Butterfly Effect, a time leaping movie

Yesterday, I watched the movie "Butterfly Effect" on DVD. This film is popular as a sort of thriller with a reversal storyline.

The hero suffered from memory lapse in his childhood. After growing up, he acquires a time leap ability all at sudden. He can return to the past using his old diary. Meanwhile, he gradually regains his missing memory. Then he is forced to know what he did which had ruined the life of his sweetheart. He decides to go back to the past for saving her. However, the more he challenges, the more the reality gets worse.

Time leaping is an imaginary ability with which you can return to the past. Perhaps you have some experience that you thought it would be better if you could do. After making a critical mistake, you could retry it. Wonderful!

"Butterfly Effect" is a term used in Chaos theory. It means that a tiny movement can cause serious result indirectly. The fact that a butterfly began to fly in Africa may be the reason of sudden onset of world war. It is ridiculous, but no one can completely reject its possibility.

Similar to the Butterfly Effect, some certain behaviors the hero acted in the past influence decisively in the future.

With all efforts to avoid tragic outcome, he is trapped in a vicious circle. He loses something precious by every time he attempts time leaping. His friends and relatives are also involved. At last, he makes the final decision.

This is an attractive film. The plot is well sophisticated. Unfortunately, however, some descriptions about a mental hospital and a psychiatrist are not realistic at all.

I think that the hero is not so clever. He could act more wisely to make change the past. It is possible that gaining a special ability makes a person reckless.

To be honest, some failures of the hero in the past were no more tiny to be called as the Butterfly Effect. Compared to this, "The Oxford Murders" is a much better example of the Butterfly Effect.

There are lots of work describing time leaping. In Japan, "Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (When They Cry; a computer graphic novel)" and "Puella Magi Madoka Magica (an animation film)" I mentioned in the past are popular. "Nana-kai Shinda Otoko (A man who died 7 times; a novel)" is also good. Indeed, time leaping is more familiar with computer games than a novel or a movie. As a principle, many computer games are created for repeated playing. You can find something new when you play the game again. It resembles to time leap experience. In addition, there are several works dealing with time leap in the main feature. "Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward" (I introduced in the past) is typical.

Personal Rating: 4 (good)