Kumo no Mukou, Yakusoku no Basho

Hiroki Fujisawa and Takuya Shirakawa harbor admiration for two things in their life: their classmate Sayuri Sawatari and the vast Ezo Tower that stands boundlessly across the Tsugaru Strait. Fascinated by the limitless structure beyond their reach, Hiroki and Takuya begin constructing an aeroplane from a fallen drone they discovered—naming it the Bella Ciela—to fulfill their dream of one day reaching the sky-scraping top of the tower. Later joined by the girl they love, Hiroki and Takuya promise Sayuri to fly with her to the seemingly otherworldly top together. However, Japan has suffered a North-South partitioning that has fueled conflict near the base of the tower, which marks the border between the America-controlled Southern islands and the Northern lands occupied by the Soviet Union.

Further along, Sayuri suddenly disappears, and Hiroki and Takuya never see her again. Unbeknownst to them, she fell victim to a sleeping disorder that left her comatose for the past three years. Although Hiroki and Takuya later learn about Sayuri's condition, they also discover that the girl's unconscious state is oddly linked to the same tower the trio had promised to conquer together.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Sawatari, Sayuri Main

Nanri, Yuuka Japanese

Fujisawa, Hiroki Main

Yoshioka, Hidetaka Japanese

Shirakawa, Takuya Main

Hagiwara, Masato Japanese

Okabe Supporting

Ishizuka, Unshou Japanese

Arisaka Supporting

Kiuchi, Hidenobu Japanese

Tomizawa, Tsuneo Supporting

Inoue, Kazuhiko Japanese

Shinkai, Makoto Producer, Director, Sound Director, Script, Storyboard, Theme Song Lyrics, Color Design, Original Creator, Executive Producer, Editing

Itou, Kouichirou Producer

Hiramatsu, Kiyonori Producer

Foster, Steven Script, ADR Director

Reviews

Nov 15, 2024

re4zen

Recommended

enlightenment bro
*'Kumo no Mukou' yes, at first I underestimated it. Anyway:’s this is fun even though it involves Sci-Fi. discussing a parallel's world where the story continues with the-
previous party accidentally (a stranded drone) near the tower.
instead of the North-South division that sparked conflict & was dominated by the Soviet Union.
So what does it have to do with the female MC to research why she got trapped in her dream like that?
didn't expect it to be like this ― Moreover, they also made an appointment under the tower. damn ..!

&maybe i will highly recommended. Yes, this is for you if you like science fiction ... or conspiracies

**if you compress it, it's similar to the steins;gate >butterfly effect but you can't change it because there's no time travel
The drama is great for these 3 main characters.

***Don't doubt the animated graphics. It's crazy, I admit, this is quite an underrated
for graphics this crazy I'm surprised the 04 film made it this good's

Overall this is i can highly recommendation guys! cmiiw
our promise Bella Ciela-`
grade: B+

06/06/24
Thank You

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Dec 2, 2023

Halcyon13

Mixed Feelings

A sometimes tedious exercise in slow drama, Shinkai's only defense is him still exploring the themes of alienation and separation in the early stages of his career. Kumo no Mukou, Yakusoku no Basho happened to be his first feature-length production, and likely the substantial foundation for a lot of the romantic metaphors he currently gravitates toward. The film is simple, everything about it is relatively muted, and content in lingering around alternate-history war politics and monologue-driven intimacy with a yearning for a hopeful future. Shinkai's writing isn't as technically sound as some of his later features, and that's apparent in the deliberate assortment of character ... interaction and science jargon. It frankly suffers a great deal from inadequately contextualizing seemingly important plot devices that may decide the fate of Japan, although the plot does ultimately suggest we ignore the minor details, and shift our focus to the three protagonists at large. The three middle school friends are pulled apart by circumstance, and the raw ideas of loneliness are combined with his go-to allusions using character versus society literary devices.

Shinkai once mentioned in an interview that the beauty of scenery had saved him during his adolescent struggles, and what that may have entailed is of course foreign to others, but there's truth to natural landscapes acting as a deterrent to negative emotion. He constantly emphasizes shot selection, wide settings, and trains, establishing one of his recurring directing traits in applying visual spectacle. Sure it's not his most breathtakingly detailed effort, but the layouts are indeed expansive, as picturesque as rural areas can be. A lot of these shots tend to use a person as the center of symmetry to give depth as the camera leans into aerial tilts, which was utilized well in the closing sequences. Kumo no Mukou, Yakusoku no Basho as a collective production undeniably feels amateurish, more so the storytelling not being able to dictate itself enough, and on occasion, it can also be heavyhanded without necessary exposition. Shinkai experiments with the usual loss and plays with time, yet makes little progress in crucial moments. I'm willing to commend the role of the opening sequence though, setting up a clever implication for what would become the prologue to that scene. At times streaky, an ambitious take on melancholic human connection with the universe as a whole.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Nov 8, 2021

tarunnihariya

Not Recommended

Your Name is the only Shinkai film that I like. I adore that film, it had good characters, good relationships, and a refreshing fantastical charm, and unfortunately, all of his other films fail to deliver on any of those. The only positive thing going on with this film is its art style and animation, but that too sometimes feels clunky and underutilized. Some of the shots are just bad on a camera placement level. The editing is also meh. Let us see and absorb some of these frames and not cut away so quickly.

I liked the idea and concept of the story -- the sci-fi ... element is interesting. But it is underdeveloped and rushed. Everything else, the character works, and the relationships are just plot devices. Characters are shallow, especially Sawatari. She seems to be in the story to dream and do nothing else. I didn't even feel the trio's bond and friendship. If you want us to care for them, then pls develop some chemistry. There was a bit of chemistry between the boys, but it was kind of tropey.

Mikito Shinkai has certainly matured as a storyteller. This movie did showcase his grander-than-life ideas mixed in with the slice-of-life drama. But I could feel that he needed more runtime to explore those ideas. Overall, it's a bad movie. Would've given it a 5, but some parts really annoyed me, maybe because I was actually excited before watching the movie.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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