In This Corner of the World hits UK cinemas

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Paul

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The anime film In This Corner of the World began its UK cinema run earlier today. Based on an award-winning manga, the WWII drama is being released in 200 cinemas around the country, which is a massive effort for the UK anime industry. All of these screenings can be tracked down on the film’s official website.

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I liked it a lot, left me feeling very melancholic. Would certainly visit another screening if it got one, and am very much looking forward to the disc release.

My screening seemed mostly empty, was one of maybe a dozen people.
 
just got back, I'll work on a review.
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Went to see it yesterday with other half. He enjoyed it more than I did I think, but overall I found it an enjoyable film. I'm not really one for war stories (which this definitely is), but I still found things to like in the story.

The only real complaint I have is that the relationship because the MC and her husband felt quite forced at times and I think there was a disconnect between them and the viewer. It's like there just wasn't enough time spent on their relationship for me to truly understand why she came to love him.

I'm not sure if I'd watch it again (it's a bit long, really), but I'm glad I went to see it all the same. :)
 
I went to see it at my local independent cinema yesterday. There was a decent crowd, around 30 or so.

I found the film rather underwhelming. I thought there was a lot to criticise about it, but I don't want to be a spoilsport: other folk seemed to enjoy it. And there were a couple of scenes that were really outstanding and will live long in my memory.

I will say, though, that I agree with @Demelza's view:
Demelza said:
The only real complaint I have is that the relationship because the MC and her husband felt quite forced at times and I think there was a disconnect between them and the viewer. It's like there just wasn't enough time spent on their relationship for me to truly understand why she came to love him.
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As much as I genuinely wanted to, I just couldn't get invested in the characters. Our protagonist made so little impression on me that, as I sit typing this, I can't even remember her name.

I'd been looking forward to eventually seeing Mai Mai Miracle, but now... hmm, not so much.
 
Neil.T said:
I'd been looking forward to eventually seeing Mai Mai Miracle, but now... hmm, not so much.
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I actually have a review of Mai Mai Miracle up on the site right now, which you can find here if you're interested.

Admittedly I think Mai Mai Miracle is weaker than In This Corner of the World, and it sounds like we share the same opinion on that so I'm not sure you'll get much out of Mai Mai Miracle either.
 
Demelza said:
I actually have a review of Mai Mai Miracle up on the site right now, which you can find here if you're interested.
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Yeah, I saw it but haven't read it yet. Thanks for the link; I'll check it out.

I can only imagine how dull Mai Mai must be without even those couple of (pardon the pun)...
explosive
... scenes to liven the plot. Oh, well.

Did anyone else take issue with In This Corner's character designs? In that scene near the start of the film where Suzu (I had to look up the name! :p) gives her age, I nearly laughed when she said she was "18 or 19". She looked about 10 or something! Also, I thought there was something kind of off about the voice performance in the early going: didn't the characters have the same voices as kids as they did later as adults? o_O
 
That's just how Fumiyo Kono designs her characters, there's a childlike nature to them that I really like and the juxtaposition works well imo, it introduces as sense of levity, animation affords that and I appreciate it but I can see it being jarring for some.
 
Neil.T said:
Did anyone else take issue with In This Corner's character designs? In that scene near the start of the film where Suzu (I had to look up the name! :p) gives her age, I nearly laughed when she said she was "18 or 19". She looked about 10 or something!
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I think a lot of that wasn't helped by the fact she was so short, even her husband comments on her being small!
 
I enjoyed it very much. Was in a small screen at my local Picturehouse (about 2/3 full so around 20-25 people) But they're doing more screenings after the one I went to on Wednesday.
 
I really enjoyed In This Corner Of The World and so did the rest of my group. It was much more memorable for me than Mai Mai Miracle and the little touches to evoke the setting and time period were beautifully done. Definitely my kind of war film, even if it does mean that I have to buy a Manga-related BD now ;p

R
 
I was also pretty underwhelmed by the film too if I'm almost. I definitely agree with Rui that it did invoke the time brilliantly, and the sense of exhuastion and dread of living in war. And I do appreciate that the film was focused on trying to depict the everyday normal lives of a family that happened to be living in war times, rather than it being some grandiose treaties or some overly forced tearjerker. I think the normalness of it is it's biggest achievement for me. But it's also kind of it's biggest weakness as well. The characters and interaction were so bland and uninteresting. The protagonist was sweet but felt like some archetype I've seen in a million other things. Though I was almost surprised
towards the end when it seemed like she was, believably, becoming overwhelmed with the fear and grief and was going to leave her adopted family to go home and totally throw the 'loyal wife' thing she had going on out the window. I was almost genuinely impressed and surprised at that. Buuut of course the film made the point of squeezing in her asking her husband if she could "stay forever" just before the atomic bomb went off. Of course. I thought that was unnecessary and cheap and disappointing. And that monologue she goes on at the end about "They said fight to the last man, there's five of us left!" felt similarly forced and rather hard to believe and cliched.
. Every other character was just kind of there, but there's not a lot to say about them. The husband seemed like a nice guy I guess, but that's about it.

So yeah, nice idea, nice period details, but very by the numbers for me.
 
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