Crystal Sky of Yesterday

Unlike some of my friends, I have no aversion to Chinese animation (except perhaps Panda and Little Mole) and Chinese "anime". I have even discovered a few good Chinese productions over the past few years that I remember and sometimes have the urge to watch again. It is a real shame, therefore, that this movie had such bad quality animation that it spoiled my impression of it to some extent. At times the movements seemed unnatural and sometimes (I can think of two scenes off the top of my head) it almost looked like the characters were sliding around on a treadmill instead of walking. In addition, at other times the movements were simply jerky... I was also not impressed with the CGI treatment of some of the scenes and buildings/objects. In other words, compared to what I have been used to from other anime movies, this was all rather a bit below standard. On the other hand, the movie had a good soundtrack, it was distinctive and some scenes were more powerful and had the right atmosphere just because of that, which was good although the other, more boring bits could have done with a bit more atmosphere, etc too. I thought the narrative was great, understated, realistic and considering the fact that it is more or less about the same generation as I am from (the main part of the narrative takes place in 1999), I found it quite close to my heart. I found that even the coming-of-age subject matter, deciding what to do with your life, was all really intriguing and really well presented in this movie. However, what I enjoyed the most was the romantic subplot. I do not know if it was the fact that I remember the romantic adventures of my student days in a similarly "disappointing" way (for example, giving someone you like advice about their love-life when it concerns someone else - I only experienced that about four times in my youth), or if the main male protagonist reminded me so much of myself because of his behavior (decent adolescent guys who lend girls with cold hands their gloves do not usually end as “winners” among their peers), though either way, it was again quite close to my heart... So in the end I actually enjoyed this movie despite my reservations concerning the animation. However, I still cannot shake the feeling that it could have been much more intense and emotional, because at least the Japanese directors know how to do that. My final rating was a tough decision, as although the overall impression for me was slightly above average, am I going to award this a strong three stars or a poor four stars? More likely I should award the strong three stars --- put in terms of the ratio 6.4/10. (05/20/2019)