Kenji Miyazawa's Night on the Galactic Railroad

I have noticed that everywhere I look for reviews on this movie I see people confused and, sometimes, offended by the use of Christian symbols and themes used throughout this movie. I watched this movie as a child and remember being the only kid in my family who loved it and found it fascinating, but i was a Christian back then (that being the only thing I knew). As an Atheist, I rewatched this movie a few days ago and was completely overwhelmed by its use of Christian symbolism throughout the film, but I kept watching and noticed that almost as abruptly as that had started, the subject had dropped. Upon sitting alone in my room I thought it over in my head and I noticed something: The Christians on the train went to Christian heaven, while another character on the train went to his own heaven to join with one of his family, and Giovanni had a ticket to the "One True Heaven". I rather like this idea, and it makes me love the film more than I already did. Truly one of the best animated movies of all time, what a masterpiece!

Also, the Heaven Giovanni can't see might be his one true heaven, just something to think about. ;)

The first time I watched this movie I had to see it in two parts because my friend got sick of it after the first half. This movie is definitely not for everyone. The pacing is extremely slow and thoughtful. If your not the sort of person who spends time contemplating the mysteries of life, you will not enjoy this movie. If you watch this movie, don't watch it by yourself. Find a friend who you think might enjoy it, and set aside a quite relaxed evening to watch it. You will want someone to talk it over with afterwards.

One thing that must be noted is the character design. You may be initially turned off by the extremely cute, childish-looking characters. It doesn't take long to realize that the film is much darker and deeper than it seems at first.

Something to think about when viewing this film: It's interesting to see the strong use of Christian imagery in this film. I can't help but feel that as a westerner I'm getting a different reaction than the primarily Buddhist original audience and perhaps losing a bit of the mysticism.

I would suggest this film to anyone who enjoys spending a quiet evening lost in thought.

Kenji Miyazawa intended "Ginga tetsudo no yoru" as a book for children. But in it are truths that everyone big and small look to find. No one is comfortable with death. Everyone searches for answers. As I read the book before seeing the movie, I was amazed to see how accurately and wonderfully the director and animators were able to capture the feeling of this fantasy. It may be too arty for some, but I feel that more often than not, viewers will come away with a deeper sense of what death can do for life and what life can mean if given a chance.

As for the cat characters, this seems to be a consistent image that surrounds Miyazawa. Some of the stories he wrote were populated by cats that would take human roles. Interestingly enough, in Kenji Miyazawa's biographical anime (Shoji Kawamori's Spring and Chaos) Miyazawa is portrayed as a cat. Maybe the cats exist to shield children from the pain that these harsh truths might bring. But not shield too much

Sometimes it is easy to look at a work like Night on the Galactic Railroad and say, this is just a fantasy. Perhaps Miyazawa wanted us to think that, maybe at first anyhow. But the true beauty behind this animation is that by creating a fantasy world so wild and vibrant, it forces us to see who and what we really are.

The best thing about this movie is the dreamlike quality of it. Lots of fiction texts--novels, comicbooks, movies, whatever--take place in the world of dreams, but this is the first movie I've seen that really felt like it. Things happen one after the other in a drifting, diffuse pilgrimage on a train that goes to the end of the universe: migrating herons that fall to the earth and turn into candy, apples that reproduce themselves, an Italian village populated by cats. Being that they're passing through the night sky, some of the stations are named after constellations, and some are just...places. It's like reading The Old Man and the Sea--you feel like you're there for days and wake up to find that it was only a few hours. To me, that's a measure of a really good story.

One of the funnier bits was when the human characters appeared and didn't bat an eye at sitting next to anthropomorphic, pastel-coloured cats.

If you enjoy picking apart movie texts, you can always have a fun argument with your friends about the religious motifs that pop up in an oddball way throughout the story. Were the filmmakers taking stabs at Christianity, or just appropriating its symbols for the story's own kind of mysticism (a la Neon Genesis Evangelion, maybe)?

Night on the Galactic Railroad isn't your traditional family film. It deals with some incredibly deep themes, as well as having a slow meditative pace. We follow a young cat (changed from human in the original book) called Giovanni. Giovanni has no time for himself. His father is away, his mother is sick, and when he isn't at school he has to work. One evening the family's delivery of milk never comes, so Giovanni goes to get it. He rests on top of a hill before being confronted by a train. He gets on and finds his friend Campenella. From there the duo encounter a number of passengers each with a strange story to tell. This film is certainly all about the metaphysical. Each story strengthens the themes of religion and sacrifice. It gets highly emotional at times. The imagery is often surreal but always memorable. The animation is calm in both colours and movement. This film is presented in chapters, which I think may be a better way to digest it. It's something no country but Japan would try, and the ending is so powerful it really does make the journey worth it. Mature and thoughtful, if sometimes a little slow.