Time Traveller / The Time Traveller: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. Viewed on Streaming. Subtitles = eight (8) stars; cinematography = seven (7) stars; CGI/effects = six (6) stars. Director Masaaki Taniguchi's tale is crafted to appeal to a much broader audience than what the usual teenage chick flick targets. Taniguchi cleverly blends romance, science fiction, comedy, heart-rendering emotional drama, and suspense. (Mercifully, there are no scenes of Japanese cuteness!) One of the Director's objectives is to illustrate just how messy time travel can be (except for ants?) due to the creation of alternative time lines, and, especially, when it involves teenagers from different times who happen to meet up and share a romantic adventure. Leading actress Riisa Naka's performance is a Tour De Force of emotional highs and lows. Supporting cast members are also very good with the possible exception of the actor who stiffly plays a memory-wiping, bland character from five hundred years in the future (what ever romantic appeal he might have had as a real/virtual teenager in the 1970s seems to have been lost in time!). Cinematography (semi-wide screen, color) is good but could benefit from a deep-focus process where both background and foreground can be clearly seen simultaneously (the back and forth shift in the camera's focus during close-ups can be distracting and lessen the impact of dialog exchanges). Within and between scene lighting is good. Music is a bit on the heavy side for such a minor picture (it would seem to be more suitable for a larger-scale production?). CGI/effects are modest, but not cheesy. Subtitles strike an excellent balance between literal and literary translations. They are just right in length and screen duration. However, song lyrics are not translated. Recommended. WILLIAM FLANIGAN, PhD.
Review of Time Traveller
