The Dimension Travelers
Director: Kazuya Konaka
Year: 1998
Duration: 92 minutes
Based on a novel by Tako Mayumura, this film
feels as if it is trying much too hard to squash all of the book’s contents
into a small box and the result is a confusing mishmash that never really
comes together or makes much sense. The director needed to slow down and
flesh out some of the many jumps in time and geography that take place
because they simply become a blur after a while and leave your head spinning
like a top. Still, this is light sci-fi malarkey that engages the viewer
on a television show level due to the pleasing performances of its two
main actresses. Underneath the narrative and slight special effects, one
senses that the director is attempting to say something mildly serious
but little of this ever surfaces.
The film initially looks to be another exploration
into the world of girls at school and the baggage of cliques and status
that they carry around with them until it swooshes off into an entirely
different direction. Midori (Chiharu Niiyama – “Juon – The Grudge 2” and
“Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah”) pretends to be part of a group of four
female friends but in truth can’t stand their sniping ways and would like
nothing better than to shoot them, but in high school we need all the allies
we can get. She lives in New Town – a collection of faceless apartment
buildings – and one day she spots a new girl moving into the complex. Her
first sighting of Mayumi (Yasue Sato – “Bounce Ko Gals”) is nearly otherworldly
as the sun catches her in a way that makes this long-necked swan like creature
seem magical and translucent. It turns out that they are in the same class
and Midori soon becomes so fascinated by this girl that she begins to ignore
her friends. Midori is also in love with Yamazawa (Masaaki Takari), a boy
who seems to show little interest in her. Then the strangeness begins.
Mayumi explains that she is a dimension traveler
and is able to jump between different worlds. She came to this world when
her other world was facing destruction from a nuclear satellite that was
about to crash back – in fact every world she has lived in has eventually
been destroyed. After having her head hit by a falling book, Midori too
begins shifting between dimensions as well and wakes to find that she has
gone into another dimension where she has been committed to a mental institution
and Yamazawa is in the room next door. She is then suddenly back in her
own world again but begins this jumping around without even trying to do
so - and in one world she and Mayumi are freedom fighters against the oppression
of the government. This back and forth shifting continues until it seems
as if these dimensions are beginning to collide and become intermixed and
their current world is in danger of being destroyed.
In the end, one is never entirely sure whether
what they have viewed is to be taken at face value or whether it might
be a dream after Midori was struck by the book ala The Wizard of Oz – or
perhaps the “real” part of the film is with Midori in an asylum and everything
else is simply her insane imaginings. This last option has a dark echo
to it that I appreciate and would at least tie the film together. Chiharu
Niiyama appears to be quite the idol with numerous fan sites loaded with
pictures devoted to her. Yasue Sato who entered into the collective film
consciousness with her quirky steps across the gym floor in the opening
of “Bounce Ko Gals” has been nearly absent from the film scene since these
two movies though she has also released some music and been in some TV
shows. Other credits of hers that I can find is a film called “Yes,I am
Mr. Moumantai” (1999)an apparent Japanese-Hong Kong collaboration that
also stars Francis Ng and Sammo Hung and she is in the 2004 film “Ultraman
Nexus”.
My rating for this film: 5.5