The Tunnel To Summer, The Exit Of Goodbyes

Do you get cross at Doctor Who (other time travel narratives are available) for introducing nonsensical paradox and then waving it away as just one of those ‘timey-wimey things’? If you do, then… you may find The Tunnel To Summer, The Exit Of Goodbyes a little hard to swallow. For the ending, beautiful as it is, cannot sustain even a cursory glance from a pedant or sceptic.

Whut? What just happened? Is Tono’s sister alive? Dead? Or now living in some permanent state of maybe, courtesy of the Schrodinger cat box company?

Alternatively, if you are feeling a little down, and would like a short, sweet pick-me-up, in the form of a beautifully drawn anime featuring teenage love, angst and manga, this is the film for you. Luckily I am a fan of both time travel and saccharine-sweet romantic resolution. I loved this film. As the final credits rolled around, I just kicked back and let the delicious chords of Finale by Japanese singer-songwriter eill wash over me. All the time smiling at how it worked out. Aaaah….

And breathe.

Long story short. The Tunnel To Summer, The Exit Of Goodbyes (Natsu E No Tonneru, Sayonara No Deguchi) is director Tomohisa Taguchi’s take on a Japanese light novel of the same name, written by Mei Hachimoku and illustrated by Kukka. It is very much a two-hander: the tale of two teenagers attending school in a small town in rural Japan.

Each has faced their own share of misfortune. For Tono (Oji Suzuka), it is family tragedy for which both he and his father blame him. For Hanashiro (Marie Iitoyo), it is family rejection, accompanied by a bad case of imposter syndrome. Because Hanashiro creates great manga. But no-one, least of all Hanashiro, believes it is anything other than mediocre.

Into this swirl of discontent, throw the mcguffin: here, the Urashima Tunnel, where your deepest wish will be granted. But there’s a catch! (Isn’t there always?) Time flows differently inside the tunnel. So, a journey of a few minutes outside can bring you back out again years later. Or earlier. The rules, it would appear, adapt to meet the needs of the story.

What to do? And what if getting your wish granted seems destined to separate you forever from your newest bestest friend with whom you are definitely not (ahem!) falling madly, deeply, teenagely in love?

One will take that plunge; one will not. But that’s as much of a spoiler as you are going to get. So, if you want to know what happens and how it all works out, you are just going to have to watch the film. It’s not long. It has a run time barely in excess of 80 minutes. It is spare, direct and doesn’t waste its time, as some anime – annoyingly – does.

Did I mention it was beautifully made? Indeed, it is, with CGI wending its way into the tunnel itself as means to mark it out from the more mundane anime reality that infuses the rest of the film.

It owes a certain amount to Your Name, an earlier ground-breaking anime of teenage romance with timey-wimey mcguffins at its heart. But it is not at all a rip-off.

There is so much to see here, so much to experience; rather less to tell. Except, perhaps, it is the best in a very short list of ‘borrowed umbrella’ films I have ever seen.