Sci-Fi Month: REDUX #7

The Top 10 Best Sci-Fi Movies You've (probably) Never Heard Of

Previous week's entries are here:
#10: Renaissance
#9: Strange Days
#8: Outland

And now we're on to...

#7: A Wind Named Amnesia (1990)

What It Is

I promised myself I wouldn't wade into the murky field of Anime during my Sci-Fi month, but here I am. It's not that I dislike anime. In fact, I love it. But I don't love it ENOUGH. Ok, I'm getting ahead of myself here.

A Wind Named Amnesia is a film adaptation of the manga novel of the same name by Hideyuki Kikuchi, of Vampire Hunter D fame. It tells the story of a near-future Earth that is suddenly and mysteriously beset by a bizarre wind-borne "plague" of sorts that wipes the memories of all human beings on Earth, reducing man to the level of basic animal instinct. In the aftermath of this incident, a young man is miraculously re-educated through the remnants of technology found at an experimental government lab. His benefactor, a wheelchair bound individual with a cybernetic brain named Johnny, names the young man Wataru, the Japanese term for "traveler". Johnny asks Wataru to travel to "the four corners of the land" to try to search for the cause of the Amnesia Wind, and if possible, a cure. While he travels, Wataru picks up an enigmatic white-haired woman named Sophia who somehow also seems to be spared the effects of the wind.

In their travels, Sophia and Wataru encounter savage cultures, a strangely intact city project, and a robotic riot-control police drone that relentlessly stalks them across the USA from west coast to east coast.

Why You've Never Heard of It

So I mentioned before that I've resisted delving into anime on my sci-fi lists because I don't love it ENOUGH. See, anime is vast - bollywood vast, in fact. Thousands, millions I daresay of movies, with probably tenfold as many manga series and franchises beyond that. From that colossal mass of media a teeny tiny percentage are translated into English. From that percentage again a teeny tiny amount are distributed widely. From that final group, an even smaller group becomes well known.

In other words, finding the "hidden gems" of anime is tantamount to the proverbial needle in a haystack, and that's to say nothing of personal opinions.

A Wind Named Amnesia is a movie that straddled that line when there was a huge push for anime on major networks in North America. I happened upon it on Space Network (when it was called Space), alongside the execrable Odin: Photon Laser Starlight (barf). There was no search that led me to watch it, it just happened to be on.

That is really the only way you would have heard of it, unless you are a serious, mad-crazy-go-nuts obsessive fan. An Otaku, in other words.

Why It's Worthy of Inclusion

So, to the meat of why I think this movie, among a sea of potential millions, gets put on lesser-known-list level against well known classics like Ghost in the Shell or Akira.

First off the concept is great. There are plenty of "post-apocalypse" movies and franchises that make use of some mysterious illness or cataclysm (Jeremiah and the recent Revolution series spring to mind), but never on this kind of scale. The whole point of those series is that humanity is forced to adapt, but we still cling to cultural ideals and social norms. The question those series ask is "what do we do to survive?"

A Wind Named Amnesia eschews that question. Survival never really seems to be the overarching theme here. Wataru and Sophia do encounter enemies, yes, and the remnants of humanity they find are struggling in an adverse environment, but it seems assured that humanity will carry on. The question in stead becomes what form humanity will survive in. When you remove the thousands of years of evolution in language, culture and identity, when you strip away what we project in our daily behaviour, what remains? Is there some indelible piece of our consciousness that makes us human? A soul? A collective spirit?

It's a powerful avenue of inquiry, and if there's a flaw to A Wind Named Amnesia, it's that it doesn't go far enough.

There are scenes here that are powerful enough to stick in your mind, but they don't seem to build in progression to a satisfying conclusion, and there aren't enough of them to make a complete argument. The movie seems to run short at just 80 minutes, where I felt like it could have easily been extended to 100 or even 120.

But, rather than lamenting what isn't there, I should concentrate on what is, and what is found in A Wind Named Amnesia is compelling and thought-provoking. One scene in particular that I find haunting is when Wataru meets a colossal giant of a man who still carries a picture of himself and his daughter around; he as a cherry looking police officer, her as a teenager with her arms around his huge neck. "He doesn't know what it means," Sophia says, "but he understands there are rules different to those he lives by now." There are many points in the story where it becomes apparent that the journey may have more to do with what Wataru can learn from the people, than what they can learn from him.

I think this movie is a worthwhile flick for any anime fans and sci-fi fans as well, though mainstream audiences would likely find it a bit hokey and trying at times. Nevertheless, I do recommend it for having a powerful message and while the ending doesn't quite stick the landing, the final line is somehow sad, hopeful and discussion-worthy all at once: "You're learning," Johnny's voice echoes in Wataru's head, chuckling with quiet wonder and delight. "You're learning."