Caught the UK debut of this at the 75th Edinburgh International Film Festival (director told us it is getting general UK release in November 2022, think Oct for North America). It is a coming of age story - I was thinking Stand By Me only for the director to tell the festival crowd after the screening that Stand By Me was indeed an influence. Although many of the beats of a teenage coming of age are there, all tropes we've seen before, it is well done and it really brings out the emotions (be prepared to blink away tears a couple of times), while the artwork is lovely, especially some of the big landscape moments in the forest, a night sky or waterfalls. Lovely, warm and emotional.
4 Reviews
Touching, beautiful, a piece of art
enrpat-126 July 2022
I went to see this movie to the theater as my teenager sister loves Anime and she knows the quality of Mad House studio.
Wow!!!!
What a beautiful movie is this one. So we'll crafted, so we'll written and directed, animated and told. We all ended up crying, touched by the emotional story of three teenager friends and their simple adventures, yet fantastic and full of vitality. That's why I love cinema. A subtle, profound and touching piece of art.
A piece of art.
Wow!!!!
What a beautiful movie is this one. So we'll crafted, so we'll written and directed, animated and told. We all ended up crying, touched by the emotional story of three teenager friends and their simple adventures, yet fantastic and full of vitality. That's why I love cinema. A subtle, profound and touching piece of art.
A piece of art.
Perfect rework of the coming-of-age "Stand By Me" style adventure
nodisalsi24 October 2022
For two boys Roma and Toto, aged 15 and 16, this will be final year of their hidden secret gathering place "Don Glees" as they will all most likely seeking separate careers going separate ways. For this final year a third teenager, Drop, has joined them - he's new to the group but brimming with enthusiasm for one-in-lifetime experiences.
So Roma is pushed into blowing his entire allowance on a camera drone for an ambitious attempt at a good close-up film of a fireworks display, but events on night do not go according to plan.
This will force them into an adventure deep into the forest without detailed maps and scant phone coverage, taking them through tragedy, terror, heart-ache, and culminating with a truly epic closure.
I watched this at "Scotland Loves Animation" festival in October 2022 and out of 4 entries for the Audience Award - this the only one I felt compelled to vote for. With an excellent script and visuals, intelligently nuanced characters, plot and storyline, this will keep me alert in future for any more work by the writer and director Atsuko Ishizuka.
So Roma is pushed into blowing his entire allowance on a camera drone for an ambitious attempt at a good close-up film of a fireworks display, but events on night do not go according to plan.
This will force them into an adventure deep into the forest without detailed maps and scant phone coverage, taking them through tragedy, terror, heart-ache, and culminating with a truly epic closure.
I watched this at "Scotland Loves Animation" festival in October 2022 and out of 4 entries for the Audience Award - this the only one I felt compelled to vote for. With an excellent script and visuals, intelligently nuanced characters, plot and storyline, this will keep me alert in future for any more work by the writer and director Atsuko Ishizuka.
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