coherent manner. Because of the supernatural nature of the film it relies heavily upon well-executed, unique, and artsy CGI effects that draw you into the mystical world of mushishi.

Overall Bugmaster is an obscure, yet aesthetic journey that speaks to the humanistic values so commonplace to anyone with a pulse, while embarking on an amazing soul-searching journey through the prolific Japanese Country-side.