Forum - View topicREVIEW: Wolf Children BD+DVD
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Shenl742
Posts: 1524 |
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Two entirely different titles with reviews written by two different reviewers... |
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Surrender Artist
 Posts: 3264 Location: Pennsylvania, USA |
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I saw Wolf Children at Otakon and felt ambivalent about it then. I enjoy some parts of it, especially how adorable the pups were when very young and the breathtaking, if perhaps excessive, snow-run sequence, but I never felt like it was really special or exceptional. At the time I wondered if I wasn't missing something. I even attributed my dissatisfaction to watching it after standing alone in line for an hour and a half, sitting around waiting for the crowd to seat for forty-five minutes and said audience being perhaps a little too immature to appreciate the film. This review and others who seem disappointed makes me feel a little more confidence in my reaction.
I'll agree to finding the portrayal of the mother wanting, but I was most frustrated by Yuki and Ame themselves, who began as appealing characters, but got shoved into the rather traditional sensibilities that I guess guided the story. It's a long film, but I feel like it either needed to be longer or sacrifice something for more about the children, because their character arcs felt nearly arbitrary to me. I didn't particularly relish seeing Yuki be neutered and making her choice for the sake of a boy while Ame got to be a cool loner badass because... well, I honestly can't say because I didn't find his character arc especially convincing or compelling. To me, it came near to ridiculous. If this were another movie, I would have expected him to just start wearing a leather jacket, riding a motorcycle and skipping class to smoke in a back alley. Mamoru Hosoda frustrates me; I felt pretty ambivalent about Summer Wars too. For me, it's like his an 'almost good' director whom I keep feeling could do something really great if he could get past something. Damned if I'm perceptive enough to say what that something is.
Your disagreement is based upon the least substantial and important element of a review. (And to pre-empt indignant nonsense: I mean the grades, not story) Isn't that rather untenably shallow a basis for disagreement? |
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TarsTarkas
 Posts: 5839 Location: Virginia, United States |
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It goes beyond choice. Don't really think Hana had much choice in the matter, if she and the kids stayed in the city, the kids would have either been killed or secretly imprisoned in some government hot lab. Hana did what she did for the kids survival, and as a byproduct a childhood for them. |
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NiPah
 SubscriberPosts: 205 |
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Oh I didn't actually read the review, I could care less what other people thought of a show. What I found humorous was an easily discernible marker in two different reviews which could be exploited to elicit said response. While it's obviously subjective and wholly meaningless, it may be found statistically inferior to other review set points, hence the joke. But I jest, this is the internet after all, so with that said: Man Wolf Children was over rated, glad this review was put in place to secure my own jaded opinions on what I perceive as a movie others like thus increasing my self worth. |
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 7912 Location: Anime News Network Technodrome |
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Welp out you go then! |
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Shiroi Hane
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 7580 Location: Wales |
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It's occurs to me now that there is an important problem with that - spoiler[her kids were the only thing keeping the wild animals off her crops. Is Ame still going to make it know as his territory?] |
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Fronzel
Posts: 1906 |
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I'm not sure I would agree that Yuki chose humanity because of the boy. He's an important figure in her story, but I think he represents the trouble that associating with others in a society can cause (when he was pestering her), the bad part of her wolf side (when spoiler[she snaps and cuts him]), and the good part of humanity (when she trusts him and learns he deserves it). Yuki made important steps towards choosing humanity before that boy even enters the story, like going to school and making an effort to get along with the other girls. Last edited by Fronzel on Mon Dec 09, 2013 9:54 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 23811 |
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I agree that Ame - like virtually all the other characters is a little opaque, but actually his decision isn't quite as arbitrary as it might seem. It was crystal clear that of the two kids, he was the one who was having great difficulty spoiler[meshing in human society. A lone wolf, indeed. Plus, he did have that fateful encounter with wolf-sensei in the wild.] |
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FenixFiesta
Posts: 2581 |
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If we take that Wolf Children is a straight up Fairy Tale (especially with regards to Ame's side of the story) then when Ame chose to "become a wolf" it was his choice in what he believed to be a significant level of responsibility as a kind of "guardian of the land" which such a task would easily ask the cost one's life as a Human in regards to how many other Fairy Tales might pan out.
And as others have pointed out, Ame didn't socialize well in school, so becoming a kind of local guardian certainly would feel more rewarding and give a sense of self worth than trying to appease the unclear demands of society that already doesn't feel very accepting. |
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ChibiKangaroo
 Posts: 2941 |
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One thing that I have been thinking about in reading these responses but didn't really see thoroughly addressed, is the question of whether or not Hosoda's "black and white" representation of "choice" or "nature/mystical world vs. humanity" is very effective or appealing.
Personally, I don't find these kinds of representations to be attractive from an intellectual standpoint in the modern context. It seems somehow very old-fashioned for animated productions, perhaps harkening back to some of the early Disney movies (e.g. Bambi, The Jungle Book, Peter Pan...) I understand that Miyazaki has loved to play in this space as well. Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away certainly focused on themes like that, and I am sure it has appeared in many of his other works as well. So, I understand if Hosoda is also trying to be "Miyazaki-like" with this theme, but I feel like is a theme that has become overplayed and outdated, given the ability of today's youth (and young adults) to understand and appreciate much more complex stories. Personally, this is why I still HEAVILY prefer Tezuka's works to Miyazaki's. If you consider some of Tezuka's main great works for example, instead of accepting the false reality of some stark "black and white" choice, the protagonists take destiny into their own hands. Often times, these characters refuse to choose between two worlds, and instead become the bridge between those worlds themselves. (i.e. Astro, Kimba, Princess Sapphire). It is a much more modernist way of thinking, and I feel like it is much more appealing than the manufactured tragedy of "the choice." I think you can even see the evolution of this type of story telling by specifically looking at the evolution of Disney animated films. The old fashioned films (such as those I mentioned) often used this dichotomy of the "two worlds." Interestingly, one of the final films made before the Disney "Renaissance" (when the company returned to making successful films) was The Fox and The Hound, which was another of these types of dichotomous stories. (Also, interestingly, while The Fox and The Hound was in production, that was the moment that Don Bluth and his revolutionaries left Disney and created their own animation studio, which began making films with much more complex stories.) During the Renaissance, we got films like The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Mulan, all of which more or less rejected this kind of separation of two worlds theme and had protagonists who seize control of their own destiny. I think we see the same rejection of that theme in a lot of their current/modern films as well. Of course, I am not trying to say that Disney animated films are superior to Japanese animated films, but instead using that as a sort of benchmark for the modernization of the American animation industry. I suppose at the end of the day, I am saying that I think Tezuka was WAY ahead of his time. I find the idea of more complex stories which do not draw hard red lines to be much more appealing and more relatable. These "fairy tale" type stories that enforce harsh boundaries on our imagination often seem like they belong in another era, and sometimes I think they are simply using this theme to force us to grapple with manufactured tragedy which seems unnecessary in our modern, heavily interconnected world. |
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Fronzel
Posts: 1906 |
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Fair enough; why can't Yuki sometimes go for a run as a wolf (and the film is a little ambiguous about her final relationship with her wolf side since she doesn't keep her vow to herself to never transform again), and why can't Ame manage to be civil enoughspoiler[not to bite people (i.e. his sister)]? |
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Agent355
 Posts: 5113 Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready... |
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I hope it's okay to post here a week after the last post.
I just saw the film, and I disagree that we don't get a sense of who Hana is or why she fell in love with the wolf man. There are subtle details in the first part of the movie that point to how Hana could see behind the wolf man's loner exterior to a kind, gentle, smart and inquisitive person who wished for a family of his own. The first thing Hana sees Wolf Man do is take a philosophy class just for the love of learning, and the second thing she sees is how he picks up and comforts a fallen child. Very attractive qualities, indeed! Hana herself gets subtle characterization: from the explanation of her name (how she smiles through even tragic events in her life despite social pressure not to), to her own inquisitive nature and intellegence, her determination and her love for nature. She didspoiler[get a job that required specialty training in the nature reserve, even though she was told she'd make more money elsewhere.] I enjoyed Yuki's story, but Ame's made me sad. I saw his life and choice as almost completely tragic spoiler[Ame is timid and shy and has trouble fitting in to human society via school, and he is given absolutely no support in his struggle. His mother indulges his desire to basically quit elementary school rather than encouraging him to make friends. He then chooses life as a Lone Wolf, to a degree where he will always be completely and utterly alone. As the only one of his kind, a male wolf/human hybrid, and as the only wolf living in the wild in Japan, he can never have a mate, never have a pack, never have any real relationship. If he is helping to balance nature, we are never really shown how. We are meant to see it as a natural choice of an adult, but to me it reminded me of all the children-boys, especially-who struggle socially and end up separated from society. It reminded me more of hikkikomori than a rebel in a leather jacket, and that seems so sad to me.] |
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Shirow Otaku
 Posts: 17 |
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I agree, though I think there was one of those moments; Hana was helplessly chasing Ame through the forest and definitely seemed like a "hasty decision a non supermom would do". granted that was near the end of the film and the only one I could think of. |
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Chiibi
 Posts: 4829 |
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I agree with ALL of this. Although with Ame....spoiler[His decision may appear tragic to the viewer...but not so tragic to him. He seemed really happy to be a lone wolf. And he'll probably make friends in the wild; not wolf friends but other animal friends nonetheless.] Hana is so NOT a perfect supermom; she had nothing but struggles in the first half. She never would have made it without the neighbors' guidance. Do people seriously not see this? Also when she was chasing after Ame in the rain, I couldn't stop screaming; "LET HIM BE. HE'S FINE. GET YOUR DAUGHTER." About the father spoiler[Disposing of his body like that seemed like overkill....or are Japanese policies really like this? If your "pet" ends up in an accident before you arrive on the scene, are they really not going to let you handle the body? What? Why? If Hana had said "That animal is mine", did the men say "Too bad. We're throwing it away."?] I can't even....seriously why? |
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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Finally got around to watching this and as they say, better late than never. And wow, harsh review. I just watched the film - literally finished it about twenty minutes ago (admittedly more now that I've finished this long-ish post) - and with it fresh in my mind I can say that Hope is off the mark with regards to several points.
First of all, the narration. Okay, kind of weird that Yuki is the narrator, but also interesting. It gives us another perspective of Hana's struggles and helps to frame the film; the narration in Wolf Children was not relied upon or ever intended to get across plot points or feelings. We don't actually need Hana herself to narrate to understand what she was going through, because Hosoda used a "show, don't tell" method of storytelling. We see what it was like for her, how much she struggled. I don't need Hana to tell me what I can already see for myself just from the visuals. Was she exhausted? Hell yes, as that brilliant montage showed when she was raising the kids in the flat and was falling asleep while doing the washing. Did she miss her lover? We know she did by her longing glances at his driver's license, the only photo of him she seems to own. I'll talk about Hana some more in the last paragraph, but I'd like to point out that the narration actually turns itself off for large swathes of the film's runtime, so it is isn't pervasive. It pops up when it's needed but by and large lets the story tell itself without interfering. Secondly, the children. Contrary to what the review says the final third - indeed, probably the entire second half - is not just about Ame but about both children and how they chose their respective paths. Yuki only realised who she wanted to be at the end of the film because hey, that was the result of her character arc reaching its climax. She had been lost and confused, a wolf who wanted to fit in but was ashamed about her heritage. She'd even vowed to refrain from ever transforming, right before the fight. Her talk with Souhei in the classroom made her finally feel accepted, that she could be human even though she was part-wolf. She'd spent half the film grappling with that problem, and she'd been a boisterous kid before that, so she was hardly an enigma to us. Ame on the other hand was indeed a bit mysterious. We never really got inside his head but I saw that as a stylistic choice. After all, he embraced his wolf side - wolves often thought of as being wise and unknowable - and like his father he was a cypher. But his passion for and love of nature was very much on display, as was his emotional sensitivity and self-honesty to his beliefs. His tendency to keep things close to his chest and his detachment from normal relationships is merely the natural result of his personality. That's not to say he is emotionless; his howling at the end proves he still has feelings for what his mother did for him. So Hana then, and her being a "supermom". I can see what Hope is talking about . . . and I can tell her that she's wrong. Well, mostly. Look at Hana's panic when child services comes round for an inspection. Her tendency to not ask for assistance until she almost breaks and help is practically forced on her. Her distress when her child is half-drowned and she doesn't know CPR. Her fear as she drove to school thinking the secret was out. Her confusion and helplessness as her children beat the crap out of one another right in front of her and she's unable to stop them. Her fright and despair at how her son is drifting away from her in a way that most mothers don't have to worry about, and her struggle to let go. Sure, she bounces back really fast at each setback. That's because she has to. When you've got two fragile and dependent children to look after by yourself and no real income to provide things for them you don't have much time to feel sorry for yourself because you're just trying to survive day-to-day. That said, I would have liked maybe a bit more sorrow or reflection from Hana, some quieter and more introspective moments, especially after the move to the country when things got a little bit calmer. But we could still see how hard she had to try, we - or at least I - still got a sense that this was a "real" person who was determined to stay positive and make the most out of her unusual and challenging situation. One of the things that struck me most about Hana was her humour and the way it surrounded her. It's the little things, like her grin when she realised that her faith in the wolf man had been rewarded when he finally showed up that night. Or her wry "they got me" when she found out that Yuki had messed up the room. Or her sighs when - after each rainstorm - she had to go back onto the roof and nail some more tiles down. Her guffaws at the embarrassed old geezer. Or the way she was so carefree and tripped down the hill in that simply wonderful scene in the snow midway through the film. I never thought that Hana was unrealistic. (A somewhat idealised mother, yes, but most anime characters male or female are idealised in some way, or else they wouldn't be worth watching.) Hana was still a very interesting and immensely likeable woman with whom I could really empathise with. And you know what? To me, that's all she actually needed to be. I don't need a character who is multi-dimensional up to the nines, as long as they still come across as a "real" person that I can root for. Didn't mean to write that much, but since the movie was fresh in my mind (and the disc still in the player) I thought it couldn't hurt to give multiple examples so that people could see what I was referring to. So yeah, if you've read this far then thank you and I hope I didn't waste your time. |
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