Review of The Place Promised in Our Early Days (2004) by Eric J — 30 Mar 2008
RATING (0 to ****): **1/2.
Apparently praised in the anime community as "the next Miyazaki", Makoto Shinkai has made waves with such films as "Voices of a Distant Star", "5 Centimeters Per Second", and this one- his feature-length debut "The Place Promised in Our Early Days". The most certain thing I can say about it is that it's one that you'll need to watch at least twice just to absorb the information supplied by this sometimes-obscure and dense film.
Unfortunately, that's part of the problem; established initially as a sentimental story framed by a global conflict but centered on a common three-person friendship, Shinkai's film floats adrift when it decides to focus on anything but our main characters. It's a shame, since it does have some incredible scenes based on sheer visceral impact- one such scene being in a dream sequence, when at the moment two hands come together, a desolate hospital room vanishes into light with a new, dreamy sunset. The ending is similarly incredible, although unnecessarily underplayed, shows what the film could have been.
[on the DVD: I do these evaluations frequently with anime, and this is often because I remain unsatisfied. ADV's treatment of "The Place Promised in Our Early Days" is no exception, and the concern is specifically with subtitle placement; if you watch the Japanese version, your first viewing may be incredibly distracting since it's one of those that feels the need to translate absolutely every little detail on-screen. If you watch it dubbed in English, it's all still there... but at least your eyes won't be compelled to bounce all over the place. The other problem is that there isn't much care in making sure the subtitles don't block your visibility of characters; in a film like this with numerous wide-angles, this does get problematic at times. On a positive note, I have seen both versions and the English dub actually isn't half-bad.].
MPAA: Not Rated (but would be PG-13 for brief violence).
Runtime: 1 hour, 30 minutes (87 minutes of "real movie").
This review of The Place Promised in Our Early Days (2004) was written by Eric J on 30 Mar 2008.
The Place Promised in Our Early Days has generally received positive reviews.
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