TL;DR – While there were some good ideas here, an unfortunate narrative focus and other frustrating narrative issues held it back for me.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid for the Netflix service that viewed this film.

Warning – Contains scenes that may cause distress.

Maboroshi Review –

When something supernatural happens, is that divine retribution or divine protection? In a time of crisis, do people continue to carry on, or do they give up? What happens when you are stuck? Can you go on?

So to set the scene, it is 1991 in a small town in Japan, as Masamune (Junya Enoki) and his friends are all staying up late studying when an explosion rips out into the night. The local steel factory is ablaze, sending flames up into the air. Then, a light flashes through the air, and time becomes a bit funky. Running outside, they see the factory on fire, but cracks appear in the sky, and the smoke from the factory is not as innocent as it first appears. Everyone in the town senses the presence because everyone is trapped, and no one can get out.  

I am really not sure how I feel about this film, as it goes all over the place. However, one of the things that I can recommend is the animation. I especially like the moment when the universe cracks into each other, and you see overlapping worlds. There is good use of motion in the animation, which is needed in the final act. As well as this, the central conundrum of what you do when you are stuck in one moment is a particularly interesting one.

My main issue with the film is that narratively, it asks a lot of questions, but I am not sure that it satisfactorily answers them all. Part of this, I think, is the focus on younger cast members, pitching it to an age range that the content does not fit. The film is filled with these odd moments and some deeply uncomfortable moments. I know part of it is all about finding your first love and the energy that it brings. However, the story needed a level of maturity that we just didn’t get. Because of this lack of maturity, all the narrative beats miss the mark, some by a wide margin.  

The next problem is that I never bought into the world they created. The town went from 0 to listening to the craziest person in the place in the first moments. The need to stay the same had an interesting start, but it was never developed enough, nor the reasons and dangers of cracking apart. By the time we got the third act and its push towards the end, I had unfortunately already disconnected from the film, so the emotional resolution just fell flat.  

In the end, do we recommend Maboroshi? Unfortunately, no. While there were some good ideas here, an unfortunate narrative focus and other frustrating narrative issues held it back for me. If you liked Maboroshi, we would recommend to you Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

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Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Maboroshi
Directed by – Mari Okada
Written by – Mari Okada
Music by – Masaru Yokoyama
Cinematography by – Yuusuke Tannawa
Edited by – Ayumu Takahashi
Production/Distribution Companies – MAPPA, Warner Bros. Pictures & Netflix
Japanese Cast – Junya Enoki, Reina Ueda, Misaki Kuno, Kōji Seto, Kento Hayashi, Taku Yashiro, Tasuku Hatanaka, Daiki Kobayashi, Ayaka Saitō, Maki Kawase, Yukiyo Fujii & Setsuji Satō
English Cast – Max Mittelman, Jannie Tirado, Kitana Turnbull, Andrew Kishino, Isaac Robinson-Smith, Jonathan Leon, David Errigo Jr., Brandon Engman, Valerie Rose Lohman, Madeline Dorroh, Lizzie Freeman, Kirsten Day, Robbie Daymond, Joe Ochman & Kamran Kikhad
Rating – Australia: M; Canada: PG; Germany: 12; New Zealand: M; United Kingdom: 12A; United States: PG-13