Night on the Galactic Railway
Author: Mathrew Lane
Date review submitted: March 20, 2000
("Ginga Tetsudo no Yoru") "Night on the Galactic Railway" is based on a 1927 Japanese literary classic, written by Kenji Miyazawa. The story is about two young friends who ride a magical night train on a celestial railway through the universe. This 1985 film offers a very interesting interpretation to a most unusual story. One feature that stands out is the portrayal of the main characters as racially neutral cats. I have read numerous translations of this story along with the original Japanese text and feel that the content remains true to the contents of the original book. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Kenji Miyazawa, he is a Buddhist writer who was born in 1896 in Iwate Prefecture. Many of his stories reflect his Buddhist ideology, and his interest in geology and astronomy.
The story is very complex, and has been interpreted in many ways.
There are many other reviews of this film available on the Internet. To make this review a bit different from the others, I would like to discuss some of the cultural references which may be confusing. First of all, the European motifs of the story are said to be the influence from the Italian writer Edmondo de Amicis. I am not familiar with this writer, but I have heard his work "Curore" ("Heart") holds many similarities to Night on the Galactic Railway. The "Centaurus Festival" featured in the beginning of the story is related to the Japanese Tanabata festival, the late summer star festival celebrating the annual meeting of the herd boy star (Altair) and the weaver maid (Vega) across the river of heaven. This legend is said to have been borrowed from China as early as the sixth century. One popular version of the story says the two lovers meet by crossing water on a bridge made by willing magpies extending their wings. At Tanabata, children in Japan decorate branches of dwarf bamboo with colored cards inscribed with poems about the two stars. During Obon (a time when the spirits of dead ancestors are welcomed home) in Kenji's hometown of Hanamaki, the people would send lanterns (or spirit lamps) down a local river. Commonly referred to as 'tourou-nagashi' most Japanese people would immediate recognize this allusion of lantern floating at Obon.
There are many other references to Japanese cultural events, and to fully understand them all, I recommend reading a particular translation of the story by Sarah M. Strong. Titled 'Night of the Milky Way Railway'. Sarah offers an accurate translation along with a reader's guide and an alternative version of the story.
If you enjoy Night on the Galactic Railway, I strongly suggest you explore many of the other works of Kenji Miyazawa. John Bester offers a delightful introduction to the works of Miyazawa in the book 'Once and Forever', a compilation of most of Miyazawa's popular short stories.
