雲のむこう、約束の場所

KUMO NO MUKOU, YAKUSOKU NO BASHO

MOVIE

MOVIE
Dubbed
SOURCE
ORIGINAL
RELEASE
November 20, 2004
LENGTH
90 min

DESCRIPTION

In an alternate timeline, Japan was divided after losing World War II: Hokkaido was annexed by "Union" while Honshu and other southern islands were under US sovereignty. A gigantic yet mysterious tower was constructed at Hokkaido and could be seen clearly from Aomori (the northernmost prefecture of Honshu) across Tsugaru Strait. In the summer of 1996, three 9th-graders had made a promise that one day they'll build an aircraft and unravel the tower's mystery, but their project was abandoned after the girl, Sayuri Sawatari, began experiencing sleeping sickness and transferred to Tokyo for better treatment. Three years later, Hiroki Fujisawa accidentally found out that Sayuri had been in a coma since then, and he asked Takuya Shirakawa to help him finding a way to revive her. What they don't know yet is that Sayuri's unconsciousness is somehow linked with secrets of the tower and the world.

(Source: Anime News Network)

CAST

Sayuri Sawatari
Yuuka Nanri
Hiroki Fujisawa
Hidetaka Yoshioka
Takuya Shirakawa
Masato Hagiwara
Okabe
Unshou Ishizuka
Maki Kasahara
Risa Mizuno

RELATED TO KUMO NO MUKOU, YAKUSOKU NO BASHO

Cover Art for Kumo no Mukou, Yakusoku no Basho

MANGA DramaKumo no Mukou, Yakusoku no Basho

REVIEWS

pointydelta
78/100
Sliding effortlessly between reality and and dreams, this early effort is hit and miss - but its hits are impressive.
Here be spoilers.
_"Though it's just a memory, some memories last forever."_ _Lakeside Park_, Rush
What connects people through time? Here's a suggestion: memories. Memories of the days you spent together, right? If I look at a photo on the mantel of my friends from high school, a lot of things flash into my mind - and most of them are memories. Makoto Shinkai is a filmmaker very much concerned with memory, and connection. This movie's an exploration of those basic themes. But also at stake are things like the interaction between friendship and time. Things like longing, and things like love. Make no mistake, this is an emotionally mature movie.

And, I think, one worth watching. By the end of this review, I hope that you'll agree with me. And if you don't? Oh well. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

"I always have the feeling that I'm about to lose something" - Story and Characters

The story, such as it is, is frequently confused, but always minimally comprehensible. It may have been just me, and I suspect it was at least slightly contributed to by the insufficient character designs, but at times I forgot who the two main male characters were, or confused them for the other. With that said, the best part of this movie, by far, is the first thirty minutes or so, before the time-skip.

I want to be clear: this movie's biggest shortcoming, by far, is its characters. If you cannot tell two of the main characters apart, that is a serious problem. Especially when there's only three. I appreciate the attempt to keep the setting grounded by not surrendering to the temptation to have wacky character designs, but given that the setting is hard sci-fi, every other line is technobabble, and the plane looks like it should be completely unable to fly (especially because there are modern plane designs as well), this is perhaps an acceptable line to cross.

The first part of this movie is fantastically atmospheric and evocative, and it's somewhat of a let-down to see it collapse to a sort of generic sci-fi plot near the middle. Near the end, though, there's some wonderful sound design and cutting to underscore the climax of the movie, and in the middle there's a dream sequence between (I think) Hiroki and Sayuri where their hands touch in a manner which will remind anyone who's seen Your Name of that movie's climatic Katawaredoki scene, which is exceptional, if not quite as good as Your Name's iteration on it.

On the whole, I'd say the story does what it needs to in this movie. It's not boring by any means, but it's definitely slow-paced, and not as tight as some of Shinkai's later work. However, it delivers the characters to the situations and backgrounds where Shinkai's real expertise shines, and I'm always impressed by Shinkai's eye for the quiet little moments in the middle of celestial beauty.

Thematically, it's fine, I guess. Shinkai does literally spell out that the Tower represents what people want, which would have been best left silent since it was extremely obvious from the shot framing and the way in which it's referred to in the dialogue.

"The scent of a different universe" - Art, Animation, Direction

This is a very red movie, as opposed to Shinkai's usual blue or green. That's because the sun seems to always be setting (when it's not straight overhead), which lends a rather sad feeling to the whole piece, and a sense of ineluctable slipping from connection. There's less control over colour as there might be in some of Shinkai's later work, but there's still some very impressively composed shots, mainly with some sort of celestial beauty behind, with the characters in the bottom third of frame.

That kind of composition is common to almost all of Shinkai's work, and it always serves the function of minimising the characters and foregrounding the backgrounds - a wise choice, when you're as good as backgrounds as Shinkai is. Makoto Shinkai's strength as a filmmaker has always been how good he is at establishing tone, and the set of moody and wide-angle shots that he strings together to evoke youth are very impressively done. Whilst there's slight overuse of fade transitions, it's hard to deny the nostalgic beauty and slight tinges of magical realism to the early shots in the movie, especially those involving the tower.

The best part of this film, as I said earlier, is definitely the first part of it, where all these strengths congeal together to create a feeling of longing that anchors the rest of the movie in reality.

The character animation sometimes leaves a little to be desired, but there are some very solid wave and explosion effects, and it's definitely a lot better than some of Shinkai's other work, and characters have very defined visual personalities.

Tangent: I really enjoyed the visual quote of a shot from End of Evangelion near the very end. You'll know what it is when you see it.

"Those words had a strange effect on me."- Music and Sound

Sound ranges from sometimes slightly undermixed, with soundscapes that feel a little flat, to very good. Especially excellent is the way Shinkai's mixing creates a feeling of detachment in the better scenes earlier and later, where things that should be very quiet are loud and things that are loud quiet - a way of reinforcing the ethereally unreal tone he's after.

Tenmon's soundtrack is mostly just "OK", but there's a heartbreaking little scene set to a (technically diagetic?) violin piece where we cut rapidly though an empty school, and it's hard not to feel a little surge of shivers down the spine as the piece swoops and soars. Ai Kawashima's closing song (which also plays over the last few minutes) is pretty good, although it hasn't become as popular as some of the other songs Shinkai's put in his movies. It's an emotionally fraught final 10 minutes, punctuated well by the insert song.

Shinkai has always had a good sense for rhythm in his movies, specifically the rhythm between dialogue, cuts, and the music. That shouldn't be suprising since he's often maligned as a "music video director", but it serves him well here.

"...as long as I don't lose those memories, I think I might be able to keep a grip on reality in the future." - Final Thoughts

This movie, unlike any other in Shinkai's ouevre, really highlights where he's strong. It also highlights where he's weak. Where he's strong: in constructing tone and atmosphere, and setting up for one perfect little moment with the interaction of light, framing, backgrounds and plot. Where he's weak: the dialogue is pretty clunky at times, he's weak in establishing character (less recently), and he's weak in setting up a plot that fundamentally you buy into.

But in this movie, as opposed to some others (Children Who Chase Lost Voices), the scales are tipped, I think, toward "good". This is a good movie, but because Shinkai's weaknesses are (a) foregrounded and (b) not as alleviated as elsewhere, it's not as good as it could be. But it is a movie that is worth watching, not only if you are a Shinkai fanatic, but also if you want to see what is more or less an elementally moving story.

Because the last shot, near the end, where Hiroki walks away from the crumbling Tower as Ai Kawashima's voice rings out over Tenmon's gentle strings and piano notes, is exquisitely, and genuinely, touching.

"No matter how far I walk, nobody appears."

- Pointy
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