**Reposted from my Tumblr, elizas-writing, as of December 6th, 2018**
I’m jumping around a lot this month in the order of directors’ work, and today I’m finishing up the Makoto Shinkai films on my list with his first feature-length project: The Place Promised in Our Early Days. As expected from Shinkai, it’s absolutely beautiful with an ambitious story of symbolism and complex relationships. But how well is it executed?
In an alternate universe, the end of World War II saw Japan being split between the United States and the Soviet Union. The Soviet-occupied Ezo (formerly Hokkaido) also began constructing a mysterious tower which by 1996 was tall enough to be seen all the way from Tokyo. Meanwhile, two middle school students, Hiroki and Takuya, grow curious of the tower and hope to learn more about it by repairing a crashed drone plane and flying to it someday. Along the way, they befriend a classmate, Sayuri, who joins in on their mission to fly to the tower. But before the plane is finished, Sayuri mysteriously disappears, and the boys abandon their project and separate on different life paths. Three years later as Japan is about to be thrown into war once again, Hiroki and Takuya cross paths again upon realizing Sayuri may be the key to the tower and saving the world.
Sounds like a lot for an hour and a half movie, huh? And unfortunately, it’s the biggest problem; there’s so much going on, but there isn’t enough time to digest. The exposition of the alternate universe almost goes over your head unless you read the summary before watching the film. Some of the concepts and themes don’t seem to blend well at all either. There’s some interesting parts about dreams and parallel dimensions which almost seem like something from Your Name when it comes to relationships and growing up. But all the international conflict and war stuff feels underdeveloped and just tacked on to add tension; it feels like two different movies. Even the relationship of the main three characters is disjointed and jumps all over the place. I honestly forgot the odd trajectory it went on.
As Shinkai at the time only worked on shorts and OVAs, he didn’t have the proper narrative pacing down just yet. You can see the germ of the ideas and tropes he would follow in later films, but it’s still choppy pacing, even with some great intense emotional moments. Like any great Shinkai film, it makes up for lacking story or logic with emotion and imagery.
Even for 2004, this is still fantastic animation and backgrounds with crisp and vivid details. This movie specializes in simple lighting effects to drive the shifting tone between depression and nostalgia. There’s surprisingly very little variety in color– most of it is gray shadows and warm sunsets, the latter which Shinkai always does perfectly.
And like I said before, the parts where it focuses on the main three growing up without each other and abandoning childhood dreams is where the film is most fascinating and driven by simplistic emotions of the anxieties of growing up and losing that sense of wonder. I just wish the rest of the film was like that and didn’t throw too much complicated crap in the plot. It either needed to branch off into two different films or be longer to flesh out all the elements properly.
The Place Promised in Our Early Days isn’t perfect, but for Shinkai’s first feature-length film, it’s still an impressive work to be appreciated and see where his career really took off. Great music, gorgeous animation, and coming-of-age themes which would follow through in future projects. Take it for what it is, and experience it for yourself.
Eliza Vs. The World 