I'm not usually a big
anime fan, but there are a few films that have successfully captured
my imagination. I guess saying if I like or do not like anime is kind
of pointless. I mean, like any medium, there is good quality work and
not-so-good quality work. This year at the Vancouver International
Film Festival there was an anime film, straight from Japan, called
Wolf Children which was getting a fair bit of attention. I
know this because the first screening I tried to see sold out so I
had to wait the following week. And even though it was in the
biggest house the festival had to offer the second time around, the
show still had a very strong turn out and there was some competition
for seating. So, I don't know what it was about this particular film
that gathered so much attention, but it's safe to say that it had a
strong run at VIFF this year.
The movie follows Hana
as she's going to school and starts pursuing a mysterious young man,
Souhei, who is fairly shy and keeps to himself. As they get to know
each other, they fall in love, but he feels he needs to reveal the
truth to her; he is a wolf-man. Oh man, I hate it when that happens!
She accepts him regardless and they begin to start a family together.
And wouldn't you know it the two kids, a girl and boy, Yuki and Ame,
are part wolf and transform from human to wolf on a whim.
Unfortunately, one night Souhei doesn't return home and Hana finds
that he's been killed leaving her to raise her children by herself.
Life in the city proves to be too risky and cramped for energetic
wolf children so Hana packs up the kids and goes off into a small
secluded community where she and the kids can live a life of privacy
and keep their secret.
This film covers a
fairly long time from before the children were born and well into
their school years, so something that's worth taking note of from
this movie is its pacing. That's something that a lot of movie goers
don't take too much notice of until it's a problem. If a movie feels
way too rushed or seems to drag, that's an issue with pacing, but
here the movie takes time to breathe and contemplate, but doesn't
feel like it's dragging you through a marathon. It fills out its two
hour run time ideally. Had it been two short, I don't think that we
would have been able to appreciate the three lead characters and
their journeys the same way.
The story follows three
lives. We watch the energetic Yuki and her trying to find acceptance
and a place in humanity. We watch Ame being unable to find
satisfaction in the human world and finding peace and purpose in the
wild. But the most central story is Hana, who we see sacrifice
everything in her world for her children. She is such an endearing
character, but we do often see how vulnerable she is. She's not a
super mom, she is just determined to make sure her kids are safe and
free. And this actually winds up being her weakness, with an
unwillingness to let Ame go as he grows older. This is fairly
accurate to real life; often our strengths double up as our
weaknesses.
“Wold Children” is
beautifully animated, with gorgeous landscapes and wilderness
backdrops. Even the shots of the city look great. I often find that
the weakest part of Japanese animation is the people in the
foreground. Everything around them is so beautiful and believable,
but the way they draw people seems very trapped in the style that
they've made for themselves. This is the case here, but I don't know
how it can be helped. They need to meet expectations I suppose. That
being said, what makes Yuki and Ame so much more interesting than the
typical anime character is that you see them in various stages of
transformation between human and wolf, so I guess that is something
special.
Ultimately, the reason
this movie works so well is that it just really is a touching and
human story. I suspect that this is how many people feel, exaggerated
to a degree. For example, perhaps there is a half Asian person in a
mostly white community, who has trouble finding acceptance amongst
their peers because they appear to be an outsider on a very surface
level. Yuki's story captures that sense of isolation and distance
that many people feel. Ame's story can easily be paralleled with
anyone who finds no sense of belonging in the structure of modern
society. He's the man who goes down the path less travelled. And also
to some degree Hana is the every-mom, making sacrifices for her
children, but to an extreme due to her circumstances. But the
feelings are still based in truth. That being said, the film also
succeeds because it is actually really funny. I think there is a lot
of comedy that comes from having werewolves as children and the film
makers were smart to capitalize on that. It balances out the comedy
and the drama extremely well, never feeling forced or contrived.
Both come naturally to serve the story.
“Wolf Children” was
a pleasant surprise this year at VIFF and I recommend it for fans of
animation in general. I hope you find an opportunity to check it out.
4 Stars
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