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| From http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/professor-layton/images/8/8d/ Professor-Layton-and-the-Eternal-Diva.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20100622142647 |
Director: Masakazu Hashimoto
Screenplay: Aya Matsui
Based on the videogame franchise Professor
Layton from Level-5.
Voice Cast: Yo Oizumi (as
Professor Layton); Maki Horikita (as Luke Triton); Fumiko Orikasa (as Melina
Whistler); Nana Mizuki (as Janice Quatlane); Atsuro Watabe (as Jean de Scole);
Houchu Ohtsuka (as Inspector Clamp Growski); Iemasa Kayumi (as Oslo Vislar);
Saki Aibu (as Remi Altava); Sumire Morohoshi (as Nina)
I have no previous experience
with the Professor Layton franchise
baring a passing knowledge of a videogames. I gave up videogames at the start
of my twenties, or at least at the time of the Playstation 2, due to the
ludicrous costs of the game themselves let alone the consoles, so I've stuck to
films for nearly ten years and have missed at least a two generations of gaming
consoles. But I have to admit that, separate from them entirely, there's some
success in that this film spin-off does intrigue a layman like me with its universe.
Imagine a tribute to Sir Arthur Conan
Doyle's profound influence only instead of Sherlock Holmes, it's a new type
of period English detective called Professor Layton, archaeologist by day and
one of the greatest solvers of puzzles who's assisted by a young boy called Luke
Triton, "apprentice number one" learning to become as good as his
mentor. The influence of Holmes is found even right down to the film being
bookmarked by the pair recounting a previous mystery they investigated, an
opera singer called Janice Quatlan who brings them into a mystery about an
ancient civilisation called Ambroisa and an elixir for eternal life being offer
to the winner of a contest based on intelligence.
I like the world that's depicted
in particular. A whimsical depiction of London stuck in a nebulous past that
never existed, not the modern day but mixing cultural periods without any sense
of modern 20th century technology being visible. It's steampunk neither in this
one story, which makes an interesting change of pace, closer to actual Sherlock
Holmes stories but with a greater expansion into the purely fantastical with
its fantastic tone. It also has a very welcome sense of cartoonish exaggeration
where opera houses turn into cruise ships that look like giant crowns, and a
black castle later in the narrative looks like it was built from Lego. The
world particularly stands out with its character designs, a mix between dolls
and Looney Tunes, facial features of
all shapes and sizes., heads larger than the bodies, and each character, even
minor ones, standing out in silhouette with their own distinct physical
depictions. It allows a sense of humour to this adventure just in the
exaggeration and means that a film which has a very sedate, pleasant tone still
has energy to it as everything bounces or distorts with cartoon physics. Amongst
such highlights is the henchman of the possible villain, forcing people to go
through puzzles and riddles until only one can have immortality, that kind of
look like William Finley's titular
character from Phantom of the Paradise
(1974) to the Scotland Yard detective and comic foil Inspector Clamp Grosky,
who has a giant grey pompadour and a barrel chest covered in so much chest hair
you could fill a cushion with it. Adding to the mood too is the score; it's
been a long time since I've heard an xylophone in a soundtrack, but the
vibrancy of Tomohito Nishiura and Tsuneyoshi Saito's music helps immensely
add to its adventurous tone.
The only thing that comes off as
a disappointment is that, as one would expect for a feature film in such a big
franchise, it doesn't really have any sense of greater dramatic weight for the
central characters and entirely depends on those only found in this narrative
to be greatly affected by any plot events that happens. This is an issue with
pulp storytelling, where the protagonists are never effected by events of stories
and normalcy resolves itself, which varies on each story. Sherlock Holmes
stories could get away with this because they don't end with a giant robot
rampaging across a woodland like The
Eternal Diva does, this Professor
Layton film just in the ending somewhat undermined by the action scenes
that take place near the end feeling like a quick resolve. It also does seem to
descend into probably what the games are in how it becomes a series of riddles
for Layton in the middle of the narrative to solve, not necessarily interesting
without more drama to it or being able to solve them oneself with a game
controller. This is a shame as the film takes a risk in it does tackling death
explicitly as a family film, the narrative about a figure having to accept the
loss of a loved one that's incredibly painful after denying this led to
destructive behaviour. Japanese cinema will talk of this subject differently
than Western ones for family audiences, but since I haven't seen an anime here
that wasn't for adults only, it was a surprise to see. The only shame is that,
when it does wrap up with some great emotional content to it, a sweetness even
in the end credit epilogue, there's still more that could've been done to make
the film stand out as something even more triumphant beyond being a videogame tie-in.
It's one of the best, especially in anime, I've seen, but I only wish that The Eternal Diva had been more ambitious
alongside its initial virtues.
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| From https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/ 4TcDPSCyCFZG9OiNReljatOVvn3.jpg |
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