Look Back (ルックバック) Review

I know this seems more obscure than a lot of the other things I have reviewed thus far, and that’s for a reason. I saw this on  Schafrillas Production’s top 20 films of 2024 list, with no prior knowledge of this before, and I heard his spoiler-free explanation of it, and his thoughts (he loved it) and I decided to give it a shot. That was a great decision. This short film directed and written by Kiyotaka Oshiyama (known for Chainsaw Man) is a stunning and beautiful, yet devastating watch, which is loosely based on the creator’s past. The film follows Fujino, a manga writer for her school newspaper, and Kyomoto, an antisocial manga writer, whose shared passion for creating manga causes their friendship to bloom. Causing them to eventually enter a manga competition together, and end up publishing their own manga series. The first 30 or so minutes are very much reminiscent of a slice of life Studio Ghibli film, especially Whisper Of The Heart. It’s a very sweet and wholesome first thirty minutes, of them ending up starting their own collaborative series. The film invests you into these two characters, only really focusing on them, making you feel empathy for them, and wanting them to succeed with their passion. Which makes the turning point all the more heartbreaking. Kyomoto ends up joining art school, despite Fujino not wanting her to go, but Kyomoto convinces her it’s for the best. A couple months pass, shown through a timeskip, and we see on the news about the tragedy that happens. Kyomoto was killed in a stabbing that happened at the art school which she studied at. Fujino is filled with grief, and blames herself for causing Kyomoto to go out and see the world, therefore causing her death. We then see a beautiful, no dialogue scene of Fujino using creating art to help her cope with the loss of her best friend. Then the film’s over. It leaves you on the note that art is powerful, and a way of healing. The film is executed perfectly for what it is trying to achieve. A lot of the time, the film uses silent scenes, empowered by  the beautiful soundtrack, and the amazing art, immersing you into the experience. It’s such a beautiful film, and such a stunning experience, which honestly, is up there with some Ghibli films for me, as pure art. This is probably one of my favourite films from last year, but right now at least, I think I prefer The Wild Robot to this, due to this one’s shorter runtime. Although, both of those films are absolutely beautiful films that use the medium of animation to tell a really touching story, and are both worth a watch.


In conclusion, Look Back is a stunning, and nearly perfect short film about the nature of creating art, and how creating can change your life. 9/10.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Plankton Movie Review

I remember hearing about this film leaking about a year ago, long before it actually released, and after the disaster that The Sandy Cheeks Movie was, generally people who saw this early due to the leak thought it was surprisingly good, especially after the terrible last SpongeBob film. So, due to the overall positive reception from leak watchers, I had moderate hope that this film would at least be an alright film, a 6/10. Then, the film officially came out in early 2025 and…. No one talked about it. No one really cared. In fact, I completely forgot about this film until I saw it in my recommended feed on Netflix after watching the original SpongeBob movie. So I watched it earlier, and I must say: If this is your favourite recent Spongebob film, I would completely understand, as this film does have one thing about it that I thought was pretty cool. Especially because, recently, films in the SpongeBob franchise have been in a huge slump of quality, it's not hard at all to get a fil...
Read more

Wallace And Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl Review

I was looking forward to watching this one since it came out, ages ago now, but it’s on Netflix now, so here we are. I finally watched it. The first full Wallace and Gromit film in years, a franchise that is definitely the British staple at this point, with the titular characters, undoubtedly, along with Paddington, being some of the most iconic British characters ever. And as a British person myself, of course I ended up watching the next film in the series. This film marks the return of villain ‘Feathers Mcgraw’ from the wrong trousers, their most well known villain. And, honestly, while bringing him back feels like kind of nostalgia bait for people who grew up with the films, they did a great job of still keeping him a great, and unapologetically, cartoonishly evil villain. He definitely feels like the same character, only now in a different situation (using Wallace’s inventions to break out of prison) which I feel like is always good when you are bringing back old, beloved villains...
Read more

Spongebob Squarepants movie review

  Spongebob Squarepants Movie Review The Spongebob movie is very iconic, for sure. Even if you haven’t watched it, you’ll recognise scenes and gags from it from its presence in internet culture and memes. That applies for Spongebob itself to be honest, but there's practically no one on earth who hasn't watched even a single episode of the show. I mean, up until yesterday I hadn’t watched THE SpongeBob SquarePants movie, but I sure could tell you about goofy goober and the SpongeBob yelling scene, thanks to the internet. That being said, I had watched A SpongeBob movie before, in the form of Sponge on the Run, which, to put it lightly, I didn’t really enjoy. Because, it feels like they dumbed down all of the characters, took away everything that made them charming, and made basically all the characters 1 dimensional, despite the fact we have such iconic, and to be honest, layered characters to work with, and you remove everything that makes them likeable. Not only that, but Spon...
Read more