“Adam by Eve: A Live in Animation” blends live-action and animation, dreams and reality together
By Chloe Sze and Charmaine Lai
It’s not every day that a singer releases a movie made and directed by themselves. However, Eve, a popular Japanese singer, did just that.
The movie entails two high school students, Aki and Taki, who are best friends. When Taki mysteriously disappears after briefly mentioning having a dream about a “one-eyed monster”, Aki is forced to navigate her way around a surreal, nightmarish version of Shibuya, a special ward of Tokyo, with nothing to guide her except her memories of conversations with Taki.
Those who have been following the singer and creator behind the film, Eve, will know that the “one-eyed monster” is named “Hitotsume” (meaning One-Eye), and has been a recurring character in Eve’s work. Not only that, some of the songs included in the movie have been long-time fan favourites, such as Dramaturgy, which currently has one hundred and twenty million views on YouTube.
Who is Eve? To anime fans, you might all know him as the singer and creator of the opening theme of hit anime ‘Jujutsu Kaisen’, Kaikai Kitan. To his long time fans, you might originally know him as an ‘utaite’ - a cover artist who uploads on platforms like Nico Nico Douga and Youtube while also having their own original songs. Despite Eve himself stating that he no longer uploads song covers and has fully devoted himself to his own songs, he doesn’t mind being addressed as one.
As someone who is still relatively new to Eve and his music, I found the concept of the film captivating but the storyline itself slow-paced at some parts, and definitely confusing, though that was most likely because of the movie’s central theme of dreams and nightmares. There were certain scenes in the movie that felt like they had a hidden meaning, most notably, the vision of a world dominated by the monster, Hitotsume, conveyed through a mix of 2D and 3D animation. Watching it portray stereotyped Japanese schoolgirls behaving in a robotic manner in front of thousands of Hitotsumes, until the main character's action is the tipping point for a rage filled destruction of the city by the girls, I thought, “What if this scene is talking about the over-sexualisation of high school girls, and how it creates a repressed frustration?” That was until I remembered that the movie was about the surrealism of dreams and the unconscious mind, so it doesn’t need to have a definite interpretation.
Overall, I would give “Adam by Eve: A Live in Animation” a rating of 7/10. It was pretty good, especially when you consider the fact that it’s Eve’s first film. Would I recommend it to someone? Unless they’re already a fan of J-Pop and Eve, probably not. Some points of the film felt like there was too much of everything, like the music and animation, and the transitions between some scenes felt out of place. The storyline is confusing for those unfamiliar with Eve or cryptic films to understand.
While “Adam by Eve: A Live in Animation '' was relatively successful coming from this rising singer and creator, whether Eve will continue to direct more films is uncertain. Nevertheless, his fans will no doubt continue to support Eve and his career in the future!