At the end of the day, it is the precious final scene of the film involving Kokone, her father and her grandfather that will stay in the audience’s mind the longest, not the flying cars or magic tablets.
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The story is set in 2020, days before the Tokyo Summer Olympics. Kokone Morikawa is a high school senior who lives in Okayama Prefecture with her dad, Momotaro, a car mechanic who tends to bury himself in work. Kokone has no particular talent, except her ability to take a nap anywhere, anytime. Her dreams are often disjointed bits and pieces of a world she doesn’t understand. When her father is arrested and taken to Tokyo, Kokone embarks on an adventure to save him, only to discover the secrets behind her mysterious dreams as well as the truth about her family.
The film is separate into two parallel worlds: Kokone’s ordinary day-to-day life and her dreams where a princess is locked up because of her unusual ability to bring inanimate objects to life through a tablet. The motif of using gadgets as a means to perform magic is a refreshing idea, as well as a neat little social commentary on how technology has affected our lives.
As the film goes on, more and more parallels between the two worlds become apparent as Kokone herself realises the true meaning behind her dreams. It all leads up to a revelation in the third act involving her family’s history that is less of a twist and more of a nice wrapping up of the plot. The film has its funny and light moments too, brought about mostly by Kokone’s childhood friend Morio.
While the plot with its parallel structure is interesting enough, it is Kokone and her family at the heart of the story that give it an emotional weight. Not only is Kokone able to discover about her mother’s side of the family, which she never knew existed, but she also learns more about her quiet, workaholic father. At the end of the day, it is the precious final scene of the film involving Kokone, her father and her grandfather that will stay in the audience’s mind the longest, not the flying cars or magic tablets.
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