Introducing young friends Kōsuke and Natsume in a beautiful opening credit montage that sees the pair playing freely amongst their once shining but now dilapidated and abandoned housing project, Drifting Home weaves an otherworldy coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of suburban redevelopment and changing times.
Flash forward several years into the future, Kōsuke and Natsume, we learn, have grown apart, having gone their separate ways after growing up in a flat complex now destined for demolition. At school, Kōsuke has made new friends in Taishi and Yuzuru, whilst Natsume is ostracised by her other classmates for being quiet and ‘weird’. Outside of the classroom and her less-than-perfect family life, Natsume finds herself drawn back to the crumbling flat complex and the life she once lived alongside Kōsuke’s family for reasons she can’t quite articulate. Meanwhile, sharing tales of a ghost that haunts the flat complex and under the pretense of a ‘group project’, Kōsuke, Taishi, Yuzuru, popular girl Reina and her shy friend Juri, visit the building, only to find themselves and the complex itself somewhat strange. Following a dramatic heart-to-heart between Kōsuke and Natsume in which their world appears to shift before their eyes, the group of school kids finds themselves stranded alone on a now floating flat complex, surrounded by miles and miles of ocean as far as the eye can see.
As with fantasy-driven films like Spirited Away or more recently, Belle and Weathering with You, Drifting Home‘s approach to animation and the broader influence of contemporary Japanese ‘anime’ that blends both traditional animation with CGI elements, is the perfect vehicle for a tale that works to seamlessly blend the everyday with the uncanny and fantastical. Its imagery is so beautifully constructed, its colours so crisp, its emulation of light and shadow somehow more aesthetically satisfying than live-action cinematography, that practically any still frame from the film could be extracted and framed as artwork on its own. Combined with its dreamlike narrative, a Lord of the Flies yarn that sees the group of children bound together to survive the extraordinary circumstances in which they find themselves, whilst also searching for an answer to the mystery of the flat complex’s apparent influence over Natsume, and the presence of a friendly ghost named Noppo, it is a film readily enjoyed by young and old alike. There really is something here for everyone, with writer/director Hiroyasu Ishida’s co-written script offering engaging action/adventure set-pieces, sweetly comedic moments, and a core message that literally embodies and explores the much-repeated adage that ‘you can’t go home again’ once we leave our childhood days behind us. If I had one criticism, it would be that it perhaps slightly outstays its welcome with a two-hour runtime that could easily have been pared down to a slim 90-100 minutes, suffering in some sense from Return of the King syndrome, in that it offers multiple conclusions in a final act that stretches its pacing beyond what is necessary for a film of this genre.
Produced by Studio Colorido, Drifting Home showcases the up-and-coming anime company’s ability to tell emotionally compelling stories, a surefire winner for longtime fans of industry and cultural giant, Studio Ghibli (The Wind Rise, Princess Mononoke, The Red Turtle) as well as anime newcomers alike.
Notes from the Multiplex 