The Chasing World

Science Fiction

Eastern Eye / Madman

R4 DVD

Japanese with English subtitles.

Much as I like them, it is good to see Japan branching away from Anime and mecha stories and getting back into more thoughtful SF. The Chasing World is a great example of what they can do without loads of special effects and animations, and U.S. directors could take notice. Director Issei Shabata gives us a budget film shorn of nearly all special effects, one that depends on an interesting plot and good acting.

The story is the conventional good – versus - evil, but with a twist. Young Tsubasa Sato’s mother has disappeared and his father is a drunk. His sister Ai is almost catatonic in a mental home, where she is being molested by a doctor.

Tsubasa is a runner. He runs to get himself out of trouble with bullies and criminals, and he is very good at it – he even seems to enjoy it. One day, a strange coincidence happens. Many people named Sato are dying in strange accidents. This seems not to be connected to Tsubasa even though he is a Sato – it is a common enough name, after all. One day, however, he is too slow to get away and looks to be in for a beating from a gang led by his old best friend Hiroshi Sato. Hiroshi has formed his own gang and now there is no place in his life for friendship with Tsubasa. Before the gang can beat up Tsubasa he disappears, then regains consciousness in what appears to be the same park. Everything is subtly different. There is a huge, ominous-looking building on the skyline.

A little confused and puzzled, he runs across two of his friends. They are obviously gay – not the friends he knew. They recognise him, though, but seem as confused as he is at his reappearance. Then he runs across his ex-friend Hiroshi and Hiroshi seems as friendly as ever – no punk hairdo, no gang. They are in the park trying to work things out when Tsubasa is approached by a girl who is the image of his sister. Her name is also Ai.

Ai explains that he is in a parallel world. Everyone has a double on the other world and their lives are interlinked. If one dies, so does his / her double on the other world. Tsubasa’s sister is catatonic because of the mental pressure of keeping the two realities linked. For this new world has a problem – it has a King who hates the name Sato. They are currently in the middle of a Death Race. Any Sato’s will be hunted down by the King’s strange killers, called simply “Its”, and taken to the palace where they will be executed on TV at the end of the day. It is these executions that has caused the Sato deaths back on Tsubasa’s home world.

Tsubasa joins the others for mutual protection, as there are still two days of the Death Race to go. If the Ai on this planet dies, so does his sister back on the other planet. He can kill the King if he can find out who he is, by going back to his world and killing him there. But who is he? Finding out and correcting the problem will take all of his skills as a runner to stay ahead of the Its. Fortunately his sisters, one on each planet, are watching over him. The end is a little unexpected, but if there is one parallel earth why can’t there be more?

This film looks like the Japanese equivalent of the U.S. and British indie films. All are made on a small or microscopic budget with minimal effects, just good production values and superb acting. They don’t need extended swearing or blood and gore to make a good film. Well done, Mr Shabata.

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