‘Back’ to Nature
Corn, crab and wienie dogs in the great outdoors. The aggressively nice ‘Laid-Back Camp Movie’ has you covered.
Laid-Back Camp Movie
Director: Yoshiaki Kyogoku • Writer: Jin Tanaka, Mutsumi Ito, based on the manga by Afro
Starring: Yumiri Hanamori, Nao Toyama, Sayuri Hara, Aki Toyosaki, Rie Takahashi
Japan • 2hrs
Opens Hong Kong October 6 • I
Grade: B
What did I say about Haw?
Well, whatever it was, it applies to Laid-Back Camp Movie | 映画 ゆるキャン△ too. Sometimes a movie is just so wholesome, so inoffensive, so highly aerated it’s almost not worth talking about. What’s there to say about an animation about a group of five high school girlfriends who, bored and slightly disaffected by their lives – but not rebelliously or disruptively so – decide to work together on a project to recreate the laid back camping grounds they used to hang out at on a disused piece of land in middle-of-nowhere Japan? And then, when the ever-so-helpful city hall steps in to put the kibosh on the plan because some historically significant pottery shards were found – now it’s an archaeological site you see – they just take a new tack, one that includes a way to work the history into the camping. Or about a light-hearted story that features eating as a crucial part of the camping, the planning, the building, the digging, the surveying… you get the idea. This is crazy shit, but so innocuously crazy it’s difficult to take Laid-Back Camp Movie to task for being exactly what it purports to be.
Also starring Fujisan
Based on Afro’s manga and then the two-season television series about the girlfriends camping adventures – they camp a lot – Laid-Back Camp Movie is like the ASMR of anime. As a series, you can throw it up on your screen of choice and just let it soothe from the background. As a film, you can sit in the dark theatre and drift in and out of peaceful sleep, and in and out of the movie. You won’t really miss much; you’ll pick up again in a snap. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. There’s a mesmerising quality to the lo-fi animation (lots of still shots of squinting smiley eyes and thumbs-up), its soft pastels and blurred edges. You can fight it, but that won’t get you anywhere. Admittedly that’s where the story goes, but then again, that’s where it’s supposed to go.
In the film, Rin Shima the travel writer (Nao Toyama, reprising her TV voice role, like the others), outdoor equipment retailer Nadeshiko Kagamihara (Yumiri Hanamori), Chiaki Ogaki, the tourism board pro (Sayuri Hara), Aoi Inuyama, the schoolteacher (Aki Toyosaki) and pet groomer Ena Saito (Rie Takahashi) reunite… okay I forgot why. Might have napped during that part. But the point is they reunite from all corners of Japan and hatch the idea of building the campground. In between they eat, and finally open the park. Day one is almost a disaster but some quick thinking and a trusty Vespa save the day. It’s a hit. Time to crack out the wienie dogs.
There is literally nothing else to say about Laid-Back Camp Movie. Look, the whole thing is there in the title. Word on the street in Japan is that the LBCM was a balm to housebound, or at the very least Japan-trapped, locals at the height of the pandemic, thanks to the photorealistic backgrounds offering vicarious adventure. That may be the case, and if so it’s entirely understandable how the series and the film have been lifted to cult status. Some of us tuned into No Time To Die for Italian vistas, some of us opted for a modest tent overlooking Mount Fuji. Point is, Laid-Back Camp is the type of diversion from which you’ll get exactly what you bring to it. If it’s been a long, trying slog of a week and the embodiment of pleasant is what you seek, this is just the trick. That’s it. Got no more. — DEK