Movielogr

Rating: 7.5 stars

Tags

Japan anime siskel film center moviepass dystopia kidnapping dubbed explorers teenagers rescue

All movies seen on 09/11/2014

View on: IMDb | TMDb

Patema Inverted (2013)

Directed by Yasuhiro Yoshiura

Animation | Science Fiction | Adventure

Overview

In an underground world where tunnels extend everywhere, even though they live in dark and confined spaces, people wear protective clothes and lead quiet and enjoyable lives. Patema, a princess in her underground village, loves to explore the tunnels. Her favorite place is a “danger zone” that her village prohibits people from entering. Even though she’s scolded, Patema’s curiosity can’t be held back. No one ever explained what the supposed danger was. On her usual trip to the “danger zone,” Patema faces unexpected events. When hidden secrets come to light, the story begins to unfold.

Rated NR | Length 98 minutes

Actors

Yukiyo Fujii | Nobuhiko Okamoto | Shintarou Oohata | Shinya Fukumatsu | Masayuki Katou | Hiroki Yasumoto | Maaya Uchida | Takaya Hashi | Hideyuki Umezu | Go Shinomiya | Yu Shimamura | Tomoyuki Shimura | Shunsuke Itô | Yuka Keicho | Genki Muro | Tooru Sakurai | Kiyohito Yoshikai

Viewing History (seen 1 time)

Viewing Notes

Went over to Film Center after work to catch one of their anime features for September. Was glad the schedule worked in my favor because this film looked the most interesting of the lot. Disappointed they chose to run the dubbed version (why the Siskel would run anything not in its original language is a head scratcher since that theater caters to cinephiles and snobs).

I don’t know what it is about dubbed anime and anime features that I truly dislike. I find them nearly intolerable. The voice acting is usually awful and lacks the intent found in the original language. A few minutes into this movie and I wanted to walk out. But since I was there and moviepassed this, I stayed.

Turns out it was a good decision because this film rises above that crummy dubbed track. It’s clever how it uses the premise to visually tell the story as the angle rotates as characters traverse into each of the opposing worlds with opposing gravity. It’s done so marvelously and gives more weight to the scenes. The angles and perception of depth is presented so well that my acrophobia kicked in a few times. I believe that’s the first time that’s happened.

I love the sense of adventure and discovery in addition to the premise of two societies existing in separate gravity fields like two sides of the same coin. The young love between the two primary characters is quite sweet. Had me wondering how they might coexist inverted as they are.

Would make a great video game. In fact I believe there are some games that utilize this switching gravity technique. Maybe none to this extent so it’d be neat to see if they nailed the game mechanics. Looking forward to revisiting this movie in its original language.

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