The Dimension Travelers (1999)
Review by Dindrane
Film:
DVD:

Directed by Kazuya Konaka
Written by Sadayuki Murai, based on the novel by Taku Mayumura
Translation by Kevin McKeown
Starring Chiharu Niiyama, Yasue Sato, and Satoshi Tsumabuki

Features:

• Meet the Travelers (character pages)
  
• Chicharu Niiyama biography
  
• Trivia
  
• Trailer
  
• Script
  
• Photo Gallery
  
• Filmographies
  

Rating: NR, suitable for 13+

Anamorphic: No. Letterbox widescreen

My Advice: Rent it for a nice change.

Midori is a normal high school student until one day, the new girl, Mayumi, arrives and befriends Midori, telling her that she can travel between worlds and is a kind of refugee—that she indeed arrived on Midori’s world after her own and several other realities were destroyed. Odd things start to happen, and Midori begins to slip back and forth between multiple Earths. On one world, Midori is told that she’s a mental patient, dreaming up these other realities. Is Midori just insane? What role does Mayumi have in all this? Or is there more to reality than we think?

The plot of The Dimension Travelers is complex and surreal enough that the early parts of the film will make little sense. The directors chose a very disorienting style, presumably to mirror Midori’s own confusion. While this is effective from a stylistic and aesthetic point of view, in practice, it makes the watching of the film rather more irritating than enjoyable at first. Eventually, things start to make more senses as you glean more information, but it’s always a very surreal experience.

The roles of Midori and Mayumi are cast quite well. The girls succeed where many young actresses would fail. They lend a kind of innocence to this tale of war and fear, and the ending is handled quite beautifully, especially by Chiharu Niiyama as Midori.

The extras are quite solid, indeed. The Meet the Travelers feature is a good place to start even, as it will allow things to make a wee bit more sense as you watch the movie--though it might give some things away, too. It’s nice to have at least a biography for Niiyama, and the script on the DVD-ROM is a good place to review what you have just seen and wait for it all to sink in. The trivia is also quite fun and educational in a sense, if you’re an Asian film buff.

The exploration of alternate realities and the effects of traveling between them is quite interesting on this disk. Many viewers may take exception to the ease with which Midori and her fellow travelers slip from dimension to dimension, as it seems to require little more than willpower and can be done accidentally. However, the idea of a slippery reality has fascinated philosophers for years.

In short, The Dimension Travelers will appeal to science-fiction fans, philosophers, and anyone who likes to question reality. Pondering, as it does, the meaning of friendship, as well as the meaning of reality itself, it’s an interesting film, if only the execution worked better for American audiences.