Trick to watching Japanese Cinema

You really need to keep in mind cultural difference and narrative expectations. I read a review of this movie that was upset that it didn't explain enough or connect the dots in the plot correctly.

One example that I always keep in mind when I watch Japanese movies (and it usually helps me relax the critic in me to account for cross cultural hiccups) Is the liberal use of "heaven" as a source of ass kicking power in a lot japanese anime action cartoons.

While calling on Jesus in the middle of a fight with mosnters and aliens is quite strange and enough to break anyones viewing experience, in this case the characters are referring to a notion of heaven that's more esoteric. It's more of a general energy source that surrounds and works with anything that's good in the universe (or so one of my better translations of Dragonball have pointed out in an editors note)

That simple distinction between western and eastern cultural expectations surrounding "heaven" completely turns a scene from deal breaking corny trash to plausible corny trash.

So keep that in mind and just roll with the weirdness when confronted with japanese or any foreign film for that matter. Japan (and many Asian countries) have a deep culture of superstition (all asian families have that one aunt who claims some pretty whacky stuff).

A character randomly having ESP isn't viewed as all that weird or that much of a cop-out since local folklore is filled with that sort of thing. (Much like why a historically Christian society doesn't feel Neo, a digital messiah, as all that unfamiliar) It's hard to turn off the internal critic but using the wrong standards to judge the films plot can easily kill the experience as well. it's a tough road to walk.

Enjoy!