Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Summit of the Gods’ on Netflix, A Feature-Length Animated Adaptation of the Acclaimed Mountain-Climbing Manga Series

Mount Everest is a place of legends, of climbers who have reached the world’s highest summit and those who have given their lives trying. The Summit of the Gods, an adaptation of Jiro Taniguchi’s acclaimed manga series coming to Netflix this month, explores one of the most vexing legends: the fate of George Mallory and Andrew Irvine, the first men to attempt — and possibly succeed at — climbing the peak. When a reporter learns that the camera the famous mountaineers carried—one that may prove if they reached the summit or not—may have been found, he embarks on a journey to unravel mountaineering’s greatest unsolved mystery, and the even stranger story of the man who may have found it.

THE SUMMIT OF THE GODS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: In the 1990s, Japanese writer Baku Yumemakura published The Summit of the Gods, a five-part serial story telling the mystery of Habu Jôji, a talented mountaineer who disappeared from view after a personal tragedy, and Fukamachi Makoto, a frustrated journalist who stumbles into his story. The novel was adapted into a visually-stunning manga by celebrated artist Jirô Taniguchi, and that graphic work serves as the inspiration for this feature-length French-language film, which made its debut at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Mallory’s missing camera is only one part of the story, an arresting piece of work that should grab even viewers unfamiliar with the original or manga in general.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?:Casual viewers of anime might find some commonality with the works of famed director Hayao Miyazaki, but there’s truly very few broadly-accessible points of reference for this stunning work, which captures the beauty and terror of high-altitude mountaineering in a way few non-animated films can.

Performance Worth Watching:Summit of the Gods is fully animated, and the true star is filmmaker Andrew Imbert’s lovely interpretation of Taniguchi’s artistic style. It’s not a direct imitation of the original manga drawings, but remains faithful to the spirit and tone, accurately representing the high-altitude environments with a simple, beautiful style.

Memorable Dialogue: “You need me,” Fukamachi implores Habu, hoping to convince the reclusive climber to allow him to join his latest expedition. “I don’t need anyone. Now, clear off. I stopped long ago. That’s all over now.”

“Over 8,000 feet, you’re in the death zone,” a fellow climber warns Fukamachi later. “The body wasn’t meant to survive that.”

Sex and Skin: None, and save for some scary moments on the mountains (and references to death), there’s nothing in this film that would prevent it from being seen by patient younger viewers.

Our Take:Perhaps I will out myself as a crank in saying this, but there simply aren’t enough quiet films being made these days; mainstream filmmaking has become a frenetic, loud, impatient exercise, and it’s rare to find a piece of work that takes its time, to linger on shots, on moments, on silences. The Summit of the Gods is beautiful for reasons beyond this, but it’s admirable how this poetic, melancholy film takes its time to tell a story that remains thrilling despite—or perhaps because of—the methodical pace.

Filmmaker Andrew Imbert had a tall task in adapting Jirô Taniguchi’s source work, a sprawling five-volume story with numerous threads to condense into a 100-minute feature runtime, but he succeeds admirably here, offering a story that’s complex and nuanced without feeling overstuffed. The art direction is the true star of the film; a simple line-style for the characters is realistic without being overwhelming or distracting, while the visuals of mountain scenes capture the harsh, unforgiving beauty of these astonishing landscapes.

While Mallory’s supposed camera provides a key plot device for the film, the central emotional arc is that of the tragic climber Habu and his motivation to continue climbing alone after driving away many of his former climbing partners and suffering a tragedy that still haunts him to this day. Less tragic, but equally tortured is the story of the reporter Fukamachi, someone at the end of his rope with meaningless assignments, a man in search of something that he can’t quite place. The interplay of these two is emotionally gripping even as they go long stretches without dialogue, moving through the stunning landscapes together.

There’s nothing in The Summit of the Gods that requires a familiarity with manga or anime to find the film accessible; in fact, it’s the kind of work that might convince viewers unfamiliar with the genre to explore further, wondering just what they’ve been missing all along.

Our Call: STREAM IT. If you don’t mind reading subtitles (or if you speak French), Summit of the Gods is a visually-stunning, deeply engaging story that will have you engrossed from start to finish.

Scott Hines is an architect, blogger and internet user who lives in Louisville, Kentucky with his wife, two young children, and a small, loud dog.

Watch The Summit Of The Gods on Netflix