The Place Promised in Our Early Days
Posted by Skrud at Sunday, July 31st 2005 at 2:49am
The Place Promised in Our Early Days (雲のむこう、約束の場所) was a bit of a weird one. I can’t really tell you what I liked or didn’t like about it – and I can’t decide whether or not I liked the movie as a whole. The first half of the movie was entirely normal. As normal as I could possibly imagine. It was still interesting, but didn’t offer anything particularly special. This does have the effect of placing increased emphasis on the unusual things that are to follow.
The story takes place in an “alternate” history setting following WWII, where the island of Hokkaido is separated from Japan and is called “Ezo” (I think). There is a weird, impossibly tall tower that extends from Ezo and this piques the curiosity of two young boys who build a plane to try and reach it. Most of the movie follows their lives as they build the plane over their summer vacation, until the necessary female falls into a coma and then their paths diverge. Once the suspense had gained a critcial mass of momentum, as pieces of the story’s puzzle fall into place and the greater weirdness is revealed, The Place Promised in Our Early Days starts to feel triumphant and powerful.
So in the end I enjoyed it a lot, despite some mixed feelings I had initially.
I would say the film is rather “real”. It doesn’t mess with you emotionally by conventional predictable means, but rather in ways that are so everyday and realistic, you need to identify with it. I’m not sure either what I feel about that.
However, I think anyone who has seen it can say hands down some of the best artwork around. Wow.
I have to agree this movie is amazing. I watched it once but when i saw this post i thought
i'll watch that againand here i am posting this fresh after watching it a second time :)Hi, Could I ask you for specific irc channels on Rizon for MV’s? I’m searching for Japanese and Korean Music Videos. Thought you would know.