Ushiro no Shoumen Daare - Anime - AniDB (2024)

This is my review of Ushiro no Shoumen Daare, a 1991 movie by Arihara Seiji, based on a Ebina Kayoko novel. Read only the parts in bold if you just want a general idea of what this movie is about and please forgive me for any spelling mistake. The review is free of major spoilers, while minor spoilers and personal statements about the movie are under the spoiler tags. I suggest to avoid reading them until you have actually watched the movie (or if you just don't care about spoilers).

Please, read the following spoiler tag if you plan to rate my review:

I'm perfectly aware that my English writing skills are far from being perfect, still I decided to write anyway a couple of reviews in order to share impressions about series/movies not reviewed by anybody or with reviews that differ a lot from my opinion. A not-so-good review is probably better than no review, I think. Any criticism, even harsh, is still accepted, just be aware that there isn't much I can do about my English skills.
For the format of the review, I decided to go with story and characters above everything else because these are the things people look in a series/movie first, I believe. Thanks for the attention.

STORY (9/10)

Set in Tokyo and covering the years from 1940 to 1945, Ushiro no Shoumen Daare tells the story of little Sayoko, who lives with her family (three brothers, a father, a pregnant mother, an harsh grandmother), while her uncle is a war medic on the continent. The focus of the movie is on the daily life of Sayoko, showing many apparently unsignifcant moments of her childhood, while the specter of the war looms on the horizon. Still, for a long way, it doesn't affect the optimism of the neighborhood of the capital.

From the second half of the movie onward, the tragedy hits the story, as you could have guessed. The circular structure of the narration is particularly meaningful: the sentence which gives the name to the movie is from a lullaby/song and the scene regarding it will be replayed at the end of the story, but with a very different feeling. Still, there is a bit of hope in the final message Sayoko conveys to the watchers and I found it a very satisfactory conclusion.

Overall, I liked how they depicted the daily lives in war times with a slow pace and without excessive drama and I've no issues with the story told (10/10), beside for the choice of displaying some scenes that didn't improve much the cast (-1/10). My score is 9/10.

CHARACTERS (7/10)

Sayoko is at the center of the attention for the entire movie. You follow her everywhere and she's an interesting and very realistic character. I can say the movie is succesful in telling her story, but that's all. Everybody else instead "is just there", that was the feeling I got. Some characters are thrown in the story with a bit of potential, like one of her neighbor, but you barely see him anymore. The rest of the family is more present, but even for them you don't get the feeling of really knowing them.

Considering how to movie ended, it's especially a pity that the brother Kisaburou didn't have much screening time. In the end, any insight on the meaning of the story is left to Sayoko.

Sayoko herself get a 9/10 and everybody else a 5/10. Overall rating for characters is 7/10.

ART (7/10)

The drawings are well made for the time (8/10), with excellent backgrounds of the city (9/10). They are on the realistic side and fit the story perfectly. The character design is also quite good, but repetitive: a lot of the background characters are too similar for my tastes (7/10). The animations are the sorry side of the technical section: too much that it's not on close-up is left unanimated and I think that in some meaningful scenes they could have done a better job (5/10).

Especially in the end, Sayoko is running in the city and people are just there, motionless. Since it was the climax of the movie, they could have payed more attention to that.

Overall, I think a 7/10 is appropriate.

SOUND (7/10)

There isn't anything special about the BGM, and for this kind of the story I think it's ok (6/10). Still, I liked how they put a lot of old songs and lullabies (8/10). The VAs didn't impress me much (especially the one for Tadayoshi, one of the brothers) so it's a 6/10. But Kayoko's one made a solid performance (8/10).
Overall, I say 7/10 again.

VALUE (5/10)

This is the only aspect of the movie that fails, in my opinion because the movie itself lacks impact. Until now I tried to objectively judge it without comparing to the most famous movie of the genre, Grave of the Fireflies, but at this point I have to. While Grave of the Fireflies can be compared to an impetuous mountain creek of emotions, Ushiro no Shoumen Daare is like a quiet valley river who goes along with you to the final waterfall. Per se this isn't a bad thing, but there are hardly any memorable moments or scenes that you would want to watch again during the narration and you don't feel much for the characters in the end. The work is made "by the book", it's very formulaic and every time it tries to do something a bit more daring, it miserably fails.

In particular a scene about Sayoko's nightmare depicting funny ghosts seemed totally out of place in a realistic story like this one and the bombing of Tokyo wasn't impressive.

For these reasons, I consider Ushiro no Shoumen Daare like the small train you ride in an amusement park in order to tour the place. It is nice for some people, but it's hardly something you do more than once. While Grave of the Fireflies is the rollercoster of the genre and can make your stomach churn even after many rides.
Overall, I can't rate its value more than 5/10.

ENJOYMENT (7/10)

I definitely didn't feel bored watching it despite the slow pace and I enjoyed how the story was resolved (8/10), still the absence of very memorable moments is a strong issue for me (-1/10), considering that there are scenes that didn't add anything to the characters.
Overall, 7/10 seems fair to me.

FINAL VERDICT (7/10)

If you're looking for a realistic portrait of daily lives during WWII, look no further. Ushiro no Shoumen Daare is a movie suited for people who like a slow paced story and without a lot of drama, despite being a tragedy. If you instead prefer a fast paced show and a more poignant story, there is the chance that this movie could bore you.

Ushiro no Shoumen Daare - Anime - AniDB (2024)

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