Otaku Evolution Episode 259 - Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer
Posting this here because I have two strikes on my YT page.
Category
đŸ˜¹
FunTranscript
00:30I don't know what you're talking about.
00:32I'm not talking about you.
00:34I'm not talking about you.
00:36I'm not talking about you.
00:38I'm not talking about you.
00:40I'm not talking about you.
00:42I'm not talking about you.
00:44I'm not talking about you.
00:46I'm not talking about you.
00:48I'm not talking about you.
00:50I'm not talking about you.
00:52I'm not talking about you.
00:54I'm not talking about you.
00:56I'm not talking about you.
00:58I'm not talking about you.
01:00I'm not talking about you.
01:02I'm not talking about you.
01:04I'm not talking about you.
01:06I'm not talking about you.
01:08I'm not talking about you.
01:10I'm not talking about you.
01:12I'm not talking about you.
01:14I'm not talking about you.
01:16I'm not talking about you.
01:18I'm not talking about you.
01:20I'm not talking about you.
01:22I'm not talking about you.
01:24I'm not talking about you.
01:26I'm not talking about you.
01:28I'm not talking about you.
01:30I'm not talking about you.
01:32I'm not talking about you.
01:34I'm not talking about you.
01:36I'm not talking about you.
01:38I'm not talking about you.
01:40I'm not talking about you.
01:42I'm not talking about you.
01:44I'm not talking about you.
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01:48I'm not talking about you.
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02:10I'm not talking about you.
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02:20I'm not talking about you.
02:22I'm not talking about you.
02:24I'm not talking about you.
02:26I'm not talking about you.
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02:30I'm not talking about you.
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02:40I'm not talking about you.
02:42I'm not talking about you.
02:44I'm not talking about you.
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02:48I'm not talking about you.
02:50I'm not talking about you.
02:52I'm not talking about you.
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02:56I'm not talking about you.
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03:04I'm not talking about you.
03:06I'm not talking about you.
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03:10I'm not talking about you.
03:12I'm not talking about you.
03:14I'm not talking about you.
03:16I'm not talking about you.
03:18I'm not talking about you.
03:20I'm not talking about you.
03:22I'm not talking about you.
03:24I'm not talking about you.
03:26I'm not talking about you.
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03:30I'm not talking about you.
03:32I'm not talking about you.
03:34I'm not talking about you.
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03:38I'm not talking about you.
03:40I'm not talking about you.
03:42I'm not talking about you.
03:44I'm not talking about you.
03:46I'm not talking about you.
03:48I'm not talking about you.
03:50I'm not talking about you.
03:52I'm not talking about you.
03:54I'm not talking about you.
03:56I'm not talking about you.
03:58I'm not talking about you.
04:00I'm not talking about you.
04:02I'm not talking about you.
04:04I'm not talking about you.
04:06I'm not talking about you.
04:08I'm not talking about you.
04:10I'm not talking about you.
04:12I'm not talking about you.
04:14I'm not talking about you.
04:16I'm not talking about you.
04:18I'm not talking about you.
04:20I'm not talking about you.
04:22I'm not talking about you.
04:24I'm not talking about you.
04:26I'm not talking about you.
04:28I'm not talking about you.
04:30I'm not talking about you.
04:32I'm not talking about you.
04:34I'm not talking about you.
04:36I'm not talking about you.
04:38I'm not talking about you.
04:40I'm not talking about you.
04:42The Yatsura movie, Beautiful Dreamer,
04:44is the first seed of that style.
04:46After all, the first movie, Only You,
04:48was basically just an extra long episode
04:50of the series, and Oshii lamented
04:52that it failed to be a film.
04:54But Beautiful Dreamer is where
04:56Oshii's directorial methods began to germinate.
04:58He wasn't quite there yet,
05:00but you could see the outline of the Oshii style
05:02before it really found its voice.
05:04For those of you who
05:06haven't watched my Only You video,
05:08Urusei Yatsura is the creation
05:10of famed manga author Rumiko Takahashi.
05:12It's the story of
05:14Ataru Motoboshi,
05:16who's chosen to decide the fate of mankind
05:18in a contest to grab alien princesses
05:20as Lum's horns.
05:22When he accidentally proposes to her,
05:24Ataru's life is thrown into chaos
05:26as Lum cannot live without her darling.
05:28Hijinks, as you might imagine,
05:30ensue.
05:32Beautiful Dreamer sees
05:34Ataru and his classmates at Tomibiki High School
05:36staying late to prepare for
05:38the upcoming class festival.
05:40Time seems to pass differently
05:42as they work hard to prepare their various acts
05:44and cafes.
05:46In fact, it's something Ataru's
05:48homeroom teacher, Onsen Mark, is suspicious of
05:50early on.
05:52The students find that life outside the school
05:54has changed,
05:56there is no town outside certain limits,
05:58and soon the beleaguered teens
06:00find out just why,
06:02a startling reason that changes their lives.
06:04Philosophy ensues.
06:08It can't be!
06:10It's impossible!
06:28What even is reality?
06:30Yeah, who knows? We don't even know if we're in this room.
06:32We could be in a turtle's dream
06:34in outer space.
06:36The motif in this movie is the Japanese
06:38fable of Urashima Taro.
06:40It's the story of a young fisherman
06:42who stops children from torturing a small turtle.
06:44The following day,
06:46a big turtle appears, explaining that the one
06:48he saved is Princess Otahime
06:50at the Palace of the Dragon, Ryugujo.
06:52He is taken to said palace
06:54where he is lavished
06:56with luxuries.
06:58So as a reward,
07:00the turtle took him to Ryugujo,
07:02the Dragon Temple.
07:04Ryugujo?
07:06That's right. It was like a palace.
07:08And they gave him a big welcoming party.
07:10Beautiful women, scrumptious feasts,
07:12dreams and halibuts
07:14swimming around.
07:16He spent his time there as if in a dream.
07:18However,
07:20Taro grows homesick and wants to leave
07:22after three days.
07:24The princess gives him a treasure box,
07:26the Tamitsubako, which she warns
07:28to never open.
07:30Taro takes the same turtle he took to the palace
07:32home, but there he finds that
07:34hundreds of years have passed since he was gone.
07:36Grief stricken,
07:38he accidentally opens the treasure box,
07:40which causes him to age rapidly,
07:42the extra years having
07:44been stored in there.
07:46So there.
07:48Wonder what is in here.
07:54What the...
07:58Hell.
08:00After a Shimataro tale,
08:02with the ancient legend about the world being on a turtle's back,
08:04the movie explores a world
08:06of restriction and time confusion.
08:08A tiny encapsulated world,
08:10populated only by a small group
08:12of classmates, living their same
08:14lives as if in a dream.
08:16As for whose dream,
08:18you'll have to watch the movie to find out.
08:30The End.
08:48Now we get to my favorite part of the video.
08:50Talking about my favorite scenes in the movie.
08:52There are a few of them,
08:54and they may contain spoilers,
08:56so tread lightly.
08:58I don't want to spoil too much,
09:00because I want you to watch this movie.
09:02It's worth the time.
09:04Going chronological with these scenes, by the way.
09:06The first scene I want to talk about
09:08is the one where Ataru and classmate
09:10slash rival Mendo
09:12are driving through town at night
09:14on a run to get some food.
09:16The streets and buildings are cloaked
09:18in an eerie darkness.
09:20The only place that seems to have a light
09:22is a florist at the corner of a stop.
09:24A group of faceless performers play
09:26as they cross the street before disappearing
09:28into the darkness.
09:30It's a portentous event,
09:32representing the oncoming bizarreness
09:34we're to see later on in the film.
09:52The next scene I want to note
09:54is when Ataru visits Ansenmark at his apartment,
09:56which has become run down
09:58and caked with thick layers of dust.
10:00It's in their discussion that we get
10:02the first recognition by the characters
10:04that something strange is occurring.
10:06The deja vu being experienced is discussed,
10:08and the Urashima-Taro legend
10:10is even mentioned.
10:24But this is what I've been thinking.
10:26What if since yesterday,
10:28the day before,
10:30or even further back than we can recall,
10:32we've been repeating the same actions,
10:34the same day before
10:36the school festival,
10:38and that tomorrow will be the same too?
10:40Now, in some movies,
10:42even in some Oshii movies,
10:44a scene like this could come across
10:46as needlessly expository or padded.
10:48But the way it's framed,
10:50it feels like a peek
10:52into a mind fractured by repetition.
10:54Probably my favorite scene
10:56in the film is Sakura's chat
10:58with a cab driver,
11:00really the movie's antagonist in disguise,
11:02about the nature of reality.
11:04He mentions the Urashima-Taro story,
11:06suggesting the entire village
11:08rode on the turtle's back,
11:10and wondering about the passage of time.
11:12Sakura picks up on something wrong
11:14and tries to drive out the contentious figure,
11:16but it turns out the cabbie
11:18is just possessed.
11:22What do you suppose it would be
11:24if instead of just Taro,
11:26everyone in the village
11:28had ridden on the turtle's back?
11:30If they all went to the Dragon Palace
11:32and all came back
11:34to the village together,
11:36would centuries still have passed?
11:38Even if none of the villagers
11:40noticed?
11:42What are you talking about?
11:44Sakura is not a character
11:46I'm super familiar with,
11:48having only watched the first few episodes
11:50of the Urasai Yatsura TV series,
11:52but she's a big part of this movie,
11:54almost as if she's its
11:56true main protagonist for most of it.
11:58In a later scene,
12:00a Taro and the gang,
12:02who've decided that Tomoviki High
12:04is the source of the weirdness,
12:06decide to give the school a full sweep.
12:08But when they canvass the building,
12:10things get even weirder,
12:12the surroundings changing dimensions.
12:14Everybody freaks out naturally
12:16and end up turning tail.
12:18It's an abstraction of dream worlds.
12:36A key scene in the movie,
12:38and in some way the climax,
12:40at least in the mystery,
12:42is Sakura's trap for the antagonist.
12:44Riding to Otaru for a rendezvous at night,
12:46she seemingly attracts
12:48the lascivious horndog quite easily.
12:50Sakura and Mendo lay out
12:52their theory of what's happening to Otaru,
12:54who surprises them by having already
12:56figured it out.
12:58But all is not as it seems
13:00as Sakura eventually springs her trap.
13:16Don't get me wrong,
13:18the dreams I make are only those
13:20that they desire.
13:22Again, this could have come across needlessly expository,
13:24but the way it's laid out
13:26is as a conversation that leads to the trapping
13:28of our villain.
13:30It's done in a way I won't spoil,
13:32but it's pretty clever and leads to the emotional core
13:34of the movie, Otaru's choice about Lum.
13:36My only problem with the ending
13:38of the movie is that until this point,
13:40Otaru and Lum were kind of
13:42secondary characters in the movie,
13:44while they're the main characters of the TV series.
13:46Checking the focus off them
13:48could be done well, and generally it was,
13:50but you can't hinge the finale
13:52of the movie on characters you ignored
13:54most of the movie.
13:56And before you say anything,
13:58yes, Patlabor 2 does something
14:00similar when it brings back Division 2
14:02for the finale, and has them
14:04do all the action to arrest Suge.
14:06But the emotional climax of that
14:08movie is Nagumo's confrontation
14:10with Suge, and she was one of the focuses
14:12of the film. So while it is
14:14similar, it's not the same.
14:16Patlabor 2 easily clears
14:18Oshii's other films.
14:20Back here in Beautiful Dreamer,
14:22suddenly Otaru is pushed to the front
14:24again in the last act, when Sakura
14:26had been largely carrying the film
14:28beforehand, which is jarring.
14:30But it's not a bad ending, per se,
14:32because it gives us some time to play around
14:34with Otaru and show her his real
14:36affections lie.
14:38And before you hit bottom
14:40and wake up, you call out the name
14:42of the person you really want to see.
14:44If you can't say that one special name,
14:46then you don't really want to wake up.
14:48Oh, that will be easy.
14:50There are lots of girls I want to see.
14:54Then will you promise me something?
14:56Hmm?
15:00Do the right thing!
15:02The movie was
15:04controversial for the time because of its
15:06radical departure from the storytelling of the series.
15:08I personally only have a few
15:10episodes of the show and the first movie to go on,
15:12but I enjoyed this thoroughly,
15:14much more than anything else I've seen of Yuruse Yatsura.
15:16And as an Oshii fan,
15:18it's definitely worth a view.
15:20Maybe I would have come away
15:22with a deeper understanding if I had spent
15:24more time with the Yuruse Yatsura characters,
15:26but I didn't really take that
15:28to enjoy the film.
15:30This was the last of the movies for the franchise
15:32that Oshii directed, moving on to
15:34The Abstract Angel's Egg, which was born
15:36from a botched Lupin the Third pitch,
15:38and eventually Patlabor.
15:40Speaking of Lupin the Third,
15:42next time I'll be looking at Takeshi Koike's
15:44Lupin Movie Trilogy.
15:46That is, unless TMS blocks the video,
15:48which they are zealously wont to do.
15:50Until then,
15:52see ya!
15:56Hey, Mendel!
15:58What are you guys doing here?
16:00I see.
16:02So that's how it is.
16:04So that's how it's going to be!
16:06You want to ridicule me, Shukuro Mendel,
16:08that badly, do you?
16:10This is the absolute last straw!
16:12Hey, Mendel, what are you saying?
16:14What's going on?
16:16Come back here!
16:18Help me!
16:20I'll kill you!
16:34I'll kill you!
16:36I'll kill you!
16:38I'll kill you!
16:40I'll kill you!
16:42I'll kill you!
16:44I'll kill you!
16:46I'll kill you!
16:48I'll kill you!
16:50I'll kill you!
17:04Oh, hey, there you are.
17:06Thought I sensed you here.
17:14What? Oh, no, I just wanted to see
17:16if you wanted to go have a drink.
17:24Nah, that Colonel Jervis fill-in.
17:26He was in the middle of dinner with his family,
17:28so I ate the rest of it for him.
17:34Eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh.
17:36Oh, I sleep on a mattress
17:38from a mattress firm,
17:40so I sleep...
17:42Oh, come on!