Juvenile

After watching director Yamazaki Takashi's impressive `Returner', I was curious to check out this, his first major film. While the SFX and CGI work for this Adventure flick are truly wondrous, I was a bit disappointed by the lame storyline. `Juvenile' borrows heavily from two Steven Speilberg Sci-Fi films, `Close Encounters of the Third Kind' and `E.T.'. In addition elements are also taken from `Flight of the Navigator' (1986) and the recent `Iron Giant' both of which also told the story of a kid befriending an alien robot. `Juvenile' is not a bad movie, just a boring one all because most of its themes and ideas have been seen before in better movies. Despite this, I consider Yamazaki one of the most interesting directors to come out of Japan in recent years. His direction style is totally unique and fresh and I hope that Hollywood is watching and taking notes.

Four youngsters find a small robot named Tetra. Tetra has returned from the future to save the earth from alien space invaders. Some of these invaders morph into human forms and appear to be earthlings. One of the boys hides Tetra in his closet where he busies himself building the combat tools he will need. To get the materials for his projects, the youngsters raid the local junkyard for usable scrap parts. There is a final showdown battle with some nice special effects. A light, family movie for any age.

Hoping to have another look at Miss Boots of distributor Pony Canyon at the film fair MIFED 2000 I instead was surprised with the view of a small robot who is the protagonist in JUVENILE. This funny little thing does magic (though often violent) and makes friend with an 11-year-old boy to protect the world from really ugly extraterrestrial invaders that seem to be from the same race as the ones in MARS ATTACKS! Announced as a children's movie by some Japanese insiders I found this movie quite entertaining (and I am already 36 years old) with its typical Japanese humour and creativity that are a mixture of slapstick and surrealism, not to mention some great special effects. I bet the TETRA robot saying things to children like in JUVENILE would make millions as a merchandising article. Even adults want to befriend him.

Drawing heavily from kids' adventure films, ergo The Goonies just minus the gritty edge of the 80s and early Spielberg, Juvenile marks the directorial debut of one Takashi Yamazaki. He weaves together an engaging coming-of-age story primarily following the child characters and invoking a sense of imagination many kids partook in during the early years of their lives, retaining an old-school sci-fi charm along the way. It all feels genuine and is helped by the performances of its cast, although it does struggle to make many of the relationships organic. Its musical score by Yasuaki Shimizu is pleasant on the ears, with a beautiful theme to close the film the visual effects however, are more of a mixed bag. The CGI has aged horribly as was par for the course in Japan during this period but the practical effects work is fantastic, especially Tetra who is freaking adorable. Despite its faults, Juvenile is a competently made movie and an exceptionally charming one at that, capturing that feeling of childhood nostalgia with relative ease, Yamazai had a lot to offer and Juvenile was the first stepping stone to that success.