Wednesday, September 13 9:30 PM PARAMOUNT 3
Apparently there are these little spirit "forces" known as "bugs" (I imagine that's a translation issue there) that are all over the place. When they infect a person, that person loses something. Sight, hearing, their life, whatever. It takes a bugmaster to remove the bug from them, thereby curing their problem. This movie is about one bugmaster in particular, Ginko, and we get to see the story of his most difficult case: The rare and deadly bugs that infest him, the woman he loves, and his mentor from years ago.
It sounds really exciting, doesn't it? Although this is the director of the excellent Steamboy, he's made a much more, uh, "relaxed" movie this time. Ginko and his pal (an amiable guy who wants to capture a rainbow) travel a lot, so this movie is really more about exploring 100-years ago Japan (and its peoples and places) and varieties of bugs than the "adventure" going on.
Overall, interesting but very slow. If it was cut down to a less than 2 hours instead of being 2.25 that might help a lot. For an anime/manga translation it's surprisingly more into the realm of a "picturesque location movie" than anything else.