The Island Closest to Heaven is a 1984 Japanese film directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi, based on an original story by Morimura Katsura. The film follows a high school girl that after her father’s sudden death travels to the southwest pacific archipelago of New Caledonia to find an island he agreed to visit with her father. Once there she encounters Japanese immigrants and locals as she learns her island army never be found. The Island Closest to heaven ultimately a coming-of-age film about growing up and finding peace.
The film starts with the main girl Mari wanting to escape to an island of God were everyone is happy as when she talks to her father, he says that she must wish for it and not try, this shows the coming-of-age elements of the film and that she must achieve her dreams and become an adult. Mari is also caught up in her fantasies as with the coming-of-age film she must learn to be an adult. Within the film she is shown as a loner, as she is shy amongst the popular important girls drowning them out. She made a promise with her dad to go to the island and asks her mum for money to finically fund her as her mum thinks it’s fine as its important to her and she want to be alone. This linking to the coming-of-age element of the film with her becoming an adult. She is ultimately a loner a stranger in a sea of annoying tourists as she starts to act like a normal girl drinking with an annoying girl cutting lose and falling asleep. She ultimately starts to reject the computerisation of being on tour with the other shallow tourists as the other girl goes chasing after boys, she ultimately wishes for a more authentic culture.
Her goal is to find her paradise island, but she starts to have doubts. The film is very much a coming-of-age film complete with all the tropes, such as a comical meet cute moment when she dodges falling fruit from a truck and meets a guy her age driving it. This thinks to the coming-of-age moments in the film with its being about her maturity as further shown with the boy anciently breaking Mari’s glass linking to it being a meet cute moment. This moment is contrasted with the hard reality of a doctor treating her and scolding her for being reckless. Mari’s female friend represents corporatism whilst Mari represents authenticity as she wants to meet that boy again and have a genuine connection. However, her friend despite being vain is not shown to be a bad person and does confront her to an extent. The vein girl takes a photo, but Mari doesn’t as she wanders off from the group wanting to see things that are not the main attraction. She ends up meeting a native of the island saying that the tourists are humans that have forgotten how to be human. This links to the coming-of-age themes of the film in changing perspectives. He preaches to the tour group to look beyond the tour; however, the tour guide states that he is an unlicensed fraud, but the guy says he is the one who is a fraud and if he acted like him, he would be homeless. This showcases the class of ideologies throughout the film and what is interesting is that no ideology is shown as particularly bad. Mari is shown to be different form the others she has a purpose looking for something, she concludes that the island closest to heaven isn’t here and shell know it in her heart when she finds it, lining to this idea of changing something that doesn’t exist, but she decides to listen to his heart.
The native man takes Mari to the horizon saying that people who see the horizon turn green will find what they are looking for, as she worries that she’ll never find it. The guy thinks maybe it’s all just an optical illusion, but he knows someone who sore the light turn green 20 years ago. He states that everybody meets as strangers as he takes her to the island dressed as an adult and she gambles, however there is an irony to this setting having the same artificiality as the tourist section jut for adults. This links to the coming-of-age elements of the film in showing the dangers of being trapped in one ideology or another. She then takes her up in a plane showcasing the beauty of the island showing she can archive her dreams; she then goes to the beach and meets Tom a native boy of the island as she ends up finding the guy who stole her glasses. The fact that she doesn’t quite understand the island makes her charming a sincere, she then meets up with a friend of hers and leaves saying it was her decision showing the trials and tribulations of coming of age. She then wanders the beach alone separate from the other tourists, as she wanders the island alone were she finds the boy again, this links to the coming-of-age themes of the film as she just wants a genuine connection and to find love. He tells her about a possible lead for her dad’s island and says she can take a free boat there, as they have a meet cute like meeting linking to the coming-of-age themes of the film.
The tour guide scolds Mari as the vein girl complains that she can’t find a man and goes of the find a boy, as Mari goes of the find an adventure by herself to find a boy linking to the coming-of-age themes of the film like teenage romance. Mari is search for the boy finds a more rustic culture, she visits the island children of the sun which have an African culture a different culture as she is embraced by the children younger generation that is open and excepting. She tells her father in her head that she found the island nearest to heaven but she pounders where his island is, as she then collapses from a fever having tried to gain too much information. At night-time she stumbles across the natives dancing Infront of a fire as she collapses again, as the children gather around her. She gets cussed out by the tour guide for missing her flight stating she must pay for the next one. The guy cracks about the customers as he as a wife and a kid and barely gets to see them. He gives her money to get a place for the night before she goes home. This gives him some sympathy as he is presented as role of a person than a villain. She arrives at a sleazy hotel full of men and runs out wondering the streets. She then runs into the casino guy she met early who is having an argument with a woman who slaps him and leaves him stranded. This shows the brutal reality behind the perfect paradise and nowhere is heaven. She ends up alone in a bad hotel as she goes to jail were the truck kid picks her up and takes her to her family. He opens to her talking about his mum dying and she talks about this island being the island of her dreams but now that dream has died as his dream is to go to japan. The boy and his family’s life are quaint in a little house where the bath water is dirty, the film shows the differences in seemly similar people as they state she is Japanese, but she isn’t like them they lie here she is a tourist.
They go and visit the boys’ mothers grave, as he laments that he has never seen snow showing how both cultures are missing something. She then helps him topple over a tree showing her being more accustomed to the place, as she becomes sad that he is making her go back because he believes his house is to cramped and dirty which makes her cry, as these people from different cultures can’t understand what the other sees in the other. The boy kind of wants Mari about of her life, he has a lot of trauma from their friendship treating his family like enemies because of their Japanese heritage as during the war even though they weren’t POWS they were less free, this shows the problems and realism hiding behind and supposedly perfect paradise. They talk about a submarine shop and that the woman lost her husband and she drops flowers and her wedding ring into the ocean as she still remembers his love and pride. This shows the powerful memories of life and no matter what you can’t change the past. The island boy goes to the hole look for Mari as a fellow islander warns her not to fall in love with a tourist linking to the coming-of-age themes in the film, as Mr Fukya and Kergo meet again reigniting an old flaming linking into the themes of the quest for love. He meets Mari again and tell her to meet him in the place. Mari tells Kergo that Mr Fukya still loves her, and she also likes him, as she tells her the story about the green flash as she runs away crying. This links to the coming-of-age themes in the film with the idea of rekindling old flames.
They end up meeting up with Mari and thank her, they talk about her life is just beginning, she is wise, and they have rekindled their love, linking to the coming-of-age themes of old flames. The guy she befriends gives her the money to return to japan as it’s his dream to japan one day. This links to the idea that people are wishing for things they want not resailing what they have. The film showcases the theme that life is short and that you should be unreasonable sometimes, as she gets a plane ticket back as the couple thank her for mending their relationship because of her. Mari meets up with Taro again as his teaching kids. They catch up and state that they wanted to see each other again. She gives him the money back as she says she doesn’t want to take anything from him as they won’t meet again. This links to the coming-of-age themes in the film of saying goodbye and letting go of a potential love. He shows her his picture book show about the island of japan like a children’s story book as they are wanting the same thing. She states that she found her island closest to heaven right here with him and everyone and she found his Japan within her linking to the coming-of-age themes of young love. The film states how the river leads to an island which is full of happy people linking to this idea of them finding their own personal heaven. The film ends with her meeting her mum who doesn’t think that she is different. She states she met dad there and her mum says she met him at home as the film ends with a thank you letter to his youth. This shows the importance of bonding and the ability to find happiness and move on.
The Island Closest to Heaven is ultimately a film about finding happiness and moving on from the past. The film is a coming-of-age story about facing a sad part of our life and pushing forward to a brighter future.