POWER OF THE PENGUINS by Kambole Campbell
R
eading the words “Penguin Highway” together might feel like a hint towards a simplistic and joyous journey – after all, who doesn’t like penguins? It’s certainly the most straightforward title of any of Tomihiko Morimi’s novels – the most well-known are a little more illusive, namely The Tatami Galaxy, and The Night is Short, Walk on Girl. Directed by Hiroyasu Ishida, as an adaptation of a Morimi novel, Studio Colorido’s Penguin Highway shares a little bit of common ground with a couple of Masaaki Yuasa’s works – the aforementioned Tatami Galaxy and Night is Short. Like those two works, Penguin Highway flirts with the surreal, mysterious objects (and flightless birds) built into a very human tale. Unlike Yuasa’s take on the material, however, Ishida builds the film with more photorealistic detail, all characterised by soft linework and gentle colours on the characters, as also seen in the studio’s Netflix
68
release from this year, A Whisker Away. What might set the film apart most from its coming-of-age contemporaries is its charming obsession with procedure and investigation, building its leisurely paced plot around the investigations Aoyama and his friends undertake over the course of a summer. Those investigations begin with the mysterious and sudden appearance of penguins in the town, and their equally swift disappearance. Along with this, the film opens up another thread, with the mysterious dentist for whom Aoyoma nurses a childish crush – only ever referred to as The Lady – who alternates between amusedly entertaining Aoyama’s pretense at being an adult and sincere care and concern for him. She acts more in the role of a surrogate older sister half of the time (in the general absence of Aoyama’s parents from the narrative).
