Memories (1995)

 

IMDb plot summary: A freighter crew responds to a distress call from a station run by an AI opera diva. The AI manipulates life support, VR and nanosystems, posing dangers the crew must overcome to survive.

Directed by Kōji Morimoto, Tensai Okamura, and Katsuhiro Ōtomo. Stars Tsutomu Isobe, Shozo Iizuka, and Koichi Yamadera.

Memories is a Japanese anthology film with three short films, all based on manga stories by Katsuhiro Otomo. As with most anthology films, some of these are more interesting than others. The three stories are very, very different in terms of style as well. The first is sort of romantic drama, the second one -- my personal favorite -- is sci-fi horror comedy, and the third one is dark and a bit more unusual in form, as it tells a mostly-silent story of a world that is perpetually at war. That one was the hardest for me to latch on to because of the lack of dialogue, but overall these all felt like they were worth the watch. I got around to liking all of them in the end and I really liked the variety of the different films. This is one that I knew very, very little about, but I really enjoyed it.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Memories (1995)

📊 Ranked #1109/4313 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 74

beat Zelig (#2196 → #2197)

lost to Shakespeare in Love (#1087 → #657)

beat Quartet (held at #1648)

beat Koyaanisqatsi (#1367 → #1404)

beat Henry V (#1227 → #1225)

beat Fanny and Alexander (#1156 → #1193)

beat Minority Report (#1121 → #1120)

lost to Session 9 (#1104 → #1102)

beat Match Point (#1113 → #1111)

lost to Single White Female (#1109 → #1108)

beat Dangerous Liaisons (#1111 → #1148)

beat The Last Metro (#1110 → #1155)