Thursday 30 January 2025 1:08 pm | Updated: Thursday 30 January 2025 4:40 pm

The Colours Within film review: stunning and deceptively simple

The Colours Within review and star rating: ★★★★

Japanese animation studio Science Saru may not be as recognised as Studio Ghibli, but they are perhaps best known in English language countries for their contributions to anthology series Star Wars: Visions.

In The Colours Within the story follows Totsuko, a high school student who sees everything differently through Synaesthesia, a condition where senses are interpreted in unique ways. In her case, it means she sees people as colours that communicate her feelings about them. She forms a band and makes music to help deal with her personal issues.

The animation is stunning in every scene. Totsuko’s world is created through a blend of watercolour paintings that blend and dance on screen. The visuals are both captivating to watch and an effective device for showing how she feels different from everyone else.

The Colours Within: An uplifting and sincere 100 minutes of cinema

Of course, if it were just pretty colours that wouldn’t be enough to sustain 100 minutes, and happily there is a point to the craft beyond spectacle. Director Naoko Yamada uses her palette to express the difficulties of teenage years, and the pressures of finding yourself in the midst of school and family expectations. These individual arcs aren’t explored in the greatest of detail, but enough to join the visual aspects in a way that adds some depth.

What’s also intriguing is the film’s approach to faith, a presence both in the form of the Catholic school they attend and the colourful interpretations of character’s auras or souls. While religion is never disrespected, the story acknowledges the possibility, and occasionally the necessity, for those who fall outside its teachings to connect on another level.

The Colours Within is a deceptively simple film that uses elaborate methods to illustrate feelings most viewers will relate to. Uplifting and sincere, it’s an animated film without a hint of commercial cynicism.