| Perhaps I have just been having
bad luck with my choices, but I simply don't understand
how OAVs (Original Animated Videos) continue to
be successful in Japan. By in large, these direct-to-video
movies have miniscule running times that don’t
afford the staff to do much with their intended
story. Baoh, at only 50 minutes, is especially
susceptible to this. For what’s its worth,
the 1989 film does display some nice, if not incredibly
short, fight sequences. However, the story itself
is dumbed down far too much in order to fit the
running time, while too many elements are introduced
and then never explained. The voice acting and
the musical score are also nothing to tout here,
while the well constructed animation is all but
overshadowed by the problems with the final product.
In a nutshell the movie’s
plot sees Hasizawa Ikuroo, experimented on with
a parasite dubbed Baoh, escape from the Doress
foundation thanks to the interference of a young
girl named Sumire. Fearful of Baoh being discovered,
the organization sends out a series of assassins
to kill the boy, but each is killed thanks to
the new powers bestowed on Ikuroo by the parasite.
Desperate, the company kidnaps Sumire, forcing
Ikuroo to travel to their labs for a final showdown.
As expected, the storyline is incredibly
simple, taking the concept of minimal setup to
an entirely new level. The very brisk running
time of around 50 minutes doesn't help either,
and the final product ends up being mostly a combination
of short fight sequences aided by excessive gore.
The film does have a cult following, however small
it might be, and I would assume that it’s
the ample supply of gore that is the hook for
many. To the movie’s credit, it does depict
this very well, with eyes popping out and flesh
melting among other things. Although I could have
done without the Tiger’s brains spilling
out of its head. Unfortunately, the film has some
pretty brief transitions between sequences, and
contains very little foreshadowing beyond Walken
appearing earlier in the movie with his cup of
coffee. In fact, the android assassin Dordo seemingly
comes out of left field due to the fact that he
appears human up until his face is damaged, while
his origins are never explored. This only causes
for senseless confusion from the viewer, and the
android aspect of the character was entirely unneeded
considering his entire role is to fly off with
Sumire and then be shot down from a helicopter.
He also diverts the attention away from the true
climax: the battle between Baoh and Walken, the
“most powerful psychic in the world”
whose Native American roots are emphasized despite
never coming into play in any important way.
This leads into the film’s
character development as a whole, which, as expected,
is pretty poor. In total there are three characters
worth mentioning, which include Ikuroo, Sumire,
and Doctor Kasuminome, head of the Baoh project.
As the movie’s lead, Ikuroo is the only
one to have his back story explored, as there
is a brief flashback around the halfway mark to
explain how his parents died in a car crash. However,
beyond this Ikuroo is completely hollow, and doesn’t
give a great deal of emotion in relation to the
events that are transpiring around him. Sumire,
taken from an orphanage by Doress on account of
her psychic abilities, is even worse, and her
friendship with Ikuroo doesn’t end up being
credible as the movie refuses to allow it any
screen time. This causes huge problems as the
audience doesn’t really follow Ikuroo’s
desire to save her, nor is any emotion had when
she is accidentally shot in the neck by cannon
fire near the end. In fact, the whole point of
her character seems specifically based around
giving Ikuroo a reason to attack the lab. Personally
speaking, I found it fairly disappointing not
to see her powers, after they were shown at the
beginning of the film, be used in any significant
way later on too. I was sure that her ability
to crack number combinations would have somehow
made her useful during the lab raid, yet it never
happened. It’s also disappointing that her
pet, the genetic creation Sonny-Steffan Nottsuo
(thankfully only referred to as Nottsuo during
the movie), never does anything at all and is
never explained as its genetic origin is only
referenced in the manga the film was based on.
The creature could, and should, have been cut,
as the cute nature of Nottsuo seems to play an
awkward counterbalance to the gore being displayed
as well.
Anyway, the last of the important
characters is Kasuminome, the film’s antagonist.
To be honest I’m not entirely sure what
director Hiroyuki Hori had intended for the character.
The viewer certainly doesn’t loath him,
despite his attempts to hire assassins to take
care of Baoh. The character’s sole directive
is to please his superiors as well, who appear
midway through the film in three theatrical masks
only to never be brought up again. Kasuminome
also appears to gain some sort of attachment to
his creation, to the point where he gives advice
to Baoh in his confrontation with Walken. Unfortunately,
this only ends up confusing the audience more
as to how they are supposed to feel in relation
to the character, while there is no feeling of
vindication at all when he does finally meet his
demise.
As for the voice acting that inhabits
the characters, well it’s pretty unimpressive
across the board. In fact, most of the cast sounds
fairly uninterested, especially the lead character
Ikuroo played by Hiroyuki Hori. Noriko Hidaka,
who portrays Sumire, also deserves a bit of scorn
for sounding nothing like the nine year old girl
she is supposed to be playing. Not all of the
cast shows a lack of enthusiasm in their lines,
though. Unfortunately, the exceptions are mostly
on account of people overacting, with Yusaku Yara,
who plays the Walken character, being the best
example. He is not given much to say, but Yara
seems to give the same flat, almost shouting,
delivery of his lines, even when he is doing something
simple like warming his coffee, which actually
accounts for some unintentional laughs in that
scene. Of course, it also doesn’t help matters
that a lot of the dialogue in the movie is pretty
cheesy, in particular when the Kasuminome character
states that releasing Baoh is like "setting
off an atomic bomb" or some of the far out
metaphors that are used for popping heads, like
bursting them as if they were “watermelons”
or “balloons filled with blood” (and
yes, those are two separate examples).
In regards to Baoh's music,
it’s fairly forgettable to say the least.
In fact, most of the cues are unnoticeable, as
well as extremely short in length. The only exceptions
would be the repetitious theme for when Ikuroo
first escapes and the cue played for the assault
team, which has a very distinct 1980’s feel
to it.
To end on a positive note, and
really the only praise that the film deserves
without also pointing out something negative,
is the fantastic animation. By all accounts, it
looks very fluid and detailed, with loads of shading.
In fact, it’s a huge improvement over what
was the norm back during its release.
Overall, though, Baoh
is a very unmemorable endeavor. Even fans of the
buckets of gore will likely get bored with the
flat characters and lack of plot, while the motivation
to watch the movie more than once is simply nonexistent.
|
(1.5/5)