Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade - Classic Or Confusing Mess?

[Tom Sable]

Me and my friend recently watched Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade, written by legendary Mamoru Oshii, which is based on his Kerberos Saga manga and media franchise. Strangely, he didn't direct it like he did Ghost In The Shell (apparently he was so busy working on the latter that he allowed his close protege to do the directing instead). Anyway, after finishing the film, we were left confused with a thought: Was it good? Did we like it? But the more we thought about it, we came up with our own answers: My friend didn't like it, citing that the forced "Little Red Riding Hood" metaphor throughout the entire film and flat characterization for the main characters didn't make him feel invested in the story at all.

As for me, I did not dislike it, but I also didn't like it. But strangely, I couldn't say that I did not care for it. In the end, my feelings towards Jin-Roh was that "I wanted to like it". It has beautiful animation, music and overall great production values considering the time it was made and released, and there's obviously deep love and care put into making the movie. However, it is also one of those movies were unless you understand Japanese historical background (in this case post-WWII) and other cultural context not familiar to the western audience, you would be left utterly confused by it. We discussed this together with our acquaintance who recommended for to watch it so he can discuss his own thoughts about it with us: 

What did all of you think of Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade? Did you understand its message and theme better than we did? Or was it also confusing to you at times?