Kara No Kyoukai (The Garden Of Sinners) | A Full Anthology P.2

Productions Aspects - Film By Film  [Cinematography | Art | Sound Direction | OST]

Murder Speculation II | Cinematography 

[Rule of Thirds - Golden Ratio Framed in Conjunction With Adjacent Set Design]

Takuya Nonaka emphasizes diegetic continuity, and is often conservative with his film grammar, as there are very clear displays of the continuity style at work here. He’s often also somewhat adamant about framing the background geometry so that adjacent lines are usually always angled 45 Degree’s from the frame, while his subjects often are framed by the rule of thirds and the golden ratio when it comes to two shots, especially with the use of establishing shots that emphasize frontality. The use of telephoto shots are also a staple, as the use of bokeh and depth of field transitions helps better mimic a POV shot or perhaps when he opts to try to isolate his characters for any particular emotional reason. I also like the use of Macro shots, particularly how he uses montage and sequential editing compositions to imply important themes that run counterpoint with the occurring dialogue, as I’ve also never have seen an anime production put so much emphasis on lighting, and the fact that Ufotable’s staff makes it a point to render light within their backgrounds fantastically, it’s something that’s only unique to top tier productions and studio’s such as the likes of Kyo Ani. 

[Telephoto Profile Shot W/ Central Frontality & Bokeh Isolation] - [Blurred Macro Lens W/ Shallow Depth of Field Bokeh]

In that, Nonaka also makes use of the wide angle as well, particularly for the more unnerving shots, often used with a camera tilt of sorts. Though speaking of Takuya Nonaka’s use of light, it’s very reminiscent of the more “hard boiled” crime films such as the era of film noir in the early 50’s and 40’s. They light characters on any given occasion with the goal of always implying something, say when a character feels conflicted or confused, half of their face will be lit, while the other covered in darkness. 

Low Angle Tilt Wide Angle W/ Clever Framing Use of Set Design

Takuya Nonaka’s use of movement is also reminiscent of the late director akira Kurosawa’s films, as he’s always playing with elements on the immediate foreground, while also doing the same the background in other planes of motion. This is where his clever use of blocking techniques comes in as well, as he often plays with other extra’s or environmental factors to move in and out of the frame, temporarily blocking the primary action in further planes of motion. He also opts to use extremely steady and subtle panning and zooming motion to emphasize unease and the obliqueness of the given message or setting. 

Takuya Nonaka
[II Film Director]

Naturally cutting on these movements, which can be anything from the weather of rain, a movement from the camera or it’s subject within a given scene. Also utilizing the grain and distortion of the telephoto lens and natural frames within the frame to make a careful distinction of who he’s particularly focussing on - In that respect, we as viewers often feel like we’re intruding upon two given character's conversation, as there’s a sense of eavesdropping and satiable curiosity to almost try to move one’s head to see what’s beyond blocking our line of sight, or trying to focus our eyes on an out of focus frame. We call this the use of Artifice, by provoking curiosity and the desire to have closure. It’s this dissonance Takuya Nonaka utilizes to make us feel like we’re not done watching or observing a subject, because often times, we’re only privilege to that if we watch a bit longer. Being that Takuya Nonaka’s takes in general are quite a bit longer, as he doesn’t opt to cut as much as others, but lets his actors carry the scene in an objective manner.

High Angle Tilt W/ Clever Framing Use of Set Design

In that it fosters this undeniable sense of unease and tension, which beautifully brings out each of his given character’s (such as Shiki) impulsiveness of the moment, as there’s so many raw takes of characters just carrying the scene, that’s uncut, unbiased and unfiltered by the director.

As nowadays, directors can’t resist themselves to the point where it’s seems like their cutting chopped salami instead of editing an actual film. Whilst Takuya Nonaka expertly utilizes other transitions such as dissolve overlays that almost work as match cuts in a sense, being that he emphasizes visual metaphors through the use of parallelism. A very hard transition to pull off, though he’s clever in that he utilizes black dissolves to dissolve out to a different time of day, which is clearly shown through how a scene is lit, so you always know when temporal leaps happen because the time of day is so clearly established in how a scene is either lit by the morning sun, or perhaps the break of noon.

[Low Tilt Adjacent Angle W/ Clever Framing Using Set Design] - [Rule of Thirds, Omission of Facials W/ Keen Lighting] 
There’s this undeniable silence and dryness to the way Kara No Kyoukai II is shot, that’s somewhat characteristic of a Tarokovsky film or perhaps a Lars Van Trier one, being that, although the character animation and design is not the most photo realistic or true to life, Takuya’s style is definitely that of a realist. In that it works really well with the hard boiled theme and how he’s not afraid to have multiple low light situations that actually strengthen the story as a whole. Because on the visual level, to a degree you're consciously omitting certain details in low lighting situations, and that’s what darkness is, it's the absence of light, and perhaps representing Shiki’s absence of hope and faith within herself - As the environment around her clearly reflects her condition as a person and human being. 

Art Direction | 

  

In how beautiful the film is regarding a scene's given backdrops, I highly suspect that this film was animated on location with real life references to Japan's inner cities, schools & such. It's really is such an absolutely beautifully rendered film again with Nobutaka Ike as Art director & backgrounds from studio easter. To the dark suburban streets, the Traditional Ryuogi estate, to the scenes within classrooms, the film has such well depicted architecture and lighting, as the film's texturing & pigmentation of scenes are absolutely marvellous. In this film, scenes are somewhat done in less dense areas of the city, such as Ryogi's family home & their high school. While the film does have an eerily dark and hardboiled lighting theme and colour palette such as in the first film, Nobutaka also utilizes the simplicity of classroom and domestic scenes for a more subliminal and innocence feel to contrast it's obviously darker counterparts. 

As Emi Chiba's colour palette here is quite a bit more simplified, utilizing more consonant, tertiary and complimentary colours to compliment the film's lighter and blissful scenes. As I've mentioned before Takuya and his directors of photography sense of lighting on this film is so particularly distinct and well used, as no motion, colour or lighting compositions are ever wasted. Especially in more tense and oblique scenes Emi Chiba's use of darkly lit navy blue's, deep green and red come into play, as she's so good at contrasting the film's given film tone and corresponding colours from beginning, middle and end. The beautiful thing about this film is that, thanks to Takuya's camera movements, Nobutaka Ike had to make the film so heavily composited regarding it's backgrounds being that, when the camera would shift or move, the multiple corresponding moving parts had too as well, which included things such as weather effects, making the film so intensely layered regarding it's composites when Takuya Nonaka's camera movements demanded it, or even with a shift in the camera's depth of field.

Sound direction | 

Yoshikazu Iwanami
[Sound Director]

More than any other film within the franchise, the second really seems to be the most particularly disquiet, thanks to Takuya Nonaka's emphasis on diegetic continuity. This film in particular, in terms of mastering, balances the dialogue to Bgm ratio so it's practically as if there was no cued music at all in numerous situations, as only the most carful of listeners will pick up on it, or perhaps if you are simply listening at a high volume. In that while barely audible, it makes the music unobtrusive and it borders somewhat om the line of having complete diegetic continuity..

Just with the slightly noticeable and effective cueing of any particular track. In that Yoshikazu Iwanami knows exactly how and when to use the soundtrack to run counterpoint to the given shot flow composition and editing of the film - He never takes you out of the moment, respecting the silence of a scene for what it is, and when he does use it, the score has such a symbiotic nature with the film's shot flow composition that it only serves to enhance the given moment in time, not distract you from it.




While relatively infrequent, when Takuya Nonaka does decide to preserve some of the original light novel's soliloquy, it's in these exact moments of thought and rumination of a particular character that Yoshikazu decides to request or perhaps work with Yuki Kajiura's music to mimic the more subjective "vignette's" regarding film grammar, mimicking the mood of the given character's dialogue with music in tow - As such his keen awareness on when to use music and how to use music is quite brilliant. Such as on scenic montage compositions or perhaps timely cues within the films visual storytelling and film grammar, even going so far as syncing particular reveals with the introduction of a given arrangement or instrument within the film's score.  As I've said, it really is quite a quiet film, and as you might imagine the setting doesn't really offer much headroom for abundantly sound rich environments, again because of the strict emphasis on diegetic continuity & conservative film grammar.

However this also makes the film seem more unpredictable and conservative, and as a result quite a bit more real - As when a scene does require related sound information and effects, time and time again you'll find great sound effects both well recorded and mimicked. As Yoshikazu Iwanami is incredibly discerning of the spatiality and acoustics of a scene, in addition to having his recordings meticulously layered with sound information, being aware of elements such as the friction of clothing during movement, or perhaps the pace and timing of footsteps to the material that such given characters are walking on, to the swings and cuts of am action scene, or perhaps the room tone or environmental noise of an outdoor or indoor scene as displayed in this film.

OST |

Murder speculation is perhaps the most personal and intimate of the Kara no Kyoukai films, & really the same can be said for it's music as well. Often having simple & quiet ensembles for the film's disquiet tone's, also having equally simple instrumentation selection, such as the piano played by Masato Matsuda, keyboards from Yuki Kajiura herself,  and with the flute & strings performed by the duo Kiyo Kido Strings. It's really within the first completely silent & still minute & a half where Yuki Kajiura's arrangements really set the tone for the rest of the film, as the first track simply titled M01, are accompanied with a small piano arrangement that's playful and almost like a waltz, cued to run counterpoint to the introductory credits & montage, capturing the innocence of the opening ceremony, where Shiki & Kokuto meet for the second time. It's an arrangement that's actually spun into different renditions throughout the film, as tracks such as M14, M18 & M19 are also an example of this, becoming sort of a theme for the film if you will.

The next track is an absolutely spellbinding beautiful flute melody and harp accompaniment duet, as this is used for Shiki's lone walk & private monologue through the night lit bamboo path. Also having a small jazz routine in track M07, with Shiki listening to Kokuto humming in the rain & an additionally similar track M11 used in the montage scene at the mall, with a flute & piano duet running counterpoint to each other in something resembling a fugue. And I'm sure this moment is quite the memorable staple in the story for the lot of Kara no Kyoukai fans, as it's also one of my favourites, in that it's a fleeting peace within the rain that the two share, that's soon disturbed by terrible premonitions.

Kalafina
[Vocal Group]

However it isn't just flowers and roses that make the score, no as Yuki Kajiura also contrasts these subliminal moments particularly with tracks such as M03 & M15, with the films equally dissonant and disturbing scene's of phobia & terror. Using familiar arrangements like such as the one's found in the first, with the bowed upright bass & dissonant synth. It's tracks such as M16 in particular that are especially unnerving, with a dissonant & shrill Violin arrangement, contrasting Shiki's equally creepy smile. As there are also more lonely and disquiet piano arrangements such as M14 & M17, used in Kokuto's exposition/monologue when Shiki began to isolate herself more & more, when Shiki calls out Kokuto after ignoring him for weeks on end, as I find Yuki Kajiura's arrangement for M17, Yoshikazu Iwanami, cueing the track in the scene where Kokuto and Shiki try to ignore and bypass each other in the hallway.

Though having spun & repeat the first arrangement 4 times within the film, it really is an intimate collection of piano's and symphonic music, as I particularly find Kiyo Kido Strings & Masato Matsuda's piano playing a particular highlight. Definitely one of the better films overall, as each given department at Ufotable's production team, clearly had alot of great subject material to work with in the light novels.

The Garden of Sinners: ...And Nothing Heart
[II Film OST]

Musicians & Performances By -

Vocals : 

Kalafina - Main Group - 

Wakana Ōtaki, Keiko Kubota, Hikaru Masai

Supporting Vocalists - 

REMI, Yuriko Kaida, Hanae Tomaru

Former Members - 

Maya Toyoshima (Left in 2009)

Musicians :

Keyboard & Programming - Yuki Kajiura

Strings - Kiyo Kido Strings (Group)

Rie Akagi, Yuriko Kaida

Flute - Rie Akagi

Electric Guitar - Susumu Nishikawa

Keyboards - Yuki Kajiura

Piano - Masato Matsuda

Page 2

Article Contents - Comments Section

1. Overlooking View 
2. Murder Speculation [Part 1]
3. Remaining Sense Of Pain
4. The Hollow
5. Paradox Spiral
6. Oblivion Recording
7. Murder Speculation [Part 2]
8. Epilogue
9. The Future Gospel
10. The Future Gospel [Extra Chorus]

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