The Place Promised in Our Early Days Film Review

Makoto Shinkai is a terrific storyteller who through animation is able to engender powerful emotions in his audience and his animation is a thing of beauty. The other two that I have seen of his - Your Name and Weathering with You - were remarkable and that is not something I say about anime very often. They captivated me. All of his anime films though seem to center around teenagers - a Japanese compulsion in the world of anime for reasons that I am not sure of - innocence, sexuality? The adult world rarely seems to be of interest. This first feature of his brings on feelings of longing, loss and yearning. It does it within a narrative that I found more than a little confusing and in reading other reviews, I get the sense than I am not the only one. Was it needed? The heart of the film is about three friends who grow apart - all the sci-fi and fantasy around it basically just detracts from that.

It is set in an alternative history in which Japan has been divided into two - North and South - with the USA dominating the South and Russia occupying the North. In the South two high school friends - Hiroki and Takuya - are re-building a plane in their spare time. They hope that someday they can fly it to the Tower that is situated in the North. This Tower stretches up into the clouds and is a thing of mystery and suspicion. Over time the two boys include the schoolgirl Sayuri into the group and promise to take her along with them when they fly it. Both boys seem a little enamored with Sayuri who is innocent and adorable. Lazy summer days go by as the three friends work and play. The she vanishes. Without a word.

She turned out to be the glue that was holding them all together and the two boys graduate, lose interest in the plane and move to Tokyo. But lose touch with each other - Hiroki goes to study while Takuya joins a military think and research institute. And here is where the film's narrative began to leave me in the dust. The institute is studying parallel universes and the Tower which seems to be accumulating material from the parallel universes. And Sayuri is the key. She has been asleep for years and her dreams have some connection with all of this. And Hiroki's dreams are connecting with hers. A little mystifying for me. But Mokoto brings it all back together in the end that is a powerful ode to friendship.