Review of Princess (2006) by Thomas B — 07 Nov 2015

This dark and weird european anime is the slightly surreal story of august, a christian missionary who returns home to take custody of his niece, following the death of his sister, a former pornstar who went by the name of princess. august promises to look after his niece mia, but when he starts to comprehend the nature of the porn industry mia has been raised in and around, he is moved to bring the world to justice...

Its a clever script; all the characters defy conventional stereotypes, and the film subtly invites the audience to make moral judgements, constantly reminding us that noone is blameless, nor evil. at the same time, the animation is an interesting blend of traditional anime-style cell animation with live action, a little cgi, and lots of bits that blur the lines between all these approaches. it certainly looks nice. it also pays homage to TONS of classic anime with frequent shots 'borrowed' from other films. often this helps tell the story more efficiently, as if you know the film being referenced you get a much better flavour for the unspoken overtones of the scene - perhaps making you think about it in a way you wouldnt without the reference point.

Overall its very arty and clever, and thankfully never gets too existential. unfortunately the excellent ending is spoiled (in my view) by a rather cheesy but ambiguous short scene at the end, which softens the film's impact. also, while I found it mostly very enjoyable, and was at times very impressed and/or moved by it, on a whole it is all a bit too subtle and clever for its own good, and the film's admirable decision to remain impartial dilutes its message into a rather bland advocation of love. this could have served as a powerful critique of both religion and pornography, but instead its just a very entertaining conversation starter. nothing wrong with that, but it only gets four stars from me.