Summer Time Machine Blues (2005) - Third Window Films Review

January 17, 2023

Welcome to Sensei Sensibility! You are the hungry mind yearning to devour quality Asian cinema; I am the (questionably) knowledgeable Sensei, more than happy to satiate your cinematic appetite.

"Time is a lot less forgiving than you think..."

If my ever increasing grey hairs and deepening crow's feet are anything to go by, truer words were never spoken. However, if you're looking for absolute cinematic escapism, it doesn't come much richer than in Katsuyuki Matsohiro's 2005 sci-fi comedy Summer Time Machine Blues.

If you like hilarious, heart-warming coming of age films that perfectly encapsulate the quintessential Japanese summer - then Summer Time Machine Blues from Third Window Films will not disappoint.

Directed by Katsuyuki Motohiri, written by Makoto Ueda - and adapted from Ueda's original play of the same name - STMB takes place on a rural college campus during an intense summer heatwave. The boisterous boys of the school's sci-fi club are wholesomely passing their holidays with baseball, club activities, biking around their quaint, charming town, visiting bathhouses, and awkwardly interacting with two female members of the photography club.

It's hard not to be jealous of the boys' carefree existence, however, all that free time, unfettered by bills, responsibilities and other trivialities of adulthood can only lead to mischief.

Mischief comes in the form of a strange young visitor "Mushroom", and his time machine. Our boys are alarmed to learn that this new geek is a member of their very own sci-fi club... in the year 2030!

In an act defying the phrase "practise what you preach", Mushroom warns them against using the time machine, as tampering with the fabric of time can have dire consequences. One small change to the past and you could wipe out your own future.

Those words of warning are too little too late, because since discovering the time-machine in their club house, the baseball-sci-fi club have been boldly going where no baseball-sci-fi club have gone before. (Until the year 2030, that is!)

Cue a ludicrously convoluted race against time (quite literally) to un-do any seemingly innocuous changes the lads made - such as preventing the air-con remote control getting broken, or someone stealing their beloved Vidal Sassoon shampoo at the bath house - in an attempt to restore the balance of time.

There's some top-notch acting and physical comedy from the young actors, and stunning panoramic shots of the campus and surrounding countryside. The colours of the film are so vibrant and alive, the screen positively exudes vitality - reflecting the exuberance of youth.

Even if you personally didn't experience a childhood summer in Japan, (I did not) if you've seen enough anime (like I have), the screeching cicada soundtrack, and steamy streets will evokes a nostalgic longing for your own (fictional) younger years.

With the staging and dialogue it was easy to see how this would have worked as a play, yet, I was immensely impressed with its transition to the big screen and the experimental cinematography this new medium afforded it.

There was an abundance of unusual swirling camera angles, trippy camera work for the time travel sequences, and great use of split screens to show past/present simultaneously. Plot twists abound as time unravels and re-ravels, Summer Time Machine Blues demands the viewer's full attention, and keeps them on their toes.

The pure friendship between the characters and their comedic exchanges with the array of local oddballs around town were a joy to behold. Despite the great acting from the lead cast, my favourite character is the red-headed Trekkie who works at the movie theatre. A "C-list" movie "Did You See The UFO?" (about two salary men who... see... a UFO) is currently playing, and, in Trekkie's own words "The best part about it is it's really boring!" Deadpan genius.

All is resolved in the end, with some surprisingly far-reaching (and folkloric) consequences involving a well-travelled remote control, a Kappa statue and Kecha the dog. There's no real life-lessons to learn here, this is just an unforgettable (and unbelievable) summer adventure.

While I appreciate that the plot needed time to expand and wind around back on itself, I do feel the movie could have done with a bit of a trim length-wise, just to laser-focus viewer attention.

Another point of interest for fans of Asian genre, the actress who plays camera club friend Yui Ito is none other than Yoko Maki, who featured in iconic films such as The Grudge, Infection, Battle Royale II: Requiem, Kamikaze Girls and our recently reviewed Yakuza flick The Blood of Wolves - her acting career alone is like a time machine of stellar Japanese cinema.

Perfect for fans of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and The Infinite Two Minutes; the Third Window Films edition contains special features such as an interview with Makoto Ueda, the Time Machine short film, A Little Fugue of Love short film and a play versus film comparison.