The Place Promised in Our Early Days

I hadn't heard of this film before I saw it in my "Recommended" list on Amazon, so I thought I'd give it a try. "The Place Promised in Our Early Days" is a film about three best friends who during their last summer together make a promise to go to the Hokkaido tower - a towering structure that they've always seen in the distance, and have wanted to visit it. At first I found it hard to decide what time period the film is set in, but towards the end there are signs that it is set during the 1990's (albeit an alternative timeline). In this alternate world, Japan has been split into a North and a South, with the North being controlled by the Union.

In the South, Hiroki Fujisawa and Takuya Shirakawa are two friends currently in their last year of middle school. It starts on the last day before spring break and introduces the characters by having Kana, a friend of Sayuri, confess her feelings for Takuya which he does not feel for her in return. We soon find out that secretly, both of them have feelings for Sayuri. Hiroki stays behind for archery practice, and Sayuri does for violin practice. When the two meet on the train platform for their journey home they get to know each other and become friends. As she leaves the train though she comments that she'd had a dream that they would meet on the train like they did - an omen of what's to come. This whole section of the film seemed a bit like "The Wonder Years" due to the voice-over that was looking back at their times then. During the spring break they work for Mr Okabe who runs a factory that specialises in the manufacturer of missiles, so that they can pay for parts they need to finish rebuilding the crashed drone they found (that they've named the Bella Ciela). During the last term, Sayuri goes with them to see the plane and they make a promise that they'll fly their plane to tower. Whilst watching them work, Sayuri has a dream that foretells the tower exploding. This is the last time they were all together before the events that take place 3 years later.

During that last summer at middle school Sayuri had mysteriously disappeared, Hiroki and Takuya had abandoned the work on the plane, and the two friends had more or less stopped speaking. We then learn that Takuya has been successful and is not only at High school, but is working with the NSA researching parallel universes at the Hokkaido tower. The function of the tower is to transfer matter surrounding the tower between different parallel worlds but only has limited functionality. The cause of this as we soon learn is that when Sayuri went missing she had fallen into a coma and had been "sleeping" for the past 3 years. Although she is unconcious, her mind is another reality where the world has been devastated by a war between the North and South.

Mr. Okabe who was the former employer of the boys later turns out to be the leader of the Uilta Liberation Front that wants to destroy the Hokkaido tower in an attempt to reunify North and South Japan as one (occasional I did wonder if they were talking about Korea since the Americans were there interfering) and he reveals his plans to Takuya. Meanwhile, the past 3 years haven't been as kind to Hiroki - his dreams have been plagued by visions of Sayuri which has led to him being continuously depressed and never knowing what to do. This cycle of depression is broken when a letter from Sayuri finally reaches him (it was written before she fell into a coma) and it sets him off looking for her. His search leads him to a hospital where she'd not long been moved from, and briefly they speak to each other in a dream. The place where Sayuri's comatose body has been moved to though is the facility that Takuya works in.

By this point I did find myself starting to lose interest in this 90 minute film, but I'll attribute that to me being tired at the time. The ending is actually not that bad an ending, Takuya and Hiroki after a brief fight decide the best course of action is to work together to rescue Sayuri and to bring her mind back to her body by flying her in the Bella Ciela. Around this time we learn that the United States want to declare war on the Union due to the Union wanting to use the twoer as a weapon to replace the world with that of a parallel universe (the only thing stopping this is Sayuri's dreams). Due to Takuya being injured, and there being only 2 seats, Hiroki and Sayuri fly the Bella Ciela to the "promised place" which makes Sayuri wake from her coma. As this causes the weapon to activate, Hiroki fires a missile that destroys the tower.

My best friends and I thought about only two things that summer - flying, and falling... in love; and when you're in love you make promises.

It's not your typical action-packed anime movie, it's more of a "heart-felt" tale of friends as they grow apart, but to ultimately be reunited (whilst their country also happens to be on the brink of war all this time). If you enjoyed any of Makoto Shinkai's other award winning work, you're bound to also enjoy this one as it is a continuation of his style, and an improvement in terms of the quality of animation. I think based on this it will be interesting to see what work Makoto come's up with in the future, especially as this one won quite a large number of awards.

There are two versions of this on DVD, the standard one disc version and the collector's three disc editon. The standard edition and the first disc of the collector's edition both feature the full 90 minute film, 3 interviews, and some trailers. The second disc from the collector's edition has a number of storyboards to cover the entire film, an interview with Makoto Shinkai, and an animated gallery of his work. The third disc is only a CD-ROM and contains images and sheet music. There is also a book of storyboards included in the collector's edition. Unless you're a big fan of Makoto Shinkai or the film I probably wouldn't recommend bothering with the collector's edition as it doesn't feel anything special.


Rating: 3 / 5