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Look Back - Review

 


Cast - Yuumi Kawai, Mizuki Yoshida.

Kiyotaka Oshiyama - Director

Tatsuki Fujimoto - Original Writer

         
"Then why do you draw, Fujino?"
         

​​One of the most common complaints when watching a film is the runtime. When movies like Oppenheimer or Killers of the Flower Moon reach or surpass the 3-hour mark, it can be heavy to most viewers, but looking past the raw number of minutes it will take you to finish a movie this often rewards you with a much more intimate portrait of the characters, their mental states and why are they doing the things they do. This is not the norm, and many times the long runtime can feel clunky and unimportant. On the other side, we can get works like Look Back, that with a duration of 57 minutes fails to capture the essence of its two main characters and is more focused on giving us cute and emotional montages, trying to overcompensate the lack of character development.

Look Back presents us two characters, Fujino and Kyomoto, artists that worked on the school magazine drawing short panels. After graduation, they finally meet each other, and they began working together, just to find out this collaboration is not as perfect and satisfactory as they would have liked.

Struggles between the two main characters represent the author's struggle to create art, the common question "Why do you make art?" is repeated in many reviews and tweets over the internet. As an introspection of ​ Tatsuki Fujimoto (The original writer of the manga), it works perfectly. As a narrative, the lack of depth and detail in this world makes it complicated to follow. I have yet to read the original manga, but I feel this is more of a struggle of the director Kiyotaka Oshiyama, who focuses more on Fujino's part of the story, giving us a montage of how she improved her drawing skills, how she stopped talking with people and her relationship with Kyomoto rather than expanding both characters, giving them fair runtime and development, rather than making Kyomoto subservient of Fujino, not only in the story but also in the way she is written for the film (The story only moves if Fujino wants to do something).

Could there be another motive why this story feels so stale? I think so. Maybe Japanese producers and directors are preoccupied with recreating the stories they are adapting as close as possible to the original material, ignoring that while both mediums can complement each other, they also are not the same. Something that Bryan Lee O'Malley and BenDavid Grabinsk, showrunners of Scott Pilgrim: Takes Off, understood when making their adaptation of the comic book for Netflix.

I am saddened this film did not work for me, but I am amazed at how people are reacting to the movie, can animation be only for kids and to emotionally manipulate people? Do they only care for perfect drawings, cute characters and 'escapist' stories? The more time passes, the more I regret the phrase "animation is cinema". If you want to see a movie where the main character wants to improve after his idol and friend's death just watch ​ Rocky IV: Rocky vs. Drago - The Ultimate Director's Cut it will at the very least make you go outside and feel good about the potential we all have.

         

         

Final Score - 3/5




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