Koe no Katachi is a brilliantly crafted tale of redemption, forgiveness, friendship, coming to terms with yourself and most of all, communication. Communication is important. We communicate with our hands, mouths, bodies and anyway we can really. It's something we take for granted, being able to effortlessly communicate with our family and friends on a day to day basis. However, it is not something that everyone finds easy to do. Mental limitations such as social anxiety or physical impairments like deafness can reduce ones ability to communicate effectively. Koe no Katachi is a film that centers around this idea of communication, the struggles of it
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and also the triumphs. The idea of being able to get your thoughts and feeling across despite your limitations. Communication is important and Koe no Katachi aims to show us why.
I cannot over emphasize how well made this film is from a technical and emotional standpoint. Carrying on from Tamako Love Story, Yamada continues to show that she is a master of both grand visual storytelling, but also and more importantly, capturing the subtleties of human emotion. The production is stellar, easily some of KyoAni's best. There is a certain fireworks scene which is just simply breath-taking in every way possible aided by this stunningly surreal cut of, well.. fireworks! As a craft I have virtually no problems with this film whatsoever. Although I feel like the real strength of the visuals comes from this amazing way it conveys the more emotional parts of the story that can get admittedly a tad over dramatic at times, however Yamada effortlessly avoids falling into such pitfalls and casts a human and believable light over a majority of the events in the film. It's the saving grace from certain scenes becoming over bearing and ham-fisted.
As much as I loved the visual aspects of the movie, the part I found most compelling was that of the main character Ishida himself. For anyone that has gone through self-loathing, social anxiety, or isolation I think they'll find a kindred spirit in our protagonist. His character is so severely beat up and punished due to his past failures that his slow and painful redemption comes across as super sincere and very heart-warming as he slowly re-learns to open up to his peers again. It's a tragically real and despairing process that some teenagers unfortunately have to experience, but in this movie it is handled with such care and respect that I became especially fond of Ishida by the end of the movie despite his past. I especially love how his isolation was portrayed throughout, the use of X's being placed over characters faces clearly shows his rejection of others and as he forms bonds again it was incredibly satisfying to see the X's peel off. His mother also deserves a special shout-out for being the best mother of all time.
Shouko is our other main character and is arguably a more complex character both to figure out and to relate to as we are never really given her point of view on the happenings. Plus with being deaf and mostly mute throughout the film, a lot of her character comes across from the faces she makes and the body language she shows. As a victim of severe bullying it is clear that she wouldn't have escaped that incident unscathed, but despite the limits of being able to communicate we come to learn how troubled and hurt she really is, we learn her perspective and thought process through interactions with the likes of Ueno and Ishida. She's another deeply relatable and human character and it is between Shouko and Ishida where the film comes to life. Again, I have to give KyoAni credit for how they handled Shouko, they really brought her to life in every movement, smile and face she made. Special props to the VA too, can't imagine how difficult it would be to emulate a deaf person’s voice and it didn't feel off at all.
Our two main characters are essentially poor communicators in their own ways and where Koe no Katachi truly excels for me is how they focus in on these two people, show us in detail their struggles in which they face to express themselves clearly and also the relationship that is built between them as they slowly open up to each other, which, in turn allows them to learn how to better communicate because of it. It is real, it is gripping in its clumsiness and fortunately it is the huge focus of the movie.
The pacing is mostly excellent for a 13 volume manga condensed into a mere 2 hour film. Though there are a few flaws to do with both the story and some of the side characters because of this. I'll get to them now.
First of all, the side cast is huge and due to this, the friendship that is formed between most of the cast feels fake apart from a few exceptions such as Yuzuru, Nagatsuka and maybe Ueno. The rest feel like they're tagging along without much rhyme or reason and are sorely underdeveloped in general by the end of the film. Ironically enough, Ueno calls the group pretend-friends in jest towards the end of the movie and I couldn't help but agree with her. So a few scenes suffer from feeling a little shallow, such as the theme park scene and the bridge scene.
I say maybe Ueno because she is in fact a well-developed character, but she's also my second issue with the movie. Ueno does not redeem herself once throughout the movie, in terms of her own character this is fine, she is blunt, honest, straightforward and says what's on her mind without any care as to how the other person feels. Why is this a problem then? Well, I don't think she earns her place in the cast nor does she fit in with the themes that the movie is going for. I mean, for a film that focuses heavily on redemption and friendship Ueno doesn't do a single thing to earn those things for all the bullying she did to Shouko, in fact she only causes her more emotional trauma. There are slight hints of regret, her desire to make up with Ishida is clear and true but her personality clashes far too much with much of the cast to make the turn around at the end of the film feel believable. So to me, she ultimately feels out of place and comes across as a consistently annoying presence, conflict seems to be her only purpose in the film and she gets very little spotlight outside of that. It also leaves a bad taste in my mind as the idea of your former bully coming back into your life only to further emotionally abuse you and then be forgiven and accepted in the end is not a good message to give out imo.
Another thing I wanna say is how the film dealt with the other bullies that bullied both Shouko and Ishida. I wouldn't have to say anything if they never showed up again once they moved past the elementary school arc, but the film tries to very awkwardly shove one of the bullies back in for a short scene which I kind of get, cause it was meant to remind Ishida of the reality of his past and send him back into self-loathing. But after Ishida gets hurt, there is a brief implication that the bully saves him, what the hell is up with that? Was that really meant to be the story's attempt to redeem his character? It's such a brief scene, but it only takes away from the excellent character work that the film had being doing up until then. But like all of my issues with the movie, it is only a small, almost unnoticeable blemish compared to the big picture.
While the soundtrack wasn't exactly a spectacle or even the focus as it was more than happy to sit in the background of most scenes, I found it to be extremely effective. The use of slow atmospheric piano pieces greatly aided the visuals when they most needed it. Kensuke Ushio yet again shows his talents as a composer by providing sounds that adequately fit their purpose almost perfectly and while it doesn't have as many stand outs as his Ping Pong soundtrack, the effectiveness of his more minimlistic work found here cannot be taken away.
To me, Koe no Katachi was beautiful, funny, relatable, heart wrenching and ultimately a deeply life affirming movie. It deals with topics like suicide, self-hatred, anxiety and loneliness with surprising care and maturity. The slight flaws I found this film to have, while prevalent, do not detract from the overall experience as in the end this is very much Ishida's and Shouko's story, a wonderfully human story of how they learn to communicate with themselves, each other and the world around them and I would whole heartedly recommend it to anyone.
May 20, 2017
Koe no Katachi
(Anime)
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Koe no Katachi is a brilliantly crafted tale of redemption, forgiveness, friendship, coming to terms with yourself and most of all, communication. Communication is important. We communicate with our hands, mouths, bodies and anyway we can really. It's something we take for granted, being able to effortlessly communicate with our family and friends on a day to day basis. However, it is not something that everyone finds easy to do. Mental limitations such as social anxiety or physical impairments like deafness can reduce ones ability to communicate effectively. Koe no Katachi is a film that centers around this idea of communication, the struggles of it
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