Incredible, what I knew as "the Club Penguin beer commercial war movie" is actually imbued with deep emotions and nuance that hit deep in ways I couldn't have expected.
I was walking into this worried this'd be a "wages of war" film judging by the synopsis, but instead it just uses that as a jumping off point towards a very nuanced study of alienation (maturely presented without solipsism) and gettin back in tune with yourself to open up to others (ala I'll Be Seeing You).
It's very understated in both its animation (the warm laserdisc rip couldnt help but remind me of the similarly warm hazy imagery of Bobby's Girl, another beautiful underrated OVA with a good bit of overlap in appeal imo) and sound design (which reminded me of Digimon Hurricane Touchdown weirdly enough, along with the strangely abstract Americana of the whole thing) to bend what was evidently a limited budget to something that draws out great aesthetic sensitivity. This same astute minimalism is reflected in the focus on small meaningful gestures (the shot of Mike's sister watching Mike leave near the beginning of the film was just the tip of the iceberg of the film's consistently impressive emotional restraint) which is both unexpected and an achievement with character designs this simplistic.
The use of music in this flick floored me too. The naive lyrics to the fuzzy 80s pop tunes earlier on cant help but bring a dumb lil smile to my face, and the "Sweet Memories" scene is deeply affecting to me in ways I can't describe.
A quote that kept coming to my mind watching this film is Cassavetes lamenting that "not enough films are concerned about the dreams of women". A major guiding motif to this film is about the dreams that everyone possesses as individuals and their value as motivating forces, and it's a really inspiring worldview. Even the de-facto "villain" of the latter portions of the film is just misguidedly driven by the dream that his life will be better with material wealth. Mike himself just dreams of meaningful connection with others, but due to his own insecurity from the trauma he's suffered he's stuck in a behavioral cycle as a wanderer. Somebody call Vincent Gallo and ask him why he ripped off Penguin's Memory: A Tale of Happiness for Brown Bunny.
