BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

GetPapa Far from Perfect, Far from Terrible

Sharkflei Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

Derrick Gibbons An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

ebiros2 Mushi-shi starts out good with plot that's intriguing, but the story goes nowhere and ends incomplete. There are several good characters that show up all having potential to enhance the story, but they just fizzle out and do nothing spectacular.The scenery is beautiful, and the movie is worth the watch if you like nature. Jo Odagiri does good job as the title character.Is this movie worth a watch ? Story wise, I didn't think so. Visuals is beautiful at the start but as the movie progresses, both the story, and the visual loses luster. It's as though the director got tired and didn't have the stamina to continue the good work that was started.

kavabanga I really appreciate Otomo's Anime works. A thing I can not say about this adaptation of the manga and anime series. Having finished the anime series just a few days ago, I feel utterly disappointed with the movie. While the anime is able to create a meditative and spiritual journey never seen before in anime, Otomo's movie seems to be based at creating a traditional movie about Japanese traditions. Adaptating the manga in this way could have also been interesting, but Otomo completely blew it. However, after reading some of the other comments about the movie my expectations were already low. And I found my worst fears confirmed in the opening scene: If you want to make a traditional movie about feudal japan, don't use a didgeridoo. It is unbelievable ignorant. The next shock came with the appearance of Ginko-San. Seldom have I seen a more displaced actor: Jô Odagiri does not show an inch of the magic charisma of Ginko as he is presented in the anime. In the anime Ginko is constantly smoking (for a reason) and never appears to be weak or making mistakes. Hell, he does not even show emotions most of the time. But in the movie he looks like an average-weirdo and mostly plain stupid. But as if this wouldn't be worse enough, the script seems to be written by a complete ignorant person. Frankly: The way the movie is told doesn't make sense at all. It looks like Otomo or the scriptwriter has taken a scissor, cut the manga and then rearranged it in a way that neither fits to the anime/manga nor makes a good movie. For people who haven't seen the anime, the scenes do not seem to make much sense as there is no real background story. Making things worse for those who have seen the anime, they are using different episodes, but weave them into each other or explain them in a very senseless way. (Like the rainbow episode who seems to have taken the burden to glue all the short-stories together) Something that does not go along well with the anime or manga, as it looks in comparison dull and illogical. If you haven't seem the anime you are therefore completely lost. I gave the movie 2 stars, 1.5 for the beautiful scenery and 0.5 for the music, which isn't that bad. I can't recommend watching this with a good heart. But if you do, it would be wiser to watch it after you have seen the anime, as I think most people wouldn't give the anime a try, when they have seen this flick before. And this would be a shame, as Mushi-Shi is one of the most beautiful animes, ever.

ephonk I have noticed that the positive comments so far have mostly said 1. "I'm a big fan of the original manga" and 2. "It was beautifully shot". Together, these phrases sum up exactly what's wrong with Mushishi. It is a high production value film that is content to appeal solely to a relatively small subset of its potential audience.I was terribly disappointed by this film. It's not that it was simply slow, leaden, plodding, etc. I can fully enjoy a film that does all those things if there's a payoff, if it ultimately makes sense and gives you a sense of there being a complete wholeness to the underlying concepts. This did not happen. Clearly I don't live up to point #1 - I am not a manga fan.OK, so let me say something positive - point #2 is true. It was beautifully shot and the production values are excellent. A very nice film to look at. My ultimate impression - if you are not already a fan of the manga, avoid, avoid, avoid.

jmaruyama Otomo Katsuhiro's "Akira" (88) was truly a landmark film in Japanese animation and helped to bring cyperpunk animation to the forefront of sci-fi cinema. Unfortunately Otomo's numerous other projects thereafter (World Apartment, Memories, Steamboy) haven't really been able to match nor capture the excitement and wonder of that film. Which brings us to Otomo's current film "Mushishi", a truly bizarre and confusing film and one that is likely to test a viewer's patience."Mushishi" is based on Urushibara Yuki's long running manga of the same name published by Kodansha starting in 1999. It told the story of a young, white-haired shaman/mystic by the name of Ginko who had the unique ability to see ghostly and supernatural insects ("mushi") who would inhabit and afflict their human hosts with a number of mysterious ailments and sicknesses (some bordering on the grotesque). Using his supernatural abilities along with his medical/mystical knowledge, Ginko would travel feudal Japan to cure and treat those afflicted by the strange "Mushi".It's one part the "Ghost Whisperer" mixed in with Tezuka Osamu's classic medical thriller "Black Jack".The movie is visually very stunning with beautiful locations showcasing the colorful, lush and rustic Japanese countryside. The CGI effects for "Mushi" in particular are convincingly creepy and unnerving. The medical ailments range from the uninteresting (ear infections) to the painful (massive infections, protrusions) to the very bizarre (irratic behavior, tissue degeneration).Yet as with his anime projects like "Memories" and "Steamboy" Otomo seems to get too caught up in the visual styling that the storytelling suffers from it. The story is told in a deliberately slow and methodical pace that may try the patience of modern audiences and the MTV crowd already accustomed to more frantic and faster pacing.I'm not familiar with the source material, so it was very hard at times to follow the crux of the story. We never are told where these "mushi" come from and/or why they they do what they do which was a bit frustrating.At two hours, the movie is overly long and I often found myself struggling to keep awake, hoping for some sort of exciting and climactic event that will hopefully shed light on all of these proceedings. That unfortunately never materialized.Odagiri Joe doesn't really do much in his portrayal of Ginko rather playing the character as a atypical, stoic, silent hero who deals with the fantastical events he encounters with a disengaged almost bored manner.Manga/comic adaptations are becoming all the rage now with "Death Note", "Dororo", "Nana" and the recent "Ge Ge Ge No Kitaro" having had much success on the big screen. "Mushishi" may be a case-in-point to producers that not all manga were meant to be adapted and that perhaps some stories are better kept to the confines of print publication or anime.