Look Back Review
A short yet affective film masterpiece.
Look Back is the story of a young Japanese girl named Fujino who aspires to be a mangaka. That inspiration is imbued with life once she meets Kyomoto. Starting a friendship that will change her life Forever.
Credit: Studio Durian
I Will not sugarcoat it. To me, Look Back is a masterpiece. I have had about a week to stew on it, and it keeps getting better. I have many reasons for this, but I shall start this review with some information on the film.
Look Back is based on the 2021 one-shot web manga of the same name written by Tatsuki Fujimoto. The Film Premiered in Japan on the 28th June 2024. It was screened at this year's anime expo in America on July 6th 2024. It was later released to select theatres 8 days later on July 14th. It was released in UK cinemas on October 25th. I watched it on October 29th.
Japanese Box office opening weekend grossed around 1.4 million dollars (USD). With a “Domestic” U.S. Opening weekend of around 690 thousand Dollars. The UK Opening was around 62 thousand Dollars. As of Writing this review, the film has made a domestic total of over 1.9 million. An international Total of over 10.2 Million and an overall box office total of over 12.2 Million Dollars. The film has an IMDB review score of 8.2/10, a Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score of 99%, a Metacritic user score of 7.7 and a letterboxed average score of 4.4/5.
Credit:Studio Durian
Look Back is an incredible film and probably one of the best cinema experiences I have ever had. The most important thing I want to convey about this film is how emotionally impactful it is. This film is short. It's 58 minutes long. As far as I am aware that doesn't even qualify as a feature. With those 58 minutes, however, this film manages to convey more rich, gut-wrenching emotion than most 3-hour epics.
This film could have easily been stretched to meet the length of a standard feature. Or just that of a short animated film. There is some room here to develop the protagonist's relationships a little and extend the runtime. With Look Back, however, I don't think it needs it. The film is exactly as long as it needs to be. It Covers the story of the manga, uses a new medium to enhance the viewing experience, and establishes a deep care for the protagonists and their journey. It never overstays its welcome and I never felt like I needed more. I respect the film for only being as long as it needed to be.
Credit:Studio Durian
This film's animation deserves all the praise in the world. Not only is it stunning to look at but it is also incredibly impressive. The colours are vibrant and beautiful. The lines look super crisp. The most impressive part though is how fluid the animation is.
Im not educated as to what goes into every frame of animation. From what I know, from those around me who deeply care about this subject and study it themselves. This is an incredibly difficult thing to do. Look Back nails it in every frame. There are several shots of mundane things like someone tapping their leg under a table that is so seamless it's almost hard to believe it isn't mocap. There are also scenes where characters and twiddling pencils and flipping pages in books where it's dazzling how Dexterous everybody looks.
It's a difficult thing to describe. It's something I only see in Anime that have unlimited time and budget so for this film to have that calibre of animation is incredible.
Credit: Studio Durian
Look Back more than anything else is a get-wrenching film about friendship, love and loss. I can't go into immense detail about what happens in the film as everything other than the fact the girls become friends is heavy spoilers. I will say going into this blind is the best way to go. Know you are in for a visually beautiful film that will rip your heart out with no mercy.
I didn't entirely know what kind of film I was watching until it was over. There are a couple of moments that made me question if it was going in a dumb direction but my advice would be to have faith and bring tissues.
This was the only film I have seen in cinema where the entire audience felt the need to shut up the entire runtime and even into the credits. This movie is a definite must-see. With its easy accessibility now is the perfect time. It is a film that affected me deeply but was also just a joy to watch.
Credit: Studio Durian
Thanks for Reading this review. As Always If you want to see more from me link is in my bio. Also if you want a less formal approach to this kind of stuff. I have a Film Podcast with a friend of mine. It’s Called Pod Fiction. Episode 1 Is Available now on Spotify. We talk about Look Back. It’s good fun.
If you guys want to give it a listen I have attached it below.