![]() Suzu, now a freckled schoolgirl of 17, has never forgiven her for abandoning her own daughter to save a stranger’s. On an excursion, the mother plunges into a raging river to save a child and loses her own life in the process. Here the traumatic loss is of the mother herself when Suzu (voiced by Kaha Nakamura) was a small girl. As in all of Hosoda’s work, the family is at the heart of real-life drama and the source of his films’ emotional climaxes, like the unforgettable finale of Wolf Children in which a mother lets go of her son. Though constructed around teenage neurosis, which can get pretty grim at times, Belle (whose original Japanese title is Belle: Ryu to Sobakasu no Hime) is an immersive experience for anyone willing to give anime a try. Venue: Cannes Film Festival (Cannes Premieres)Ĭast: Kaha Nakamura, Koji Yakusho, Lilas Ikuta, Ryo Narita, Shota Sometani, Tina Tamashiro And yet Hosoda also sees some positive benefits in Internet and its ever-changing technology, perhaps as therapy for the repressed who need encouragement to bring their beautiful inner selves out of hiding. ![]() In this fantasy world, drugs have been replaced by gaming avatars as the escape mechanism of preference, and they seem to serve much the same purpose in removing the mind from reality. The visuals are often astounding, filled with breathless mid-flight battles and spectacular scenes of giant whales swimming in a liquid sky, which would have been called psychedelic in grandpa’s day. Unfortunately, this enchanting virtual universe is only an Internet pipe dream where people take refuge in idealized avatars to escape the pain of the real world.īowing in the Cannes Premieres section before a world rollout later in the year, Belle has the look of a winner for the teen set. ![]() Perhaps the most ambitious film to date by Japanese animator Mamoru Hosoda, which he himself describes as “the one I’ve been waiting to make,” Belle alternates between a quiet little town where its painfully insecure heroine lives and an exciting, wildly imaginative futureworld that takes your breath away with its beauty. ![]()
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