This is my review of tsubasa chronicle the movie:torikago no kuni no himegimi )The princess of the bird cage country). Damn long title for a 40 min "film". Its will be in 2 parts: one very LOOOOOOONG and detailed synopsis and my opinion on parts and the whole movie in General. So sit back, grab some water and enjoy this very detailed post and review of the movie.
I did this because even as the subbed verson of the movie has been out for almost a month, I havent seen any good reviews of it, either in blogs or fan websites. So heres mine.
The movie opens with the flashback to the fist ep of tsubasa, where syaoran ends up in the dimensional witch. Its basically a recap of that time, with syaoran pleading the witch, Yuuko to save his beloved sakura. The look syaorans fae when Yuuko says “at this rate, the girl will due” is priceless. Its amazing. The appearance of Kurogane and Fai is even better. Fai looks more dashing an serious in the movie as he appears in the movie compared to the series, but Kurogane looks more dull. Kinda preferred kuro-puu in the series. The background music is even better here than in the series. While the first 2 mins is a recap of it, the music is different, setting the sad tone of syaoran. Then the ever cute mokona pops up, and we see the opening, and man, I love the opening song. “Aerial” by KINYA, the same person who did the op song of the series. While they were stingy with the song (only 30 short secs in the movie), the full song is amazing. Get it if you can.
We then see sakura and syaoran falling down to earth at 9.8ms/s, and they amazingly land with no scratches, and more importantly, they are alive! Syaoran goes to investigate at boy spying on them, and promptly gets attacked by a wooden stick. Some welcome to the country. Still, his reflexes are amazing, and he manages to stop the attack. The branch under them gives way, and both of them, fall back down (again) to the bottom. I love the part where mokona is pulling sakura-hime away form 2 falling masses (sorry, been doing physics for too long!)
Of course, kurogane has to land with water splasing over him. Fai doesn’t look any better either, but at least both of them still can understand each other. Or course, this “moment” doesn’t last long, and they get company called Guards. Understandably, they cant explain how they came to the country. The music and the effects leading up to the fight is amazing. The music is great, the artwork detailed, and Fai is still as surprising as ever. It seems that they destroyed the water works.
The boy, brings them to see tomoyo-hime, who interestingly talks to them tru contact. Meanwhile, hot headed kurogane is trying to get out of the cages the 2 some how ended up. He;s not having much luck, as the cages are protected. The evil king/tomoyo’s uncle is planning is diabolical plan, as tommoyo fills the two new guests in what is happening, and why she has to hide. Quite sad really. And guess how tomoyo loses her voice?
The entry of a gurad does give some panic, but in reality he’s a double agent. Weird bird like creatures come and attack all of them as they grab tomoyo away from them. Even syaoran cannot defeat them, and is disabled after one big punch. The moring after isn’t that great, as everyone is blaming themselves for their defeat. The people have resigned themselves to a fate of darkness. But sakura comes to the rescue with the ring that tomoyo gave her. The people are renewed with hope, as they try to infiltrate the castle.
In a dungeon somewhere, kurogane mistakes tomoyo for the tomoyo he knows, and mokona is called a white pork bun. As usual.
Syaoran and sakura are put in a barrel, as they try to enter the castle tru the water works. Of course, they end up in a very “interesting” position. But its too late anyway. The evil king has launched his plan. Nothing can stop him, even as the double crossing advisors try to stop him, but get killed in the end.
A very "interesting" position.
And so the plan starts. Tons of water is unleashed, as a huge amazing bird is launched, seemingly using the power of tomoyo. Syaoran tires to stop them by using prinsip keabadian momentum. Well, he just puts himself in a barrel and some how pecut’s up with pecutan positif. But that’s not going to work. Instead, he failed, and is falling back to earth (again).
The climax is too good to be even described here, so I say to you all, DOWNLOAD IT MAN! Or just go to you tube. Its all there. I tell you, this movie is worth it. Its worth every second of the 40 mins of your life.
To restore the country to its original state, they ask yuuko. As usual, that old witch demands something valuable. Which for tomoyo, is the wind chime thinggi she uses to call Laifan. Yuuko gives them a key, which restores the country to its original glory. At the end, all the birds fly away, even Kokoruri, much to the sadness of Koruri. I must admit, this part was probably the saddest part, and I found it quite hard to accept. It really is the ultimate sacrifice.
Okay, that’s the end of my ultra compressed summary. To the comments.
As you all would have guessed by now, I’m a tsubasa addict and fanatic. The movie doesn’t escape my attention. Its very well done. Unlike the series, the movie is fats paced and there is no moments where you hear me shout “COME ON MAN! Get on with the show already!”. The movie flows very well, and there are not that many recycled scenes. The true hallmark of CLAMP.
Detail and artwork was good. The movie is much more richer detail than the series. I’m artistically illiterate, but I could appreciate and understand the work gone by CLAMP into making this movie. Sakura looks the same, but syaoran looks more handsome here IMO. Kurogane looks more dashing, but Fai, well, he was given lots of detail, but I kinda prefer the artwork of him in the series. Just one nit to pick on him through: DOES he have any emotions? He hardly shows any emotion at all! Scary……………
Music is as good as ever, and much much better than the series. New music, new BGM, all fresh, and even the remixes of the BGM used in the series sounds like new. Love it. The opening song, “aerial” is nice, and the ending song, Amurita, is very fitting to end the movie, setting the final mood. Just one question through: “Amurita” is written in katakana. Wonder what it means. And the music was very well mixed, and fit in all the scenes. Beautiful. Words cant quantify the beauty of the music.
IMO through, the movie left more questions than answers in my head. Maybe I really have to drag out the manga and reread it again. My memory is really getting rusty.
Final verdict? 10/10. Now go and get it! Haven’t seen such a good movie in ages, be it in English, Chinese or Japanese or anime. Worth every second!
Man, I spent 1 hr tying and preparing this. Surely the least you guys can do is to shout out or leave a comment?
