Cinema Reviews

Patema Inverted Review

7th Apr 2014

Is a Japanese anime written and directed by Yasuhiro Yoshiura. It stars Patema, a restless explorer confined by the world she lives. Trapped inside a warren of endless underground tunnels, she regularly heads to the ‘forbidden zone’, despite warnings from her guardians.

She discovers that her world is only one part of a larger world. After a terrible accident causing a reversal of the earth’s gravity, millions died by being sucked into the sky. Those that survived went deep underground and became inverts. I’m not saying the science behind it is sound, but it does have some beautiful backgrounds. The animation is a little slow and lack punch, with the reactions being muted and slower than you’d expect and it is heavy on dialogue…which means it subtitle heavy for sure. At the core of the film is a touching love story between Patema and Age, who are quite literally from two different worlds.

It’s doing really well on the animation circuit and is probably for anime fans. I can’t say I was especially driven by the plot, which I found a bit plodding, but it is a well executed film from a Director who clearly has an eye for unusual story telling. One for Anime enthusiasts who surely won’t be disappointed.