The Dimension Travellers

Konaka’s SF and fantasy films provide evidence of a great knowledge of and respect for the genre. The story of The Dimension Travellers is based on a novel by the SF author Mayumura Taku. A new pupil, Mayumi, joins Midori at secondary school. Mayumi whispers in Midori’s ear: ‘I hope that the world doesn’t get destroyed…’ She tells her she has fled from a different dimension, in which the world has been destroyed by a nuclear war. Midori then accompanies Mayumi to this devastated world in the future and there fights with her against the ‘enemy’. The film can be regarded as an answer to La jetée (1962) by Chris Marker and also to Fincher’s recent Fight Club, certainly as the two boys in the book have been changed to girls for the film. That does more justice to contemporary reality in which young women tend to be more aware than men of the relationship between their own existence and the reality around them in which they seek adventure. The role of the heroine Mayumi is played by Sato Yasue, who was seen in 1998 in Rotterdam in Bounce ko gals. The screenplay was written by Murai Sadayuki, known from his script for the animation film Perfect Blue. (K.O.)