Although I don’t know Makoto Sinai personally, I can see from his few works that he has a few other preferences besides the stars, clouds, sunsets, trams and other objects that appear very frequently: School (Cloud beyond, 5 cm per second), cat (She and her story, Cloud beyond, Cat assembly), aircraft (Star Sound, Cloud beyond, 5 cm per second), weapons (Star Sound, cloud beyond), ancient mysterious ruins (Star Sound, cloud beyond), and so on. Sinai really went all out for this work, because all of these elements are present in it, and at great length. However, the pursuit of the big and the whole often results in a lack of completeness and unity, so the work has a rather eclectic style. The film uses a large amount of space to render ordinary and quiet daily life. After the audience acquiesns to such a realistic world setting, a variety of opposing elements suddenly appear: the fierce battle of gunships, the magical underground world, like the monsters in the works of Miyazaki Hayao, the cold weapon battle of electric fire… The big turn in style can indeed highlight the complexity of world view setting, which is conducive to convey more information to the audience and experience more artistic conception and ideas that the supervision wants to present. But it’s uncomfortable to watch, making you wonder if the worldview is too complicated and if there’s still room for improvement in the narrative. Sinai Makoto supervision want to make the work perfect, everything is good, but too much of a good thing, but destroy the work. In this regard, I personally think we can refer to the narrative structure and length of Spirited Away.
As early as the time of “Beyond the Clouds, the Agreed Place”, New Sea City was criticized for its “narrative ability of long works is not strong”. Naturally, for a film with such a complex setting, the sense of fragments does not disappear, but becomes more obvious. The sense of fragment is first reflected in the narrative rhythm. As a whole, the film is not very relaxing, and there are many moments that suddenly go to a small climax and then suddenly drop. It is like having an erection and then coming out in 10 seconds. Perhaps it is because the world view and plot of the script are really too large, so much of the plot can only be condensed, not described in detail. This adds to the problem that many of the puzzles are not explained in detail or at all, and many of the plots seem incomprehensible or unintelligible, leaving the viewer with a sense of “baffling”. Moreover, the sense of fragmentation is also reflected in the narrative of several branch lines, and the sense of coherence of switching is not good. The film repeatedly uses the transition effect of fade to black. In fact, this transition is more suitable for ending. Under normal circumstances, the transition should be carried out through the connection between lines, rather than using such a means which is easy to destroy the integrity of the work. The sense of fragmentation is also evident from OST. In the OST of previous works, each track is a work with complete emotions and structure, but most of the tracks of this work contain many scenes and emotions, which are very jumping and completely serve for the plot. It is indeed just “OST”. There’s something to be said for Spirited Away, which is typically messy but well-organized, and a good work that keeps the spirit alive.
Besides, it really could have been subtitled: Tribute to Hayao Miyazaki and Hideaki Anno! Glibly and EVA are so ubiquitous in the movie that it feels like glibly makes all the cameos, especially the guy who looks like Hall in Hall’s Moving Castle and Asoka in Princess Mononononie. The realistic scenery is glibly grassland + Sinai sky, while the underground world scenery is glibly wilderness grassland + Sinai sky. The human landscape of the underground world is more familiar: Ll-like breathable liquid, ancient giants possessed by Lilith, very glibly monsters and ships, and even the heart and monk soldiers’ duel reminds me of the bird and cavalry warriors in Princess Menomonie, and the plot of bringing back the dead reminds me of Steel Alchemy… This is also the reason why I say that this work lacks the spirit that Makoto Sinai should have. These story Settings and character Settings are too ordinary. Except for the iconic starry sky and sea of clouds, there is a lack of elements that belong to Sinai.
The last and most important thing I want to say, then, is that this book lacks the feeling that Makoto Sinai’s work always brings to me — the resonance and the touch of innocence. Most people who like Makoto Sinai say that “I like his style” is a manifestation, but the most important thing is that his style can make people resonate, can remind people of the very ordinary but brilliant people and things in the deep memory. “Beyond the Clouds, the Agreed Place” is also a long and fantasy-like work, but the realistic flooding in the first half makes people very sympathetic and yearning, and the sci-fi flavor in the second half is not too strong. The focus is to highlight the feelings and fetters of the three people. Under the premise of resonance, The audience will subconsciously regard the latter half of the illusory but romantic and pure story as a kind of longing and hope, so as to make up for their own deficiencies in reality. This technique is very perfect and wonderful. “5 centimeters per Second” in this respect is more skilled, Sinai with such a beautiful way to tell those ordinary, seems to belong to everyone’s emotional story, these three stories do not even start no ending, just have such a few incomplete after, but also because of this has a very strong resonance with the audience, It’s as if Sinai has made this work of his wonderful world for your story. But what about this new one First of all, I did not understand what Sinai Makoto wanted to express with this work. It seems that the theme of the whole work is “to live is to be happy. Cherish the present and cherish the people around you. But the title “Star-chasing child” seems to refer to the moment of running to earth for the stars, which is a kind of unsatisfied and active exploration of the world. It really does not combine with the former. But these are secondary. No matter what this book is trying to express, I don’t find any resonance in this book, I don’t find the vibrant soul that belongs to Makoto Sinai’s work as in the previous works.
Although the ambiguity and uninspiring narrative make this work less spiritual than its predecessors, Sinai’s world is still beautiful, full of flickering memories and visions; For me, this work is worthy of the fans. Makoto Sinai has given full play to his signature style of light and shadow. The gorgeous starry sky and the glowing sunset make people very enchanted. The magical villages, ruins, skies and so on in Sinai’s works are also very interesting. Sometimes I feel that Sinai Makoto’s picture is a kind of enjoyment to watch, as long as the atmosphere is right, in fact, I don’t really care whether his story is complete and smooth. Either way, this work is a masterpiece of Xinhai. As a fan of Xinhai, it is still an intoxicating and moving experience to travel in the world of Xinhai for 2 hours under the giant curtain.
