The End of the World

[OAVs, Movies and Full Series]

The Place Promised in Our Early Days

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Makoto Shinkai]

I could have done an ‘easy’ review today but I felt like a challenge. Like my Haibane Renmei review the other day, this is a piece of anime that I find damned hard to review in any sort of objective way (what you are about to read took over a week); I even made a point of watching Byousoku 5cm to get a clearer idea of where this film stands today as part of Shinkai’s body of work, hoping it would help me and also make this post relevant to the time of writing. I think it can be argued that The Place Promised…’s successor is more sophisticated and ‘grown-up’ but I still have what I can only describe as a sentimental attachment to this one. It isn’t a perfect film, it isn’t even his best and it lacks certain elements that its successor - and predecessor - have, but I’ll get to those in a minute. It is, however, still special and moving enough for me to comment on it at excessive length.

I don’t even need to outline how good this movie looks - after all, Makoto Shinkai made his name through making Voices of a Distant Star, a film he animated almost on his own that still looked gorgeous so I guess everyone expects this to be a work of art in that sense. The Place Promised… is an evolution of Voices…, but crucially his style has been maintained even with the fuller roll-call of production staff who took a share of the workload and influence over how the end product would look. The motifs, the character designs, even Tenmon’s involvement with the musical score (I’d like to draw attention to that plaintive violin piece in particular) are familiar; this still feels like Shinkai’s movie, just on a larger scale. Simulated lens flares, sweeping landscapes, it’s all everything you’d expect it to be: beautiful. As in, capture a random screenshot, frame it and hang it on your living room wall kind of beautiful.

Because its running time is that of a fully-fledged feature film, it has opportunity to properly introduce characters and their respective situations - it’s built along a timeline in which events can unfold and progress; unlike Voices…, which was formed around a single and not particularly linear idea, it takes the viewer on a journey. On the downside, the feelings you experience are diluted, as it were: Voices… is memorable to me because it’s a short, sweet, compact shot to the heart. If that was the demo tape, this is the full LP which allows the vision of its creator to be realised more fully but requires a bit of patience; patience that is of course ultimately rewarded.

I loved the way in which it shows people form friendships, share dreams only to drift apart later on and experience the heartache that goes with it; it’s portrayed with brilliant imagery, loving attention to detail and an unhurried pace that gives the viewer time to take in and inwardly digest the significance of events. Those extended background sequences are used here for this purpose; often including Shinkai’s trademark sunsets, thry give the viewer ample time for reflection. Although the ‘new Miyazaki’ label really is innacurate and a disservice to both directors, the technical talent for almost-photorealistic backgrounds would *hypothetically* have its creator on Studio Ghibli’s employ in a heartbeat. The art style is unique and quite frankly without parallel right now but what matters is that Shinkai uses these techniques to such great effect.

Without character development of course, all this would be a hollow and futile venture. The bond between Hiroki and Takuya is shown right from the outset as they share schoolroom banter and heartfelt secrets in a way that only close friends can; despite the appearances of harmony that exist when the two of them hang out with Sayuri, there’s the ominous feeling that three’s a crowd. When this could fall into the love triangle cliche, it provides something more interesting: two friends who must resolve their differences to save a person who is precious to both, but precious in a different way for each of them. A potential sticking point is how Sayuri’s character is asleep for quite a bit of the film so is unable to take an active part in influencing the film’s course. The science fiction/fantasy theme of parallel universes and dreams comes into play here, adding as Shinkai did with Voices…, a fantastical element to a very down-to-earth tale; here, a character is trapped, alone and in need of rescuing.

And therein lies what I can see as the movie’s only flaw. The viewer’s empathy with them requires plot points that echo our own life experiences very closely; this could be hampered by unfamiliar concepts or events that may confuse or distract those expecting a purely drama-driven piece that is firmly rooted in reality. Would these elements prevent a viewer from being able to relate to their own life experiences (if you’re confused, check out a fellow blogger’s astute observation of this problem)? Would those outside of anime and sci-fi fandom circles, who are used to movies with parallel universes and whatnot, see it as a film that still exhibits the perceived anime quirks of colouring a movie’s narrative with technobabble? Of course, eliminating the Tower, Sayuri’s sleeping sickness and so on will take out a lot of the story so there’s not much that can be done without essentially turning it into a different film altogether. It’s strange, but if I hadn’t seen Byousoku 5cm to compare, this nagging doubt would never have occured to me (if I hadn’t read Owen’s post either, it still may not have. Cheers for that, pal :p) -I now believe that Shinkai is a master at evoking sympathy for his characters but this time around, it may not extend as far as empathy.

This one negative factor may be offputting for some but for me it isn’t a big deal, which may explain why it’s still in my top ten. The ending in particular is one of my favourites too - I’m not ashamed to admit it brought me to tears on my first viewing (thank heavens I was in a dimly-lit cinema at the time) and still gets me every time I watch it. It’s the double-whammy of seeing Sayuri realise what she has lost but also what she is able to gain from here on which makes it a deliberately open ending but also one filled with hope for the future. This movie is certainly unusual but is also wistful, nostalgic, heart-rending and very personal. I still love it.

[Filed under OAVs, Movies and Full Series]  [Tags: Makoto Shinkai]

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