In just two movies – Salt Y U.S -, Jordan Peele has established himself as one of the masters of contemporary horror cinema. your last nightmare Boopin theaters this Wednesday, mixes science fiction and horror in a modern western inspired by war of words by Steven Spielberg and signs by M. Night Shyamalan.
With BoopAbove all, the Oscar-winning director opens new horizons for Hollywood blockbusters, drawing inspiration from the classics of Japanese animation to dissect the evils of our society, from the desire for recognition to the permanent spectacle offered by social networks.
Boop follows OJ (Daniel Kaluuya), a horse trainer whose daily life changes when a mysterious UFO appears in the sky above his California ranch. With his sister Emerald (Keke Palmer), OJ is torn between fear of the incomprehensible and the desire to achieve glory by filming these unreal scenes for social media.
The structure of a manga.
In this story, “the real villain is our addiction to attention and spectacle, and the resulting inability to react in real time,” Keke Palmer told AFP. “He is no different than people who slow down on the highway to see an accident. No one asks for help, but everyone stops to watch.”
Like in Salt Y U.Sthe force of Boop is that everyone can see things related to their personal experience. And both manga readers and anime fans will discover additional nuances and keys to understanding it.
because the structure of Boop and its protagonists seem drawn from anime and manga. We thus find many nods to the anime. Neon Genesis Evangelion, full metal alchemist, Akira and sleeve Amigara Rift Mystery by Junji Itō
a great show
In Hollywood, this phenomenon is still rare. So that Boop stands out as the American blockbuster with the most references to anime and manga since Matrix in 1999: “We are at an interesting moment in Hollywood history, with the arrival of a generation of directors, who grew up with the Toonami and Adult Swim channels. In a way, that influences their films,” he says. British critic Kambole Campbellspecialist in anime and blockbusters.
And to add: “What is fun with Boop, is that it is the mixture of several disparate elements. It’s as much a love letter to classic westerns as it is to Spielberg’s movies and anime. But I think it’s really cool that he puts these three influences on the same level.” For Jordan Peele, it is also a strategy to continue surprising the public and above all to create an original film in a Hollywood context undermined by the countless sequels to the franchises. .
“It seems almost irresponsible to me, in a way, not to create new things, new images, new captions, new classics in a way,” the director explained to Release. “The monster movies that inspired me were created by people who loved monsters. It’s as simple as that. And I love monsters. If the drive and desire is there, you can create anything, invent anything.”
This Japanese influence was also absent in Jordan Peele’s previous films, specifies Kambole Campbell: “Salt is a mix between Guess who’s coming to dinner… Y The Stepford WomenY U.S a tribute to chud [un film sur des monstres cannibales, NDLR]. These films have true Hitchcockian suspense, while for Boop Jordan Peele wanted to put on a great show, which he must associate with anime, as he refers to evangelion Y AkiraTwo Spectacular Science Fiction Movies”.
“Crazy stuff like in the anime”
This fusion of Hollywood blockbuster with Japanese animation is still more satisfying than an official adaptation, says Kambole Campbell: “It’s best to wait until the directors really understand how to translate the style of manga and anime into live-action film. “
It is in its second part that Boop it changes to a story close to what can be found in Japanese animation, once the UFO attacks the protagonists. Jordan Peele then frees himself from Spielberg’s influence, to start doing “crazy things like in the anime”. sums up a film viewer on Twitter.
Because if Jordan Peele hammered in his interviews wanting to pay tribute to Steven Spielberg, it’s for Neon Genesis Evangelion What does it explicitly refer to? Boop. His love for Hideaki Anno’s masterpiece is knownand we find in Boop themes similar to those of the famous series, from the weight of mourning to depression through the influence of religion that blinds.
a different message
The main antagonist of Boop was directly inspired by Sahaquiel, the Angel of Heaven who appears in the twelfth episode of the series (Jordan Peele also cites Marilyn Monroe’s dress in seven years of reflection). And the ending of the movie, without divulging anything, is reminiscent of “Third Impact” in the movie. The End of Evangelion:
“There’s a desperation and a shock to a completely hideous creation, but the message is a little different,” moderates Kambole Campbell. “It is very interesting to see that Boop take advantage of the same type of images [que Evangelion] to expose the way in which Hollywood transforms the misery of people into a consumerist spectacle. evangelion talks more about personal failures.
The similarities between Boop Y evangelion they are such that Jordan Peele’s film can be considered an unofficial adaptation of the Japanese monument. “We can see things from this angle,” agrees the journalist. “If someone wanted to turn the adaptation into a live-action movie evangelionPeele would be the only director I would trust and want to see the result.” And to add: “I hope it inspires him to do more things like that.”
Source: BFM TV
