Jinsei Is Heartbreaking, Hilarious, Horrifying, And Harrowing

Jinsei is a wild movie that animation fans can’t sleep on. Largely the work of filmmaker Ryuya Suzuki, Jinsei takes place across the length of a century. For the most part, it focuses on a single man who throughout his life, is known as everything from a weirdo to a celebrity to a “god,” all while dealing with the lingering trauma of his childhood.

A relatively low-key anime movie even when World War III breaks out or aliens show up, that blunt reality of Jinsei is what makes it so effective. It’s emotionally powerful and frequently shocking, especially when its main character lashes out in sudden bursts of fury. Throughout it all, it delivers a story that feels wholly unique.

While the animation may be janky at times, the ambition and craft blend together to create something that feels painfully human even when it’s playing with horror and sci-fi tropes. The result is one of the most distinctive movies of the year and a must-see for animation fans who like to see the medium pushed in new directions.

Jinsei Will Make You Laugh, Cry, And Gasp

Jinsei's protagonist standing out among a crowd of bowing people — Jinsei’s protagonist standing out among a crowd of bowing people

Jinsei is a singularly strange film, with a tonal versatility that makes for a genuinely unique experience. Starting with a silent montage that tracks the story of a romance and how it ends in tragedy, Jinsei — which is Japanese for “life” — comes to mean a lot of different things. For the most part, it remains focused on a young boy named Se-chan.

Over the course of his life, Se-chan is called many different things. His classmates at school dub him the Grim Reaper due to his off-putting and silent nature. He goes by Kuro when he becomes a J-Pop star. When he’s left to fend for himself in an abandoned factory, local children come to see him as a spirit known as God.

Throughout his life, Se-chan remains strangely disconnected, with an apathy that occasionally breaks for moments of empathy or brutality. Throughout it all, his adopted father, best friend, and eventual wife take on mannerisms of his while remaining true to themselves, at least before earthquakes, wars, technological advances, and aliens reshape the world.

It’s a wild and weird movie, something that’s established in the opening montage that shows how a couple met, fell in love, started a family, broke down, picked up the pieces, and eventually collapsed for good, all from the perspective of their car. It’s romantic, heartbreaking, and suddenly shocking in a way that immediately grabs the audience’s attention and refuses to let go.

Those sudden shifts in tone can be bleakly hilarious at times (the “desecration of the corpse” scene is so weirdly mean and sudden that it’s hard not to laugh at the sheer audacity of it), surprisingly horrifying at others, and emotionally effective throughout. It’s a painfully human film, especially in its portrayal of our flaws and strengths.

Jinsei Was A Labor Of Love, And It Shows

A taxi arriving to pick up the protagonist's father on a snowy night in Jinsei — A taxi arriving to pick up the protagonist’s father on a snowy night in Jinsei

Ryuya Suzuki serves as the writer, director, editor, and composer on the film. Beyond that, he hand-drew the entire film himself over a two-year period. The movie occasionally gives away that lack of polish, with some awkward movements and a lack of motion in larger scenes. However, even with limited resources, Suzuki finds real emotional weight in his depiction of Se-chan’s life.

There’s plenty of influences on display, from the composition of Wes Anderson films and the bleak social commentary of a Bong Joon Ho movie to the visual aesthetic of legendary French artist Jean Giraud. Throughout it all, even when underground bunkers and alien visitors come into play, the film remains painfully grounded in its humanity.

The film is at its best in small asides (like when a pair of young teens stumble upon “God”) or in montages that depict the various years of Se-chan’s life. It all builds to the most ambitious montage of all, which showcases most of the man’s later life, from the emotional highs to the bleakest lows, all while steadily displaying the rise and fall of a new civilization.

Although Jinsei might be too weird and blunt for some audiences, others who go in with an open mind will find something genuinely surprising and deeply moving. Tearjerkers are followed by disarming comedy and shocking displays of violence. Throughout it all, Jinsei serves as a terrific showcase for Suziki as a filmmaker and is already one of the most unique films of the year.