by Stephanie Chen
Although Shinkai Makoto is best known today for his romantic films like “5 Centimeters Per Second” (2007), “Your Name”(2016) and “Weathering with You” (2019), his other movies are just as capable of tugging at heartstrings and certainly do not disappoint. The 2011 fantasy feature “Children Who Chase Lost Voices”(星を追う子ども) is one of those gems. It follows Watase Asuna, a young elementary school girl, as she is whisked into the depths of the Earth into the mystical land of Agartha, an ancient place with the power to revive the dead. The movie shares similar thematic concerns with Shinkai's more prolific works, as the characters must grapple with love, loss, and grief.
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The story begins in a small town where Asuna spends most of her days alone. Her father's death and mother's busy schedule means no one is home when she returns from school, and she is responsible for the bulk of household tasks, which she does with no complaints. In place of companionship, she finds comfort in a stray not-quite-cat, which she names Mimi.
Visually, it's difficult not to notice Studio Ghibli's influence as various characters look like they would not be out of place in either “Spirited Away”or “Howl's Moving Castle”. Nevertheless, the film retains Shinkai's typical flair for high angles, low horizons, and beautiful shots of the night sky to create a sense of grandeur and levity when transitioning from one instance to the next. It's hard not to notice Miyazaki Hayao's influence, as the cinematography and artistic design for most of the creatures that appear feel like something from the world of “Spirited Away”. Shun, the Agarthian that saves and befriends Asuna, seems to take visual cues from Howl of “Howl's Moving Castle”.
With that said, it would be remiss to write this movie off as a Ghibli knockoff. Shinkai is, unmistakably, one of Japan's most beloved writers to date and for good reason: “Children Who Chase Lost Voices” is as poignant as it is beautiful. Asuna's age lends to innocence that would otherwise be lost in an older character, as the purity of her intentions produces a protagonist that the audience can genuinely feel for. She is not driven by the desire for romantic love nor familial wholeness as much as she is for the most basic human desire: to not quite feel so alone.
In a world where people age and die as quickly as ours, the characters' struggle with grief and learning to let go is truly the soul of “Children Who Chase Lost Voices”. Asuna's experience with loss is unremitting and heartbreaking, as characters leave, die, or fade in a cinematic instance, leaving behind little but the memories made. The soundtrack usually picks up in these scenes, the score of a string ensemble building to a crescendo that abruptly cuts when Asuna and the audience have to say goodbye.
It's in these heartfelt moments that the film uses to juxtapose with its deuteragonist, Mr Morisaki. Morisaki is established early on to be a widow, having lost his wife ten years ago and never gotten over it. His journey into Agartha is plagued with selfish and destructive tendencies, as he drags the unwitting Asuna into this hostile new land.
Despite disliking Morisaki for most of the movie, I couldn't truly come to hate him, driven by a love as pure as his. Morisaki is a character to be pitied rather than reviled. The narrative uses Japanese mythology — particularly the legend of Izanagi and Izanami — as a parallel to his quest. Through him, Shinkai explores how deeply love can hurt, and what that unresolved grief can become. Notably, it steers clear of villainising him so as to not unintentionally portray love as a negative emotion, and indeed, Morisaki's defining moments are those when he is able to express the incredible love he feels for his wife.
It's this undying love that “Children Who Chase Lost Voices”uses to reinforce the beauty in the transient. Although the bitter shadow of night hunts and haunts these characters with the grief of loneliness and loss, the film never fails to remind us that the sun is sure to follow. In the dawn of a new day, Morisaki and Asuna are reshaped by their experience of having loved, lost, and let go. The cycle will inevitably repeat itself, as it does countless times throughout the movie; but if Shinkai's “Children Who Chase Lost Voices” is to remind its audience of anything, it's that only by seeing tomorrow, will we find it in ourselves to live and love again.
