From the team that made the anime Anohana comes a youth drama about communication and the feelings we hide from everyone else. When four students are chosen to head a class production for the school festival, the choices could have not been more dysfunctional; there's honor student Sakagami, popular girl Nito, Tasaki, an injured baseball star who's moping about his injury, and Jun Naruse, a girl who decided one day to shut up after running her mouth almost destroyed her life.
Though occasionally given to flights of fanciful imagination, the movie is grounded and the characters all have their own complex web of hangups and neuroses. In the center of it is Jun, whose refusal to speak stems from a deep seated notion of self loathing. How you resonate with Jun's character will reflect how much you will appreciate the film.
For a society that has trouble expressing their feelings, Anthem of the Heart (the Japanese title is roughly translated as "the Heart wants to shout") is about the different ways people express (or don't express) their emotions. While Jun is more overt with her non-expression, her classmates (and even the adult characters, such as Jun's mom) are just as guilty of not saying what they feel in different ways. In turn, they deal with this problem in their own ways as well - with one being direct to the point only in ways boys can be, while others choosing to express their feelings in some other way.
The movie leans on the musical genre, but doesn't take full advantage of it, which is I think a bit of a missed opportunity. The third half of the film descends into predictable territory, though some elements of how the relationships sort themselves out are genuinely surprising (even jarringly so.)
The movie gained enough positive reaction that a live action adaptation is coming. Though not as powerful as some of the other anime films to come in the past one or two years, I'd recommend this if you like stories in the same vein.
* * *
That's it for my Eiga Sai reviews this year. This has been a pretty decent lineup, though I didn't really see any standouts compared to last year's edition. I'm super happy that a lot of people decided to attend, often filling Shangrila Cineplex to at least half or more than half capacity. Now that they're charging for screenings, I hope they get some really great films next year. The charging for tickets also has an added advantage of allowing me to marathon films - before, when the screenings were free, once you came out of the previous screening, you were too late to line up for the next free screening. Two great Japanese films for the price of one regular screening is not bad in my book.
There are two films that I've seen before, either on DVD or in theaters, that I haven't reviewed yet (not counting Departures) - the Bakuman live action adaptation and If Cats Disappeared From the World, which is probably the standout film this year, though it will be shown later tomorrow in Tagalized form. I will probably do reviews of both once I'm finished with ToFarm, which started yesterday.
Eiga Sai continues in Edsa Shangrila Cinemas up to July 16 (Sunday), with screenings at other venues, such as UPFI at subsequent dates.
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