‘The Colors Within’ review: Groove is in the heart

Naoko Yamada and Reiko Yoshida re-team for another vibrant, deeply-emotional story of adolescent connection with The Colors Within.

Naoko Yamada, you’ve done it again. The Colors Within is her latest and dare I say, greatest work to date. Focusing on three teenagers who bond over music, it’s a story that makes sure you feel for these characters every step of the way. The Colors Within is an extraordinary entry in Yamada’s work that makes me even more excited to see what she brings to life in the future. 

The Colors Within follows Totsuko (Sayu Suzukawa), Kimi (Akari Takaishi) and Rui (Taisei Kido), three high school students who have a shared love for music. Totsuko has synesthesia, causing her to see the colors of people, while Kimi dropped out of school without telling her grandmother and Rui is hiding the fact that he plays music from his family for the sake of carrying on the family clinic. The three of them come together in the secondhand store where Kimi works and form a band even though Totsuko can’t play an instrument. Their friendship blossoms through their struggles, doubts, and shared passion.

Emotional intelligence.

Yamada collaborates once again with Reiko Yoshida (A Silent Voice: The Movie) to weave a beautiful coming-of-age story for The Colors Within. The pair create a world in which we can relate to these characters who are struggling with all that life throws at them. If we haven’t dealt with things like self-doubt, we know someone who has, and we’re able to connect with the main trio on a deeper level because of that. 

The empathy that the trio shows for one another is something so rare to see in high schoolers. Each one of the main characters is so willing to listen and understand the struggles they’re all going through. When Totsuko asks Kimi if something is bothering her, she asks a second time but lets the other girl know she doesn’t need to talk about it if she doesn’t want to. It’s an emotionally intelligent statement that few young people can understand. Even Rui shows this while listening to the girls talk about their personal problems in the church. He even goes so far as to playing Giselle: Act I: Pas seul – Pas de deux des jeunes paysans on the theremin so Totsuko can dance along with it. 

Platonic love is shown to be an important theme throughout the film. Totsuko, Kimi, and Rui clearly care for each other and are not afraid to show it. Rui creates a safe space for all three of them to play music together in the church almost immediately after meeting the girls. This show of care only continues as the three band members continue to grow together with each band practice. The love that they show for each other creates such a warm setting that flows through from beginning to end. It’s something that Yamada excels at including in her works and The Colors Within follow suit. 

In the mix.

It’s safe to say that The Colors Within has queer undertones. From the start, Totsuko is infatuated with Kimi.  She thinks that the color Kimi gives off is beautiful. Beyond that, she feels sparkly for the whole day after Kimi accidentally hits her in the face with a dodgeball. One could go so far as to say she has a schoolgirl crush on her. The movie doubles down on the vagueness of this part of their relationship (especially in the sleepover scene.) But that doesn’t diminish how well it works. The juxtaposition of their relationship with the Catholic motifs implies certain morals about how to live (any former Catholic knows what this is like). Whether Yamada meant to imply these things, I think it’s easy to pick up on and the film never confirms or denies it. It simply allows its characters to be authentically themselves. 

Sister Hiyoshiko (Yui Aragaki) is a key figure in the movie no matter how you cut it. Throughout the film, she watches over Totsuko in various ways. She talks to Totsuko when she’s alone in the church and comes up with the training camp excuse for when Totsuko and Kimi are stuck on the island. To have someone like Sister Hiyoshiko as a support system—even if Totsuko doesn’t know it until the end— is special. Integral, even. It would have been easy to regulate her to another authority figure without much depth. However, Yamada bridges the connection between the two with music. 

The soundtrack is nothing short of superb. One scene in particular really showed this. Kimi and Totsuko are having a sleepover—against school regulations, since Kimi is no longer a student—and suddenly, a remix of Underworld’s “Born Slippy” starts playing. It’s a wholesome remix that makes you marvel at how perfectly fits the scene. Additionally, the performance scene at the school is a rock star production. The three songs added so much emotion to not only the scene in particular but also the movie itself. To hear the songs the three of them worked so hard on for so long was worth the wait. Kensuke Ushio (Dandadan) deserves his flowers for his amazing compositions for the film. 

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The bottom line.

The Colors Within is quite possibly one of the best movies I’ve seen in recent years. There is so much to love about this film that it’s impossible to fit it into a single review. It’s a brilliant coming-of-age story that anyone, young or old, can relate to. Between the soundtrack, the story, and the art, it’s easily one of the most beautiful films ever released. The message of the film is simple: friends make life worth living. So, enjoy the time you spend listening to music with them.

The Colors Within is now playing in select theaters. Watch the trailer here.

Images courtesy of Toho. Read more articles by Kayla Chu here.