Masaaki Yuasa’s “Mind Game” (2014, 103 minutes) will be screened on Thursday, March 15, at 7:30 p.m. at the Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd. in Hollywood.
This exhilarating animated cult classic is an explosion of gloriously colorful mages ricocheting in rapid-fire associations — like Yuasa’s brain splattered onto the screen in all its goopy glory. Audiences will begin to grasp what they are in for early on as loser Nishi, too wimpy to try to save his childhood sweetheart from gangsters, is shot in the butt by a soccer-playing psychopath, projecting Nishi into the afterlife.
In this limbo, God – shown as a series of rapidly changing characters – tells him to walk toward the light. But Nishi runs like hell in the other direction and returns to Earth a changed man, driven to live each moment to the fullest.
In Japanese with English subtitles. For more information, go to www.americancinemathequecalendar.com.