REVIEW: DVD Release: Time Traveller - The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
Film: Time Traveller - The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
Year of production: 2010
UK Release date: 2nd May 2011
Distributor: Manga
Certificate: 12
Running time: 122 mins
Director: Masaaki Taniguchi
Starring: Riisa Naka, Akinobu Nakao, Narumi Yasuda, Masanobu Katsumura, Kanji Ishimaru
Genre: Adventure/Drama/Romance/Sci-Fi
Format: DVD
Country of Production: Japan
Language: Japanese
Review by: Robyn Simmons
Time Traveller may be cinema’s fourth adaptation of Yasutaka Tsutsui’s novel, but it’s a first for Taniguchi. Strategically released in Britain just as the first English-language translation hits the bookshelves, the director’s debut sees a 21st century girl experience 1970s life. With a story that is doubtlessly familiar to many Japanese film and literature fans, was it really necessary for Taniguchi to send another teen back in time?
Akari (Riisa Naka) has just graduated from the same school that her mother, Dr Kazuko Yoshiyana (Narumi Yasuda), works at. Kazuko is a workaholic lab technician whose effort and experimenting pays off when she makes an astounding discovery; a potion that allows its drinker to cheat time. Before she can do anything about it, though, the single mum is knocked unconscious by a car.
Prior to the accident, she was given an old photograph from her student days; a picture of her and a boy called Kazuo and when, on the day of Akari’s 18th birthday, Kazuko awakens, he is the one thing on her mind. Inevitably, she has to see him again. Here lies Akari’s mission, but searching an entire country clearly isn’t problematic enough, she must search time as well because Dr Yoshiyana hasn’t seen Kazuo for over thirty years. Learning of her mother’s rather accidental invention, Akira is directed to the solution that will make her mammoth task possible.
Understandably, when she faithfully follows her instruction and finds herself in 1974, she is frantic; she has nowhere to live and no-one to turn to. Desperately opting for honesty with the first person she sees, she makes the acquaintance of dashing young filmmaker Ryota (Akinobu Nakao). Finally swayed by her amazing futuristic mobile phone, he relents and offers her a base at his student house where she does her best to fit in. As if overcoming a few decades difference isn’t traumatic enough, bumping into her relatives as teenagers leads to interesting situations; some more amusing than others. Managing to befriend her young mother (Kanji Ishimaru), Akira even gets the chance to observe the rise and fall of the relationship that resulted in her own existence. As she settles into a new life, her focus slips from the task at hand, especially since Kazuko proves so elusive and Ryota becomes more distracting than she anticipated…
The original story appeared as seven instalments during 1965 and 1966 in a student magazine, and with the help of his cast and writer, Tomoe Kanno, Taniguchi captures that youth market. The drama, angst, and gentle humour will go down immensely well with adolescent girls, although anyone else may be left rolling their eyes. To the typical teen, in fact, the entire story is likely to be highly engaging. With identifiable characters in familiar, emotion-packed situations, Time Traveller will satiate its target audience on plenty of levels.
Slick and seamlessly put together, Taniguchi’s first film has mainstream appeal that will suit the masses entirely. Admirably, the director and his team have achieved a commercial aesthetic that makes the adventure all the easier to watch. Sentimental reflection is made totally accessible and the editing team even get in some believable futuristic technologies. Whereas, given the science-fiction plot, Taniguchi could have made excessive demands of his special effects department - perhaps explaining the animated version of 1996 - he considerately spares them and the viewer an overwhelming visual explosion.
Instead, director and writer dwell on budget-friendly, thought-provoking affairs of the heart. By prioritising the universal themes of tears, tragedy and romance, they communicates an understanding of adolescent life that teen viewers will certainly empathise with, unfortunately at the sacrifice of the central idea.
The real story has nothing to do with locating Kuzuo, and the boy in the photograph fades into a ghost of a memory - and plot. Absent-mindedly overlooking the primary purpose of Akira’s adventure until the final forty minutes or so, the duo then make hurried attempts to cram in a conclusion. This awkward arrangement jars the audience and results in a prolonged climax that simply seems incidental and irrelevant. Adolescents may be fooled into thinking this is a mind-bendingly unique feat and Taniguchi may well impress his chosen market. His exploration of Tsutsui’s ideas adds additional layers which just might interest a more mature audience, too, but those looking for a challenge will not find it here.
Challenging or not, Taniguchi’s extracurricular studies surely suggest a budding director full of initiative. The unbalanced pace of Time Traveller demonstrates that although he has allowed himself to be side-tracked, at least it was by his own musings. To the less sympathetic, this is a frustrating fault demonstrating an unjustified weakness in consistency. Considering this is Taniguchi’s first, however, the more tolerant could forgive this.
Whether the latest rehash of Tsutsui’s story is necessary is simple: yes. It is necessary in order for Taniguchi to establish his bubbling potential, and it is a worthy addition to the teen movie market. With an endearing debut like Time Traveller, Taniguchi proves himself as an innovative director on the cusp of a lucrative career, but his film is more than that: it is a carefully crafted, albeit flawed effort which simply needed a stronger structure. RS
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