The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

Nobuhiko Obayashi's 1983 film is adapted from Yasutaka Tsutsui's novel for young readers. Kazuko is in her final year of junior high; while cleaning the lab she smells lavender, faints, and wakes to find she can move back through time. The ability does not excite her but frightens her: living the same day again, taking back what she said and being unable to tell anyone is isolating. The film places its science fiction inside a small provincial town and turns its attention to the transience of adolescence, to the idea that everything is lived once and cannot be recalled. Obayashi keeps interfering with the image through colour effects and abrupt stops, and there is a strange closing section in which the cast appear in the studio. Tomoyo Harada became known through this film. Who it's for: viewers who like Japanese youth films of the eighties and Obayashi's formal games. Who it's not for: anyone arriving in expectation of the later animated version; the two films are different.