A really wonderful movie. Even with the very warm reception it has, I think it's underrated. Tomoyo Harada puts on what is generally a really great performance here, although second place goes to Toru Minegishi as an unlicensed tour guide who is initially, uh, looking for love in all the wrong places (thinking of wooing a sixteen-year-old). And let's not neglect Ryoichi Takayanagi, who starred opposite Tomoyo in The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, this time with a much happier ending for the two, I figure. It's a movie about the disenchantment of growing up, a disenchantment which yet gives way to a mature sort of enchantment in this film. It's also about grieving, and learning how to find joy in the world again. And, of course, like all of Obayashi's films, it's also about life after the war, in ways both esoteric and obvious.
With respect to my letterboxd mutuals, I actually think that this film is a fine example of both Obayashi's style and his surrealism, although it's understated in comparison to his busiest work. A prime example, to me, is the weird and dreamy fever scene, when she wakes up, wandering out into the darkness amid shocks of red, before the light of the fire covers her improbably and she looks on, disbelieving. The core of all of Obayashi's style and surrealism is an effort to communicate the enchantment of the world, which Mari loses the feel for during the lion's share of this very sentimental and genuinely sad film.
Oh yeah, a little note. I have a friend from New Caledonia. I think he works in tech these days. I met him playing flash games in the 2000s!
Also, it has some of the greatest dissolves ever put on film, each of them lovingly crafted with a unique feel to them, which has to count for something.
"It's just like your father to die on us so suddenly like this. He was always so caught up in his fantasies, it was like he was already in the next world. But Mari, that's just what you needed in a father. Don't you think so?"
A really wonderful movie. Even with the very warm reception it has, I think it's underrated. Tomoyo Harada puts on what is generally a really great performance here, although second place goes to Toru Minegishi as an unlicensed tour guide who is initially, uh, looking for love in all the wrong places (thinking of wooing a sixteen-year-old). And let's not neglect Ryoichi Takayanagi, who starred opposite Tomoyo in The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, this time with a much happier ending for the two, I figure. It's a movie about the disenchantment of growing up, a disenchantment which yet gives way to a mature sort of enchantment in this film. It's also about grieving, and learning how to find joy in the world again. And, of course, like all of Obayashi's films, it's also about life after the war, in ways both esoteric and obvious.
With respect to my letterboxd mutuals, I actually think that this film is a fine example of both Obayashi's style and his surrealism, although it's understated in comparison to his busiest work. A prime example, to me, is the weird and dreamy fever scene, when she wakes up, wandering out into the darkness amid shocks of red, before the light of the fire covers her improbably and she looks on, disbelieving. The core of all of Obayashi's style and surrealism is an effort to communicate the enchantment of the world, which Mari loses the feel for during the lion's share of this very sentimental and genuinely sad film.
Oh yeah, a little note. I have a friend from New Caledonia. I think he works in tech these days. I met him playing flash games in the 2000s!
Also, it has some of the greatest dissolves ever put on film, each of them lovingly crafted with a unique feel to them, which has to count for something.
"It's just like your father to die on us so suddenly like this. He was always so caught up in his fantasies, it was like he was already in the next world. But Mari, that's just what you needed in a father. Don't you think so?"
