A Wind Named Amnesia (Theatrical Movie)

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Rating: 2.5 / 5
Reviewer: Marc

Weighty and cerebral, A Wind Named Amnesia is classic science fiction--not space ships and interstellar war, the real "what if" deal. The film makes a real attempt at asking deep questions about the point of civilization and the things that mankind has accomplished. On the down side, coherent plot and believability are frequently sacrificed to make a point, and the whole thing is so heavy on metaphor that it ends up feeling a little like an essay cut together with an action movie.

I usually wouldn't complain about a movie having too much action, but here it's a questionable decision. The heavily metaphorical plot, although far from subtle, would feel more consistent and be easier to suspend disbelief and get absorbed in if it weren't for the periodic bursts of action interrupting it.

The end result is that A Wind Named Amnesia is either a hard-core sci-fi movie with too much action, or a normal sci-fi movie with too much metaphor. There is some sexual content near the very end that also seemed entirely unnecessary as best, and gratuitous and oddly out of place at worst.

On the technical end of things, A Wind Named Amnesia is not particularly noteworthy, though not bad for a film of its age, either. The art is fair to good, and the animation isn't too bad, although the backgrounds are a bit on the simple side and the animation is a little rough. The action is about par for an older OAV, meaning not particularly good.

Fans of philosophical science fiction should love A Wind Named Amnesia, but for more general taste it seems to have either a little too much plot or a little too much action. Certainly not bad, but too many awkward parts to highly recommend unless you go for this kind of thing.