Directed By Masaaki Taniguchi
Starring Riisa Naka, Akinobu Nakao, Narumi Yasuda and Masanobu Katsumura
Mention ‘The Girl Who Leapt Through Time’ to someone, and their minds will likely jump to Mamoru Hosoda’s wonderful anime film. But even before then, Japan had put together numerous little-seen adaptations of the original 1967 novel, including two previous live-action movies in 1983 and 1997, a 1994 drama series and a segment in a 2002 anthology film made for TV. After the huge success of Hosoda’s anime, Time Traveller: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time takes another stab at a live-action version of the time-hopping romantic drama.
When her scientist mother is hospitalised in a car accident, schoolgirl Akari (Riisa Naka) learns of her experiments in time travel and a potion that’ll enable a person to jump to a time of their choosing. From her hospital bed, her mother asks Akari to deliver an urgent message to a boy she knew in 1972. When Akari pulls an Ash Williams, screwing up the time potion process and arriving two years too late, she’s forced to live in 1974 with student filmmaker Ryota (Akinobu Nakao) as she figures out how to deliver a message to a guy who appears to have never existed.
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Like the animated film, Time Traveller positions itself as a sort-of standalone sequel to the original novel, with a few nods to the previous plot but with no knowledge of it required. Thankfully it also treads its own path from the anime, too, telling a new story and not resorting to a flat-out remake of Hosoda’s film. Where the animated film toyed with the mechanics of time travel often and to comedic effect, Time Traveller is more interested in using the concept as the looming elephant in the room as Akari and Ryota quietly start falling for each other, both knowing that the girl will eventually have to return to her own time.
There’s some fun Marty McFly-esque shenanigans as Akari is forced to interact with her then-teenage mother, and some fish-out-of-water comedy as she realises the restrictions of 1970s life for a 21st Century girl, but Time Traveller is mostly concerned with its romantic plot. It’s an effective love story made all the more touching by its leads; Riisa Naka (who, strangely enough, voiced the main character in the 2006 anime) makes for an endearingly adorable heroine, Akinobu Nakao plays Ryota with an appropriately awkward shyness and the two of them prove adept at bringing quiet, expressive emotion to a romance that’s largely predicated on small, tender unspoken moments and chemistry.
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Masaaki Taniguchi’s live action outing isn’t as elegantly paced as Hosoda’s anime, and at two hours it sometimes feels overlong, but as a romance it’s hugely satisfying in the classic “I have something in my eye”/”My allergies are acting up” tissues-at-the-ready kind of way. A sweet, touching love story that’s occasionally heartbreakingly poignant, Time Traveller is a beautiful little romantic drama and a wonderful companion piece to Mamoru Hosoda’s animated movie.
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The film hits DVD courtesy of Manga Entertainment, who brought the lovely Summer Wars/The Girl Who Leapt Through Time Blu-ray set to UK shelves. While Time Traveller sadly isn’t getting a Blu-ray release, the DVD does boast a fantastic visual transfer. The film is filled with warm colours and lovingly recreated 1970s sets and costumes, and the DVD transfer is as clear, crisp and detailed as you could hope for without the benefit of HD. The Dolby 2.0 track is a solid one, and does a fine job for a film whose audio is largely dialogue-centric.
Sadly the extras are short, sparse and largely unexciting. There are two decent, if similar trailers and a ‘Film Clips’ feature, which strangely offers seventeen minutes of footage edited into a super condensed version of the film.
The Film:
The DVD:
Time Traveller: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is out on DVD in the UK now.
Click here to order the DVD from Amazon.co.uk.