Into The Faraway Sky

Japanese Dramedy directed by Isao Yukisada

Into The Faraway Sky is set in the countryside of somewhere in Japan. Told through a flashback, it tells the story of a city boy Kusunoki (Kamiki Ryunosuke) who moves into the village with his father, who is the person behind the plan of setting up an airport there.

There, he becomes bosom friends with Kohei (Sasano Yuma) who enjoys pulling pranks and Hiharu (Suzuka Ohgo)who believes in UFOs that will bring her father back, and that her telescope could capture meteorites. The story revolves around some other interesting characters in the village as well, like this slightly deranged guy who keeps with him a cage of pigeons, which the people believe get eaten up by him. But actually he is waiting for his younger brother, whom in Kusunoki he sees. There is also the local school teacher who is in love with this mystery guy and frequently meets him in the woods, but she is set to marry a dork.

Apparently the people are strongly against the construction of an airport, as opposed to conserving the nature of their hometown. As the kids soon realise that they are "waiting for a miracle to happen", they decide to create one themselves.

The start of the movie creates a very good impression, where there are very nice shots of close-ups, and the nice Afga-esque lighting that enhances the beautiful image of a countryside.

However, the series of events were really badly executed. A lot of them were brought about in a light-hearted manner, which gets a bit annoying and inappropriate at some parts. A lot of things that happened in the movie seemed to be unexplainable, and I'm not talking about that abstract metaphorical kind of 'unexplainable'. Development and transitions were poor, such that the happening of each scene seemed almost abrupt.

It was also pretty distracting how the end of some scenes were cut to introduce the timeline of the next scene, by the medium of a Lunar calendar.

I was rather surprised to know that this movie was made to be a "children's fantasy", because I'm not sure whether to believe that kids can really understand the message that this movie is trying to bring about, that is friendship and hope. I mean, I'm not trying to sound like an annoying adult, but I don't see how I myself could understand that sort of stuff when I was like, 10 or so. Besides, there seriously isn't much of that fantasy element at all.

It's heartening to see how much the children take belief in what seems to be the impossible, and that is probably as touching as it gets.

I'd say that this movie would do so much better if it were to be remade into a Comedy play, with its interesting accompaniment of Gipsy, jazz/rag, Celtic windpipe and French harmonica.

I'm not sure why but at the end, this movie still managed to bring about a sense of bitter-sweetness in me. Perhaps it was the leaving of Kusonoki, and the fact that the airport was still constructed at the end anyway, and how the characters in the story learnt to let go of what meant dearly to them.

But if you think the kids failed their plan, they actually did not. :)

Look out for Hiharu, it's distracting how much she looks like Joanna Peh.

This film should be for people who like to daydream and who don't really mind a poorly scripted, but nonetheless good plot.