Synopsis
After watching her board a train at the last moment and get her foot caught between the closing doors, Nishi reunites with his former high school love, Myon. He remains deeply in love with her but is devastated to find out she is engaged to someone else. Nishi agrees to meet Myon's fiancé at her family's yakitori restaurant, but Yakuza members burst in and kill Nishi when he tries to prevent them from assaulting Myon. Now dead, Nishi awakens and encounters a constantly shape-shifting deity who taunts him for his death. The god instructs Nishi to step through a portal and vanish into nothingness, but Nishi refuses, instead dashing past the god and returning to life. With a fresh perspective and foreknowledge of how the Yakuza will attack, Nishi kills one of them with his own weapon and flees in a stolen car with Myon and her sister. Acclaimed director Masaaki Yuasa's first feature film, Mind Game uses its ever-changing animation style to tell a story about embracing life without regrets, making it wholly unique.
Background
The film was awarded the Animation Division Grand Prize at the 2004 Japan Media Arts Festival. It also won the Oufuji Noburou Award at the 2005 Mainichi Film Awards. Also in 2005 it won the Best Film, Best Director (tying with Survive Style 5 +), Best Script (tying with Survive Style 5 +), Special Award – Visual Accomplishment, and the Audience Award for the Best Animation Film during the Fantasia Festival in Canada.