Lifetime Achievements Part 1: A Wind Named Amnesia

As I increased my collection, I eventually noticed that several covers featured the phrase, "From the creator of Vampire Hunter D."  I searched for everything this man, Hideyuki Kikuchi had done.  This month you'll get a look at his filmography with the exception of the two Vampire Hunter movies.  We'll start with an intriguing post-apocalypse title called:

Background:
Released By: U.S. Manga Corps
Length: 80 minutes
Year of Production: 1993
Language: Sub and Dub, Dub reviewed
Available on Netflix:Yes

Back in 2008 an American company called Little Magic Films obtained the rights to pitch most of Kikuchi's films to producers.  Their goal is to make live action movies or TV series based on his works.  This title would probably be best suited to a TV series and I think it would go over fairly well.

Story:
This movie opens with a man describing the sky and clouds.  It cuts from this poetic scene to a group of feral men arguing over food and fire in the ruined city of San Francisco.  Think "Fist of the North Star" with more grunting and fewer shoulder pads.  Just to make things a bit more Japanese, a mecha carrying the skeleton of a dead soldier appears, corralling the men against an abandoned building.  It warns them that any resistance will result in death.

And not the death of the pilot, the mecha made that mistake last time.

A young, bandanna-wearing man named Wataru arrives in a Jeep freaking out the ferals, who are immediately shot by the mecha.  The robot, having dealt with the previous threat, turns it attention on the new arrival.  With a quick scan the machine determines that Wataru is armed and he tries to make his escape.  When the homicidal robot blocks his path a mysterious voice instructs him to shoot the gun turret which is the machine's weak point.  After the resulting explosion, a lovely, long-haired woman reveals herself.

All military robots need a ridiculous weak spot.  For game balance.

Wataru is amazed to find another human with the ability to speak, as most people have lost that ability.  The mysterious woman introduces herself as Sophia and launches into an exposition about their current situation.  The robot Wataru just destroyed is known as a Guardian and was built in the 1980's to control San Franciscan riots.  Sophia explains the Guardian went on autopilot after the titular Wind  made its pilot forget how to open the cockpit and eventually die of starvation or suffocation.  Sophia refuses to say anything about herself but asks to join Wataru on his travels.

She wouldn't even tell him how she takes her coffee.

Since his companion refuses to share, Wataru decides to relate as much of his history as he knows.  He grew up in a small town in Montana along the Rocky Mountains.  When the Wind hit everyone forgot everything they ever knew and were reduced to blank slates.  Pilots forgot how to fly, truckers forgot how to drive, parents didn't recognize their own children, and in short society forgot how to function.  Wataru hid in a garage for the first few days and eventually forced his way into a house to steal food from children.  In the midst of consuming sausages, he was spooked by his own reflection and fled.

He'd be more terrified if he knew how they made that sausage

While fleeing from what passed as civilization after the Wind, Wataru stumbles upon a fenced in location where he witnesses an unusual showdown.  A sickly little boy in a wheel chair is facing down a large man with tubes and wires protruding from his body.  The horror movie reject is using telekinetic powers to hurl clumps of dirt at the disabled boy.  Wataru feels an urge to help and throws stones at the young boy's enemy.  When the creepy man turns on Wataru, the boy pulls out a gun and shoots the experimental man in the head.

Never bring an experimentally altered brain to a gun fight

Wataru helps the young, heat-packing boy into his wheelchair and is formerly introduced to Johnny.  Johnny shows his new friend around the base and reveals that they are at a military research facility that was charged with creating human weapons.  Johnny didn't lose his memory like the rest of humanity because the government replaced part of his brain with a computer that made constant backups.  For Science!  Johnny then hooks Wataru up to a machine that restores some of his memories and giving him the brain power of a 5 year old child. 

It was either painful brain augmentation or go to kindergarten

Johnny proceeds to teach Wataru the ways of this new world and reteaching him as much of the old knowledge as possible.  Johnny intended for Wataru to travel the earth, sharing his knowledge with the isolated pockets of humanity, which is why he gave him the name Wataru.  It means "traveler" in Japanese.  Johnny believed that the Wind was either caused by the arrogance of men developing new weapons or aliens that felt threatened by mankind.  After less than a year together, Johnny dies and Wataru takes off on his journey.

Here lies Johnny, conspiracy nut

Sophia has her own take on Johnny's theories.  She suggests that maybe the aliens disabled mankind in order to show them a new path.  She goes on to say that more advanced races are not necessarily wiser or better off.  Wataru is then informed that the Guardian has a self repair function as well as an enemy tracking satellite network and they should really keep moving if possible.  Sophia needs to get to New York City for unspecified reasons, and Wataru plans to visit every major city, but will head in the general directions to help her.

Could you say "no" to the one woman on earth with a functional brain?

The pair take their road trip to Los Angeles where they witness a young, attractive woman being chased by men with torches.  Wataru wants to run to the girl's rescue but Sophia stops him, reminding him that every city they come across will have developed their own rules and society.  The two travelers sit silently and watch as a burly, flannel-wearing, lumberjack of a man breaks up the torch wielding crowd.  One of the mob knows how to use a gun and injures the burly man before being disabled by Wataru and the mob flees.  Sophia manages to communicate with the two left behind through touch and finds the girl's name is Sue and the man is Little John.

She also found out he needs to hit the gym more often

Sue was fleeing the mob because she was chosen as the next to marry/be sacrificed to the god of Los Angeles and Little John was trying to protect her.  Wataru thinks this is ridiculous but Sophia reminds him again of differing cultural values and asks if he is so sure he is right that he'd resort to force.  Wataru recants his view a little but insists that forced marriage is wrong, a sentiment his female companion somewhat agrees with.  The four of them all go to the beach the next day to cheer Sue up.  She frolics in the waves naked, and is treated to a freshly looted dress.  As Wataru goes off to find some celebratory hooch, Sue sneaks off, willing to sacrifice herself so another woman is not chosen to take her place. 

Meet the "god" of Los Angeles

Sophia and Wataru observe the wedding ceremony secretly.  She points out that deity is actually an Urban Destruction Robot, meant to be used in urban renewal projects.  One of the villagers learned to activate the machine, giving him power over the others as a high priest.   Little John attempts to interrupt the proceedings, inciting the priest to send the machine on a rampage.  Sue is killed in the attack prompting Wataru to step in and shoot the high priest. 

The high priest's outfit suggests he was a pimp before the Wind came.

Wataru asks the people to join him on his journey but they all refuse.  Sophia makes a bet with her companion that he will not be able to gain a single follower before they reach New York.  She says they are wagering the future of mankind.  Before Sophia and Wataru leave they teach Little John how to operate a can opener and a rifle, making him the new ruler of Los Angeles.  The two travelers head toward Los Vegas but are intercepted and grabbed by the repaired Guardian.  A well placed grenade breaks the mecha's hold and knocks the Jeep, Guardian, and our protagonists down a sheer cliff.  After this near death experience, Wataru wakes up in a hospital with only minor scrapes, looked after by the elderly Dr. Simpson.  Sophia informs Wataru that they are in an experimental,self-sufficient, supercomputer-controlled city that is off limits to the Guardian, allowing them to rest easy for the time being. 

"This young, clearly normal lady survived the fall completely unharmed"

Memorable Moment
At this point the movie progresses into one of the most novel ideas I've witnessed.   A nurse named Lisa making her rounds administers medicine to Wataru.  A confused older patient, who looks suspiciously similar to the doctor introduced previously, wanders into the room.  The frustrated nurse chides the old man for his repeated transgressions and returns him to his room.  Using this break in supervision, Wataru arms himself and leaves to explore the hospital and city.  The entire area is eerily silent and Wataru can't find a single person until he reaches the park.  There he finds a pair of lovers pitching woo at each other.  Once again, the man looks like the doctor and the woman looks like the nurse.

Maybe he just has one of those faces?

Wataru feels the whole city is like the set of a play, with Lisa and Simpson as the sole actors.  Confirming his theory, Simpson performs a quick costume change in front of Sophia and Wataru, now claiming to be the Mayor's aide, and asks them to join his boss for dinner.  While feasting, Wataru asks Mayor Lisa what she knows of the Wind.  The mayor explains that their protected city was affected differently than the rest of the world.  The supercomputer was damaged and placed offline temporarily while engaging its self-repair functions.  When it came back online the computer saw the rioting, mind-wiped humans as a threat to the city and killed many of them, while the others fled.  The only two left behind were Lisa and Simpson.  Lisa then asks Wataru to join their society.  She promises perks such as a 104 year life span, good food, and safety.  When he refuses she asks him again at robo-gunpoint. 

Lisa is a fierce negotiator who won't take "no" for an answer.

Sophia stands up and disables the supercomputer with a single touch while explaining to Lisa that even this advanced city will fall one day.  Wataru asks his companion to disable the computer long enough for him to talk to the real Lisa and Simpson.  The traveler tries to convince the actors to join him, extolling the joys of his journey and world exploration.  In the end Lisa agrees to join them.  Simpson doesn't say a word and simply sits silent.  As the new trio drives away, Lisa thinks of all the time she spent with Simpson.  He played her father, lover, coworker, friend, and many other roles in the time they spent int the city.  These bonds turn out to be too strong to break, and Lisa runs back to Simpson.
End Memorable Moment

Sophia comforts Wataru by telling him that at the very least Lisa made the decision to stay on her own.  The two continue their travels to Las Vegas and upon arriving Sophia bemoans the existence of a city that symbolizes greed and hedonism.  She also admits to Wataru that she is an alien from the race that sent the Wind.  Her people feared what mankind would do after they discovered spaceflight.  They also wanted to help humans who seemed to be making themselves more miserable as a species.  Sophia then asks Wataru if he hates her but gets no response. 

"We also didn't want you finding our vacation homes on Neptune"

Now the distance from Las Vegas to New York is vast, and the only way to cover that distance in a single movie is with a travel montage, blasting through various troubled cities as quickly as possible.  This lands them in Washington D.C. where the two almost share a tender moment in front of the Lincoln Memorial. This is when the Guardian makes its reappearance looking like a very pissed off Wall-E.  This starts a chase montage that takes the participants from D.C. to New York City. 

Instead of sorting trash, he's sorting corpses

Wataru and Sophia outrun the death machine long enough to have a short conversation about the bet they had.  Wataru admits that he was unable to recruit anyone to his cause, but Sophia gives him an out saying that he had won over Lisa for all intents an purposes.  She also says he has learned enough from his trials.  Wataru declares that the one thing he must see through is the destruction of the Guardian his people created.  He leaves Sophia on the city streets and speeds of with the Guardian blasting past shortly thereafter.

Wataru screamed "Meep Meep" before taking off in a cloud of dust

Wataru is chased up a skyscraper by the guardian where he managed to rig up an ambush consisting of explosives and precariously perched girders.  When the Guardian trips the trap it is not only severely damaged but strung up over the city where it has no access to materials needed for repairs.

All is well, at least until city decay frees the death machine again

Wataru falls from the building in the course of the explosion and presumably Sophia saves him with her alien powers.  Sophia then strips herself naked in front of a mural of the Virgin Mary and tells Wataru they have one last thing to learn together.  They discuss their journey during the heavily implied lovemaking. 

Baby Jesus is watching you!

After they finish, Sophia's mother ship appears to take her home as stupefied New Yorkers look on.  She promises Wataru that she will tell her people about him and ask them to reconsider their approach toward humanity.  It is possible for her people to return humanity's memories.  Having no reason to stay, Wataru continues on his journey.  The End.

Johnny never taught him the hero needs to walk off into the sunset

Why watch?
1. Originality - This movie has a very unique premise that is both interesting and chock full of potential.  I've never seen anything like this before.

The alien invaders are finally showing some creativity

2. Emotional Impact - The secondary characters Little John and Sue as well as Simpson and Lisa give the audience a reason to care what happens to them despite their brief roles and incredible circumstances.

The tragedy comes from their lack of understanding

Why not to watch?
1. Not Enough Cities - The most fascinating part of this story to me is the different ways society has reconstructed itself after the Wind.  I would have liked to see more cities and cultures explored by Wataru.  I would like to see if this is expanded on in its original novel form. 

Yes, they're grunting simpletons, but why should I care?

2. The Guardian - Again, the best part of this movie is the plight of the people after the Wind.  The robo-chase scenes feel tacked on, used to appeal to a broader, action-oriented audience.  It veers away from the heart of the movie.

Quick! Shake that unnecessary plot device!

Should you be watching?
Despite my minor complaints with this title I still think it is something every anime fan or casual observer should see.  I really hope this gets made into a TV series at some point.  A season or two worth of city exploration would address the great, untapped potential of the original concept.  This movie really is something special that I highly recommend.