Summer Ghost

BlackCatLef Nov 11, 2022

3.5

3S Review no. 64 (short, simple and salty/sweet/spicy) Not a lot of movies are coming out nowadays, let alone good movies, so my eye caught this one, the 40 minutes length was a selling point personally, but, to no surprise it was 40 minutes wasted. Story, three teenagers meet up in order to find a ghost that seems to appear only in the summer, then they become friends and decide to help the ghost by finding her body, helping her move on. Now, why you may ask, well, no one knows, they just do, do not question the almighty writer. There are no motives really, the whole thing is just a vessel for carrying the writers message. It is so blatantly obvious, so disgustingly didactic, childishly straightforward that I find it hard to believe that even the youngest of audience won’t feel his intelligence being offended. It is nothing but cheap drama, poorly written, poorly told, uninteresting, nonsensical if you take it for face value, and sellable easily digestible crap if you don’t. The characters are on the same boat, one is depressed for… well no reason, aside from being an artist, and you know, you have to be depressed if you like drawing, there is no other logical outcome. The other guy is dying in a couple of months, and becoming a ghost buster was probably his great great grandparent last wish, and the girl wanted to suicide cause some kids at school threw water at her. On top of that, everything happens so haphazardly that even if you really tried, you’d still couldn’t care for them. Animation is fine for what is worth, nothing spectacular and nothing difficult to animate either. It has charm to it even though it is pretty uninspiring. The sound is the best aspect of the movie, the song is cute and charming, even though I am a sucker for violin so tale that as you will. So, is it worth a watch? No, it is nothing but a waste of time, cheap, poorly written drama. This movie is like it was made by Almodovar, but having none of Almodovar’s virtues, only the lame stuff.

BerberryKun Sep 5, 2023

9

Hey, this is a pretty good story! At first I was like "God Dammit it's only 30-40 minutes!" thought this would be a waste of my time. Was it? No way! The movie itself is pretty good but the ending? Oh boy.. I thought I already shut down my water parks! Tomoya, he's a pretty good character and I'd say he's the main character. We see him having a tough time with his mom but then he meets the ghost, Ayane, and she cracks open his shell, by the end of the movie, yeah sometimes he thinks that it would've been easier if he listened to his mom but he doesn't regret it (I don't think). Ryou is an awesome dude! I thought he would be a school bully but he was a little tempermental emotional sweetheart! Aoi is cool too! Taking baby steps with her life at school! Would I recommend? YES!

Neveresta Dec 7, 2023

3

Interesting premise, a decent cast, and a heart breaking story. That's what this movie had. It was an amazing idea, but everything else ruined this film for me. Unfortunately, due to the horrible pacing, poor character development, and barely any deep diving into the plot or the worldbuilding, I was left absolutely frustrated by the end of the movie than satisfied. The art style and animation - that's not a problem. Sure, it could a lot better, but it has its own subtle charm. That's not my issue. Everything else is. I love that it had a concrete idea in place, but seems like the creators of the story had no idea how to get there. While watching it, I felt like characters had literally SPED UP since they constantly talked so fast and they're were barely enough pauses between conversations that I was confused what they were rushing for, or why they were skipping the breaks. The characters were easily a noticeable role and actually decent, however as the movie continued, they did not develop at all, but instead fell flat by the end. The arrangement of information on them that's presented in the film just doesn't fit right. You try to understand what little clues they present to you, and then try to out something else out about them, and they just don't sit right, like a leaning Jenga tower. There seemed to be a way to make it work, but they weren't presented right in the movie to even properly make sense. I've definitely seen somethung similar in movies previously, and it wasn't TOO much of a problem. Maybe once or twice I can excuse, but constantly and repeatedly? No. It just makes me have to remember more that already doesn't make much sense makes my head hurt. Anyways, I feel like I've just gone on a huge rant, but I was so frustrated for this movie because I definitely saw a lot of potential. With the right pacing and just a little character development, this would have been an amazing movie. I'm sad that it's basically kinda all over the place.