Night on the Galactic Railroad (film)
Night on the Galactic Railroad | |
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Nippon Herald Films | |
Release date |
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Running time | 113 minutes |
Country | Japan |
Language | Japanese |
Night on the Galactic Railroad (銀河鉄道の夜, Ginga Tetsudō no Yoru, alternately Ñokto de la Galaksia Fervojo in
Produced independently by the animation studio
Plot
Giovanni is a young, bluish-colored cat, whose father is away on a fishing trip and whose mother is ill at home. At school, during a lesson about the Milky Way, Giovanni's teacher asks him what the galaxy is composed of. Giovanni knows that it is made of stars, but is unable to say so, and his classmate Campanella does the same to save Giovanni from their fellow schoolmates' teasing. After school, Giovanni works a typesetting job at a print shop, and buys a loaf of bread and some sugar. He returns home to find that no milk was delivered that day, so he heads to the dairy, where he is told by an elderly cat to return at a later time.
That night, the Centaurus Festival, or the Festival of Stars, takes place in the town. Upon reaching the festivities, Giovanni is mocked by his classmates for expecting an otter-skin coat from his father. Giovanni runs to the top of a hill at the edge of town and gazes up at the night sky. A steam train suddenly appears, and Giovanni boards it. On board, he is joined by Campanella, and as the train sets in motion, the two observe fields of flowers outside the windows of their train car. The train travels past the
They return to the train, where they meet a bird-catcher who catches herons and turns the birds into candy. Giovanni and Campanella help a blind
As the train passes
Giovanni awakens on the hilltop. He returns to the dairy, where this time he collects a bottle of milk from a farmer. As Giovanni passes through town on his way home, he learns that Campanella fell into a river while saving one of their classmates, Zanelli, from drowning. Giovanni hurries to the river, where he finds Campanella's father giving up searching for his son, as his disappearance occurred 45 minutes prior. He tells Giovanni that he has received a letter from his father, stating that he will be home soon. Giovanni believes Campanella is "at the edge of the universe", which he says he knows "because we explored it together". He vows to be like the scorpion who promised to bring happiness to others, and continues homeward.
Cast
Character | Japanese[1] | English[2] |
---|---|---|
Giovanni | Mayumi Tanaka | Veronica Taylor |
Campanella | Chika Sakamoto | Crispin Freeman |
Zanelli | Junko Hori | Oliver Wyman |
Teacher | Ryounosuke Kaneda | Greg Wolfe |
Store Owner | Ryuji Saikachi | |
Giovanni's Mother | Yoshie Shimamura | Leah Applebaum |
Dairy Woman | Reiko Niimura | Rachael Lillis |
Bird Catcher | Chikao Ootsuka | Oliver Wyman |
Lighthouse Keeper | Fujio Tokita | Eric Stuart |
Wireless Operator | Takeshi Aono | David Moo |
Young Man | Hidehiro Kikuchi | Sam Riegel (as Gil Ramsee) |
Kaoru | Kaori Nakahara | Lisa Ortiz |
Tadashi | Yuriko Fuchizaki | Amy Birnbaum |
Conductor | Tetsuya Kaji | Scott Cargle |
Marceau | Miyuki Ichijo | Rachael Lillis |
Campanella's Father | Gorou Naya | Eric Schussler |
Dairy Man | Seiji Kurazaki | Scott Rayow |
Production
The film was produced independently[3] by Nippon Herald Films and animated by Group TAC. The most prominent alteration made in the film is that the main two characters (and their classmates) are depicted as anthropomorphic cats. Some other characters, such as the children from the ship, are humans.
The captions throughout the film are in Esperanto as an homage to Kenji Miyazawa, who was strongly interested in the language.[4] The film's title in Esperanto is Ñokto de la Galaksia Fervojo and is shown on the cover of the soundtrack. Text appearing in various scenes was also written in Esperanto, such as writing on the blackboard in the classroom. A newspaper being printed in the printing house where Giovanni works tells of the shipwreck of a passenger ship bearing the Esperanto phrase Dio, pli apud vin ("Nearer, My God, to Thee").
The film soundtrack was composed by
The second movement of Dvořák's ninth symphony scores a scene toward the end of the film that is titled after the piece's popular name, New World Symphony.
Reception and legacy
Justin Sevakis of Anime News Network commented that the film was "a beautiful journey, albeit an ominous one. Slowly, the mood of the trek shifts from excited and childlike to desperate and profound".[4] Carlos Ross of T.H.E.M. gave it three out of five stars, praising its handling of death and stating that it "does have a good tale to tell" while comparing watching the film to a taking a long train ride. He called the film more of "an artsy curiosity" and that "children would probably nod off or walk away [from it] after the first hour or so".[6]
The film received the Ōfuji Noburō Award for 1985.[7]
Home media
The film was licensed by
See also
- Hoshi meguri no uta
References
- ^ "Night on the Galactic Railroad (2001) Japanese Cast". Behind The Voice Actors. Archived from the original on October 23, 2023. Retrieved October 23, 2023.
- ^ a b "Night on the Galactic Railroad (2001)". Behind The Voice Actors. Archived from the original on October 23, 2023. Retrieved April 4, 2021.
- ^ Goyaz, Arthur (September 28, 2023). "The Best Indie Movie of Every Year in the 80s". MovieWeb. Archived from the original on October 23, 2023. Retrieved October 23, 2023.
- ^ a b c Sevakis, Justin (December 21, 2006). "Buried Treasure: Night on the Galactic Railroad". Anime News Network. Archived from the original on October 23, 2023. Retrieved February 16, 2021.
- Newtype USA: 8–15.
- ^ Ross, Carlos. "Night on the Galactic Railroad". T.H.E.M. Anime Reviews. Archived from the original on October 23, 2023. Retrieved October 23, 2023.
- ^ 毎日映画コンクール 第40回(1985年) [40th Mainichi Film Competition (1985)] (in Japanese). Mainichi Shimbun. Archived from the original on October 23, 2023. Retrieved October 23, 2023.
- ^ Igarashi, Ru (November 24, 1997). "[Galactic Railroad] Space's broadcast". rec.arts.anime.
- ^ Jensen, Paul (February 1, 2016). "Shelf Life: One Piece: Season 7 Part 4". Anime News Network. Retrieved February 2, 2016.
External links
- Night on the Galactic Railroad at IMDb
- Night on the Galactic Railroad (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
- Night on the Galactic Railroad at Rotten Tomatoes