Tekkon Kinkreet

(includes spoilers)

Tekkon Kinkreet is an animation Drama+Action film, directed by American-born Japanese Directer Michael Arias, and from the original manga authored by Taiyo Matsumoto.

Its title is a pun, translated into 'reinforced concrete'. And as that suggests, this film is about a pair of orphans, Kuro "Black" (Kazunari Ninomiya) and Shiro "White" (Yu Aoi) who go through a series of events to fight off the adult Yakuzas(and whatnot), to protect as what they claim, their city.

The film largely touches on theme of Goodness VS Evil, which is always seen in Action films. In Tekkon Kinkreet, the good become the evil and the evil become the good, you just have to be patient enough to find out. Sometimes, the fine line between the two sides even become blurred, just like in Kuro's case, where he meets his "evil" alter ego in a form of an uknown demonic animal-looking creature with horns. You'd be surprised by how disturbing and horrifying that scene is, where Kuro struggles in between firstly reality and his subconsciousness, and secondly his good side and his evil side. It is made up of balls of fire, black holes, warping images, the sea and other psychedelic visuals.

!START SPOILER!

Yes, in the end, the evil guy is killed by one of the Yakuzas, who can be considered as an evil guy as well. From this and as well as from how Kuro's alter ego mentions himself to be 'protecting' Kuro, sometimes vaccination of evil is necessary, so there comes the dilemna for Kuro, that is whether to unleash his darkness or to remain with Shiro, who acts as his maintanence of innocence and reality.

!END SPOILER!

The film also uses many interesting metaphors such as fire, a double-edged sword, Shiro's dreams and imaginations, Black and White, stray cats, Shiro himself and, as mentioned earlier, Kuro's alter ego. All these contribute to the amazingly dreamy and surreal effect of this film, with a touch of melancholy and tragedy. In the night, loneliness of the city is presented, and the audience start to feel sympathy for the protaganists' helplessness as orphans on-the-run against meeting their death.

The aesthetic appeal of this film is in one word - good. There is the beauty of the almost-2D work and the style of drawing is like no other. Also if you were to watch closely, the filmic elements were well put into consideration as there is an ingenious correct application of shadow and lighting. Water colours are presented in the imaginative world of Shiro, which successfully brings out the dream-like effect. The structure of the city is also nicely built, with a grand decoration of elephants, which seemed to have been inspired by Hindu gods.

All this may sound cliche as to an Action genre film, but the story is really more about the power of deep friendship and the miraculous strength of a child's.

This film may get a tad too draggy and hard to keep up at times, but if you're patient enough, you'd definitely find a satisfying ending and inspirations from it.

The soundtrack is also pretty interesting, it is done by an electronic band Plaid.

This film should be favoured by japanese animation films-lovers, especially those who have enjoyed Spirited Away, as this film shares the same surrealism theme, as well as the unimaginable adventures of a child protaganist.