The Tunnel to Summer, the Exit of Goodbyes

The Tunnel to Summer, the Exit of Goodbyes is a movie adapted from the light novel of the same name by Mei Hachimoku and was released in November 2022. Studio CLAP was the studio behind this movie. This movie deals with space-time and falls under the genre of drama, mystery and sci-fi.

My thoughts:

This movie was really a good one. Not an extremely special one(to me) or not with a mind boggling concept or something like that. Just a simple to understand one. That aspect makes it more easier to feel the movie, to understand the characters and appreciate the fantastic animation. There are some movies which, after finishing, leaves an empty feeling inside. This was definitely one of them. 

So... Yeah, I'd rate this movie a solid 8/10. And I'll say it again. Amazing animation. 

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A synopsis:

The movie starts with a high schooler, named Touno Kaoru, returning from his school, when he finds a girl about his age, Hanashiro Anzu, sitting in a train station and waiting for the train while it was raining. Unfortunately, the train was late due to some interruption by deers on the track. Seeing and understanding her situation, Kaoru offers her the only umbrella he had. When Hanashiro asks what he is going to use if he gives her the umbrella he replies that his house is nearby and it won't be a problem. After a little bit of talking, Hanashiro takes his umbrella and promises to return it to him after she uses it.

The next day, Hanashiro joins the same school as Kaoru, to Kaoru's surprise. Within few days of her joining though, she hit one of her classmates who was bullying her, and broke her nose causing it to bleed. Everyone then understood that she wasn't someone to be messed with.

Then we see Kaoru in his house where he was getting abused by his father over the death of his sister, Karen, who had died few years ago. And Kaoru blamed himself for her death. So did his father, who also said that he would gladly trade Kaoru's life for Karen anytime. And when his father started to hit him, he dodged and ran away from the house.

He ran and ran and ran and ran... Until he ended up on a railway track on which a train was approaching quick. To save himself from getting hit by the train, he jumped off the tracks and landed in front of a cave. Intrigued by the what's inside the cave, he went in and saw that it was a long path of water with bright trees planted on both sides, on repeat.

The Urashima Tunnel

He started walking. It was a tunnel. He walked through the watery path with leaves on it endlessly until he came across a shoe lying on the path. It was his sister's shoe. He was speechless. Then after running forward, he finds his bird which had died long ago, alive, in front of him. He then took the bird and the shoe and hurried back home. After reaching home though, his father apologised for being abusive and said that he wouldn't forgive him if he ran away for a week again. Kaoru was confused. A week? He didn't pay much attention to it until everyone in his school claimed the same thing that he was absent from the school for a week.

The tunnel did this. It was a legend. The name was Urashima Tunnel. It is said that what is desired will be found inside the tunnel in exchange for years of one's own life. Kaoru had a thought. What if, he could find his sister on the other side? But before that, we went in once again. While he was going deeper, he heard someone speak behind him. When he turned around, he saw that it was Hanashiro. So he took her by her hand and dragged her out of the tunnel. After getting out, Kaoru told Hanashiro what was going on. After hearing everything, Hanashiro made a deal with Kaoru. To go inside together. Hanashiro also had something she desired.

Their story begins. After that day, they came to the tunnel regularly to conduct experiments and find out how much the time is dilated inside the tunnel with respect to the outside. Then the day came where they were going to go in for real.

And they did. They started the timer and went in. Their limit was 108 seconds. The began. They kept running until some flying canvas flew in scattering around and Hanashiro started collecting them. Their limit was approaching. They collected the canvases as quickly as they could and ran towards the entrance. They crossed their limit. Since Kaoru got wet in the rain after coming out of the tunnel, Hanashiro invited him to her place so that he could get dried up. When he got to her place, he realized that what she collected in the tunnel were pages of manga she was writing. Her desire was to get the skill to write a good manga. That is what she wanted from the Urashima tunnel. 

Kaoru leaves her house after getting dried up. When he arrives at his own, he sees an unknown woman with his father. His father declares that the woman will be Kaoru's new mother. Kaoru was devasted. He threw up in front of her and got cursed at by his father. After which he went up to his room and locked himself. Next day, he meets up with Hanashiro in a cafe where she reveals that her manga was selected to be published. Within the next chit chat between them, what Kaoru suggested was that there was no need for her to go into the tunnel for his sake anymore since Hanashiro's talent for writing maga was already recognized. And Hanashiro was, of course, frustrated by this proposal. She insisted on going. After they left the cafe, they went to the train station where they first met. There, they re-enacted their first meet and during which Kaoru laughed for the first time in the whole movie.

The day comes when they were supposed to go into the tunnel together again. So when Hanashiro went to Kaoru's house to look for him, he wasn't there. It clicked. Hanashiro realised that Kaoru went ahead without her. Hanashiro rushed to the tunnel's entrance; and on reaching, she got a message on her phone from Kaoru. A farewell message. She couldn't control herself, she soon broke into tears.

Inside the tunnel, Kaoru kept waling and walking and walking until he reached a door. On opening the door, he was in the body of Kaoru 5 years ago with his sister standing in front of him. His happiness knew no bounds. He was full of joy... But he soon realised that this wasn't right. He enjoyed his brief time with his sister as much as he could then he left through the same door he entered with.

8 years had passed in the outside world. Hanashiro kept charging her old phone which she had when Kaoru was around, in hope of getting a message from him again.

It happened.

She got a message from Kaoru, dated recent. She couldn't believe her eyes. Before she even could realise, she ran. She ran towards the Urashima tunnel. What she hoped for, for 8 years, came true. She ran. After arriving at the tunnel, when she couldn't see him, she went inside to look for him. Eventually, she found him, lying on the path. Kaoru was the same as when he left, unlike herself who aged 8 more years. She took him by his head and put it on her lap. Kaoru opened his eyes. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. He was glad that she was there for him. They talked a bit after which they kissed. They kissed for 10 seconds, but it translated to 6 hours outside. It was a good moment. Then they came out of the tunnel when Hanashiro finally, returned Kaoru's umbrella which she borrowed from at the beginning of the movie. Truly a good movie it was.

Thank you guys for reading till the end. Do comment your thoughts on this movie down below.