I'm not nine years old, so I don't read manga.
The story has been done about a million times, both forward and backwards. This variation has a sweet French touch to it with a little bit of French adolescent sexiness thrown it for good measure. It's like a French version of the movie Big, but with an existential twist. Unfortunately, it isn't quite as entertaining as that Hollywood take on age reversal.
More than anything, Quartier Lointain is a skip down memory lane in a French village in a simpler time. I think that modern Europeans believe those times still exist which is why so many have a second home in their native villages. Things haven't changes so much, as least in some places.
What drew me to this movie was just how bright and handsome everything appears, from the characters, to the geography, to the village, to the interiors. Who wouldn't want to live in this almost perfect world? Even the darn dog is perfect. His little girlfriend is a heartbreaker, even at fourteen. Younger siblings are mostly a pain in the neck, but his sister is sweeter than anything in a pâtisserie.
Since they really didn't go anywhere with the childhood romance angle, I would have preferred they used this film time to explore the adult character's life.
