Kumo no mukô, yakusoku no basho (2004)

User Rating:

7.5/10   

Director:

Makoto Shinkai

Writer:

Makoto Shinkai (writer)

Release Date:

20 November 2004 (Japan)

Genre:

Animation | Drama | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

Against all odds, a promise will be kept.

Plot:

In an alternate postwar timeline, Japan is devided into the Union-controlled North and the US-controlled South.

Plot Keywords:

Anime | Violin

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Hidetaka Yoshioka	...	Hiroki Fujisawa (voice)
Masato Hagiwara	...	Takuya Shirakawa (voice)
Yuka Nanri	...	Sayuri Sawatari (voice) (as Yuuka Nanri)
Unshô Ishizuka	...	Okabe (voice)
Kazuhiko Inoue	...	Tomizawa (voice)
Risa Mizuno	...	Maki (voice)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Jessica Boone	...	Sayuri Sawatari (voice: English version)
Matthew Crawford	...	Male Student (voice: English version)
James Z. Erivayer	...	Graduate Student (voice: English version)
Jacob A. Gragard	...	Emishi Plant Worker (voice: English version)
John Gremillion	...	Additional Voices (voice: English version)
Illich Guardiola	...	Arisaka (voice: English version)
Hilary Haag	...	Female Student (voice: English version)
Jay Hickman	...	Graduate Student (voice: English version)
Adam Jones	...	Emishi Plant Worker (voice: English version)
Jacob Jones	...	Additional Voices (voice: English version)
Andrew Love	...	Emishi Plant Worker (voice: English version)
Kalob Martinez	...	Takuya Sawatari (voice: English version)
Andy McAvin	...	Tomizawa (voice: English version)
Rob Mungle	...	Additional Voices (voice: English version)
Chris Nelson	...	Additional Voices (voice: English version)
Mariela Ortiz	...	Female Student (voice: English version)
Chris Patton	...	Hiroki Fujisawa (voice: English version)
Carl Ruthers	...	Additional Voices (voice: English version)
John Swasey	...	Okabe (voice: English version)
Lesley Tesh	...	Female Student (voice: English version)
Kira Vincent-Davis	...	Maki Kasahara (voice: English version)

Also Known As:

The Place Promised in Our Early Days (International: English title)

Runtime:

Japan:91 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Certification:

Australia:PG | UK:12 | Singapore:PG

Company:

ADV Films

Quotes:

Sayuri Sawatari: The sky, the clouds, the ruined city... No matter how far I walk, nobody appears.

Soundtrack:

Kimi no Koe

a beautiful, engrossing movie

i happened to see this movie when i was browsing the library for a movie to watch, and decided to check it out on a whim. and boy, am i glad i did. the director of this movie has been called "the next miyazaki", and let me just say that that's no exaggeration. from the animation to the characters to the story, everything is crafted beautifully together. even the music, simple as it is, fits perfectly with the story.

let me just say something about the animation: it is drop dead gorgeous. advent children was beautiful, but this movie one-ups it. from the picturesque scenes to the clearly drawn and interesting characters, i cannot find a single fault with the picture itself.

and the story, like the animation, is a beautiful narrative. i have never been more engrossed by the story or its characters, and it was enough to both pain me and move me at each twist of the story.

all in all, this is a terrific gem of a movie. after i watched it, i immediately went out and bought it online. and i know that if anybody else watch it, they'll do the same.