This movie has been playing in the Indonesian theaters since last 2 weeks but I did not know what the story was all about and I had no rush to watch it. But then I saw some news/information on the internet that the movie seemed to be creating a lot of interests. So on Saturday I had made plan to watch it in Cinemaxx FX which played the movie only at 4.30 PM and 9PM. But due to some last minute change of plan, I had to do it only on Sunday. I was a bit doubtful about going due to the heavy rain after I watched Fallen earlier, however I thought that if I did not watch it then, there would be high probability I would not had the will to go and see this. So finally I reached the location almost at 4PM and to my surprise, the movie was almost fully packed. Since I was alone (my wife was having a nice event to Bali for few days), it was easier for me to pick a seat of my choosing. Lucky there was still 1 seat available on the top row. Well let's get on to the movie now.
Brief Story Line
The movie was about two high school students who lived apart but always felt that they were looking for someone or something in their lives. The first one was a boy named Taki (voiced by Ryunosuke Kamiki - Spirited Away) who was living in Tokyo with his father and had two best friends in school Tsukasa and Shinta. He was quite a short tempered boy but had a good heart and he also worked part time at an Italian restaurant where he had a crush on a more mature and sophisticated co-worker simply called Ms. Okudera (voiced by Masami Nagasa - Our Little Sister etc). Taki always believed that his life started to change after the comet shower he had seen earlier.
Meanwhile the other was a girl named Mitsuha (voiced by Mone Kamishiraisi) who was living in a small town in the rural area called Itomori with her younger sister named Yotsuha and Hitoha their grandmother. They were all being taught by the grandmother a lot about their family tradition (which Mitsuha did not really enjoy and felt a bit ashamed of doing that). In fact Mitsuha was really bored with her lives in Itomori which she also shared the feeling with her two best friends, Katsuhiko (voiced by Ryo Narita) and Sayaka (voiced by Aoi Yūki).
One night, Mitsuha, with her being a teenager, felt a bit embarrassed after having had to do a traditional Japanese dance/ritual and was made fun by her other school friends. She made a wish that she could be a handsome boy living in Tokyo in her next life. It seemed that something really happened as one morning, waking up, Taki somehow was in Mitsuha's body while Mitsuha also wake up in Taki's body. So they somehow switched bodies but both of them always thought that they were dreaming when this happened. This was where the story became funny and interesting, as Mitsuha being in Taki's body did a lot of things that only a girl would do and vice versa.
However, Mitsuha did manage to make Taki acquire the attention of Ms. Okudera who he had a crush on, while Taki also managed to make Mitsuha become more popular at school since she was not really liked due to her father being the mayor of the city. They finally realized also that their dreams were real and started to leave notes to each other on their handphones/notebooks or anything for the others to know what they did.
As you would have guessed, it seemed that both of them finally had feelings for each other. So what would happen with those two? Could they found each other? It would be a lot more complicated as they would find out soon enough, especially when they could not even remember each other's name. So please watch out till the completion of this lovely, nice, fantasy, romantic animated Japanese movie.
End of Brief Story Line
You know what? I was totally satisfied that I did go on and watch this movie yesterday. I would have "cursed" myself for not doing it had I known that this movie was so good. After watching it, I really had some nice feeling and I thought the fully packed audience were very appreciative coz majority of them also clapped their hands at the conclusion of the film. There were quite a lot of Japanese watching it as well, which I think was due to the word of mouth from their home town (the movie was a huge success by the way in Japan). It even was going to be shortlisted as one of the nominee for Oscar in best animated feature.
Anyway, the movie had an interesting story. It may not be a real original story as there might be some other movies of body switching, but they combined it with something else, which was part of the surprising twist in the middle of the story. I would not tell you what it was as I would rather have you see and experienced my surprise. In addition, the animation was beautiful, especially the sceneries of Itomori city and Tokyo. They were so lovely and made me really want to see the real location. The movie also showed some original Japanese tradition of creating kuchikamizake.
In addition to the above, the movie was also filled with few songs which were nice to hear (though I could not understand any word they said). I have browsed and found out that the songs were all sung by a Japanese rock band named Radwimps. This movie was not a 3D animated, but instead it's in 2D animation or called anime. It was also adapted from the popular novel with the same name written by Makoto Shinkai. There was 1 or 2 scenes which I thought may not be suitable for children to see, so I guess this movie should be categorized for teenagers and above.
With the lovely and interesting story, beautiful animation, cool soundtrack and the happy feeling you would have after watching this movie, I would highly recommend to watch this one. It was no longer playing in a lot of theaters and be reminded that it was only playing in Cinemaxx and CGV Blitz cinema chains. So it would probably be best if you watch it now while it is still have some legs. Not sure about this week or even next, when Rogue One: A Star Wars Story hit the theater on Wednesday.
Happy watching!
Mike's movie moments rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
No comments:
Post a Comment