In 2003 came out what can only be described as an unidentifiable grooving object from another music galaxy, the fascinating outcome of the collaboration between French electro duo Daft Punk and manga and anime master Leiji Matsumoto. The resulting musical science fiction anime, “Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem”, is now primed for rediscovery by a new generation of electro and anime fans in a new 4K remastering.
Buy This Title
by clicking on the image below
The film, directed mainly by Kazuhisa Takenouchi for Toei Animation but supervised by Matsumoto, is essentially a visual companion piece to Daft Punk’s 2001 album, “Discovery”, with no dialogues and few sound effects. For many years since its release. the movie was mainly available as a series of music video clips set to such world-famous tracks as “One More Time” (the opening act in the film) or “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger”. Such tracks are the main drawing card of the movie, which will appeal first and foremost to fans to the French duo.
For the animation, especially the character design, Matsumoto draws heavily from his earlier work in cult classics like “Space Battleship Yamato”, “Galaxy Express 999” or “Space Pirate Captain Harlock”. Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, the two musicians behind Daft Punk’s robot costumes, grew up in the late 1970s and early 1980s watching these animes on French television (one of the largest markets for Japanese animation worldwide), and there is accordingly a strong nostalgia element in “Interstella 5555”.
Check also this video
The film massively relies on dreamy-looking filters to achieve a soft, bleary 1980s look, although this does not always come across as successfully when it comes to the background animation, which is more generic (some of the designs recall the cover art for “Out of the Blue”, the 1977 album by British band Electric Light Orchestra). Perhaps even the recycled shots that keep reappearing early in the film are meant as playful nods to old-fashioned animes, when Japanese animation first boomed on Western television and relied massively on such budget-cutting techniques.
The remaster has been the object of harsh criticism because of its use of AI upscaling, a budget-conscious technique that was used to upgrade the film to its new 4K version. The movie still looks good on a big screen however, keeping in mind that its designs were always meant to look old-fashioned and smooth. This certainly should not dissuade from viewing the film.
Other science fiction works are referenced throughout the film, from other animes like “Goldorak/Grendizer” to western films like “2001: A Space Odyssey” or “The Terminator”, but it really is Matsumoto’s work that informs what comes across as a huge homage to his masterful oeuvre and late 1970s animes. This can also play against the film, as sometimes the animation strays pretty far from the music or the lyrics, giving the impression that it was made without much knowledge of what music would accompany it.
The story, as little as there is one, involves an extraterrestrial, blue-skinned band who is kidnapped by an evil music producer who brainwashes them and, under the new name of the Crescendolls, exploits them for his own crass commercial purposes on earth. Nothing more should be expected from a film that exists because of the music, rather than the other way around. And at 68 minutes, the movie still manages to lag towards the end, being in difficulty each time it comes to ways of narratively connecting the 14 tracks that make up “Discovery”.
Daft Punk was in the midst of reinventing itself in 2001, adopting their robot costumes at around the time when the album was released. But “Interstella 5555” should rather be seen as part of the inventive and facetious music videos directed in the late 1990s for the duo by the likes of Spike Jonze, Michel Gondry or Roman Coppola. Recent screenings of the remastered “Interstella” in theaters were accompanied by these short films, showing how Mastumoto’s work here belongs to the same genre as these music videos. They should certainly be watched and enjoyed in the same sitting, whether one comes to “Interstella 555” as a fan of Daft Punk or as an anime enthusiast. It certainly is worth the effort.
