Voices of a Distant Star
by Makoto Shinkai
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Adam Conlon, Cynthia Martinez (II), Donna Burke, Mika Shinohara, Sumi MutohDirector: Makoto Shinkai
Brand: ADV Films
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Subtitled); Japanese (Original Language); English (Original Language)
Format: Animated, Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 25 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-06-10
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Adv Films
Movie Reviews of Voices of a Distant Star
Movie Review: Why Did I Wait Four Years to Watch This 30 Minute Movie???
Summary: 5 Stars
As usual, not only am I late for the party, but when I do arrive I walk in a** backwards. Such is the case of my personal discovery of director Makoto Shinkai. The first movie of his that I saw was 5 Centimeter per Second, which despite its sincerity was much too sappy for my taste. Yet, Shinkai's artwork was compelling enough to take a stab at Voice of a Distant Star, which came highly recommended by a friend -- four years ago. I'm not kidding. It was that long ago, and I finally got around to seeing it.
Never has the expression "better late then never" been so appropriate. No matter how long you wait, you really shouldn't let this one slip past you. In fact, see it before you see 5 Centimeters, which was produced after Distant Star. Now that I've seen the latter, I better appreciate many of the visual elements of the former. Distant Star hasn't changed my opinion about 5 Centimeters, but it does soften it.
The story of Distant Star is remarkably simple and brilliantly original. A teenage girl, Mikako Nagamine, goes into deep space with the United Nations army. She leaves behind her boyfriend, Noboru Terao. For reasons that probably has something to do with the Space-Time in Einstein's General Relativity and the Black Holes of Stephen Hawkings, Mikako doesn't age as she travels into ever more distant galaxies. She attempts to stay in touch with Noboru by sending emails through her cell phone. But the further she travels, the longer it takes for the messages to reach him -- eventually as long as 8 years.
Unlike Mikako, Noboru ages while he suffers the long lapses between messages from his lost love. First months go by between messages. Next years. Eventually, he must move on.
Unlike 5 Centimeters, where the narrative is overloaded with exposition, with Distant Star the poignancy of the characters is never explained away. It's left exactly where it is supposed to be -- in the painful body language of the characters. Occasionally, the emails sent to Noboru are read to us by Mikako's voice, but here it is well done. The messages do not come off as bad poetry, but instead the true anxiety of a young girl who knows that she may never see her boyfriend again. The ending of Distant Star is by far one of the most memorable I have ever seen -- and possibly even the best, or at least, among the best.
5 Centimeters relives this theme of early separation, and many of the visual motifs that were used in Distant Star are revisited in 5 Centimeters. I can now see that Makoto Shinkai has very early on discovered for himself both a directing style and tonality that warrants him being called a master. More astonishing than anything else is that Distant Star was done entirely by Shinkai on his desktop computer. If the budget technology shows in the first few minutes, it disappears soon after as you are lost in a compelling story and graphical execution that still holds up to our standards 5 years later. The scene of Mikako on a planet in the Sirius star system rivals the lush work of Miyazaki. Believe me, that's saying something.
At only 30 minutes, there are few reasons to not see this anime short. Even if cartoons aren't your cup of tea, you may find Distant Star to be the rare exception.
Summary of Voices of a Distant Star
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