MFT: Once upon a time in trigun

Mash-up culture is one of the most fascinating things that Internet helped to nourish. It's has been around since the dawn of time - because that's how we do things. But it was never really in the spotlight until personal computers and Internet came along. Lots of people started to try their hand at most improbable combinations of things they love or hate or something else with varying degree of success. But even at its most lame - mash-ups are always a showcase of ability to take various elements and merge them into something of its own. Something that can potentially inspire for something completely different.

"Once Upon a Time in Trigun" is one of my favorite mash-up trailers. It was made by Matt Page in 2002-2003 as a love letter to his favorite anime series "Trigun". As it is "Once Upon a Time in Trigun" is an extremely smart mash-up trailer that seamlessly combines "Trigun" and Robert Rodriguez underwhelming conclusion to his informal Mariachi Trilogy titled "Once Upon a Time in Mexico". It isn't all that elaborate in its techniques. What Matt Page did was simple. He took the sound track of the trailer for "Once Upon a Time in Mexico" and matched it with the footage from "Trigun". The result was action-packed trailer for non-existent film that can will come soon "in your head". What Page haven't planned is the effect his little video achieved. More on that later.

I first saw it on one of the CDs for video game magazine back in early 2003. I loved it. Because I knew "Trigun" and "Once Upon a Time in Mexico". But for reason - for me "Once Upon a Time in Trigun" was something of its own. I was eerily fascinated how naturally it merged together two different things into something else. It felt different.

"Trigun" was critically acclaimed adaptation of beloved manga series by Yasuhiro Nightow that managed to elevate and deepen cult status of the property by not trying to reinvent the wheel and just telling the stories in a different medium. It was amped up to eleven and filled with lots and lots of over the top scenes involving over the top characters. The main character - Vash the Stampede is known as human typhoon but in reality he is a bad case of a man caught in a wrong place and a wrong time while his counterpart Wolfwood is looking for trouble and finally gets it. But underneath it was nuanced relationship drama that tackled subjects of loneliness, rejection, honor, self-sacrifice, etc. 

As for "Once Upon a time in Mexico" - it is a tragedy of  good intentions. Robert Rodriguez tried and failed to do a Sergio Leone-sized gambit with grand and in the same time personal multiple narratives. But instead of sprawling story of conspiracy, guilt and revenge it turned out into meandering mishmash of elaborate scenes tied together with a shoelace instead of proper narrative structure. "Once Upon a time in Mexico" badly suffered from its overstuffed and overcompressed narrative. It was filled with colorful characters and high-tension scenes. But there was not much space in-between - so that characters could breathe and develop gradually and viewers could follow through and think about what is going on in the film. It seemed too much at once. And it damaged the film. On the other hand - trailer actually delivered on the promise of the film. It was telling streamlined version of the story free from excessive baggage. It was perfect teaser showcase.

Combined in "Once Upon a Time in Trigun" they cleaned one another from its original context and presented a thing that was not exactly just another reappropriated mash-up trailer. It was something bigger and better. It was a piece for imagination. You are given the basics and then you are free to develop it in your head in any way you want. This makes the most exciting film. Watching this trailer makes you play with it - you fill the gaps of the plot, develop them into fully-fledged narrative threads and turn it in any way you want. That's what real art manages to do. Even if its unforseen consequence.

In some way "Once Upon a Time in Trigun" is a harbinger of things to come. It is a monument of honest and unregulated influx of creativity that became possible because of Internet.