The full Japanese title is: Uchiage hanabi, shita kara miru ka? Yoko kara miru ka? or “Fireworks, should we see them from the side, or below?” This is co-directed by Nobuyuki Takeuchi (an animator who has worked for Hayao Miyazaki) and is an anime version of a 50-minute live-action TV play from 1993 by Shunji Iwai, who made the cult 2001 teen feature All About Lily Chou-Chou. It is a strange but atmospheric realist fantasy about how it feels to be a teenager, quite without the emollient notes of comedy or irony that you might expect from Hollywood. This is an adventure in counter-factual romance – like Sliding Doors, perhaps.
A bunch of kids are preparing to go to a firework display, and are arguing about whether the starburst shapes in the sky are round or flat, depending on where you’re standing. Two of the boys have an interest in a shy girl who hangs out by the pool: she challenges the pair to race, and the winner gets to take her to the fireworks. But then we see how differently things would have panned out if the winner was a loser, and then the imagined destiny subdivides further when we see this girl’s troubled private life, hating her soon-to-be stepfather and planning to run away. It’s confusing and disorientating but brings back dreamy teen angst like the strongest of madeleines.
