Review for The Shinkai Collection (Review)
Friday, 16th December 2011, 14:52

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Introduction
The Place Promised In Our Early Days

It was an idyllic summer for school friends Hiroki, Takuya, and Sayuri. They were growing up in an alternate post-war Japan where North and South had been sundered by US and Union forces, and the prospect of war always loomed high. But there was something about that perfect summer in Middle School that was just special. Hiroki and Takuya got part time jobs assembling missiles in a factory, but their real dream was to build and fly an aeroplane. They spent all their free time working on the project, and when Sayuri found out, she supported them in their dream. This urge to fly was inspired by the constant vision of the Tower. An edifice reaching high up to the stars on the Union island of Ezo, what was once called Hokkaido. No one knew exactly what its purpose was, but it was visible, even as far away as Tokyo. Hiroki promised Sayuri that once the plane was completed, they would fly together to the Tower. Then one day, Sayuri didn't come, and she was never heard from again.

Three years pass, and the tensions between North and South increase. Takuya now works in a research facility, and knows more about the Tower than flying past it could ever have revealed. Both sides are engaged in a new kind of arms race, and with the Tower, the Union side has had a major head start. Takuya is working with the team that is trying to catch up. Hiroki on the other hand simply started high school in Tokyo, and tried in vain to put that summer behind him. But he's haunted by the past, haunted by Sayuri, and haunted by the promise that he couldn't keep. The researchers may have made a breakthrough though. There's a girl comatose in a Tokyo hospital, whose dreams seem connected to the Tower and understanding why may give the North the edge. She's Sayuri of course, who fell asleep three years ago, never to wake up. In her dreams, she's been reaching out to Hiroki, and he comes to realise that only by fulfilling the promise will she wake up. But Takuya learns that if she wakes up, it may mean disaster for them all.

Picture
The Place Promised In Our Early Days gets a 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer, which given that this is an older release is an NTSC-PAL standards conversion. There are no issues with overscan here, and the image stretches to the edges of the screen. Shinkai's films aren't known for their darker scenes, so ghosting and judder rarely becomes an issue, although there is the occasional blended frame. The image is clear throughout, and Shinkai's fantastic colour palette comes to the fore. It's a little soft, but not excessively so, and given the tone of the film, a little softness to the image is actually appropriate. You can see the same directorial flair displayed in Voices of a Distant Star carried through here. The use of colour, of light, and brightness and unconventional framing is truly breathtaking. But you can also see the steps forward in the quality of the film, detail and resolution is greater, the animation is much more robust, and character designs aren't as flat, and while exhibiting Shinkai's style, are also a little more conventional when it comes to anime.

Sound
No problems at all with the audio thankfully, and you get a couple of very pleasant DD 5.1 audio tracks, English and Japanese. Given that this is a film that has a fair bit of action in between the melancholy, the soundstage is well used in bringing out the discrete audio placement. Tenmon's music is once more gentle and anthemic.  A feature of Shinkai's films is that he doesn't normally cast the typical voice actors in his main roles, rather he goes for actors from other disciplines such as television or live action film, and that difference does tell in the Japanese dub. Not so in the English dub, which is typical ADV, easy to listen to, but not quite on the same level as the Japanese. Subtitles and a signs only track are provided, and other than the odd typo, are fine to read.

Extras
You get a nice set of animated menus, but the significant extras on this disc comprise the interviews with the cast and the director. You can select from Masato Hagiwara (Takuya) 11 mins, Hidetaka Yoshioka (Hiroki) 10 mins, Yuuka Nanri (Sayuri) 12 mins, and director Makoto Shinkai, who speaks for 12½ minutes. You can learn a lot about the characters and the actors' experiences in recording the roles. There's much about the film, and Shinkai talks about the making of the film, and working as part of a collaborative effort for a change.

You'll also find the Special Preview, Full Length, and Web trailers for The Place Promised In Our Early Days.

Finally there are ADV trailers for Voices of a Distant Star, Last Exile, Kino's Journey, Area 88, and Yugo The Negotiator.

Conclusion
I now have a favourite Shinkai movie, although given that I have thus far only seen three films from a total output of four, that's hardly an unqualified pronouncement. All of Shinkai's films explore common themes of separation, loss and regret. It's all about the flavour of emotion, intense melancholy, infusions of nostalgia, all of which comes through with the measured pace of the storytelling, the introspection, self analysis and narrative of the main characters, and the rich, ideal world imagery. It seemed like a new way of doing things in Voices of a Distant Star, and it reaches an emotional pinnacle in 5 Centimeters Per Second, but in The Place Promised In Our Early Days, with its sci-fi storyline, it has a grand and panoramic scope that takes the breath away. This is a film so beautiful that it hurts the eyes. The reason why this film is my favourite, is that given Shinkai's exploration of separation, loss and regret, this film is the closest that you get to a happy ending.

Once again however, it's a case where the sentiment of the piece overwhelms the narrative. It's a film that tells its emotional arc first and foremost, and the narrative, the ideas and concepts behind the story are only there to motivate that arc. If you're switched on to the story more than the characters, you may scratch your head at one or two whopping great loose ends, but if instead you are invested in the journey that Hiroki, Sayuri and Takuya take, then the warm glow that the film leaves you with will lift you no end.

Despite this, Early Days still has the strongest narrative of the three films that I have seen, and the most compelling of the sci-fi concepts used in Shinkai's films. The alternate history Japan has just enough of a twisted sideways design ethic to make it stand in contrast against the real world, and just as I recognised elements of Distant Star in Fumihiko Sori's To, I was tickled by the echoes I saw of The Wings of Honneamise. This film too pits hopeless idealism against harsh reality, leading to a conclusion that takes place against the background of war. The idea of Sayuri's three year long slumber reminded me a little of the 'Standstills' of Please Teacher, while the central conceit of the Tower and the arms race between the North and South had touches of Noein to it. But just like Voices of a Distant Star, and it's Twin Paradox storyline, this film uses its building blocks to tell the emotional journey of its characters, and you never really get too involved with the mechanics of its concepts, or overwhelmed by jargon. You'll be too misty eyed before it even becomes an issue.

The Voices of a Distant Star disc may have its issues, but The Place Promised In Our Early Days more than makes up for it. It's a peach of a film, a reminder that cinema is a visual and aural medium first and foremost, and that film can affect you on a far more fundamental and basic level that narrative and story alone ever can.

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