THE STORY – The story follows Fujino, a popular and outgoing student, and Kyomoto, a shut-in with severe social anxiety, who bond over their shared love of creating manga. Kyomoto idolizes Fujino for her work drawing manga for their elementary school’s newspaper, wishing to befriend her, however Fujino initially resents Kyomoto’s natural artistic talents. The pair grow close through their shared love, with the work following their bond as they grow into adulthood.
THE CAST – Natsuki Deguchi, Aju Makita, Furi Nanase & Rokka Okada
THE TEAM – Hirokazu Kore-eda (Director/Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 99 Minutes
When the anime adaptation of “Look Back” came out in 2024, it took the world’s breath away. It’s easy to see how Tasuki Fujimoto’s award-winning one-shot manga, which pulled the heartstrings of millions, quickly fast-tracked a live-action adaptation, something that is quite common in Japan. At the same time, skepticism is usually warranted around an announcement like this. Still, acclaimed filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda attaching himself to the project elevated what should’ve been a run-of-the-mill translation into a film worth being excited about. While Kore-eda attempts to bring his own stamp of sentimentality to “Look Back,” by the time the credits start to roll, one wonders why a filmmaker of his caliber would devote time to a feature that isn’t anything more than a well-assembled recreation of something far more effective.
Kore-eda, whose year hasn’t started on the right foot with his previous feature “Sheep in the Box,” which premiered at Cannes as a shocking misfire from a filmmaker who’s typically consistent, at the very least, gets back on track here with “Look Back.” Anyone expecting Kore-eda to stray outside the colored lines in any form of inspired adaptation will be disappointed, as “Look Back” is almost a beat-for-beat replication of its animated counterpart. The film follows Fujino (played by Furi Nanase), a young schoolgirl whose artistic talent is celebrated by her peers and professors. Fujino’s manga panels, which are in her school’s weekly papers, are the highlight of everyone’s week. That is, until Fujino and others become aware of Rokka Okada’s Kyomoto, a reclusive classmate whose artwork rivals, if not surpasses, Fujino’s work.
Fujino takes this as motivation to push herself as an artist and eventually crosses paths with Kyomoto, as these two opposites are brought together not only by their shared love of drawing, but by an almost universal force pulling them into each other’s lives. Audiences watch the two girls draw away their days together as their shared talent launches them into an emotional whirlwind of a friendship that, like the Kiyotaka Oshiyama version, still packs its poignant punch. “Look Back” is a mostly entertaining coming-of-age drama, but it falls short of most of Kore-eda’s previous work. This constant mainly stems from his uninspired choice to stick as close to the material as possible.
Kore-eda, who wrote and directed the film, faces a double-edged sword of sorts. By avoiding straying from the material in any meaningful way, he appeases purists of the original work, leaving few dissenters, at least when it comes to his ability to create a faithful adaptation. Yet what we have is merely adequate, lacking plenty of what makes his films so special. Kore-eda’s artistic fealty to the point of recreating key frames from the anime is an unimaginative choice that only pulls audiences away from the emotionality of the amazing story. Technically, Kore-eda does more than enough to draw audiences in, as Senzo Ueno’s serene cinematography captures the beauty of the world around Kyomoto and Fujino, which bleeds into the wonder of the illustrations they create. Yuta Bandoh’s searing score more than elevates the emotions Kore-eda is prodding at even when Bandoh is recreating motifs from the anime adaptation.
If anything, “Look Back” struck gold with the young actors whose performances would make or break this film. Nanase and Okada have such lovely chemistry that when they finally appear on screen together, it’s like a reunion for two strangers who’ve never met. Their childlike fascination with their art is heartwarming to witness; a part of me misses their presence whenever the film flashes forward later in these characters’ lives. Luckily, Natsuki Deguchi and Aju Makita (who play the older versions of Fujino and Kyomoto) are equally fantastic, perfectly recreating the mannerisms of their younger co-stars. It’s hard not to buy into this relationship and to be completely leveled by a finale that still hits like a ton of bricks to the chest.
That feeling, though, is more a testament to the amazing story Oshiyama has made, which now feels like it’s been told more times than necessary. The word “necessary” always comes up with these types of live-action adaptations, and whether their existence is justified. It’s a slippery slope of a conversation, and most of the time it’s pointless. Yet despite how watchable Kore-eda’s interpretation of “Look Back” is, it simply doesn’t ring the same as the animated film. For those who love the original “Look Back” and most of Kore-eda’s filmography, you’d have to wonder how this perfect pairing of material and filmmaker led to something adequate at best.
