The Place Promised in Our Early Days (2004)

Dreaming of Other Worlds

After watching and thoroughly enjoying Shinkai Makoto's 5 Centimeters Per Second the other day, I decided to go in reverse order and watch all of his major films with The Place Promised in Our Early Days (2004) being up next. In many ways I found The Place Promised in Our Early Days to be similar to 5 Centimeters Per Second: they both deal with young love, separation from loved one, isolation, and an overall sense of melancholy that is infused within nearly every scene with sparks of happiness that only last for moments. However, a major difference between this film and 5 Centimeters Per Second is that technology plays a much heavier role and the Japan depicted in the film is quite different than the most recent film.

In 1974, The United States and the Union, most likely referring to the Soviet Union, waged war against each other with the result that the southern islands of Honshu, Kyushu, and Shikoku came under the Union and Hokkaido became knows as Ezo, an ancient named for Japan's northern most area. Like North and South Korea in our world, the South knows little about the North, and the Union makes no attempts to contact the South, but an uneasy peace has been established and the land has not known war for some 22 years.

The Place Promised in Our Early Days revolves around three friends: Fujisawa Hiroki, Shirakawa Takuya, and Sawatari Sayuri. Fujisawa and Shirakawa are both in the 8th grade, but have already shown great promise in the field of science and aerospace engineering. They have gained mastery of these areas so much in fact that they are refurnishing an old plane which they intend to fly to the Union Tower, a huge monolith that is so tall that it can be seen from Tokyo on clear days. Sayuri does not share the scientific genius of her two friends, but soon becomes keen on the idea of flying to the Union Tower and Ezo, a place where her grandfather was stranded after the split. However, the three friends never make the trip because Sayuri one day up and disappears. The next part of the film begins some three years later with Shirakawa working with the NSA while still attending high school in Aomori. Fujisawa has gone to Tokyo, but can only think of the missing Sayuri. The three friends are of course reunited, but not in the way they hoped and the silent Union Tower seems to be much more ominous than it had first appeared.

The Place Promised in Our Early Days is almost liked watching a "What If?" film depicting what would have happened if Japan had been split like Germany in a time when there was greater technology, and the Soviet Union had access to said technology with America lagging behind. Also, the film has a very interesting version of parallel worlds which makes this film viewer wonder if the director is a fan of the influential cotemporary writer Murakami Haruki. A fine, interesting animated film that can be enjoyed by both anime fans and non anime fans, The Place Promised in Our Early Days is highly recommended to those who like alternate history fiction and films. May 10, 2008

Quiet but forceful

Some other-world Japan has been split in two, like our world's Korea. War hasn't broken out yet, but everyone feels the impending, inevitable start of hostilities, as if war had some life of its own, independent of the humans who fight and die in it. Then, just across the border, the other side has erected a mysterious tower, a needle that pierces the sky.

This is the backdrop against which people live their lives and against which children go to school, with that silent, shining tower standing above them all. It's where three friends struggle towards adulthood, and see their struggles crushed under forces they can't control - but maybe ...

You'll have to see this for yourself. Science fiction elements contribute to this movie, but only as background. The story really revolves around the human need for a little beauty, friendship, and personal challenge in a world where such things become increasingly hard to find Although emotion gets a little overheated in one or two places, it's the personal drama that pulls the viewer in.

-- wiredweird January 19, 2008

Beyond the Clouds

Motoko Shinkai has been hailed as the greatest animation genius to come out of Japan since Miyazaki himself. He made his first widely hailed success on his iMac and did the voice-acting himself. It was called Voices of a Distant Star, at less than an hour in length, it was the greatest story of light-speed time-delay since Gunbuster, a Mecha sci-fi that focused on two (literally) star-crossed lovers and their battle against time and for the salvation of the human race, when all they really wanted was to be together. Every since that film, people have been clamoring for more of that magic. Well the day has come, complete with orchestral music, and a full motion-picture budget. Was the first feature-length vision of the great Shinkai worth waiting for? Yes indeed!

Voices of a Distant Star was an epic in miniature, a tale of love between the stars expressed through time and space on a cell phone (literally!). It struck a chord with myriads of fans across the globe by making the epic extremely personal, making us wonder if the love between two teenagers in the end might be more important than a war across the universe. No Shinkai again creates a deeply personal epic, but of a slightly different nature. Both films create an enormous feeling of lonliness as star-crossed loves drift apart and a quiet desperation sinks in, Voices was highly tragic, while the feeling this film conveys is more one of triumph and salvation, through the belief that there is still time to fulfill life's promises, and there is always the chance to start again.

At its outset the film introduces us to a world where Japan is divided much the way German once was, with the two sides locked in a cold war. On one side are two friends working to build their own aircraft (and the girl who fascinates them both). On the other side lies an immense tower that they want to reach with the plane they are building. It's a peaceful, beautiful, tranquil world, but flashes of future events fill one with a sense or foreboding, just before we fast-forward to a time of impending destruction...

The friends grow up and drift apart. One enters into research and the other goes to the city to study at a university. Here the differences in their personalities which were at first subtle now seem like night and day, as the more stoic and studious one is getting involved in the razer-edge political climate and the daydreamer finds himself in danger of completely losing his grip on reality. And that's where the real drama kicks in.

You see that mysterious tower is a weapon of mass destruction, capable of rewriting the world with an alternate one...one where there are no people. And somehow that tower is connected to the girl, who has fallen into a deep sleep. But like in Voices of a Distant Star, the real story is one of the connection between two people across time and space, and dimensions. Not long before I saw this film I had an idea. What if our dreams were really a portal to other dimensions? While the two friends are pursuing their destinies, the idealistic one starts to hear her calling to him from far far away, from the dimension where her mind is trapped while her body sleeps. She is all alone and desperately searching for him to save her. And the thought that speaks to me most, is one I see again and again in Japanese stories. Often those who seem weakest are really the strongest. This girl who is so mild, soft-spoken, sweet, and fragile. And the only thing between the world and total annihilation is her will holding back the tower...

As she starts to wake up, and the nations head toward all-out war, the friends must reunite, and decide the ultimate fate of the world, as one tries to save the girl he loves, and the other tries to save the world.

This film is one of the most beautiful I have ever seen in my life. Voices of a Distant Star was gorgeous, with orange and purple hues over everything making it a world of perpetual sunset. But that short film was made by one man on his iMac. This film was made by a team of animators with a real feature film budget. And it certainly shows. The animation is much higher quality, with less sill shots and more natural-looking characters. Each and every frame is a work of art, with everything bathed in a perpetual sunrise pallet of colors. On a good TV, particularly if you have a progressive-scan dvd player. The music too is quite beautiful, with the main violin theme being perhaps as memorable as the piano them from Voices. Even with the greatly upgraded visuals, you can still very clearly see the director's tradmark style. Often you see objects in close view or tremendous vitas, and the characters are part of the world rather than standing out from it.
There are shots where you seem to focus on some small detail such as reflections on a ceiling or glittering lights, the passing of shadows. It gives everything a very dreamlike storybook quality, and I have often thought that Shinkai has to be trying tell the story completely with the visuals, as if we should still understand the feelings, thoughts, and emotions of the characters even without words.

Some people might be turned down by some of the more hard sci-fi aspects, such as the talk about alternate dimensions, and the technobabble about building the plane. And doubtless some will grow bored with the slow pace of the film. But the narrative power of Shinkai's creations is hard to ignore, and the visual splendor presented is unsurpassed. This film is nothing short of a masterpiece. I can't wait for Shinkai's next film.
December 23, 2007

Beautiful and lush animation combined with superb storytelling

Makoto Shinkai's The Place Promised in Our Early Days takes place in the late 1990s in Japan in an alternate timeline. The story follows two boys (Hiroki and Takuya) who both like the same girl (Sayuri). At the beginning of the film, they areall 8th grade students. The boys find the remains of a drone plane, which they have named the Bella Ciela. They take part-time jobs at a factory, where their boss helps them scrounge for spare parts to rebuild the drone plane. The boys promise Sayuri that after the plane is rebuilt, they will take her to visit the mysterious tower on Hokkaido. However, before this happens, Sayuri mysteriously disappears.

It's three years later, and the boys have stopped working on the plane. One of them is now a student in Tokyo, while the other is working as a physicist. Meanwhile, Sayuri has been hospitalized due to an extreme form of narcolepsy. It is believed her condition has something to do with the tower on Hokkaido. Both of the boys learn what has happened to Sayuri, but have very different ideas what needs to be done. They need to decide whether it's more important to save Sayuri or save the world.

The animation in the film is lush and very realistic-looking. And the music perfectly portrays what happens in the film. This is a very touch and moving coming-of-age story. I recommend this film to anyone who enjoys character-driven anime drama. December 5, 2007

Beautiful, Poetic, and Moving visuals, but Bad Pacing Keeps this from Being Great

The Place Promised in Our Early Days plays a lot like what Voices of a Distant Star could have been had it been a full length film as opposed to a 23 minute short. Set in an alternate world where Japan has been split in two after the Second World War, the US controls the southern end, while a mysterious government known as the Union controls the north. Located in the north is the mystical Union Tower, an enormous structure jutting into the sky like a beam of light, a symbol of love and hate for those who gaze upon its magnificent height. This is the coming of age story of three middle school children Hiroki, Takuya, and Sayuri, who grew up their whole lives dreaming of visiting the tower and spent their time building an airplane in order to do just that.

The first thirty minutes of this film are very stunning, both visually and emotionally. It plays out almost exactly like Voices of a Distant Star does, with stunning animation, peaceful and touching music and the characters relationships with each other being the focus of the film. although the story itself doesn't stand up to scrawny and seems as if it were hacked together without much thought put into it, the combination of the visuals and the musical score are very moving. Few animes have actually wowed me with their animation, Spirited Away was one such movie; this took the cake. This movie has the most stunning animation I have ever seen in an animated film, bar none. its hard to explain with words just what I mean, the sun setting behind the glow of the Union Tower, far off streaks of light shining off an airplane, a small white dove flying in a cool breeze as trees sway around it, its all done with such dedication and detail that it left me speechless. Combined with one of the best soundtracks ever composed for a feature film and this movie have the power to bring people to tears on its sheer beauty alone. Could this be the new Miyazaki? I said no in my Voices of a Distant Star review, but if this is what this new director is capable of then he may be.

Unfortunately, this movies story is very hacked up, as if during many points of this film the director intended to end it and just decided to add more later. This movie has more endings then The Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King (Widescreen Edition). While I love the ending this movie had, the rest of the film didn't flow the way a feature length film should, it didn't transfer smoothly from one scene to the next; instead it simply ended a scene with a black screen, and started up somewhere else completely without setting up the next shot. This caused the story to feel clumsy, as if the director didn't know where he wanted to go or what he wanted to do once he got there. The middle part of this movie just sort of plods along without any real sense of direction. It's like he wanted to make a short film, like Voices of a Distant Star, but decided to stretch it out as far as he could. The movie really could have been half and hour, or more, shorter then it was. Not to say that most of it is filler, but if he managed to fit a story the size and scope of Voices into 23 minutes, then I'm sure he could have fit this movie into 40. Also, a lot of the movie is never really explained. What is the Union Tower exactly? What is the Union? Why is there such a desire for the two nations to go to war? All these questions are left unanswered at the end of the film. It is only when this film focuses mainly on the story instead of on creating beautiful images and developing its characters that it gets dull. there really isn't much story to hold this movie together during its slower and less grand moments, which becomes a problem 3/4ths of the way though when the story takes front stage in all its hacked up glory. Fortunately, the director seems to know this and keeps the story in the background as much as possibly, only bringing it into focus when he needs to get the characters from point A to point B.

What saves this movie from being nothing more then a good looking and sounding mess (like Akira (Special Edition)) was the relationships between the characters involved. Much like in Voices, this story is a romance of sorts but doesn't fall into the "chick flick" category. It's about the love three friends have for each other, and the length they were willing to go for each other in order to fulfill a promise they made while still little kids. It's very interesting to watch how each slowly fell into depression and felt like their lives were losing meaning when they weren't with each other. When one of themes disappears, they lose their dreams, ambitions, and slowly drift apart. Like any good piece of fiction, the characters are what make this movie so touching.

If you enjoyed Voices of a Distant Star, then you will enjoy The Place Promised in Our Early Days. Its visuals, characters, and soundtrack make this movies a must see for sure, but its hacked up story prevents it from being a truly great film. If this director can learn how to write a story that can match up with his amazing animation, then watch out world, anime might very well have a new director to take the place of the great Miyazaki when he finally retires. I look forward to seeing more movies by this upcoming guineas.

Re-play value; high. December 4, 2007

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