9.2/10
FilmFascination Rating
Usually when I start a movie, I would beforehand kind of have an idea if the movie would be added in the ‘Great Movies List’. Accordingly, I would bring my pen and book along, before starting it. But watching Summer Ghost was different. I had about an hour of time and had to watch a movie.
So I opened my watchlist, saw Summer Ghost there with 40 minutes written beside it. And without any further thought, I just started it with no idea what it was about.
Now it has been a few minutes since I watched it and here, I am writing this review with teary eyes. Although I did not bring my book before starting this one, I knew the moment the credits started rolling that people needed to see this. The following day I was just so excited to tell some of my friends about this beauty.
Summer Ghost is a story where three students- Tomoya, Aoi, and Ryo meet each other to try to meet the summer ghost- a spirit girl who appears during the summer when fireworks are lighted. But things take a turn when we get to know that the summer ghost appears to only those who are a step away from death.
No one has it easy. Nor do the characters of the movie. The relatable and difficult lives that the students lead, send some powerful emotions to the viewers. Why are we living right now? Would death be easy just because life is hard? What was the purpose of our birth anyway?
Summer Ghost raises questions and sends thoughts to ponder upon. And all this in just 40 minutes. Technically 2 minutes went into the credits, so just 38 minutes or so. Is that even believable? If I would have read this before watching it, I would have surely thought this to be not possible. But it is and it’s mind-blowing. Some movies take the entire runtime of ‘Summer Ghost’ just for characterization, but Summer Ghost does it all in that time. The main reason is how well structured the plot is. They give the background story of each character like in a scene or two. Even then I had the perfect idea of what was going on in their lives.
Every frame that we go through has a reason for it to be there. That is how well thought it is. The editing is one of the best I have seen. To keep it crisp, the film jumps from one scene to another and comes back to the previous one so rapidly keeping the audience engaged without making it too much. The score of the movie heavily helps it in this aspect. The skills are very evident and it is absolutely beautiful movie making. It is soothing, motivating, and yet in some way sad. The only thing one could complain about is – Why isn’t it longer? But one of the reasons why the movie must be appreciated is how much it does in that short time without being rushed anywhere.
It is a really underrated movie and I wasn’t even going to write about it. But it really deserves it and it would have been an injustice to all the people following FilmFascination if I had missed this gem. If you have less than an hour to spare, believe me, just go and watch this!
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Very nice post. I just stumbled upon your weblog and wished to
say that I’ve really loved browsing your blog posts.
After all I will be subscribing for your rss feed and I’m hoping you write again very soon!
Hey,
Thanks a lot for the appreciation! I am glad you loved FilmFascination.
Keep visiting! Will be posting more Great Movies and Cinelists soon…
🙂