"Inakunare Gunjo" movie review, part one

 

 Release date: September 6, 2019 Length:104 minutes  Director: Akina Yanagi

Also known as Go Away, Ultramarine and the subs were done by Rjgman56

Main Cast: Top seven are students at a high school and aged 17/18. The setting is the remote Kaidan island that has 2,000 residents and are cut off from the mainland. Only last names were used in this film so that's all I'll be using too, more about the setting after the characters.

 Marie Iitoyo as Yuu Manabe.... Newest person on the island and has no recollection of what's happened to her the last three months. She's a rebellious young woman and wanted to leave the island the second she arrived which was unlike all of the other students. She had gone to school with Nanakusa up until two years ago, there was no romance before but could there now be sparks in the air?

Ryusei Yokohama as Nanakusa.... Has been on the island for three months which coincides with his old fiend Manabe losing her memory. He enjoys life on the island and so don't most of the students, when Manabe said 'let's leave together' what was he supposed to do? He was also the 'Graffiti Culprit', more on that in the review.

Honoka Yahagi as Hori.... A really dour female student who has a crush on Nanakusa but did he realize it? She hated Manabe the moment she arrived on the island.

Koudai Matsuoka as Sasaoka.... Nanakusa's best friend on the island and is really into video games. He adored Toyakawa and would do anything for her which surprised everyone else.

Kiyo Matsumoto as Mizutani.... The class monitor and seemingly a 'by the book' kind of female, that is until she got to know the others, especially Manabe and Nanakusa, much better.

Riho Nakamura as Toyakawa.... Member of the Judo club and also a very promising violinist who found what she was looking for and eventually disappeared from the island.

Mario Kuroba as Nado.... Bit of a quiet young man and really only talked to Nanakusa but always gave him some sound advice.

Moemi Katayama as Tokito.... Older woman about 25 in age who is the island's letter carrier. Letters can be received from the outside but none of the students can send any mail off the island but can mail others letters. It was never answered but was she the Witch?

Yumi Ito as Tokume.... Teacher of the students.

Movie's trailer

 Had given up hope that I could find a decent subbed version of this movie but after two years finally did. This will be like the previous five or so film reviews as it'll be in two posts, not much of a choice after 110 screenshots were taken! So this first post will go up until the 55th or so screenshot and that's all of the action and details that will be described in this post. So that means the next post will begin where this leaves off and hope once again to let the screenshots do more of the talking. They follow the action as it happened and while a solid film really not all that much took place.

 This is a difficult film to grade and hope the review won't be hard to understand. There wasn't really a true ending and so many questions we viewers had were never answered but it was still an enjoyable watch and would recommend viewing it twice to pick up on everything. The setting is the island of Kaidan which can mean mysterious, odd or bewitching. On the island there's only 2,000 residents but also a high school which appeared to have well over a hundred students. They were banished there because they were 'unwanted' and don't know why or who didn't want them. The students all seemed to be decent people who were never in trouble but we never did learn that much about their backgrounds. The only way to leave the island safely is to find what you've lost in life or to find what you've been looking for. The island is governed by a a female named Witch who we never met and only she can decide if the students can leave the island.... also whether they should be admitted too?

 That's Hori in the top screenshot, she was a very depressing young woman who had a lot of screen time but didn't say much though what she said there was right on the money! Third screenshot down is of Nanakusa who has the main male role in the film. He and all of the other teens sent to this island seemed like fairly good people but they were 'unwanted' and it was never explained by who... their parents. society, old schools, etc.? But all of these teens really seem to enjoy life on Kaidan Island, it's a really laid back place with very few rules. Those rules can be a bit hard to live by though, the main one being none have access to the outside world. The students can browse the internet but it's read only plus they can never send any letters off the island plus of course there's no telephones. If things like that don't upset you then life on the island will be peaceful, the only student to complain a bit was Sasaoka who was such a gamer and couldn't get new games on their release date.

 The bottom two screenshots are of Manabe and she's the first person to be a bit rebellious on the island. From the moment she arrived her plan was to leave the island as soon as possible but as she'll discover over the course of the film it's easier said than done! Like all of the other students Manabe had no idea where this island was or why she was sent there, to make things worse she has no memories of what took place the previous three months. Wasn't mentioned or even asked but did the other students also have a gap in their memory too? Manabe had been good friends with Nanakusa who seems to be the most respected student at the high school. Her family had moved away two years before so Manabe hadn't seen her best friend in that period but she began to wonder did she see Nanakusa and lose her memory of it? On her first day of class Manabe said in front of everyone she wanted to leave the island with Nanakusa, he enjoyed it there so will it ever happen?

 Either Manabe and Nanakusa are in about every scene but many others do play a key role in the 'story', undecided if it truly was a story. In the top screenshot is Sasaoka who is Nanakusa's best friend on the island and is such a video game fanatic. He's got a huge crush on Toyokawa who is in the third pic, she's quite talented at the violin but has some dark secret which we'll learn about later. Between those two pics is the class monitor Mizutani, she was so strict about following the school's rules but has eased up once Manabe arrived. Not a student but she does wear the uniform of one is Tokito who is in the fourth screenshot. She's about 25 in age and is the mail carrier for the island but it's an odd position. None of the students can send any mail off the island nor receive any but they can mail letters to others on the island, needless to say Tokito isn't too busy. There is one place that may get more letters than any other place and it's the stairway leading to the residence of the.... Witch!!!!

 That stairway is right above and no known person has ever climbed them and returned, sounds eerie but it's not a horror or sci-fi movie. We never did see the Witch but we did hear her voice near the end, she 's sort of the island's ruler. Nanakusa had some ideas that the Witch may be Tokito which she denied later on but to me think Nanakusa may have been correct. The Witch decides who can leave the island and by doing that a person has to find what they either lost or are looking for. But none of the students save for the newbie Manabe wanted to depart the island but in the beginning a boy did leave, no reason given. We will see one of the major characters fulfill the mission to find what they lost and that'll be in the next post. Every student has a different thing they've lost or are looking for, Manabe doesn't seem to but she wondered could it be the missing three months of her life? 

 Life on the island has been peaceful but all of a sudden there seemed to be someone a bit peeved at the situation and it wasn't Manabe. There's a person dubbed the 'Graffiti Culprit' who has been writing messages at night on the walls around the small unnamed island town. They've been quite critical of the Witch and her purpose for having these 'unwanted' teens sent there, two of the messages are right above. The class monitor Mizutani took charge of investigating the crimes and had help from some of her classmates including Manabe and Sasaoka but the person responsible wasn't discovered. But we will learn who wrote these messages about the Witch towards the end of the film.

 Right above is Toyokawa and she's a aspiring violinist, she's been practicing hard for the school's Music Festival or at least it appeared so. She broke a string and being cutoff from the mainland meant there was no way to get a new one and she was in tears. It was a nice act but as we come to learn Toyokawa broke the string on purpose and why? She told her pre-island story and was really the only person to do so of the major characters. Toyokawa had been pushed hard by her mother to excel at the violin and during one important recital had frozen up before a large crowd. Since then she's lost interest in the instrument along with living as she's become such a dour person, she only told that story to Manabe and Mizutani. That tale of Toyokawa's misfortunes wasn't known to Sasaoka who quickly developed a crush on the girl and wanted to help her help so badly but how? What he did was to pen a letter to the Witch asking for a new string and it seems this mysterious Witch will fulfill a request on occasion. 

 Final part for this post and right above in the bottom screenshot is Nado on the left. We did see him often but never learned much about the character who would only talk to Nanakusa. The two seemed to be close in a way and Nado would always give his only friend some solid advice but in a roundabout way. More importantly are the middle two screenshots and it was of Manabe trying to use a rowboat to escape the island! Don't know how she expected to use that in the ocean and she couldn't even make it out of the bay as the currents were too strong. Noticing the escape attempt was Hori who eventually met Manabe when she returned to the beach. it was their first and only chat as Hori has not liked Manabe from the moment she arrived on the island. She told Nanakusa she was a dangerous woman and was it because Hori was a bit jealous of Manabe?

 As you can also see at the top Sasaoka wrote the Witch a letter which he left at the bottom of the endless stairway to her residence(?). That plea for a new violin string worked as it was delivered to the young man and perhaps the Witch will help others who have their hearts in the right place. Sasaoka ran to the others leaping with joy but as mentioned he had no clue that Toyokawa had broken her own string! Him giving her the string and having a long talk will begin off the second part of this movie review as this post has reached it's conclusion. Covered most happenings but a few things were left out which are in these screenshots that follow the action in the order it happened.