Patema Inverted

"Come see the world through Patema's eyes."

2013 1h 38m JA

👍

7.4

SOLID

★7.4TMDB · 491

AnimationScience FictionAdventureDrama

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

A young girl, from a civilization that resides in deep underground tunnels, finds herself trapped in an inverted world and teams up with a resident to escape and return home.

“Come see the world through Patema's eyes.”

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Where to watch · US

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Cast

Yukiyo Fujii
Patema (voice)
Nobuhiko Okamoto
Age (voice)
Takaya Hashi
Izamura (voice)
Shintaro Ohata
Porta (voice)
Shinya Fukumatsu
Elder (voice)
Masayuki Katou
Lagos (voice)
Hiroki Yasumoto
Jack (voice)
Maaya Uchida
Kaho (voice)

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Yasuhiro Yoshiura
Writers: Yasuhiro Yoshiura, Yasuhiro Yoshiura
Languages: Japanese
Countries: Japan

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 7

ERA

Did you know

Released 13 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Yasuhiro Yoshiura, shot by Yasuhiro Yoshiura. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Michiru Oshima. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Yasuhiro Yoshiura shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 7

CAST

Did you know

Yukiyo Fujii and Nobuhiko Okamoto and Takaya Hashi carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 7

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Come see the world through Patema's eyes.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 7

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt2981768 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Yasuhiro Yoshiura directs. Yasuhiro Yoshiura behind the camera. Michiru Oshima scores. Yasuhiro Yoshiura cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in Japan. Dialogue in Japanese.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Released 13 years ago.
2Directed by Yasuhiro Yoshiura, shot by Yasuhiro Yoshiura. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
3Original score by Michiru Oshima. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
4Editor Yasuhiro Yoshiura shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
5Yukiyo Fujii and Nobuhiko Okamoto and Takaya Hashi carry the top of the cast.
6Marketing tagline: "Come see the world through Patema's eyes.".
7IMDB entry: tt2981768 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
8Classified under 11 themes, including "underground world", "dystopia", "surrealism", "school".
9Released under 13 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Yasuhiro Yoshiura
Original score: Michiru Oshima
Editing: Yasuhiro Yoshiura
Costume design: annin dofu
Runtime: 98 min · 1h 38m
Status: Released
Original language: JA
Certification (US): NR
IMDB: Patema Inverted (2013)

Also by

Yasuhiro Yoshiura

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

Dsnake12018-02-07
★ 7/10
Patema Inverted is a film about a split world where gravity points in different directions. This affects people, objects, and even natural stone. Wherever an object was created decides which direction the object falls. Of course, without some kind of protection, objects and people can fall into the sky. That's the concept. As a concept, it's incredibly interesting. The gripping moments, awesome actions scenes, and interesting animation sequences have limitless potential. This movie fills that potential and does a fantastic job of executing the concept in a way that keeps things interesting. Unfortunately, that's one of the only things the movie did exceedingly well. The pacing of the movie was strange. It started rather slowly until some revelations by the characters drew us into the action. The film takes a large amount of time to introduce us to Patema, one of our protagonists. While this is a good thing, Patema isn't an incredibly interesting character. She's the Chief's daughter, sure, but that only comes into play for a few lines of dialogue. She has some really emotional scenes that just don't feel as emotional as they should because the character depth isn't quite up to snuff. In addition, Age, the other protagonist, doesn't get the same treatment Patema does, at least not right away. Until later in the movie, the only things we really know about Age is that he isn't happy with the authoritarian nature of his school/government. The antagonist of the movie and the rest of the supporting cast are all extremely one-sided: dumb, in love, mindless goons, etc. While the pacing is inconsistent and the movie starts off slow, once it hits its pace, it really takes off. The two protagonists really help develop each other, although the short amount of time it takes for each one to be willing to sacrifice their lives for the other is much too short. Altogether, the plot is a means to an end. It is designed to force the characters together so their one-sided-ness isn't nearly as glaring as well as to give us a reason to see the world. The twist at the end wasn't terribly surprising, but it was executed well. All in all, the movie was good, not great. The concept was fantastic, but the rest of the movie just held the concept back. It's certainly worth a watch (probably two), but it isn't something I'll make a point to watch at least once a year.

Production companies