Customer Reviews

Night on the Galactic Railroad [VHS]

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

In my opinion, "Night on the Galactic Railroad" is an outstanding piece of animation.

Many reviewers will note, and accurately so, that this movie is both heavy and slow as melted gold. It's true: in our current world of sound bites and media clips, fast action and short attention, this movie stands alone. This is especially so when the movie is compared to other anime, a category under which fall some of the fastest and slickest movies in the world. If nothing else, "Night on the Galactic Railroad" gets points for sheer originality and ingenuity.

Gisaburo Sugii (the director) has taken Kenji Miyazawa's children's story and created for it a living atmosphere. While highly detailed backgrounds are nothing new for anime, "Night on the Galactic Railroad" combines its finely crafted images with a brilliant use of frame shots, pacing, and audio montage to create a surreal and ethereal viewing experience.

While often advertised as a children's movie, "Night on the Galactic Railroad" most certainly does not tell a very light story. With both religious and nihilistic imagery, Sugii presents us with a powerful treatise on death and life. However, even if you do not appreciate the story itself, the beauty in the dream-like artwork and animation cannot be denied.

If this is the kind of movie that you'd just as soon sleep through, then you're missing out on some amazing cinema. Admittedly, most people these days would probably rather numb their brains in front of the "Tomb Raider" movie, than sit through the likes of "Don't Look Now" or "Blow Up." But, who knows....

If you want to be pulled into a beautifully crafted and mesmerizing world, then watch "Night on the Galactic Railroad."

This film is based on the story "Ginka Tetsudo no Yoru" by Miyazawa Kenji. This film was originally released as a major motion picture in Japan where the complete works of Miyazawa Kenji were reissued and sold in theatre lobbies. By comparison, Tonari no Totoro was a double bill with Graves of the Fireflies and passed with comparatively little notice.

Miyazawa Kenji was a significant poet and author of children's literature in the early twentieth century. As noted by others, death is a major theme in this film as are issues of friendship and family responsibility. The film is rather weighty and seriously beautiful.

Although the characters are human beings in the original Japanese story, they are primarily represented by cats in the film. This choice was a bit controversial when the film was originally released. The characters in the original story are clearly human beings and Japan does not have a strong tradition of anthropomorphic animals in either manga or anime. Further, anthropomorphic animals in folklore such as the badger and the fox are often dangerous and not sympathetic at all. Those who have read published mistranslations of the original story may be surprised to learn that the main characters have Italian names. Regardless, the characters and story are quite compelling. I was deeply moved by the film when I first saw it and subsequently read the original story in Japanese.

The artwork and animation for this film are both excellent. However, those who are fond of the cut-still approach to animation often found in Japanese animation for television may be disappointed by this film. Rather, the drawing and animation style of this film reminds me of a dark version of Disney's Fantasia of sixty years ago. Some of the images in the film remind me of impressionist or post-impressionist paintings. Film music and film sound are also quite pronounced in this film. Both the recurring theme first heard in the opening credits and the sound of the train on the tracks provide a recurring leit motif for what is an episodic film structured around various locations which often have symbolic importance. This recurrent symbolism reflects the Miyazawa Kenji who is noted as an important Japanese Christian poet who wrote European style poetry.

My copy of the DVD for this movie has a few technical flaws which suggest that it was not made from an original negative.

Previous reviewer Ezra Shapiro dismissed this piece as "heavily theistic; it's designed to make you think, but only in one direction," and is troubled by the "glowing crosses on the horizon." However, it seems to me that he misses one or two key points.

Perhaps most obvious is the repeated note that the train is travelling in the Dream Dimension -- a creation of Mind, filled with artifacts of the IMAGINATION. It is not the whole tale; something lies quite beyond this. While most of the train debarks at Miyazawa's depiction of "Christian Heaven," Giovanni and his friend Campanella remain on board, lonely passengers headed to what is referred to as "True Heaven." This is depicted as a black-hole-like "Sack of Coal," where Campanella suggests his "Mother" is waiting to be reunited to him. As he is not speaking of his "mortal mother," whom he has long since left behind, I suggest that this is the "Mystical Mother," known in the Western Mystery Tradition as "Binah," the principle of limitation beyond which is the formlessness of the Unmanifest. Attention to such details adds a significant dimension to the tale which Mr. Shapiro apparently did not see. It is definately not "one-directional theism" as he suggests.

Miyazawa encourages us to compare Campanella's act of courage and kindness in saving his friend, with that of the young Tutor, who allowed his two innocent charges to drown that they might enter into his Christian version of Heaven. However, other characters in the film are ambivalent about the young Tutor's definition of "happiness."

Finally, as others have pointed out, Giovanni fits more with the image of the descending Bodhisattva than with a traditional Christian theistic view.

This movie is a visual feast, the story line exceedingly well-crafted, and its message is subtle and nuanced. First-rate!

What a great film! I have to admit I like movies that make you think, and this one does just that. When compared to other main stream anime films which either center on nudity or violence to further the plot this one would seem incredibly slow and dull. But if you are in the mood to think I recommend to buy this film. And the price cannot be beat! Usually tapes of this caliber cost at least 24.00. Consider yourself lucky and buy this tape. And parents...don't worry about violence or anything of the like. It is great for all ages. But afterward be prepared to talk with your children. They will have questions. I can almost guarantee because I had quite a few myself.

The vow taken by Giovanni in the end of the film is the same as the vow of the Boddhisattva. I think most people who watch this film miss this point. This vow is not the result of martyrdom or of a Fruedian desire for self-torture, but rather the result of a sort of enlightenment, brought on by a mystical experience or a crisis. Think about what it would take to make you vow to sacrifice your own personal happiness and even to accept suffering for the good of everybody else. The symbollism is the same as that of Christ being crucified, or of Osiris willfully getting into the coffin presented by Apophis. The scorpion is not only a symbol of death, but also of spiritual rebirth.

I had seen this several years ago when it was on tape and am very delighted to see that it is comming out on DVD.

Giovanii and his friend suddenly find themselves on a train speeding through the galaxy, meeting people and seeing sites they only imagined. At certain cross roads they must decide what to do, where to go and what to see. After making a promise to always be together one of the two must decide whats best for their friendship.

Granted this is slow moving, but very deep. For example Lain, being slow but interesting. Alot of symbolisim is painted in this film with its whole some plot and its views of certain things such as heaven and death.

Personally I think this is for a select audience, for those who like Dragon Ball Z or Tenchi Muyo may not enjoy this, but for those who enjoy stylist and deep features such as Please Save my Earth and Utena may infact enjoy this.

I'm usually pretty conservative when it comes to dishing out stars, but this is one of the few films to which I would give ten without hesitation. The original story (by Japanese children's author Kenji Miyazawa) is a masterpiece in itself, but Sugii's screen interpretation is nothing short of amazing. Some of the best scenes are the quietest, such as when the protagonist is setting type in the printer's shop, or when he goes to the dairy to get milk and finds only an old woman there.

Superior to almost every toe-curling art-house flick that touches on similar territory Night on the Galactic Railroad says more and presents itself better than one would expect coming from a mere animated movie. Indeed if this was reshot in live action, maybe in black and white and dubbed into French it would become a canonical post new-wave classic: to be fawned over by leagues of pee-brained cineastes. However it remains a little known and rarely talked about anime that has been seen by more fans of Galaxy Express 999 than by fans of Alan Resnais. Based upon the short children's work of the same name by Kenji Miyazawa the tale is ostensibly of a young cats (Giovanni) coming to terms with death by means of a surrealist adventure along the titular Galactic Railroad. The film contains a sequence of superbly realised vignettes that gradually paint the picture of Giovanni's life at home; his ill mother and itinerant father, bullying classmates and later the fantastical sights and stations he encounters on his one way ticket to the edge of the universe. The train he boards carries with it passengers of many creeds and persuasions: some disembark at the Pliocene Coast to further the cause of science others exit only to blithely tramp towards an afterlife of either Pagan, Christian or Buddhist contrivance . . . but young Giovanni stays on until the end. The less alert may mistake this film for some sort of religious allegory but it is nothing of the sort: Giovanni's revelation at the end seems more a triumph of moral philosophy. All text in the movie is written in Esperanto and the locations on Earth are reminiscent of small town medieval Europe. Beautifully scripted, animated and immaculately directed by Sugii Gisaburo, Night on the Galactic Railroad is one of the unsung masterpieces of cinema.

I saw this film at a friend's house three or four years ago, and it made a big impression on me -- I remember it vividly. This is a beautiful film!! It opens with a shot of a city which is unmistakably Florence, and I was immediately transported into a universe where it seemed like the Boboli Gardens and the Duomo could coexist with giant astral wire-frame pyramids bounding in the sky and archeological digs suspended weightlessly in space... very magical and beautiful.

This movie sort of takes you off-guard if you don't know what it's about; and it definitely has a point to make. Recognised by the Ministry of Education in Japan, it deals with the subject of death and does so in a sensitive manner which *shouldn't* give kids nightmares, but will have them in tears. Indeed adults will have a tough time keeping a dry eye assuming that both can get through the movie that is. The main drawback to this movie is the sheer length of the production. It's extremely demanding on one's ability to maintain their interest, and would be even more difficult for kids to watch; either in North America or Japan. The animation is okay although nothing particularly special, but the music is very nice. The voice acting is nothing particularly special in this show either, and really both Giovanni and Campanella are very quiet throughout the movie and the train ride. The *lack* of action more than anything makes things even more demanding, it's very much as though you were taking a ride on a train, people come and go, sometimes it's interesting to look out the window sometimes not, sometimes you take a nap... It's very slow paced and it becomes very tempting to take a nap as things go on.

The main thing to note however, is that the whole topic of death doesn't *really* show up until at least half-way if not later in the show. There is a bit of foreshadowing of what the story is about when Campanella and Giovanni first meet on the train, but this is very easy to miss. Beyond that however, the first adventure the boys go on looks like lots of fun; seeing people working on an archaeological dig of some sort. However, as the movie (slowly!) progresses you start to get an idea about who is really getting on the train, and when the ticket master goes by, you know something is very strange with Giovanni's ticket compared to Campanella's. By the time you meet the threesome from the shipwreck, you know very well what's happening and you also know how the story will end. It's a nice and sensitive way of looking at death, but truth to be told, very few kids will have the staying power to watch the whole show, and indeed many adults will have a tough time about it.