The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2007-Japan) - 穿越時空的少女 review

Watched this because, it is dubbed my fav female singer: Janice! herez my take...

Video:

http://www.youtube.com/v/BjpX6QF_IEs

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The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2007-Japan)

穿越時空的少女

Tagline: Time waits for no one…

To be honest, Neo never intended to watch this flick, but on hearing that Janice will be doing the voice dub, it became pretty hard to resist. A truly gifted voice in singing, Janice is spot on as a 17 year old tomboyish girl that just doesn’t give a shit. A great attitude to have, but the anime/movie just never seems to work and along with some totally irrelevant plot holes and minor characters, which certainly does not help the cause. Along the lines of Run Lola Run (or perhaps the aforementioned flick copied from the current anime which is based on a novel written back in the 1960s), The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is exactly the same as the title meaning. While Run Lola Run was somewhat interesting, the former film seems to drag and almost to the point of repetitiveness. Luckily the film runs through at a brisk pace and flies through all sort of issues and before the audience realise, the movie is already rolling up the credit song. Still, the ending not only does not make much sense, but apart from the line: “time waits for no one”, the film is not easily recommended.

The movie goes like this: A carefree high school girl discovers the ability to toward through time and put the wrong things right. Perhaps the other way around as well…

“Time waits for no one may seem like a well worn cliché, but the phrase rings along the lines of inevitability. It is perhaps interesting to imagine what life would be like if Neo can venture back in time. Will the consequences exceed the positives or will Neo continue to ponder over the same mistakes that contribute to who he is today? While it remains a mystery, the film seems to suggest that changing what have happened in the past does not only impact on yourselves, but rather a diverging effect on those around you. Random events like bumming into someone, which delayed a split second before they cross the road, may well have become something else, if you never bum into them. So there is the answer, it’s basically like a complex web and therefore it is probably a lot easier if we can just move on and let go rather than hanging on the intangible past. Then again, it is human nature to desire for things that we cannot have.

All in all, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is an anime film that tries hard to be smart and while it tends to work towards a certain extend, the film ultimately leaves the audience falling short. Janice has a great voice and provides a fitting characterisation of a pretty carefree 17 year high schooler. Unfortunately a few moments and a fun first half do not make a complete movie. At the end, it is just another case of what could have been – both literally and figuratively. Then again, Neo is probably pondering to himself, what could have been for many things…

I rate it 6/10

Voiced by: Janice Wei Lan

Directed by: Mamoru Hosoda

Genre: Anime/Romance/Time

cheers

neo

HK Neo Reviews

http://www.thehkneo.com