ANOTHER WORLD Review: Reincarnation Is Never Easy. Neither Is Untying Knots.
Directed by Tommy Ng Kai Chung, from a script by producer Polly Yeung, the Hong Kong animated fantasy takes a dark turn as it faces eternal issues. Limbs are separated from bodies; many lives will be lost. Will anyone truly change?
Soul keeper Gudo meets a lost girl named Yuri. Their relationship will be tumultuous, to say the least.
Another World
The film opens Friday, June 5, only in movie theaters, via GKids Films. Visit their official site for more information. Visit their Canada or U.S. pages for locations and showtimes.
Animated feature films from Mainland China are enjoying a boom in recent years, led by last year's box office champion, Ne Zha 2. On the other hand, animated feature films from Hong Kong have been few and far between over the past 25 years.
All of which makes the arrival on North American shores of Another World, reportedly the highest-grossing animated Hong Kong film, to be quite welcome news. Even more impressive than the film's festival playdates and box office success, though, the film is also distinctly different from other animated productions of late in its themes and characters, bucking the trend toward greatest-common-denominator, child-friendly fare.
Narrated by Gudo, a masked, non-human Soul Keeper who's human child-sized, the rules of Another World are laid out very clearly. Gudo and other Soul Keepers accompany newly deceased humans through the unreal landscapes of their metaphysical realm, headed toward a waterfall and then reincarnation on Earth without any memories of their previous lives.
On the way, the hope is to 'untie knots' (unresolved rage and regret) within each human; if they are not able to do so, they run the risk of becoming a Wrath, which could bring harm to humans on Earth, and to Soul Keepers and other inhabitants of Another World. Each Soul Keeper is assigned a headless Dark Force to protect and keep them company, and, if necessary, kill anyone who develops into a Wrath, to keep them from harming others.
One day, just like any other day, Gudo meets Yuri, a young girl who plaintively searches for her brother. Hoping to help her accept that she is now in the afterlife, Gudo indulges her search, but his heart is touched; he's long had empathy for those that he has guided through Another World, yet Yuri appears to be pure of heart. And she's so young!
Gudo appeals to Another World's goddess, who grants Yuri the ability to transport souls to moments in the past, with the intention that this will help them on their journey of acceptance.
Until this point in the story, the colors are bright and colorful, and the tone is determinedly upbeat and positive -- even though they're in the afterlife, and Gudo is trying to help Yuri accept death. Soon, however, both the tone and the colors turn darker, and blood begins to flow more freely as humans reap the consequences of their actions.
Screenwriter and producer Polly Yeung found initial inspiration in Japanese novelist Naka Saijō's 2012 story Thousand Year Ghost. Collaborating with Tommy Ng Kai Chung, who had experience making music videos and as an animator, they made a short, 40-minute version of what they envisioned in 2019.
The feature-length Another World runs 110 minutes, initially feeling quite episodic, as Gudo uses his goddess-granted ability to transport humans to past moments in order to help a variety of different characters to look at their intractable problems from a different perspective, to accept the things they cannot change, and to forgive themselves, letting resentments and regrets go.
None of that is easy for anyone, especially facing the epic challenges that these characters must endure, from the loss of loved ones to the horrors of war to the desperation of famine. Yet, through it all, as the years pass, Gudo remains resolutely cheerful, always thinking the best of the people he's trying to help, and encouraging them to keep moving forward, no matter what.
I'm hard-pressed at the moment to think of another animated film that has been similarly ambitious. With rapidly-edited, stirring action and battle sequences, together with deliberately-paced meditative moments -- the film actually seems to pause several times, to allow its points to sink in for the viewer -- Another World coalesces into a remarkably thoughtful experience that leaves an indelible impression.
