Incannerax What a waste of my time!!!

ChanFamous I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Asad Almond A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Phillipa Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

dbborroughs Purely form over content anime that combines a variety of styles to tell the story(?) of a guy in love with a girl and the gangsters who chase them and the people they meet and...your guess is as good as mine since the film restarts and shifts and goes in out out of thoughts and hopes and minds. I can't describe it you really have to see it. Violent, sexually frank and with other material that people might find offensive (this would get an R rating) this is a film thats in your face and in your head. I kind of understand why this film was a big to do a few years ago since as an experience the film is simply overwhelming. I got to a certain point and wanted to raise my hand and say I'm full now. Actually I had to go through this in pieces since it was too much.Its the sort of thing that I wish was more readily available for people to see (I had to get a region 4 Australian DVD in order to see it) but at the same time I completely understand why it hasn't been released widely in the US and elsewhere, its a film that I think companies would have a hard time marketing with many people loving it and many more going "WTF?" Actually in saying all of that about the experience of seeing the film I haven't said how it it is. As a movie, or as a story its a mess. Its scatter shot and rambling taking odd turns in order to come up with great sequences, many of which look great but don't hang together. Its a film that leaves the audience wondering what in the hell is going on. Is it any good? As an experience yes, its great, I mean who needs drugs? As a story its up and down. I'm mixed. That said if you want an experience you really have to see this.

badidosh "This is one surreal mess!" says one character in the film and, yessir, how right she is as weird doesn't even begin to describe the highly experimental anime "Mind Game," Maasaki Yuasa's adaptation of Robin Nishi's manga. It's simultaneously an assault to the senses (Oh, what bright colors! Oh what loud drum rolls!) and an assault to logic (What the hell did they just do?) though it's not to say it's not a hilariously entertaining trip.The film's narrative -- if you can even call it that -- involves the struggling comic artist Nishi (voiced by Koji Imada) who has just met his childhood girlfriend Myon (Sayaka Maeda) and they catch things up in her father's yakitori pub where they come face to face with two Yakuza members. Nishi gets killed in the process but in a highly bizarre encounter with God in the afterlife, he is brought to life, manages to kill both gangsters, and makes a run for it with Myon and her sister Yan (Seiko Takuma) as they are pursued by other gang members. The three are then swallowed whole by a giant whale. Trapped inside with a man who has spent the last 30 years inside the whale's belly, Nishi, Myon and Yan finally get a chance what true happiness means for them.A Dali painting by way of a French New Wave film, the wildly unpredictable head trip of the aptly titled "Mind Game" beguiles all logical conventions, presented in dumbfounding temporal edits, inebriating close-up transitions, and varying degrees of crude yet proficient artworks. Unsuspecting viewers are likely to be thrown off by Yuasa's helter-skelter bombast (an outlook substantiated by not a few walkouts from the film's screening) but with exactly the right frame of mind, notwithstanding a sometimes bloated feeling courtesy of the film clocking at a little over 100 minutes, this heckuva kaleidoscopic joyride should delight as it tramples all cinematic formalities and shows, should you decide to break the rules, how to do it with style.

Vadim Berman Like most people here, I saw Mind Game on a festival - in my case, Melbourne International Film Festival in August 2006 and was simply blown away. I am no fan of anime (I wasn't before Mind Game), because the ones I have seen before seemed either too violent (Akira) or difficult to appreciate because of the Japanese cultural peculiarities (Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke).Mind Game seems to be a blend of Japanese and Western cinematography with only a few cultural barriers for westerners. I believe there are influences by Coen brothers (the hilarious episode with milk vs. "Mr. Mussburger is such a nice man, I give him double stitch anyways"), Run Lola Run, even Amelie. Perhaps the plot is inspired by the book of Job? Add to this Japanese imagination and intentionally left space for interpretation.While the plot is inventive and complex enough, it is not what makes the film, in my opinion. It is the ability to focus on tiniest details and create, well, a detailed consistent absurdist universe.Hopefully, it will be easier to find future creations of the same authors.

Gigo_Satana And I thought the avant-garde style of animation and story telling was going to take its routinely long hiatus with the marvelous Triplets of Belleville, but I was fortunately wrong.After reading countless reviews, certain people proclaimed their dislike for this film with little to no elaboration given, which somewhat intrigued me and pushed me further toward wanting to experience Mind Game. As an avid follower of experimental cinema and anime I rarely get rewarded with solidly evolving features, but once in a while I strike gold and get to travel through the medium of rich expressionism dealing with both real life and fictional events in the utmost fascinating fashion. Mind Game is the recent treasure and a great example of such artistry, fusing stories of love, self worth and other qualities of life, without forcing conclusions or values, but merely giving you a chance to reflect on your life or simply enjoy that of the characters.The main conflict of this film deals with a young man named Nishi, who lacks courage to do what he really wants in life. After a rather fatal turn of events he gets a second chance at life and love. So he embarks on a journey to face things he otherwise wouldn't, but his personal rediscovery takes place in the weirdest of places. Aside from feeling a genuinely exalting rush with its almost mosaic imagery and perfectly fitting music, I felt something else while viewing Mind Game and I attained a certain notion afterwards, which I don't see worth sharing, since I believe everyone who'll give this a watch will acquire on their own terms, levels and depth.