Urusei Yatsura 4: Lum the Forever (1986) User Reviews

Not great, but not for the reasons everyone else says

[weird_beard · 6/10 · 25 May 2010]

Movie 2, subtitled Beautiful Dreamer is rightly hailed as being a thought provoking, existential entry into the Urusei Yatsura franchise. Viewers are often left to determine the meaning of large portions of the film on their own.

The same is certainly true for the fourth film, Lum the Forever. Then why does it fall short of Dreamer? Certainly parts of the film could be clearer, like actually explaining what the legend of the oni was.

But the main reason the film falls short is that the film breaks away from the thought provoking imagery during the last reel so that Mendo can wage a totally pointless war in an attempt to force the plot to resolve itself. Pointless not only because it's pretty similar to every other overlong battle in the series, but also because in the meantime the plot resolves itself without their help, or the viewer getting to care about what the plot was.

You know the scene in A Very Brady Christmas where Mike is trapped in a building, hears everyone singing, and finds the resolve to get out? Imagine that scene without the singing, or anyone actually knowing he was trapped in the building for that matter, and you pretty much have the end of the film.

Labyrinthine Disaster

[OurGeneration · 5/10 · 7 September 2018]

The Forever is a really unique movie in its style When this movie is over, in the end you're left with the face of WTF!, What the Hell I Saw?, There are moments where you feel you found the thread, that you start to understand it, but something even more bizarre and confusing happens, and it made you everything to lose The Forever is a very confusing, bizarre and labyrinthine movie It really shows that the new Beautiful Dreamer tried to do it, but it did not come close, and it became a mystery movie, that if it were not for the mystery, it would be Urusei Yatsura's worst movie, even worse than Always My Darling I must say that the soundtrack is beautiful, especially Melancholy No Kiseki, The Best Ending I've Ever Listened

Bad, but good bad

[jwwalrath-227-85487 · 7/10 · 16 June 2018]

A mess, but what a beautiful mess.

It's clear the director wanted this to be a philosophical film, but he failed to get his vision across to the audience. There are bunch of bizarre scenes and plot points that don't make any sense.

Still, this my third favorite UY film. Despite the nonsense, it is very entertaining to watch. A lot of the surreal moments and imagery in this is fascinating.They throw so many things at you that if you didn't like one scene, you'll like the next one. The cast is humorous enough that they manage to ground the film so that it doesn't become a pretentiousness fest.

The animation is fluid and gorgeous. It dates very well and is the best animated film of the entire series. It has a unique musical score and I have to give the composer props for creating music that perfectly complimented some very weird stuff.

Not technically a good film, but it has always had a place in my heart.

the weirdest of the six

[GreyFox37 · 8/10 · 22 February 2001]

ok, this one confused me more than any other anime, even kite. for example, i didn't know lum could talk to birds. in the beginning, things are going good, makin a movie, shoppin, a nice false front (big trouble in little china is where i got the line), but then, there are the birds, the losing of the powers, the strange voices, the dreams, and the entities. let's just say, you'll need a deep psychological and philisophical understanding to watch this one. overall, its ok, but you'll have to watch it five or six times to grasp it.

An ambitious failure

[udongexmyon · 4/10 · 21 March 2021]

After Oshii Mamoru, Urusei Yatsura had never been able to recreate the charm of Beautiful Dreamer. The main series, other films/OVAs and the original manga all fall short to the titan of a film if compared in terms of direction, depth and creativity. But none have tried harder than Lum the Forever.

Lum the Forever is a carnival of fantastic imagery that bombards the senses with one nonsensical plot after another. There is just one thing missing: consistency. The lack of directing talent is quite apparent as there is a obvious lack of structure and meaningful material to piece anything together in a coherent way. Consistency is surprisingly important when making a film with a focus on powerful imagery and esoteric storytelling, as a consistent anchor of some kind is the major driving force behind interpretation.

Of course, there are the positives. The animation is very much the height of art in Urusei Yatsura, featuring many elaborate sequences that take place in a variety of locations. While the film itself may be a chaotic mess, the fact that it is animated so well adds a strange charm to the disorder. While overall lacking in consistency and structure, one can perhaps find some meaning in the fact that the release of the film coincided with the close of the TV series.

At the end of the day, the film is mostly but a minor copy of Beautiful Dreamer: though they may not share the same ideas, Lum the Forever is a structural mimic of the film, and an unsuccessful one at that. But a failure that strived to be more is more meaningful than the average piece of junk, and one could walk away from the film with mixed emotions but a general feeling of appreciation.