Mary
and the Witch’s Flower (2017): Written by Riko
Sakaguchi and Hiromasa Yonebayashi, directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi. Starring:
Hana Sugisaki, Ryunosuke Kamiki, Yuki Amami, Fumiyo Kohinata, and Hikari
Mitsushima. Running Time: 102 minutes.
Based on the novel of the same name by Mary Stewart.
Rating:
3/4
It
would certainly be understandable to look at certain recent events- Miyazaki’s half-retirement,
the shaky possibility that Studio Ghibli may soon shutter its production wing,
and the passing of Isao Takahata- and wonder if Japanese animation will
ever be the same again. Certainly, an
era has irrevocably passed, but thankfully new, equally-excellent works have continued
to come out in recent years. Whether or
not Studio Ghibli ever reopens for business, its spirit remains alive and well
in the likes of Hiromasa Yonebayashi, who directed two of the (so far) last-ever
Ghibli productions (Arrietty and When Marne Was There) and has now
founded his own animation studio. Mary and the Witch’s Flower is their
first feature film, and will hopefully be merely the first of a great many to
come.
Mary
is sent to the countryside by her parents for school, where she will live in a
grand mansion near a forest she’s not supposed to enter when the mists come. It’s hard adjusting- she is a bit of a
bumbler, and being the estate of an elderly lady, there are lots of breakable
things around for her to trip into. She
also doesn’t fancy the attitude of the local package boy who brings mail to the
lady almost daily, but at least he has two really sweet cats who soon take a
shine to Mary.
Inevitably,
she does end up in the woods one day when the mists come, and finds a strange
flower that, when crushed, grants her magical powers, and also activates an old
broomstick she found hidden in the vines.
This whisks her and the cats off into a seemingly-parallel world above
the clouds, a place of witches and warlocks, and a massive school complex where
she is informed that she is clearly a natural talent who will lead the school
to great things. But all is not as it
seems, and she soon suspects the school harbors some sort of dark secret within
its walls.
You
can probably guess much of the rest from there.
Narratively speaking, it is a very standard, meat-and-potatoes sort of
affair, and that is the movie’s biggest flaw.
An average girl, with several obvious flaws, stumbles by chance into a
world of wonder and adventure, mixing fantasy with typical coming-of-age
lessons; it’s a very condensed Harry Potter.
An amazing world filled with potential is built up, but we only see a
small corner of it and that merely opens up far more questions that the film
itself can answer in a satisfying manner.
But
oh, the visuals that are here to gorge on.
Much like Howl’s Moving Castle,
another film that was short on story depth but long on eye candy, the
deficiencies of the story are (mostly) made up for by the dizzying amount of
imaginative detail packed into every frame.
This is the sort of film that once again proves my longstanding maxing
that literally every kind of story, no matter how standard or blasé, is better
when it’s animated.
There
are many effective sequences to appreciate, including the flying scenes, the
clearest throwbacks to Miyazaki’s old obsession with flight. What magical creatures and powers we
encounter make for some fascinating possibilities that the third act utilizes
very well, and the opening chase scene is dynamite. And though he is no Joe Hisaishi (who is?),
Takatsugu Muramatsu’s score is a fine work that already stands as one of the
year’s best to date.
Ultimately,
though, the film does not reach the same heights Yonebayashi’s first two works
achieved. Arrietty was a small and rather downplayed tale, but filled to the
brim with the poignant, nostalgic sadness of memories, and of friendships the
trials of life forced apart. When Marne Was There managed to use a simple ghost story as a catalyst for
exploring childhood traumas of identity, abandonment, bullying, physical and mental
illness, and even sexuality, and revolved around a surprisingly effective
third-act twist; the more I think about it, the more convinced I become that it’s
one of the decade’s most underrated masterpieces.
As
pretty as it is, Mary and the Witch’s
Flower simply doesn’t have the resonant emotional depth of either of its predecessors,
although it does include an interesting sub-theme of animal cruelty and how
that inevitably doubles back to bite those who treat their fellow creatures cruelly. It’s a small lesson, but still an important
one. This is a sweet film, absolutely
lovely to look at, and a strong beachhead against those who would insist that
without its aging meisters, Japanese animation can never again reach the
heights it achieved in past decades.
Nonsense. This is merely the beginning of something
quite new, and possibly even better.
-Noah Franc
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