Belle: The Dragon and the Freckled Princess (2021)
(Ryû to sobakasu no hime)
Country: JAP
Technical: col/2.35:1 121m
Director: Mamoru Hosoda
Cast: Kaho Nakamura, Ryô Narita, Shôta Sometani
Synopsis:
Sad and withdrawn since her mother's untimely death, a schoolgirl is encouraged by a friend to create her own story on the online VR platform known as 'U'. This unleashes such a stream of pent-up emotion that her avatar becomes a musical idol for millions of users; except one, known as The Dragon, whose inchoate rage threatens to destabilise the system followed by calls for him to be 'unveiled' by the guardians of online safety.
Review:
This is of course Beauty and the Beast for the social media age, though the virtual environment at its heart is still fantasy. It and the real world are constantly intercut to underline the heroine's far from secure emotional state, while her avatar seeks to draw another wounded soul from self-imposed isolation in the same way that her real-life friend Shinobu does her. It is all a bit overstretched and has the (presumed) disadvantage that the reality parts are far more beautifully rendered than the digital world, offering oases of calm to the (older) viewer. The moral, that acts of kindness have the power to heal otherwise insuperable trauma, is well taken, and made with anime's disarmingly lachrymose abandon.
(Ryû to sobakasu no hime)
Country: JAP
Technical: col/2.35:1 121m
Director: Mamoru Hosoda
Cast: Kaho Nakamura, Ryô Narita, Shôta Sometani
Synopsis:
Sad and withdrawn since her mother's untimely death, a schoolgirl is encouraged by a friend to create her own story on the online VR platform known as 'U'. This unleashes such a stream of pent-up emotion that her avatar becomes a musical idol for millions of users; except one, known as The Dragon, whose inchoate rage threatens to destabilise the system followed by calls for him to be 'unveiled' by the guardians of online safety.
Review:
This is of course Beauty and the Beast for the social media age, though the virtual environment at its heart is still fantasy. It and the real world are constantly intercut to underline the heroine's far from secure emotional state, while her avatar seeks to draw another wounded soul from self-imposed isolation in the same way that her real-life friend Shinobu does her. It is all a bit overstretched and has the (presumed) disadvantage that the reality parts are far more beautifully rendered than the digital world, offering oases of calm to the (older) viewer. The moral, that acts of kindness have the power to heal otherwise insuperable trauma, is well taken, and made with anime's disarmingly lachrymose abandon.
(Ryû to sobakasu no hime)
Country: JAP
Technical: col/2.35:1 121m
Director: Mamoru Hosoda
Cast: Kaho Nakamura, Ryô Narita, Shôta Sometani
Synopsis:
Sad and withdrawn since her mother's untimely death, a schoolgirl is encouraged by a friend to create her own story on the online VR platform known as 'U'. This unleashes such a stream of pent-up emotion that her avatar becomes a musical idol for millions of users; except one, known as The Dragon, whose inchoate rage threatens to destabilise the system followed by calls for him to be 'unveiled' by the guardians of online safety.
Review:
This is of course Beauty and the Beast for the social media age, though the virtual environment at its heart is still fantasy. It and the real world are constantly intercut to underline the heroine's far from secure emotional state, while her avatar seeks to draw another wounded soul from self-imposed isolation in the same way that her real-life friend Shinobu does her. It is all a bit overstretched and has the (presumed) disadvantage that the reality parts are far more beautifully rendered than the digital world, offering oases of calm to the (older) viewer. The moral, that acts of kindness have the power to heal otherwise insuperable trauma, is well taken, and made with anime's disarmingly lachrymose abandon.