Fantastic Fest 2010: REDLINE Review

Like watching SPEED RACER on speed. If you'd been hoping that the writer of FUNKY FOREST would conjure up a feature-length anime that is every bit as insane as that cult classic, your dreams have come true.

REDLINE provides all the thrills, crashes, and automotive porn that the sub-genre of racing movies demands, while setting the action on a planet called RoboWorld that allows the free floating imagination of Katsuhito Ishii to take root and bloom a thousand freaky characters and situations. As few others do, Ishii understands that you don't need to let silly concepts like gravity and logic get in the way of entertainment.

It's kinda scary how routine the first racing sequence appears. Sure, it looks wild, a riot of action and color, but it plays out almost in normal fashion. JP, a driver with an extreme duck-tail atop his head, looks to be a ferocious speed demon, and is on the verge of winning an important qualifying race when he blows out, allowing the sumptuously stacked Crab Sonoshee to win the race. That qualifies her for Redline, the supreme test of a race driver.

JP is in collusion with his team manager Frisbee, who was watching the race with a mysterious gangster and talking about odds and maximizing winnings. So we know that some fixing of the race is involved, and JP isn't happy about it. When two other drivers drop out of Redline, expressing concern for their own personal safety on the dangerous and unstable RoboWorld, JP is offered a slot, and he eagerly takes it, over the objections of Frisbee.

Once on RoboWorld, any concerns about the straightforward nature of the narrative quickly disappear. Alien creatures are jammed into every crevice, and they're of the oozy, bizarre, and entirely funny nature. The other racers are profiled in some kind of crazy news program, including a corrupt cop and two smoking hot sisters who provide the requisite fan service.

Oh, yes, did we mention this is not anime for kids?

From there the movie rockets forward. The plot is developed -- in that sense, this is a more linear movie than FUNKY FOREST -- characters are examined in a compact manner, and the final competition lives up to its billing as the most amazing and funny race in recent memory.

Director Takeshi Koike, who did the animation for FUNKY FOREST and Ishii's THE TASTE OF TEA, as well as NINJA SCROLL, brings Ishii's vision to life. It feels like every centimeter of every frame is filled with some kind of kinetic color or action or bit of business, making it an experience that is sure to overload the senses. REDLINE feels like it's feeding adrenalized candy to your nervous system for the entire length of its running time.

It's powerful and altogether delightful. The audience at Fantastic Fest ate it up.