What did I tell you, Principal Skinner? Mrs. Krabappel, it's time... Barkley.. ..has his first points. It's 8 to 7.. Next question Yo, the best protection against AIDS is to keep the Calvin's on. Now that.. ..could definitely come between me and my AIDS In 1993, Studio Ghibli released the closest thing to B-tier film they would ever make. Initially, an attempt at allowing
their younger staff members to make a reasonably cheap film relatively quickly. It eschewed the fantastical elements
and childlike whimsy that was beginning to define the studio's style.. ..for a smaller more grounded character drama But as happens with
these things, it went both over-budget and over-schedule and Ghibli would never
replicate the experiment in quite the same way. So it's somewhat fitting that
in this anomaly to their otherwise homogenous filmography Ghibli would accidentally explore.. ..some very interesting things [Music] Ocean Waves centers around three characters all of which have Japanese names that I'm going to butcher
for the rest of this video Instead of following an over-arching plot, the film's narrative is split into
loosely connected episodes that primarily take place over the
characters last two years in high school. The story uses the framing device of an
older Taku, now in University, flying back to Kochi for a high school reunion. Most of the film's events are told in flashback, as he reminisces over his experiences after spotting Rikako at a train station in Tokyo. I would split these flashbacks
into three main chunks The first of which would be the episodes
that introduce us to our main characters. Using these incredibly
awkward transitions, we flashback and meet Taku and Yutaka, two best friends on the
day they first see Rikako, a girl who has transferred in the middle
of the school year from Tokyo. We then get a flashback within the flashback and go through how
these two boys met by standing up to their teachers in junior high. We see the inherent bond that seems to connect them. We return to the high school memory with a couple of shorter vignettes that highlight what an oddity the new girl from Tokyo is. From there on, the film kind of follows a premise we've seen a number of times in other films.. One of the friends likes someone but because of circumstances, often stemming from something they did or said, it's the other friend that ends up spending a whole bunch of time with the crush. The film's version of these circumstances is the second chunk, the trip to Tokyo On a school trip to Hawaii, Rikako borrows quite a bit of money from Taku, someone she's said less than two words to
in her entire life, under the pretense of having lost her travel money. Months later, he finds out
that she'd secretly bought a plane ticket to visit her dad in Tokyo and has
tricked her best friend into joining. This friend obviously bails at the first opportunity and Taku finds himself on that plane to Tokyo. There, things that should be
a lot more interesting than they end up being happen and they find themselves
sharing a hotel room. Something resembling a conversation
begins to happen but seeing as they have the chemistry
of a boiled potato and a dress shirt it goes nowhere very quickly [Pause SFX] Do I seem a bit down on the film? Well, when I was watching it for the first time, I paused it here and took a break. I wasn't bored.. but I was starting to get bored and I felt like taking a break would be a good call. [Play SFX] After a night of sleeping in the
tub, Taku meets her ex-boyfriend who he doesn't like all that much And with that, the Tokyo chapter ends putting us firmly into the melodrama. Months pass
and Rikako ignores him. He finds out through Yutaka
that there's a rumor going around that the two of them stayed in the same
hotel room in Tokyo. Then he tells Taku about her aggressive reaction when he opened up about his feelings for her. This is too much for Taku and he goes to confront her. And, as per the name
I've given to this chunk of episodes, things get melodramatic real quick. Then, a few more months pass and the film tries to outdo itself with the melodrama. Taku sees the girls in their class confronting Rikako because she isn't
taking part in the school activities then she slaps him again.. for some reason.. a whopping three minutes after that first slap. And when Yutaka finds out what
happened moments later, he punches Taku. [Pause SFX] I pause the film again and take my second
break. Now, I can firmly say.. I'm bored. The film's running time is
barely over an hour and it's taken me nearly two hours
to get to the final act. But I'm this far
I say to myself.. so I might as well finish it. [Play SFX] We transition back to the
older Taku as his plan lands. Outside the airport a car parks next to him, and it's Yutaka, offering them a ride On the road they have a friendly
conversation about how different Tokyo is from Kochi. Yutaka tells him that
Kyoto, where he's currently studying, is actually quite similar to Kochi.. And this conversation goes on for long enough that it's clear the film was trying to
tell you that it means something. Then, as he drops him off, Yutaka leans over
and apologizes for the fact that he punched him back in high school And..by this point, I'll be honest I had mostly checked out. I'm kind of half paying attention. The film spent the better part of the past
hour aimlessly wandering through scenes with uninteresting characters So now, even though my eyes
are pointing straight at the screen, my mind is elsewhere. But then as the scene plays out.. I start to notice that, they're on a pier, overlooking a beautiful sunset.. and the soundtrack is playing this
somewhat romantic synth music.. and Yutaka is speaking in this soft, confessional tone.. Holy shit.. he's going to say he always knew that Taku was in love with him. Then all these hints the film had
planted start coming back to me.. All little signs of how special their friendship is.. Moments that even hint that Taku might not be straight. Suddenly, my heart's beating a bit too quickly and I'm kind of on the edge of my seat. I know I didn't quite give the impression while going through the film's events but it's crazy how much the film constantly makes it clear Taku really values Yutaka. From all the way back in the first flashback, when Yutaka calls to him at work and tells him to pass by when he's done. Taku just drops everything on the spot. Even Yutaka is surprised by this 'You told me to come' is all Taku replies because for him, that's all he needs to hear from Yutaka to drop everything. This is the introduction we get to their friendship and it tells us all we need to know. The scene also ends with this lovely line.. In the junior high flashback, when they first meet, Taku puts a bow on that interaction and sums it up beautifully. Which I'm sure is clear
enough on its own, but I'll add that this moment
specifically is what that scene at the pier is calling back to.. With the parallel mise-en-scène and shot composition. Later, when Taki finds out the Rikako
had been telling people they spent the night in the same hotel room in Tokyo, the first thing he does is try to clear things up to Yutaka, explaining the situation. That's the most important thing to him at that moment, that Yutaka doesn't get the wrong idea. It's only when he hears about how rude she was to Yutaka that he decides to go and confront Rikako. When Riako is trying to borrow the money, and talk clearly isn't going so well, the thing that gets him to
switch his stance and agree is when she tells him all the nice things Yutaka saying about him on their date. Also she ends that
conversation by telling him not to tell anybody about the money but then he tells Yutaka like seconds later. And I don't think it's because he's untrustworthy or something like that but because to him Yutaka isn't "anyone". It didn't really click in his head to not tell him. They have the kind of relationship
where they share everything It's the same when you
took up punches him near the end.. He's barely back on his feet
and he's already forgiven him To Taku, this won't affect their friendship at all because it's just a minor bump. There's also a whole bunch of subtle things sprinkled in throughout the film like every time he's left confused
by something Rikako did and then Yutaka shows up Taku just gets really happy. It's so clear he just enjoys
being with Yutaka in general. As for the hints at his orientation, at the school Taku is the only boy in this film that shows no real interest towards the girls. For example, when Yutaka is spying
at Rikako in the beginning, he takes a quick glance
cause he's indulging his friend rather than fully taking part in being a creep. Or later in PE when the other boys
tell him look over to the girls' court He initially shows no interest because he thinks they're staring at
the girl with the large breasts. Now, obviously, this could
just be the fact that he's a decent person and doesn't leer at girls, but I think when you take it within context and pair this this disinterest,
which almost verges on dislike, with his strong emotions for Yutaka, it's really not that hard to put two and two together. At one point, Taku literally makes that
connection himself. So all of this is going through my head, as I noticed the romantic synth music playing and the wind blowing as they
look out at the sunset. "This is genius," I say to myself, "I can't believe the film managed to set all of this up in such a subtle way!" What So, yeah, that's where the film goes. Obviously. An animated film from the 90's made by
one of Japan's biggest studios.. That's what it's going to do.. So the film continues going through
the high school reunion and then the framing device wraps back
around to the train station in Tokyo. Taku sees Rikako again. Runs across to the other platform,
where she's waiting for him. The film ends. The credits roll. And this time, I'm really not paying attention. Not to imply that I'm bored.
I'm actually super focused, but not on this scene. My mind is still back there on
that pier watching the sunset. I didn't just dream that whole thing up, right? Like, it's all there.. So from that point, I kind of fall down this rabbit-hole. I go from not really liking the film all that much to low key being obsessed with it. A couple of days later I watch the film a second time and take a whole bunch of notes. A couple days after that, I watch it again.. This time pausing and breaking
down every scene beat by beat. If you thought the first viewing that took me over two hours was long, I had to split this one into three sessions,
over two separate days. From that breakdown, I draw a
through line for each character. Mapping out their character arcs,
how their thinking must have changed as the story progressed,
and how that affects their dynamic with the other characters. I start putting together a
retelling of the film's story, right.. This is supposed
to be the script for this video, but after I'm done I look back at it and I realize what I really put together is less of a script for a video and more of a 20-page treatment for a screenplay. And I notice, then, that the natural next step
would be to write that screenplay. So I start writing it over the next few Nah,
I'm kidding I didn't write the screenplay. That's when I decide to stop. I know at this point this all seems kind of crazy but it really is all there. And the more I look at it, the more I'm convinced. I've already explained some of the things the film does, but it's not just those small
moments that you can read into. I would argue that it's kind of baked
into the film, at its core. You really only need to change one thing and, suddenly, everything else just falls into place. You take the scenes at the train station,
that bookend the film and you switch them. Now, the the themes come to the forefront, character motivations make a whole lot more sense, and the story just plainly gets more interesting. There's also the added benefit of now making the film a trip through Taku's psychology during this
emotionally tumultuous time in his life. It becomes about him, coming to terms
with his feelings for Yutaka because, honestly, his entire relationship with Rikako is based on those feelings. Her character, as far as he's concerned, is framed in the context of what Yutaka means to him. Taku's opinion of Rikako starts with
the distrust we highlighted earlier. Later, she piques his interest. Not only does she beat the
captain of the tennis team at a match, but she also has higher grades than Taku. Something we know he's very proud of Most importantly, though, it seems like Yutaka really likes her. So much so, that he calls Taku
at home to talk about her. So, if Yutaka likes her
and she's smart and athletic Then, there clearly must be something special about this girl from Tokyo. What Taku does is he creates this version of her
that's based, in small part, on these successes at school, in large part, on Yutaka's feelings for her and in no part, on Rikako as a person. In essence, what the rest of the film shows us is Taku slowly becoming disillusioned with this unrealistic version he's built up in his mind and coming to terms with the fact
that she's as flawed as anybody else and kind of a terrible person but we'll talk about that later.. To me, this makes a lot more sense than trying to shoehorn in this romance between them in the last few minutes. Because, for one, it's super clear that they cannot stand each other. Like they don't get along at all. And I don't mean in that toxic-tropey way where two characters constantly fight but they're secretly in love. Taku likes her less and less
in every scene they're together. He constantly finds her actions rude and inappropriate. And at one point, straight-up offensive. On her end she feels mostly indifferent towards him. She initially talks to him only because
he has money from his summer job. She's nice to him only as far as he's useful but otherwise, she couldn't give less of a shit. And I think that's the first thing
that stands out to Taku, her tendency to wear a mask or play act and then flip 180 degrees on a dime. The first time he notices it is
when she's asking him for the money. her pleasant demeanor disappears
almost instantaneously after she gets what she wants. Same thing in the next scene when she confronts him for telling Yutaka We get the reverse at the airport. When he's an inconvenience she's kind of rude to him, but when he says he'll go with her to Tokyo, she suddenly perks up. Small things like that continue to happen
throughout the trip to Tokyo causing these small cracks
in his mental image of her. Like after forcing herself into his hotel room and having him basically act as her personal bartender, she starts to open up about her family issues. But when he engages she quickly shuts him down. As if he was being nosy. And it's clear he doesn't appreciate that. After she gets drunk and passes out, he gives her the bed and sleeps in the tub, but she wakes him the next morning by chiding him. Then kicking him out of his room
because she has to get ready for an outing. All of these little cracks become a bit too much when they intersect with the thing that started it all.. his feelings for Yutaka. He gets a call from Rikako, telling him to come down to the cafe. She doesn't give him
any details when he asks, saying only that .. ..he would be rescuing her. When he shows up and meets her ex, it's clear that he's under the impression that Taku is Rikako's current boyfriend Which is news to Taku.. Then Rikako and this teenage Ken doll proceed to have the most vacuous
conversation on the planet and talk over Taku, as if he isn't there. He runs out of patience pretty quickly and says what we're all thinking This is the point at which he's basically
become completely disillusioned and you know he's also thinking
about Yutaka when he says this, because it's in the very next scene that Taku finds out about how rude she was to Yutaka, drawing a direct comparison
between how she treated them both. And that's the thing that pushes him over
the edge. Even the second slap scene, which I still think is dumb, makes more sense when you look at it this way. The first half of his relationship with Rikako was just him bailing her out of situations. "Sure, I'll lend you this exorbitant amount of money, which is more than I told you I could spare." "Sure, I'll fly with you to Tokyo so you can see your dad." "Sure, you can stay in my room for the night,
so you can have a breakdown." "Sure, I'll play act as your boyfriend
to make your ex jealous" Even though this last one didn't quite work out. In this scene, when he's given a
chance to bail her out again, he doesn't. It isn't even a dilemma for him, which shows how far his opinion of her has come. That this scene ends with Yutaka punching Taku has more to do with Yutaka's arc than Taku's. Yutaka had been having these suspicions lately, but when Taku tells him about what happened, everything just clicks in his head. Though the scene at the pier
reframes it so that it was his jealousy or whatever, I would argue that, when you
mix in the pain he's feeling for how his whole situation with rikako played out, Yutaka reacts the way a lot of straight
people have unfortunately reacted when they find out someone close to them
may not be straight. He gets confused. He gets angry And he gets violent Apart from making more sense. it gives the scene when Yutaka apologizes more weight You can see he's done quite a bit of growing up in the time he spent away from Taku. When Taku says in his narration
that they spent another hour on the pier, you can imagine the conversations they had. As he fully comes out to Yutaka, they explore what that meant for their friendship
and what that means for their future. The fact is they're both aware
that they would make a pretty good couple, but obviously their orientations don't line up. This is not an uncommon thing that has happened
between some queer and straight friends. And those friendships have had to evolve
past that point. I think it even makes the next scene a lot more poignant, because the unofficial theme of the reunion seems to be confessions of love Every few minutes there's a cheer
as some boy and some girl admit that they always liked each other
when they were in school. So, as Taku and Yutaka have a casual
conversation with another classmate, there are these knowing glances
between them. They just had their version of the same confessional conversation a couple hours ago. They know they couldn't have done it here,
in such a public manner. But their friendship is stronger because they were able to discuss it privately, at such lengths and in such detail, at the pier. And with that Taku was able to get some closure on all that happened with
him in high school. The disparate episodes now highlight the arc that would have Taku* start as a character who never got any closure and
is chasing after a nebulous glimpse of a girl. And end as a character that sees her
on the opposite platform and lets her go. He's moved on from that chapter
of his life and has come to terms with who he is. By reworking the story in this way, two main problems come up. The first is that Yutaka just isn't around
all that much in the film. It's so clear that Taku and Yutaka really click. But you only get any real sense of that in the beginning, before Rikako becomes a major player in the story. After that point he kind of disappears until the slapping and
punching start near at the end. Having more scenes like those
in the beginning would have really helped because they're the only ones in the film that
focus on this relationship. We're not given any room to explore
their friendship elsewhere because basically every other conversation
they have for the rest of the film is about Rikako. Which leads to the second big problem
with the retelling, it falls into one of the worst tropes
regarding female characters. That is, having Rikako's sole purpose in the film be to develop the male characters, which I feel is like just a couple of notches
below fridging her. Unfortunately, that's the result we're gonna get if we want to use what's already in the film, in this case, all that focus
on Taku's experience with Rikako. and then just reframe it to tell the story
of his feelings for Yutaka. Ideally we would reshift the focus. expanding the scenes with Yutaka
and, maybe in the process, Riikako a bit more room to tell
her own part of the story. But at that point we're rewriting the film, not just retelling it, which isn't what we're going for here. it's also important to note that
the changes in the retelling don't really tackle the biggest issue.. the fact that the movie is Dull This film can be so boring at times and the main reason for that
is, definitely, the characters. The characters here range
from boring to unlikable which is not exactly the spectrum
you want to limit your story to. And if we're being honest, nothing short of a complete rewrite
could solve this problem. Yutaka, for example, has the charisma
of a dilapidated cardboard box and Taku isn't that far off. Which, I mean, you could use
as further evidence for how compatible they are. They can go off and be boring
together drinking sodas on the rooftop as the sun shines down
on their banal existence. Rikaka. on the other hand, is by far the most interesting character out of the three. There's all this drama and conflict in her life. Her parents' divorce, her move from Tokyo to Kochi, the fact that she doesn't live in
the same apartment as her mother, her admiration and eventual disillusionment of her father and her douchey ex-boyfriend. But barely any of it is presented
in an engaging way and even less of it is explored. It's just told to the viewer
in a handful of exposition dumps. On top of that, Rikako is such an unlikable character. She's manipulative, she's sketchy she constantly lies too and uses the people around her, including her naive best friend. And when confronted about any of this, she acts indignant, as if she was
the one being wronged. It's so bizarre that they use
all of this material in the climax, when Taku is romantically reminiscing about her. But the only memories he has are like of her manipulating him, or yelling at him, or lecturing him. And it ends up turning into this surreal,
unintentionally funny sequence. They had to literally invent that final line, which he's imagining based on
second-hand information.. Just to make the sequence less harsh. Unlikable characters can be very engaging if something is done with the
fact that they're unlikable. But when it's just left to fester like this, it ends up really hampering the experience. And, though it's not the point of the
film or of my retelling, I think Rikako could have made
an interesting protagonist. The history of film is filled with
unlikable male protagonists that end up being great characters, but there's a severe lack of that
in female protagonists. It's probably due to some misguided idea that unlikable female characters
wouldn't be engaging. Obviously, this has been explored in art
house and indie films, but I feel like we're just starting to see
a wider range in mainstream films. One example is Joy, who I feel is an unlikable character
and a good protagonist for many of the same reasons. With Rikako, you can keep the
fact that she spoiled and treats the people around her like garbage, but if the story becomes about her and we start to see things from her end, she could become a lot more sympathetic.. ..and with that a lot more engaging. Definitely more
than either of these two. Throughout the fever dream that was
compiling notes for this video. I kept remembering a Taiwanese movie from 2002 that I like quite a bit, called 'Blue Gate Crossing'. It has the same three character setup as Ocean Waves but with the genders flipped. And it uses a
similar inciting incident. That of a nervous character accidentally
setting in motion a series of events but with their crush and their best friend. So, when I rewatched it I was pleasantly surprised that it basically did everything
I was just talking about in my retelling without any of the problems
that came up as a result. On top of that, the characters here are great and their dynamic is really fun. They're also convincingly teenagers. Remember, this was the time when Hollywood
was trying to convince us that 27 year old Tobey
Maguire was still in high school. Something apparently we're still dealing with.. So, it's nice to have them portrayed
by actual teenage actors. Their characterization is very endearing
and, I think, accurate. They're awkward and think
dumb things are cool but also curious and quite understanding in the way some teenagers can be before adult life kind of hammers that out of them. And these are all, you know... likeable traits. Things that were sorely missing from Taku's story. I think a lot of what I spoke about
regarding the queer angle is actually in the film and just requires the viewer
to slightly tilt their head to see it. And one of the reasons I feel
quite confident about it is because I've seen
it done so well in a film like 'Blue Gate Crossing'. If you watch them back-to-back,
it almost feels like someone saw Ocean Waves, had the same idea I did, and then used it as a basis
for their script. So, if anything I spoke about in the
retelling seems interesting, definitely give 'Blue Gate Crossing' a watch. Actually, just give it a watch, regardless of what you think about this video. It's a great film and I feel like
not enough people know about it. I'm probably gonna give it
another watch as soon as I'm done editing this video, to be honest. Also, maybe give Ocean Waves a watch and see whether you agree with me about how
obvious that Taku-Yutaka thing is. Or don't do that maybe instead of watching the either film
you should just go say something nice to someone who
could really use a pick-me-up today.. or maybe do that and watch the films. Instead of sitting on your bed with your phone held at an awkward angle
watching videos online I don't know..it's your choice I don't need to be telling you
what to do! Ok? Bye
