Review: Labyrinth is a dizzying plea to touch grass

If you're reading this, there's a good chance you understand how seductive a screen can be. The glow of a TV or laptop, the giant screens of a movie theater, or -- most dangerously, a phone. It's easy to lose hours to your phone: doomscrolling on social media, mindlessly ingesting bite-sized videos, maybe doing something more productive once in a while (yawn). Sometimes, going through my apps feels like I'm doing my chores: checking my socials, logging my steps, doing my Japanese learning apps, feeding my Pokémon. It's a world unto itself, that little device.

And that other world is literal in Shōji Kawamori's Labyrinth, which GKIDS is bringing to American theaters on May 10 and 11. The film takes the friction between the real and virtual worlds and makes it concrete, dividing its characters in two as they straddle them and try to navigate the particular difficulties of each. Lines blur and sense of self gets confused...which world is more real, which you is more real? It's a conundrum, one that's not easy to untangle when our worlds are so wrapped up in group chats and social media reactions and viral videos.

It ends up, this movie isn't easy to untangle either. I almost never felt like I had a grasp on what was happening in Labyrinth. What seems like it should be a fairly straightforward story (with timely and, frankly, obvious themes) is instead a nearly incomprehensible jumble of fantastic moments, explosions, a robot/kaiju battle, musical numbers, and romantic drama. If that sounds awesome...well, yeah, it does sound awesome. And for being a movie that I couldn't really follow and didn't really like, Labyrinth is pretty good, and certainly has its moments. This isn't necessarily a hard sit, but it's a movie that benefits from turning your brain off and just enjoying the ride, rather than trying to understand the turns it takes.

But, this is a review, so I'll try my best to give you a picture of what's going on here.

Shiori Maezawa is a high schooler who very much does not want to be perceived. Her best friend, Kirara, seems like she was born to be an influencer. She's confident, she has vision, she films videos in cool locales like atop a stack of shipping containers. Shiori is more comfortable living in Kirara's shadow, knowing from early forays into internet posting that she's not destined to be the "it" girl. 

But after Kirara posts a video of Shiori taking an insane tumble down some stairs, our hero is suddenly everywhere: the video goes viral, and Shiori starts getting recognized at the mall, is the object of chatter at school, is getting too much attention online. In moments like these, or any hard moments, Shiori retreats to her secret account, where she's bolder, brasher, and unafraid to speak her mind. This dual persona becomes real when Shiori's mental state and phone screen crack, sending her to a monochromatic mirror world while a different version of her takes up residence in the real world, effectively taking over her life.

This is where things get wild and a bit hard to follow. The real Shiori is trying to figure out how to get back to the real world, and is still able to communicate with it via her phone. The fake Shiori is trying to gain to internet superstardom in the real world (signified by getting 100,000,000 likes online), and if she does, she'll presumably just get to stay in the real world forever? If real Shiori loses her phone or lets the battery run out, she'll turn into a sticker. There's also a mysterious purple-haired scientist who sometimes looks old and dirty and sometimes looks hot and young. And a rabbit sticker who helps guide real Shiori through the phone world. There's a scheme to jack everyone's brains into the virtual world so they can be deleted at will (I think)? And a big concert.

It's a lot.

By the time the movie was moving into its final act, I was honestly a bit exhausted. Every new bit of exposition felt like a slap to my brain, daring me to slot the new rules I was learning into the already complicated schema I was trying to hold up. And I watch a lot of anime, and a lot of out-there movies, so it's not like I'm dumb (I hope).

The hair is kinda giving Iono, no?

But aside from the story being something of a mess, there's plenty to admire here. The animation is very pretty, and it's fun seeing the sticker characters in the phone world alongside Shiori. I loved the music, especially the songs. And the themes, while pretty standard, are worth repeating, especially the idea of self-acceptance being more important than external validation (especially online external validation...I say while hoping my silly little Letterboxd reviews get at least one [1] like). 

If you're looking for encouragement to lower your screen time and get some fresh air, I guess this movie does the trick. But there are probably more efficient ways to go about affecting that change. Like, just doing it. Go outside!