A Casual Review of "Ride Your Wave" | Cinema Nippon

Boy, it sure is bright out here. At 930 at night. In the sunny, surfy, surfy suns. Oh god, where are you going to put us? So it's been a while. It's been a while. Long time no see! I'm sick, so if I sound weird... Love me. If I sound weird, I'm sorry. We just saw a movie. We saw a movie. And it was called... Parasite. No. Oh. Sonic the Hedgehog. Oh. What are we talking about? Star Wars The Rise of Skywalker. No! That was it, right? No! What did we just see? Ride Your Wave? Oh, Ride Your Wave. So we just saw that movie, called Ride Your Wave. And we haven't talked about it at all. No. It's the newest release from Masaaki Yuasa. We've covered it a couple times on the channel. Look at all these thumbnails. Somewhere. You're going to chew your foot while we're doing this? Yeah, I mean, this is the best time to chew your feet. We have not discussed it. We literally just got back. Yeah, we just got back. Um, oh. Shouts out. To you kids. Theatrical division. Yeah. For getting us press passes. Arigatou gozaimasu. Thank you. Thank you for that. That's first for us. And hopefully not last. I don't know how this video is going to be. Well, with this here, I mean. Well, are we talking about this or are we talking about this? This. This? This. This right here. That. Oh, this. Oh, wait. We can make that this. Ride Your Wave, spoiler free. Okay. No spoilers. Is a movie about a young woman who is a surfer. It meets some other young men who are firefighters. Through the movie, a budding relationship ensues. And it's kind of like a coming of age slash homecoming story. Because she's meeting these guys because she's moving back to the town where she was when she was a little kid. She grew up there for a little bit. And then her dad's job, I think, made them move. And she wanted to come back. Because all she wanted to do was surf and be by the ocean. You actually got more than I did, to be completely honest. Well, no, she talks about this. So she decided to come back. I'm sure she did, but I'm also sick. My capacity is like at maybe 80%. You know what you gotta say to that sickness? What? Kale no. Oh, kale no. What are your thoughts on Ride Your Wave? I thought it was cute. Yeah. It was cute. So there was an interview by the producer, I think. Kyla is dying. And she was talking about how Ayuwasa, he is a director who likes to be the director, if that makes sense. So it kind of had a George Lucas sort of thing about it. And I'll be honest, I liked the story. But I could tell that it was one person. I'm not saying that's a bad thing. They were like more minor things. They weren't the overarching story. Oh, yeah. No, no, no, no, no. I would happily watch this again. Overall, I really enjoyed it. And I had a good time. I liked it a lot as well. It was significantly more grounded than the two movies of his that we covered on the channel. 90's Short Walk on Girl and Lou Over the Wall. I thought some of the parallels between this one and Lou Over the Wall were kind of interesting. They're both very beach-themed. I mean, obviously, they're on the coast. And there's a certain amount of magical realism with both of them. Neither of those two, neither this nor Lou Over the Wall, are as out there as the 90's Short Walk on Girl, which is just completely out there. That's like a fever dream. It's pretty surreal. Which it kind of is a fever dream. Sort of. Compared to Lou Over the Wall, it was much more centralized. Localized is a better word. You never got the sense that a huge, huge amount of people were impacted by what was going on. But with Lou, I'm like, yeah, the cast was pretty small there too. But I do understand what you're saying with the impact. But no, overall, I think it was really good. Yeah. Well, why don't we talk about a couple of the minor things. This is still spoiler-free. It's going to be spoiler-free through the whole time. But I can be honest. Okay, this thing isn't even really a spoiler. At one point, she's trying to take a picture and she's not using her phone. But she can't access the other phone. So I was like, wait. Yeah, I was like, wait a minute. I don't know. It was just kind of silly. That is a huge nitpick. A little inconsistency. Yeah, that's like a major, major, major nitpick. Like that is completely insignificant. Like you were talking about how the imagery is very similar to Lou. I felt that the whole way through. Which, I mean, I feel like that makes sense. It's the ocean. And Lou is about kind of a mermaid. Sort of. Sort of, yeah. I'm the kind of person who can, while watching a movie, basically play-by-play know how it's going to pan out. Oh, yeah. This one, it broadcasted what was going to happen very loudly. I was not surprised at all by anything that happened. I think I brought a lot to this movie. Maybe I was projecting, or my personal experience, to what was actually there. And that it's really hard for me to separate myself from that. What you're saying is this movie made you cry, and you blame it for doing that. And you're upset with the movie. Yeah, that's exactly what I'm saying. Okay. That's how I felt. I really felt like this movie was about dealing with grief, overcoming that grief. And I felt like that's a subject that hits home for me. So, of course, I'm going to forgive more the flaws than I would if it were something that I didn't have a connection with. So it's hard for me to say with a critical eye, oh, it's a good movie, because I'm coming at it from a place where, well, it did affect me. That's fair. But I feel like you could say, this is what I brought to it. If you bring similar things to it, you'll probably like it as well. I agree. Yeah. No, I definitely feel that way. If you haven't dealt with grief, or if grief is not something that you feel a connection to, I can't say with certainty you will enjoy this movie. Lou Over the Wall is like a coming-of-age story exclusively. This is like a coming-of-age story that also deals with finding your place in the world, but it also deals with overcoming grief, both visually and narratively. You see that it's not as bombastic as Lou Over the Wall. It's not as childlike. I disagree. Yeah. I actually really disagree, because where I never felt uncomfortable during Lou, I actually felt very uncomfortable during this movie. Again, I think this is me. I think this is me coming in. I think if I separate myself from that, what was going on in the movie, basically the second act onward, was very fantastical and very goofy. I felt like that, specifically, was very ostentatious and bombastic, in a different way than Lou was, of course. Maybe. Oh god, you're wearing green. No, this. It's stiff enough. Okay. So what did you like? I mean, I feel like it goes without saying, because it sounds like he was working with a lot of the same people that he has been working with for a while. I feel like it goes without saying, but the animation. One thing that I noticed that I really, really liked in that regard was the number of really dynamic shots. So it would be showing things from multiple perspectives. Oh yeah. That's so hard to do in animation. That's so hard to do. Usually, if you see that in an animated movie, I feel like you see it once or twice. Yeah. It happened every five minutes in this movie. Yeah, no. Yeah, the animation in this was just like, oh my gosh. I really like the flowiness. It's different from other anime. I really liked that in the theater, the guy who sat next to us, every time, because this is a movie that involves a lot of surfing, every time one of them would make the hand motions, he would just do it. He kept doing it. I was like, bless you. Bless that man. That was so much fun. He did keep checking his phone. Don't do that. Don't check your phone in the theater. It's hard to talk about this without spoilers, but when the whole thing lit up, and then the part right after that, when she's like, that was like, oh, you went there. That was real. You did it. And it was good. I feel like there are so many stories like this that they don't give you that grit. They don't give you that realism. And it's like, no, this sucks. It always sucks. No, not the movie. What happens in the movie. I thought it was goofy. Honestly, I thought the whole movie, not the whole movie, but once it started getting fantastical, it was really goofy. Yeah. I would recommend it. Yeah. I was going to say, would you recommend this movie? It's hard, because it's like, because it's, which I mean it happens in any movie. Of course. But I feel like it's not enough loo to basically counterbalance the realistic aspect of it. And there's almost too much loo for the realistic aspect to not be too goofy. For it to be completely serious. Yeah. It's walking a very, very narrow line. And I do think it goes like this as it's walking. So I don't think it's balanced, but I don't care. I don't think the tonal shifts were accidental. No, I agree. I think they were deliberate. And I think because they were deliberate, and because the people who were trying to execute them are so experienced, I think it was well pulled off. Yeah. No, I enjoyed it. If you're looking for a movie that will give you a good cry, but then not make you feel terrible afterwards, this is a good one for that. It's a good crying but also uplifting movie. I guess this is one of those movies that could be kind of a litmus test for the audience of what you get out of it. Yeah. What did you get out of it? No, that's what I'm saying. I come to it with my experience, and I think that that tints the way I watch it. Absolutely. Like I said, if you're a fan of Yuasa, or if you're looking for some anime that will make you cry, make you laugh, all of the emotions, if you like magical realism, I mean. I really thought you were going to say, or if you lay eggs. If you lay eggs? So I don't know if you know this, but Eli and I have been taking Japanese classes for not quite two years, almost two years. Sometimes I'm trying not to look at the subtitles. I do that on purpose. And there was this one part where the translation was not a direct translation. What was said was actually very funny. And so we both burst out laughing in the theater, and no one else was laughing. It's like, oops. So I will say, if you like Japanese movies as much as we do, it does pay to learn Japanese. Not that we are fluent by any means, yeah. Oh god, no. No. But yeah, it's definitely, like, the more I learn, the more I feel my watching experience is immersive, and I feel like I'm getting so much more out of the movies, and through doing this channel, we are learning a lot about the culture and the history and how different symbols can mean different things. You can't replace growing up in an area. You can't replace that. But I think through learning the language, we're learning a lot that we can bring a deeper appreciation to what we're watching. And I think if you're somebody who really enjoys, like, Japanese culture, watching Japanese movies, reading manga, watching anime. I went from three to five. You never know. I think it would behoove you to start learning Japanese. If you've been thinking about it, do it, because we waited a lot longer than we should have. If you're able to afford it, go for it. If you're not, there are so many free apps that you can at least start. It's turning into a PSA, and I'm sorry, but I'm very passionate about this. If you have any desire to learn Japanese, just start. And if you need recommendations, hit us up on Twitter or something. We can give you recommendations. Or in the comments or anything like that. Yeah, or in the comments. Okay, I think that's all I had to say. So yeah, overall, I'd say go see Ride Your Wave. Ride Your Wave. Go Ride Your Wave. If it's learning Japanese, if it's seeing this movie. If it's... Mainly go see this movie. If it's liking this video and subscribing to us on Cinema Nippon... Smash that subscribe button. I thought you were going to say that was smooth, because I was pretty proud of that. No, that was really smooth. I mean, that was pretty good. You should probably like this video, because that was pretty smooth. Also, big thanks to Chester for being here. Yeah, and thanks again to GKids. Yes, thank you, GKids. Thank you so much. For releasing this film and for getting us passes to it. This is... Okay, clap for GKids. Go GKids!