Drifting Home

Never have I been more intrigued by a story's premise, only to be let down harder than Rick Astley. What initially had the potential to be a great piece of entertainment ultimately flopped under its own weight, which came at the cost of my time and attention. This movie runs for 120 minutes including credits. This movie did not feel like 120 minutes, rather it felt like binging through a weak 12-episode slice of life. It consistently had downtime in which I felt that the plot was moving fucking nowhere, which is pretty ironic considering how the whole movie is about kids trying to find theirway back home. A quick explanation of the plot: a group of friends gets stuck in an apartment building that happens to teleport in the middle of the ocean and they work together to survive and find their way back home. Now that may sound interesting at first until you realize... that's it? Well not really, there's more to the story. But honestly, I wish that was it, because the "more", is absolutely fucking bullshit. The movie does not give a rat's ass about the things it throws at the viewer. It goes from one plot point to the other, see-sawing between elements. I wouldn't be surprised if someone with bipolar wrote the script for this movie because not a single aspect of the movie was explained or developed further. You're left with a blank face at the end of the credits with one question in your mind: "What the fuck just happened?" And to make matters worse, the characters are absolute dogshit. The director literally took cookie-cutter personalities and copy-pasted them into the script. I don't know how much more basic you can get with how they're written, their backstories, and their interactions. From the very first minute to the last, it oozes mediocrity. Animation-wise, there's nothing noteworthy here. A big-budget anime film by Netflix is bound to look at least good, but the only thing that could save a story this boring was beautiful animation, which it also fails to deliver in that regard. Drifting Home is an experience that only the bottom 5% of viewers will find fulfillment in. As a movie watcher, you expect your time and patience to be rewarded with a journey worthwhile, or a sense that something about you changed compared to before you sat down on the couch. However, I can say with confidence that I have gained nothing by watching this movie, except for the feeling that I probably could've finished a better Studio Ghibli movie instead.

Drifting Home is one of those well-made but somewhat mediocre films that come out every year. All the ingredients seem to be there for a great film: talented studios working on it that are clearly passionate about what they do, solid background art, good character animation, an attempt to tell a serious story with the medium, etc. I wouldn't say this is an "A-list" film in the way people usually envision Ghibli or some of the bigger and more popular productions out there from Kon, Hosoda, or Shinkai, or whoever else—it's a bit more modest than that. A film like this is immediately viewed asaverage or slightly above average at best, but I think a lot of people are left uncertain as to why—they just realize it's missing that special ingredient. To begin with, I'm not even sure what audience this is meant for. I suppose this will have a shounen tag? The characters are all 11 years old or around that age, and it feels like it's meant for a younger audience, but at many points, it feels directed more so at nostalgic and reminiscing adults who have regrets about their childhood and what they've lost. Despite the action and adventure on display, this can be a little slow and contemplative, and attention spans are not what they used to be—even decades back, I feel like the average child and even teen would be bored by this; most adults have probably been inundated with most of the themes and ideas so regularly from other media that, they too, will be fatigued by the familiarity of the production, regardless of how patient they are. Indeed, this is a rather long two hours for such a simple retread of the regrets that emerge with coming of age. The movie offers a little bit of everything, but it doesn't really excel at anything. You have the rather uncanny valley brand of fantasy where something is off but everything is familiar. The characters wonder if there was a flood that sent the abandoned apartment building they were playing at drifting away, and you can't really blame their incredulity, as it's all rather silly. The ocean becomes a kind of dreamland, with buildings that are either disused or that no longer exist floating around. Then we have adventure as they forage for food in the various buildings. A bit of action when the seas become rough and turbulent or when we need conflict. Plenty of drama with shrieking and crying kids, often shifting into tearjerker mode as they try to pull at your heartstrings with sentimental flashbacks and piano ditties, but it's always manipulative rather than authentically emotional. A little romance (not really, but you know that kind of coming of age "I like you!" thing—I'm trying to make a point here). There's a very quick blast of suspense or even semi-horror, and a small mystery that unravels clumsily concerning the character Noppo and the fantasy elements. Excluding Noppo, there are 6 characters in the cast stranded on the building. Technically, 4 of them are not needed, but the movie would be too empty without them, and they help "confuse the issue" a little bit to prevent the film from appearing too basic. The two friends of Kousuke are basically 2 of the goons from the Three Stooges, Reina is a tsundere brat, Juri is the unconfident four-eyes. They're pretty typical, and Natsume and Kousuke are the standard male-female leads; they have a strained relationship, and Kousuke is very abrasive for about half the movie, while Natsume is rather glum. Why do we have the fantasy element, aside from it being visually more interesting and mysterious than just a standard slice of life or drama coming of age film? This is another one of those films where the writer takes a basic problem that normal people have to solve and figure out the hard way, and throws in a fantasy element to whisk away the problem instead. It's kind of like the silly premise behind ReLife, where the main character is having career troubles (the backstory for why is really stupid and contrived), so then we have the sci-fi concept of manipulating his appearance to look like a teen again, and he redoes high school to fix his problems! Drifting Home isn't nearly as laughable in this sense, but it's similar in execution. Basically, everything happens because Kousuke said something to Natsume in the past that was kind of "mean," and so misunderstandings and resentment formed as well, and they grew apart, but then the fantasy yarn heals all their booboos and kisses them on the forehead, and their relationship again becomes positive. Even the slight "twist" that is offered is very predictable, and it's the kind of thing that even when you don't consciously think about it, it's lingering so heavily in the subconscious that nothing is at all surprising. The whole film reeks of psychoanalytic cliches and carries the burdensome weight of a dream we didn't ask for or need.

The trailer I saw months ago really had me interested because it just seemed like it could be good. Visually it was absolutely stunning, the animation was beautiful from start to finish. The music captured me and did not let go until the movie ended. However, as far as story and characters go. The entire time it just felt like something was missing. It was a fine movie, don't get me wrong. But, I just felt like it could use something else, I can't say I am smart enough to know what that something is, nevertheless it is how I felt more or lessthe entire time.

The biggest issue with this film was mixed messaging and missed expectations. Given the premise of this film, it seems like it's going to be a band of crazy kids stuck on an apartment in the middle of the ocean. I interpreted that as a fun little romp, a silly adventure where the kids struggle, but bond, grow up, and have a unique time in their lives. That... is not what happens. This film is surprisingly dark. It's more akin to a less dense version of Lord of the Flies mixed with Life of Pi than a cute, fun adventure movie. The kids are actually struggling here.They have to ration meals, struggle to survive, use their wits, and strain against the stress of their situation. Injury and chance of death is very real in this world. People's heads get bashed, people fall into glass, or slip off metal sharp metal poles. Starvation looms, tensions flare, life is on the line. Look at the pictures and all the promotional material for this show. Would you say that description above matches it? This is the core problem: what looks, at first, to be a lighthearted and fun adventure is actual a survival story. And if your expectations aren't aligned with that, you're going to be a bit confused by the genre division. But there are other issues at play. Namely that the screenplay is exceptionally convoluted and bloated. The reason for this seems to be that they came up with the core concept for the film, and had a strong idea of the ending, but had no idea how to fill the second act of the film. This film has it all. Of course the survival aspects are present, including all the struggles that come with that genre. But there's also shintoism, fantasy magic, light romantic tension, character drama, childlike joie de vivre, ghosts, nostalgic drama... there is so MUCH in this film, so many things that the film wants to say and address. And the problem with Drifting Home, just like other films that want to say a lot, is that it's hard to fit so many different, disparate topics and ideas into one film and make things cohesive. At its core, Drifting Home is a character drama. It's about the kids doing everything they can to survive while also straining against each other's personalities. The problem is, the screenplay is a bit incompetent in this regard. The way Drifting Home interprets drama and conflict is through arguments. A problem will arise ("we're running out of food"), so the kids start to argue. The argument will talk about how there's no food, someone will say "we'll make it work," and then a third-party will say "we have to work together." Then everyone agrees to do their best. But then, hey, no food again, and the exact same argument happens, in the exact same way, just featuring different characters; then the argument gets resolved in the same way, everyone goes back to normal, until the next thing spawning an argument. The arguments also don't really change a lot; it's not like there are new problems that the kids argue about, it's the same core problems of trying to survive that always inflame tensions. This makes the arguing itself extremely repetitive and annoying, because you remember this same problem being resolved 10 minutes ago, but now they're just fighting again. It becomes nonsensical. There's also an issue that the cast is quite large as well. Seven is a crowd, and although everyone has a foil to bounce off of, trying to characterize and give everyone a valuable arc in the film is a struggle within the screenplay. There's a whole lot of talking, yelling, brooding, etc., and much of this is inconsequential to the broader plot the film is delivering. This muddies everything, making delivering conclusions on everyone's arcs difficult. There's a scene near the end where all the characters have this emotional moment regarding themselves as characters. The problem is, it happens so suddenly, that it's over after a second, and feels extremely unfulfilling, because it doesn't feel like we had enough time to learn about everyone's personal situation for the moment to really pay off. This is because a deeper core of this movie is the relationship between the two protagonists: Kousuke and Natsume. They're childhood friends, and childhood sweethearts, but also straining under the shared relationship of Kousuke's grandfather who passed away many years before. But because this film is a survival film, that core premise takes a back seat to them working together to survive. As such, we don't get enough time to see these characters emotionally bonding in a way that doesn't involve tension or conflict. The present day has left them both emotionally fraught, so it's difficult for them to act like real friends, especially in a survival situation; but we, as viewers, WANT TO SEE THAT, because we know they care about each other, and never get the opportunity to experience that outside of a couple scenes here and there, or outside of flashbacks. That isn't to say the film is all bad. It nails the visual aesthetics, and all the character designs are amazing. The animation is stunning as ever, which is to be expected from Studio Colorido and Ishida himself. There's also quite a lot of expertly crafted CG, which is rare in anime. But a few good compliments and a nice initial vibe cannot combat the weight of a messy screenplay, which inevitably drags this film down from being better than it could have been. It's an unfortunate sophomore slump for an otherwise ultra talented director, and is a strong example of "telling not showing" and how a bloated screenplay can really drag down an experience. If this film had focused on its core ideals: nostalgia, drama, and character bonding, this would have been a fantastic experience. Unfortunately, it throws everything including the kitchen sink into the mix as well, along with an overly mature and dangerous tone, which drags down the entire production.