Ryuya Suzuki’s Jinsei will be too slow a burn for many, but those who can make it through will find the journey a rewarding one.
Filmmaking is a labor-intensive process. Animation, especially so. Which is why, most of the time, an animated feature will involve dozens, if not hundreds, of animators. But every once in a while, we’re lucky enough to get something like Bill Plympton’s The Tune or Matty Kiel’s Unicorn Boy, where a single individual painstakingly animates a feature themselves, delivering a truly singular vision.
The latest such effort is Jinsei, which is animated (as well as written, directed, edited, produced, and scored) by Ryuya Suzuki over the course of just 18 months. It might just be the most unique of the lot.
The actual name of Jinsei’s protagonist is unknown, spoken just once early in the film but obscured to the audience. This anonymity serves as the film’s framing device, with each of the film’s vignettes marked by whatever nickname the character (voiced by rapper ACE COOL) happens to be going by at the time.
A film told in snapshots of one person’s life.
The film drops in and out at various points in the protagonist’s life, starting with his mother’s death, his childhood relationship with his absent father, and his devoted stepfather. A brief brush with J-pop stardom follows, then a failed murder attempt that almost ends his life and sends him into exile. The film eventually catches up with the present day, then broadens beyond it into a post-apocalyptic, and eventually post-human , world.
A few characters reappear, most notably the hero’s friend and bandmate, Kin (Taketo Tanaka), and his stepfather, Hiroshi (Shohei Uno). But the names and faces are largely irrelevant, with the stories connected instead by the protagonist’s refusal to speak in most situations and his belief that death will come for all who are close to him. It’s relatively abstract, even as portmanteaus go, but done with strong enough direction to feel like a coherent whole.
The loosely connected nature of the segments is also obvious in the film’s animation. Suzuki plays just as fast and loose with things like aspect ratio and montage as he does with narrative. But there’s also a very unifying use of framing throughout. That framing itself isn’t entirely unique (some viewers will almost certainly compare it to not knowing how much Anderson leans on Japanese cinema), but it takes on an interesting life when combined with the increasingly conceptual nature of the segments.
Jinsei delivers unusual and stunning animation even when the story drags.
And the animation is truly dazzling. Suzuki delivers a fully realized visual world that immediately captivates in its tragic opening segment and only proceeds to get more interesting as time goes on. This would be a remarkable accomplishment for an experienced animation team, but for a single animator who knocked this out in less than two years, it’s absolutely incredible. At no point is there any evidence of fatigue, and the visuals only get more focused as time goes on.
Unfortunately, Jinsei drags even at just ninety minutes. Most of the segments run longer than they should, and over time, that adds up into a pacing issue that undermines Suzuki’s impeccable visual eye. That’s not to say the script is uninteresting. Far from it. The writing for most of the segments is just as interesting as the accompanying animation, at least at first. But it will reach its natural conclusion and then dawdle, gradually losing the sense of wonder that made it so special in the first place. Eventually, it will move on to the next piece, become super interesting, and the dance will start all over again.
The bottom line.
None of that is enough to actually ruin the film. The highs are more than worth the cost of admission. But a film this novel from a voice this unique deserves to actually achieve greatness. Jinsei, instead, is just good. For the feature-length debut of a director showing incredible promise, that’s enough. But I hope the next one is even better.
Jinsei is now available to rent or purchase on digital platforms. Watch the trailer here.
Photos courtesy of Greenwich Entertainment.
REVIEW RATING
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Jinsei - 6/10
6/10
Brogan Luke Bouwhuis is a writer and film programmer whose frequent pop culture deep dives have allowed him to write about everything from the Richard Gere gerbil rumor to the history of the holiday yule log video. He co-hosts the Franchise Fiends podcast, co-captains the narrative shorts program at the Slamdance Film Festival, and co-created three children with his wife, Jessica.
