Yes, you can create your own avatar and become an overnight sensation but that comes with its own caveat.
Suzu logs in and becomes Belle she has anonymity on U and can sing without having her grief overwhelm her, but it’s just a band-aid, it’s not going to fix the problems she has in her real world, and how is she supposed to help someone else going through mental struggles if she won’t even confront her own? Hiding is a crutch, regardless of what’s its used for, and it’s the film beautiful climax and overall message that will resonate with audiences and generations to come, especially those who are maybe tired of the same re-telling’s of fairy tales past.īut it’s not just the twist on ‘Beauty and the Beast’ that the director does so well here Mamoru Hosoda has brilliantly brought the online world to life before in Summer Wars, but in BELLE it’s in a different way. But here Mamoru Hosoda challenges conceptions, asking why is Beast the only one hiding behind a mask? The ‘Belle’ avatar is just as much (if not more so) of a curse as the Beast. In a typical ‘Beauty and the Beast’ tale, the ‘Beauty’ of the story is the good girl, the only one who can see through the male’s rough exterior to the heart of gold within.
Not in a way that the film tries to show off how clever it is for tricking you, but for how it makes sense leading up to that point, yet we’ve been too distracted with our preconceptions to notice.Īnother thing that BELLE does that I really like is the concept of the heroine herself. But the reveal is an unexpected gut punch, which I won’t dare spoil, but it does play out extremely well.
Daylife the girl who leapt through time movie#
And this is where BELLE flips it the film plays with your expectations for the longest time, not just with pre-knowledge of the tale but also in how the movie plays out, with Belle and Dragon growing closer, just as Suzu and her high school crush Shinobu start spending more time together. The story is all about finding one’s inner beauty, and showing empathy to those different from you, but mostly when it comes to romantic love. Everyone knows the story: a Prince is turned into a Beast and must find true love to break his curse, a beautiful girl comes along and through one way or another is forced into his castle and the pair, together, find his inner beauty for her to fall in love with and turn the Beast back into a man. Not in the sense of shallow commentary on how fairy tales don’t have the same impact as they did before, but in a way that flips the script and expectation of the viewer. But this isn’t a case of a director retracing his steps to recapture the magic of his previous work, but more learning from his past and bringing together his greatest strengths into one new film, just as Suzu does with her avatar.īELLE is a twist on the ‘Beauty and the Beast’ story but for a modern age, a deconstruction for a new generation. If you’ve been following his filmography thus far, the film does feel like a continuation of his previous works in certain parts the world of U could comfortably sit next to the world of OZ from Summer Wars, the Dragon design looks like a member of the Beast Kingdom from The Boy and The Beast, and Mamoru Hosoda’s earliest work The Girl Who Leapt Through Time already explored themes of adolescence and love, just like BELLE. According to the director’s note, provided in the Cannes Festival booklet given out for its screening, BELLE was a film he always dreamed of creating, and finally felt able to do so, thanks to the success of his previous films. If it’s not obvious from the marketing, the trailers, or even the name ‘Belle’ meaning ‘Beauty’ in French, but also the name of a certain Disney Princess, BELLE is a ‘Beauty and the Beast’ type of story, re-imagined through the mind of Mamoru Hosoda. Suzu however feels drawn to him, and it’s their budding relationship that not only threatens the world of U as they know it, but Suzu’s real world too.
Belle becomes an internet sensation, but one concert of hers is interrupted by the mysterious Dragon, a beast who is accused of ruining the peace of U. Suzu creates the avatar ‘Belle’ and through the avatar, she feels she can finally sing again and let go of her grief temporarily. One day, however, she’s introduced to U, a very popular virtual world, where everyone can create an avatar that not only brings out the person’s inner strengths, but also allows them to become something that they’re not in the real world. Seventeen-year-old Suzu Naito used to love singing and writing songs, especially with her mother, but when her mum dies tragically trying to save another child from drowning, Suzu feels unable to sing, her grief overtaking her day-to-day life.
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