Urusei Yatsura: Lum the Forever (Movie 4) Review

うる星やつら4 ラム・ザ・フォーエバー
 Urusei Yatsura 4 – Lum the Forever Movie Review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Shuutaro is ferrying Lum, Ataru, Shinobu, and Lum’s guards in a van after finishing shooting a film for the day. A power outage hits Tomobiki-cho as they arrive in town. At school the next day, Lum and Ran have lots of small birds around them, which Megane captures on film (Lum only) as the two can commune with birds at some level. That night at a hanami on the Mendou Estate, Shuutaro has tons of people over to celebrate under Tarouzakura, a 300 year old cherry tree. Because the tree won’t survive another year, it is being cut down, which will be part of the movie they are shooting, but part of the tree will be grafted to a new cherry tree to make a new Tarouzakura. Sakura-sensei arrives with a host of youkai, but though Lum gets angry, she ends up laying down at the base of the tree and listens to its song.

A couple of homeless men in a junkyard find a TV that comes on as well as all the other TVs, displaying an image of Lum. Meanwhile, work continues on the movie about Tarouzakura and the Oni-hime, played by Lum. Ataru as part of his role, takes an ax to the giant tree, but one small blow fells the massive tree, where it mostly dissolves away to everyone’s amazement.  At the moment this happens, the youkai hanging out with Sakura-sensei all leave. The film production continues with Lum coming in as Oni-hime, but Ataru has an accident that knocks down a bunch of props. As Ataru is berated for his mistake, Lum goes into a trance for a bit.  Further, the weather at Tomobiki-cho goes strange.

At school, Ataru defeats Perm in an eating contest. He then goes to hit on Shinobu, setting her off, but using his great skill, Ataru breaks free of Shinobu’s attack and is at Ryuunosuke’s desk to try to land a kiss on her. Lum goes to electrocute Ataru with flair, but he barely feels it. Lum is worried about this and tries a sneak attack on Ran, who barely notices. Meanwhile, strange things continue to happen with the arrival of a massive amount of dragonflies and cicadas. When Lum and Ataru are out on a date, Lum finds she can’t fly and keep up with him. Further, even Ten-chan can fly faster than her. Ataru decides to take advantage of this, so he targets a random babe blocks away and goes for her. Lum and Ten-chan try to find him and as Lum is on an escalator and sees Shinobu and Shuutaro going the other way, they act like they don’t know her.

Shinobu and Shuutaro have a nice date, but that night, just before Shuutaro kisses Shinobu, he suddenly remembers passing Lum and leaves in a hurry, pissing Shinobu off. The next day at school, winter has returned in April as Megane, Chibi, and Kakugari are suddenly following cute girls from another school in spite of their pledge of loyalty to Lum. Lum reports to Sakura-sensei about her losing her abilities when a cone shaped mountain rises where Tarouzakura stood, the hollow cone of the mountain somehow filling with water. That night, Lum is out in the city with Ten-chan when she suddenly goes into a weird, dream state. She wakes up to a concerned Ten-chan. The following day, she goes jogging as the birds look at her concerned.

That night, Shuutaro is home relaxing when he makes a shocking discovery, leading him to call Ataru over immediately. Reluctantly, Ataru comes over, where he hears Megane’s tale of looking at other girls. Ataru is unimpressed and about to leave when Shuutaro shows him a photo album where Lum is now missing from the pictures.  While Lum starts writing a diary in Ataru’s room, Ataru, Megane, and Shuutaro discuss how the tale of Oni-hime is coming true. The three head down to visit Shuutaro’s grandfather to learn more about the subject while back at Ataru’s place, Lum’s horns have disappeared. After putting Ten-chan to bed, Lum thinks she sees Ataru and a young version of herself, so she goes out to find them. At the same time, Shuutaro, Megane, and Ataru retrieve a piece of Tarouzakura, finding a skeleton in the roots of the tree in a rotting, elaborate kimono, causing the trio to panic.

Ataru races home, only to find Lum is gone and only her diary behind. He learns from his mother that Lum decided to go out while at the same time, Lum is at Tarouzakura Mountain, where she enters the water. Shuutaro has a dream that he’s a famous gladiator in the future with Ataru as his chief assistant. He has a whole harem of women he marries, including Shinobu and Sakura, but when he sees Lum passing by, he has Ataru go find her. Ataru goes and is surprised when he remembers her, only to have Lum vanish. When Shuutaro wakes up, he discovers that buildings from his dream are now frozen around the base of the mountain. Picking up Shinobu on the way to school, she has a dream as well, set in the past. When she awakens, places from her dream are now added to the frozen mix around the mountain.

Shuutaro holds a massive meeting to discuss what he thinks is going on when Ataru bursts in with Ten-chan to announce that Lum is missing. While Lum stays in some pseudo dream state in the water, Shuutaro decides that the only way to return normality to the world is to provoke Tobimaru into a private war to destroy the frozen dreams, but the war does little to damage the dreams but seriously damage Tomobiki-cho. Ataru refuses to take sides in the war and goes jogging despite the bombs and shells exploding all around him. Eventually, Shuutaro and Tobimaru call for peace as Tomobiki-cho is in ruins but the dream buildings are mostly intact. The people of the town long to return things to the way it was.

A tired Ataru trips and falls to the ground as a fog rolls in, where he calls Lum’s name. Lum, who’s dream state has her with the child form of her friends and Ataru, apparently hears his call and tells the kids she has to go. An electronic voice stiltedly tells Lum that its OK as it can live on the memories. Meanwhile, Kotatsu-neko wakes Ataru up. He notices that the frozen dream structures are collapsing and he sees Lum walking to him. People encourage Ataru to run to Lum, which he does. Everyone wonders if the place will ever return to the way it was. As Lum and Ataru reach each other, Megane leads the guard to attack Ataru with rockets and bullets while at the junkyard, one of the broken TV’s shuts off.

Thoughts/Review:

Just when I thought I’d seen something about as surreal as it gets, this fourth Urusei Yatsura movie shows up to take the cake.

The main problem I have with surreal stories is that writers don’t have to make sense, follow logic, or do anything else that makes regular stories interesting. As such, the writers can write anything they want and justify it under the guise of “it is surreal, symbolic art.”

Thus we have this movie, where anything goes.  As best as I can make out, Ataru’s felling of Tarouzakura, which shouldn’t have been possible, unsealed the real oni-hime, who saw Lum as her, and then that’s as far as I can make any logical sense of things.  There’s no understanding these dreams come to life in a frozen form. There’s no understanding why folks who claim to love Lum suddenly are looking at other women.

As to the dreams themselves, there was some interest there. For Shuutaro, we see that while he may have belittled Ataru for his skirt chasing, Shuutaro’s dream is identical to Ataru’s in the fact that he too longs for a harem of women. The only difference is that Shuutaro doesn’t just want to be the only man in a giant room full of naked women who all want him. Shuutaro also longs for fame, fortune, and respect, as seen by his dream featuring a polite and respectful Ataru as his personal assistant.

Shinobu’s dream seemed to be set in the Meiji period, though the term “shoujo manga” would not have been part of that era (the term “manga” was apparently coined in this era though). So you see what I mean about the surreal. Still, Shinobu’s dream reflected her feelings for both Ataru and for Shuutaro.

Then, there’s Shuutaro’s resolution to the dream crisis. I can appreciate the idea of destroying the iced, dream buildings, but how did having the Mendou military battling the Mizunokoji military help? The dream buildings were mostly untouched and Tomobiki-cho was destroyed, with everyone being drafted into one of the two militaries. Even when Lum returned, the town was still destroyed although the dream structures crumbled.

I’ve read that some gush over this movie as wonderful art. If you are reading my article and are in that camp, don’t take what I’m about to say personally. Frankly, when I see an explanation or justification of something as “art,” it means it has no substance. Thus, in a desperate attempt to give something without substance some meaning, it is “art”.  Sorry, not buying it; massive symbolism can get stuffed.

Also, I noted that some folks had to watch it multiple times before they supposedly understood it.  Sorry, not buying that either. I have no problem with people going back and watching something a second time or more. Heck, I did that with Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-ohki, not because I didn’t understand it, but because I realized the anime was crafted in such a way that the harem elements I came for was just icing on the cake, but the real story was done in layers underneath the frosting. In the case of Lum the Forever, watching it multiple times and coming to an understanding is code for me that the viewer has created some happy zone within their mind where they can finally accept this surreal stuff as brilliance, then move on with their lives.

Frankly, I see this movie as just random scenes strung together to see what would happen when everything was thrown into the pot — a type of nabe if you will. This pot of nabe wasn’t for me, and I certainly won’t be coming back for more.

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15 Responses to “Urusei Yatsura: Lum the Forever (Movie 4) Review”

  1. O-chan says:

    I’m guessing Movie 6 is next, since you stated that you were watching “Final Chapter” as the final movie.

  2. Kiddo626 says:

    Yeah, this was pretty much my response to this movie too. I always thought this movie tried way too hard to be like Beautiful Dreamer. But whereas Beautiful Dreamer had an actual plot to follow even amidst the surreal stuff, Lum the Forever had no such thing, and it just became so muddled as a result. And it’s sad too, because apparently Kazuo Yamazaki had his own reasons and drama for creating this movie, as his sort of personal magnum opus (or, more accurately, “Fuck you”) to the franchise.

    http://www.furinkan.com/uy/anime/index.htm (<===Sorry, this link doesn't get much more specific than that page; you'll have to navigate into the Movie 4 review from there. Sorry about that. :S) As for the art and symbolism stuff in general you were talking about, I usually appreciate the art, but it’s usually best when it’s backed by a solid theme or plot of some sort. For example, I love the Beatles songs “I Am the Walrus” and “Tomorrow Never Knows” because they both have a solid hook beyond the surreal sound. But I hate the song “Wild Honey Pie” because it’s just so pointless. Being as mediocre as it is, Lum the Forever is the UY equivalent to “Wild Honey Pie”. 😛 Like I’ve said time and time again, I thought Movie 6 was the worst of the bunch, but after reading this review, I’m actually starting to think that it might be a welcome change with you. It’s a very straightforward movie; no surreal stuff at all. It was released in conjunction with one of the Ranma movies, long after both manga and anime had both wrapped up. At best, it’s harmless; at worst, it’s dull and annoying. Then again, with the exception of this movie, your reactions to these movies have surprised me thus far, so who knows? You might actually find it funny. LOL Looking forward to your next review. 🙂

  3. O-chan says:

    Let me emphasize something, you’re not going to get “Maison Ikkoku” level closure with Movie 5. But I do feel it bookends the franchise and Movie 1 very well.

  4. MCAL says:

    Hmm… Speaking of sureal, I’m guessing you don’t like Studio Shaft.

  5. Anonymous says:

    “Self-indulgent style over substance” is what I’d call this. Surreal, auteurist cinema only really works when there is a clear vision or theme underlying the overall work as far as I’m concerned. Beautiful Dreamer had it. This, on the other hand, was a collection of half-baked ideas stitched together to give the appearance of a through-provoking feature.

    I’d have to agree with the previous poster in which this looked like an attempt to be the next “Beautiful Dreamer”, which had since gone through positive reappraisal shortly after it was released. It’s more of a curio than anything.

  6. Joey Bishop says:

    The Forever is a difficult film but very difficult to understand, it is rare, abstract, labyrinthine and above all confused, this film really tried to emulate the atmosphere and history of Beautiful Dreamer, but the execution was horrible, after a certain moment of the movie, it loses all coherent sense, and it only seems like a movie with small shorts inside it, where none has agreement with the other, one can not understand what was the message that this film tried to give

  7. HaroldZymes says:

    This film is by far the most misunderstood, because the way the film is told is quite muddled. 151 was another example where Kazuo Yamazaki tried to emulate Beautiful Dreamer, but the result was a bit confused.

    There is a rather straight forward plot though. 300 years ago, a stranger comes across the village around the Tarouzakura tree, which is draining the village elder’s power. Overhearing the tree spirits discuss the matter, he learns a salted axe will kill it. However, the tree was actually beneficial, and held a seal preventing the spirits attached to the people from running amok. An Oni-hime comes, and drives away the spirits then sacrifices herself to calm the spirits down so they go to rest. A new Tarouzakura is planted and the seal is re-created. 300 years later the events repeat.

    Tarouzakura Is felled, and a new being formed from the feelings and memories begins to drain Lum’s power to feed itself. When it gains consciousness it links with Lum and she feels what it feels for a moment – all the feelings and emotions and memories of the townsfolk and it causes Lum to freak out. The being is a coalescence of the feelings of the townsfolk, and since everyone loves Lum it is Lum obsessed and wants her to itself. That is why it tries to erase Lum from everyone’s memories. It calls out to Lum and tries to brainwash her into playing with it forever. At this point Mendo and Ataru unearth the Oni-hime’s body, so they know Lum is in danger. If it plays with her forever, she will die like the last Oni-hime.

    With its power growing; it covers more and more areas with fog. When people breathe in the fog they experience powerful dreams and the spirit makes them manifest in reality. They also briefly connect to Lum inside of the dreams too but she is always far away. Mendo figures this out and his plan is to start a war to indirectly destroy the frozen dreams, and to force everyone to collectively wish for the town to return to normal. Mendo can be honorable, but he loves Lum so much he sees nothing wrong with endangering the town to get Lum back. Ataru realizes this has no guarantee to bring Lum back and jogs like Lum jogged. He too falls alseep in the fog and connects to Lum and this time she snaps out of it.

    The spirit realizes Lum belongs on the surface and let’s her go. In the beginning the spirit manifested Lum on broken tv’s, but this is time the tv’s fade showing the being is going back to slumber.

    The spirit is analogous to the UY fanbase in love with Lum and not wanting to let her go. The creators are telling the fanbase to accept the show is ending, to move on, date real girls.

    • AstroNerdBoy says:

      Haha! Well, I have to say that you’ve cleared this up quite admirably. And your analysis is interesting too. I wouldn’t have thought the movie was about letting go of the series. Interesting. Thanks for writing!

      • HaroldZymes says:

        The film has a rather straightforward plot (Lovecraft like god created and influences events), the script just doesn’t always make it clear. It is not a series of random scenes, and most of it is not symbolic. Though there is a rather direct metaphor with Mendo, Megane, and the troopers having their memories of Lum weakened they start to notice other girls. Mendo is about to fall in love with Shinobu but he remembers her and runs off. His dream also ends with him remembering Lum. I recommend re-watching the film as it is gorgeous on bluray.

        The director on the film:
        “I’ll speak honestly now. (laughs) Urusei Yatsura was a show that I signed up for, having wanted to do. I ended up for various reasons as the director on the fourth movie, Lum the Forever. I have my thoughts to that movie – the work of a directors is a really tough job, and about that time I was starting to want to get out of it. Around that time, working on the staff of UY, I was getting a lot of letters from fans, saying how much they loved Lum and whatnot. I wanted to tell them that they should not focus their entire lives on the series but that they should move out, get some exposure to real life, get a life.

        When it came out in the theaters, I bought a ticket and went over to see the movie. And when the movie was over, I was leaving the theater, and saw two boys, about 10 or 11 years old, come out, looking rather disappointed, and one of them kicked the floor and spat. Hence, I regretted what I made, and I’ve sworn never to make a work that lacked entertainment, even if it had a serious message in it.”

        • AstroNerdBoy says:

          Wow. That’s pretty interesting. To me, a lot of modern writers (not anime specifically) need to learn “Hence, I regretted what I made, and I’ve sworn never to make a work that lacked entertainment, even if it had a serious message in it.”

          That aside, thanks for all the great information! I love learning new things about something I’ve watched. 😁

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