1001 Nights

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I'm not sure why 1001 Nights is considered anime, because as far as I can see it was made almost entirely outside of Japan. But it looks thoroughly familiar to many who've immersed themselves in Japanese culture due to featuring the artwork of Yoshitaka Amano, frequent concept artist for the Final Fantasy series, among others.

While I've always thought Amano was an immensely skilled and distinctive artist, I've been at odds with his work in the past when I've felt it didn't have much chemistry with the end product. He's ... typically involved at the pre-production stage, which means his intent can be warped by the end. Seeing 1001 Nights present his style in a format finally free from all pretensions was a treat, and I've never respected him more than after seeing this.

This is a thoroughly surreal 22-minute animated short film whose only context is depicting a state of dreaming. That's perhaps the only world perfectly suitable for the fantastical lens Amano paints his worlds with, making them look familiar to our own but presented in an unfamiliar, illogical fashion. To be able to see his style animated is a significant selling point for this movie, and the exotic, shifting inversions of colors and rippling, refracting transitions flow with a lack of restraint that reflects his ethereal character designs.

David Newman's expressionist orchestral score is reminiscent of something you'd hear during a Shakespearean play performance, which feels appropriate when combined with imagery of deities and devils interfering in the thoughts of man. The images move with such a turbulent pace that I didn't have time to link together a coherent message or story, if there even is one. However, a consistent pattern of images implying desire, temptation, and envy give the impression of a thematic narrative, rather than what would otherwise only be an animated gallery of Amano's artwork. I found 1001 Nights a relaxing watch, and for that reason, I think I'll return to it in the future.

1001 Nights is a movie that came out in 1999 and should not be confused with the first hentai film ever that came out thirty years before it. It is loosely based on the famous collection composed of different tales of the same name.

It is necessary to clarify that this movie is essentially a musical film in the likes of Disney’s Fantasia, so its main focus is to present great visuals and music instead of a good story. In fact this movie was thought as an interpretation of an orchestration and nothing more so the visuals and music flows together spectacularly. Speaking of those elements, ... they consists of classical music and a mix between 2-D and 3-D art, more specifically, colored pencil drawings and early CGI; they somehow managed to make it right, it looks gorgeous. Isn’t it funny how a movie that came out almost two decades ago did it right while the recent attempts at doing the same thing look horrendous? The recent Berserk anime(the movie trilogy too if you want), Asura and Arve Rezzle are a few examples of what I’m talking about.

As for the story…well, it barely has one (if even). If you’ve read the original tales you can find references to some of them thrown in it but if you haven’t all you will see is erotic sequences with a most trippy art style that equals(or even tops) the sex scene from Mind Game. You could think of it as a couple dealing with the internal demons of their relationship…or just them wanted to make love but all of a sudden are being chased by an angry demon in a really intense adventure, what is this, Ghosts n’ Ghoblins?

Anyway, this movie is a great example of art in its pure form both visually and musically and one of the most unique pieces in the medium and that alone makes it worth watching despite not having much of a plot, or any.

2/7/23 update: After watching the likes of Pale Cocoon, Angel's Egg, Cat Soup, Junk Head and Mad God, I decided to stop giving a pass to movies like these that are just visuals, sound, and a setting, if your movie has nothing to say, its plot is very loose, and there are no characters in it, then it doesn't get a base score from me. Bye

RECOMMENDATIONS

Disney's Fantasia (basically the same thing but for everyone).
Interstella5555 (also a musical film, but it has way more conventional art style and music, and a much more comprehensible plot).

While this particular piece is only twenty-four minutes long, it's also rather lackluster in the art department. Sure, the animation flows smoothly with the orchestral piece, but that doesn't mean the art is good. Yes, the person who did the drawings does have an eye for the human form. This ends up a mute point when a good chunk of the scenes are so muted out because of the pastel colors the viewer struggles to make out what is going on, making it way to tempting to tune out the art work and just listen to the music. The problem with that is - despite ... the fact the music is beautiful - there are other ways for me to listen to an orchestral piece if that's what I wanted to do. Instead, I want to see art which goes with the beautiful music.

Note - The reason I rated story and character as a one is because there isn't a way to indicate that these elements aren't applicable to a particular piece, which is actually quite rare. I still recommend giving this one a pass, particularly if you're sensitive to certain animation effects.