Publisher: Media Factory (Japan)Format: Region 2 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English, Japanese and Chinese Subtitles
Length: 116 minutes
Production Date: 2011
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes
Makoto Shinkai’s last three films have been pretty much on the same theme; love doesn’t always work out and growing up is a bit of a bastard. In particular the last film, “5cm Per Second” was particularly melancholy. The second element in his films is his infamous twilight sky panoramas. You could say he’s in grave danger of stereotyping himself and plonking out similar films every few years. However I think all three of his previous film are fantastic and stand on their own. It was quite interesting to see that he seemingly wants to break out of the mould he has created. However after watching this particular film, I’m not sure if it was all that successful.
In rural Japan in the summer of 1975, a young girl named Asuna spends most her time, when not at school, doing chores at home as her mother is seemingly continually on the nightshift. In her spare time she climbs a local mountain where she has dug a hideout/cubby house for herself into the mountain’s face. There she’ll often use her crystal set which uses an unusual stone given to her by her late father. On this occasion she picks up unusual music rather than the usual radio stations. The following day she crosses the railway bridge to get to the mountain where she spots a huge strange creature which attacks. Suddenly a boy leaps into the monster’s path and fights it off, however he accidently kills it due to a strange flash of light from the crystal around his neck. In the aftermath of the chaos, a train driver nearly runs over the dead creature, however it falls off the bridge and into the river below as the boy and Asuna escape. Asuna has fainted due to the shock of what has happened, and awakens sometime in the early evening near her hideout. The boy, Shun, tells her not to return, but she dresses his wound on his arm with her scarf and thanks him. He says goodbye but to her disappointment he disappears.
The next day Asuma plays hooky from school and heads up the hillside to find Shun. He is waiting there for her, and the two of them become rather close that day. Shun tells her that he comes from a place called Agartha. The following day she waits for him again, but he doesn’t return. Later that night her mother brings her horrible news; the body of a boy was found with her scarf wrapped around a wound on his arm. Asuna doesn’t want to accept it and goes to search for him. At school the day after, the class gets to meet the new substitute teacher, Ryuji Morisaki. The class’ first lesson is a reading of the story of “Izanagi and Izanami”, a Japanese folk tale where a husband resurrects his dead wife. Asuna is highly intrigued by this and visits Ryuji at his home. Ryuji reveals to her that he knows she met Shun and she saw the monster. He is researching the mystery of Agartha, an underground kingdom, and a way to bring the dead back to life which a method to do this apparently can be found there. On her way back home, Asuna sees a reflection of light coming off something near her hideout. Thinking it might be Shun she rushes up there, but sees another boy, Shin. The boy is actually Shun’s brother, Shin and understandably she mistakes him for Shun. He’s here to retrieve a crystal that Shun left behind. However before Shin can explain himself, a helicopter gunship arrives as well as several armed men. They are from the organisation Arch Angel and are desperate to find out the entrance to Agartha. Shin flees with Asuna, which leads Arch Angel directly to the entrance. After a fight with another monster who is a sort of guardian to the entrance, it is revealed that Ryuji is a member of Arch Angel. He double crosses his team mates and manages to slip into the highly fortified entrance to Agartha with Shin and Asuna.
I think it’s plainly obvious what the problem is with this film; it looks and feels exactly like a Studio Ghibli film. Asuna seems a little reminiscent of Taeko from “Only Yesterday” with a few other Ghibli girls mixed in for good measure, Shun and Shin are like composites of the male leads from “Princess Mononoke” and “Tales From Earthsea” and Ruyji is a dead ringer for Muska from “Laputa Castle in the Sky” (in both design and motive). Even the bloody cat, Mimi, looks like Teto from “Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind”. The film with plot elements including glowing stones, a fantasy world setting, lost advanced technology and monsters makes it appear like a mash up of “Tales From Earthsea” and “Laputa Castle in the Sky” with a bit of “Princess Mononoke”. One scene in particular where Shin cuts his hair off and leads his horse away from the village seems to be a direct lift from “Princess Mononoke”. Another scene with Shin and Asuna floating to the ground with a glowing gem looks eerily similar to “Laputa Castle in the Sky”. It’s very hard to enjoy a film when all I can see is “homages” to Ghibli works. Shinkai claimed he wanted to emulate the anime that were part of the “World Masterpiece Theatre” series (of which Miyazaki and Takahata had some involvement in), but let’s face it, if it quacks like a duck...
Plotting and pacing are a problem too. After I finished watching the film I knew there was something really wrong with it, but I could not put my finger on it. It wasn’t until I read a review that it came to me. While the focus for the most part is on Asuna, her character doesn’t really develop one iota during the entire film. Instead it’s the teacher, Ruyji who’s journey is the most interesting and is forever changed because of it. Asuna is just a passenger, despite dealings with Ruyji and Shin/Shun. It’s like she hasn’t learnt anything really in the entire 116 minutes of the film. She just pops out the other end no different from when she started. It’s kind of bizarre really as the first part of the film is almost entirely focused on Asuna. I think the focus should have been on Ruyji the entire time. I understand that this is meant to be a family film, especially from the promotional material and it’s Japanese “G” rating, however it would have been a much better film if the Asuna parts had been ditched completely and Ruyji’s story had been expanded and written as a piece for older audiences. The dates on the photograph of the monster that Ruyji shows Asuna indicate that the story takes place in July 1975. While most of the technology and setting in the film would also lend weight to this date, Arch Angel’s military equipment is far more modern. While it may be slightly plausible that a similar gunship like the one in this film might have existed in 1975, the uniforms/armour and laser sights on the guns wouldn’t have. The juxtaposition of old cars, rotary phones and modern military equipment doesn’t work or make sense.
The highlight of this movie is of course the animation. It’s stunning and gorgeous. Some the scenes right up to the entrance of Agartha are really well done. In many early scenes I felt a real connection with Asuna as well an emotional connection to her plight. Of course Shinkai’s infamous twilight sky panoramas are present throughout the film, however it’s more subtly done than his earlier works. The theme of how badly humans deal with death and the eventual acceptance of it is quite interesting, but I’m not sure if it’s the right subject for a family film. There’s also a certain death in the film which I thought was rather senseless and added nothing to the story. Other than that, I think the film’s narrative is a bit of a mess. In conclusion, the film isn’t a bad one, but it’s a little average in terms of story. Using Asuna to tell what is in fact Ruyji’s story doesn’t work for me. It’s almost like two separate stories have been (unsuccessfully) merged together. They should fleshed out Ruyji story more and not made it as a family film. Or developed Asuna’s character more and actually made her go on a proper journey and have come through as a changed person at the end. But neither of these things happens and it makes for an unsatisfactory and highly disappointing film, especially when you factor in that Makoto Shinkai is the director. Also I note the literal translated title of this film is “Children Who Chase Stars” which is a lot better than the clunky official English title.6.5 out of 10.
Remaining Backlog: 27 months (it's much easier this way than listing the number of discs).
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