Colorful ~ The Motion Picture is a film released in 2010 from Sunrise Studios and Ascension. Based on a Japanese novel from Mori Eto, this movie has also won some awards in film festivals.
Overall, I would personally rate this a 9/10 on my scale. If you have the 2 hours and are in the mood for a film in an animated format, check it out and form your own opinion about it.
As for the why, that following review explains about it. I’ll try to keep spoilers to a minimum! When making this review, I watched this in subtitles.
I believe to gain maximum enjoyment from this film, you have to understand some aspects of Japanese society’s culture in terms of their values, relationships, beliefs, and structure. If I watched this film without understanding some aspects of Japanese culture then I probably will not get certain scenes and why they are important.
Does this mean you shouldn’t watch this film without understanding some cultural aspects? No! You can infer why certain aspects are important because the story is resonant everywhere in all societies anyways (albeit in certain societies in the South-east Asian countries lol). Considering the good presentation, you can pick up what’s confusing and look up why certain things are confusing. We all have to start from somewhere anyways.
Maybe the dubbed version of the film was able to successfully localize/translate the intricacies of its setting and characters, someone else will have to comment about that.
Since I talked about the presentation earlier, I’ll talk about it here. I think the way the story is unravelled by the Colorful production team was outstanding in terms of its pacing. I have never felt like the story dragged at any parts. Everything felt relevant and the story had a lot of themes to tell. Its soundtrack really complemented certain scenes alongside the animation. This animation is movie quality for sure and nothing felt out of place unless you’re so absolutely abhorrent to CG assets but don’t let that blind you from what it’s trying to tell. And what I think gives the movie a huge plus is the fact that it utilizes a good mix of narration & show don’t tell. I’m a fan of show don’t tell directing and so it was a very welcome surprise to see it utilized in the movie.
Another positive for me is that I barely saw any anime-ism tropes that plague a lot of anime today. While I do enjoy those tropes, sometimes it can become too saturated for one's taste which is understandable. So, if you’re sick of anime-ism tropes but want to see a nice story told, check this out. While it has a supernatural aspect to it, it’s not like taken to extremes and a lot of the film feels super grounded in what it’s trying to tell.
Alongside the stellar animation and story are the voice actors. They really helped sell the scenes and I think they deserve praise for their efforts. It worked in tandem with the body language the animators made. I really enjoyed the voice acting performance from everyone.
It was an overall satisfying experience and I don’t have much complaints personally. This movie may not be for everyone but I say it’s worth checking out if you’re ever in the mood for these types of stories. Our tastes evolve over time after all. Hope you have a good time and thanks for reading the review!
The section below is me talking about spoilers because I want to talk about it. I wouldn’t recommend reading it if you haven’t seen the film before as it may hinder your enjoyment from knowing things you shouldn't ahead of time.
Anyways, did you like that theme/title drop during Makoto’s console of Hiroka in the Art room? I sure did. It actually confused me a bit on why Hiroka was so confused and what she was talking about until I realized she’s confused about who she is as an individual in middle school. Part of growing up really.
It seemed a little bit obvious about how people are 3-dimensional and it’s not uncommon in certain stories. I just liked the way they presented this theme and story. It felt raw with how it executed its scenes and knowing how the Japanese are like with getting into a better academic program, how reputation is tied to who you’re associated with, cram school, bullying, communal culture, etc. It really elevates the type of empathy that isn’t seen in many Western films I’ve seen really. Felt like its own unique thing. Though I’m a huge af weeb lol.
I think it was also a nice commentary about the social structure in their society. They cannot talk about certain subjects but they have to face it eventually as they’re important issues. It’s only with grit and facing things forward are you able to tackle challenges that go your way. This will turn things ugly. Nobody wants to talk about how your wife had an affair, how you neglected your family to work so much that your own child attempted suicide, how your little brother is suffering academically and generally overall unhappy. These are very taboo subjects to bring up about. It was super respectful and realistic about these portrayals of said subjects especially in a Japanese context.
We value so much on academics but not on the other talents of individuals and it really comes into question about us as a society on how we value other people. Everybody is colorful in their own right but why do we only value certain colors over others? Why does everyone have to be a certain color? We’re all ugly, bitter, and at the same time - beautiful. A range of personality traits to form a character overall.
In a way, it’s a theme about a person’s humanity and the respect for them as an individual. A simple story about how even the littlest of good gestures can go a long way for helping people out. I saw someone mention in the forums how if you relate a lot, it will impact a lot and I think that’s why I’ve been thrilled about it. The little moments and bonds you have with people can matter a lot to certain individuals. It may feel like nothing on the other side (which I also too have experienced), but it’s something that is cherished.
This film had a lot going with it and I don’t know if I was able to successfully unpack it all, maybe someone will. Hell, I enjoyed that aspect where it said a lot but didn’t push it down my throat. Maybe I’ll rewatch it in the future. The final line of being alive and what it means to be alive feels similar to other anime. Of course, that’s just one way of looking at things but yeah, it’s nice.
I hope the people reading this know that “You’re alive and kicking.” There’s a lot of awful things in this world but there are also a lot of good things too even if the world is all bleak. This is all like a painting in a way haha.
If you somehow managed to make it to the end, thanks for reading. If you like talking about anime, hmu, I always love talking about anime.
I tend to write long essays in general for these reviews and I know it can be a chore so I do appreciate you taking the time especially with the attention span of people’s being so little haha.
83 out of 86 users liked this review
