Suzu is a 17-year-old high-school student living in a rural town with her father. Wounded by the loss of her mother at a young age, Suzu one day discovers the massive online world "U" and dives into this alternate reality as her avatar, Belle. Before long, all of U's eyes are fixed on Belle, when, suddenly, a mysterious, dragon-like figure appears before her.
- Released: 2021-07-16
- Runtime: 122 minutes
- Genre: Animation, Drama
- Stars: Kaho Nakamura, Takeru Satoh, Tina Tamashiro, Shota Sometani, Lilas Ikuta, Ryo Narita, Toshiyuki Morikawa, Kenjiro Tsuda, Mami Koyama, Mamoru Miyano, Sachiyo Nakao, Fuyumi Sakamoto, Ryoko Moriyama, Yoshimi Iwasaki, Michiko Shimizu, Kōji Yakusho, ermhoi, Ken Ishiguro, Sumi Shimamoto, HANA, Mitsuru Miyamoto, Asami Miura, Taichi Masu
- Director: Mamoru Hosoda
Comments
- Blazehgehg - 1 February 2024
A lot of Belle, not enough Beast
There's something about Mamoru Hosoda's movies and the way he portrays virtual reality that feels so wondrous and magical. It's easy to get cynical about something like Ready Player One, but Hosoda's movies feel grand and beautiful and infinite in a way that's very captivating.
But they never lose sight of the human element, either. His movies always perfectly balance down-to-earth, real-world drama with the borderline-supernatural virtual spaces. And they're never entirely about what you think they are.
The problem with Belle is that, compared to some of Hosoda's movies, it's pretty sappy. This is sort of a riff on Beauty and the Beast, but the focus is more on Belle's rise to stardom. The relationship between the two leads feels a little underdeveloped as Belle starts to put herself in harm's way for someone we as the audience don't really know. It weakened the emotional impact of certain elements for me.
It makes for a movie that's still really good, but maybe not great. - sharnelperera - 22 March 2023
Decent, but main character is ANNOYING
Interesting story, a play on the classic Beauty and the Beast story. Belle's shyness is ridiculously over-acted to the point of being irritating. There is no need for her quivering, hyperventilating, screeching behaviour every 5 seconds. It becomes tiresome and distracts from the plot. Aside from this, the visuals are beautiful and the story is engaging. It's a shame that Suzu is just so unbearable to watch/listen to but at least the songs are ok. The best friend is the most watchable character, although even she loses the plot towards the end. Ugh, why can't female characters just be NORMAL?? - ArtsyBunny - 10 November 2022
Pretty visuals and songs, lacks everything else
It was very pretty but very all over the place, i feel like the creators tried to showcase visuals and had costumes and designs and songs ready before an actual plot and tried to make it meaningful on top of all that. I'm kinda dissapointed, i thought this was a great film from the visuals and the designs are pretty great even though the whole worldbuilding is very lacking. Overall i think it could've been a lot better if it was better built, it's clearly a scenario problem and the storyline is wonky. I'd still recommend because it's pretty but it definitely wasn't outstanding. A great shame. Great job to the artists though huge Job on that part. - emilyweiss-57288 - 5 September 2022
The Worst Way to Handle Abuse!!!
This film would have been the most gorgeous and eloquent movie I have ever seen. Stunning visuals, incredible soundtrack, this film really explodes with creativity and it would have remained a masterpiece if not for the horrible ending.
To put it in the simplest way possible, it is revealed towards the end of the film that the mysterious "Beast" and "Angel" characters are in fact a pair of young boys being severely abused by their father and use U as a way to escape from the reality of their situation. Suzu (Belle) and her friends find out where they live so they can save them, but Suzu alone confronts their abusive father and scares the man away by staring him down. The boys thank her for scaring him off and tell her they'll fight against him to free themselves, and the movie is shortly concluded with no knowledge of what happened to the young boys after that.
This is not only unrealistic but also a HIGHLY dangerous message to share about how to aid abuse victims. A young girl should NOT be sent alone to face off a proven to be highly dangerous situation, of which the reaction of the abuser is highly unlikely and would have most likely resulted in more harm if in a real world setting. There were already adults involved! Why didn't any of them go with her?
The movie also never gives a resolution to the two boys after Suzu leaves, just that they'll fight back. This is also an EXTREMELY DANGEROUS MESSAGE to send to abuse victims. Retaliating physically or verbally against abusers usually results in further harm and even death, and with no resolution given after Suzu leaves them alone with their father, these kids would have been in an even more dangerous situation than before!
This movie even has a very powerful speech about how people have only ever told the boys that they would help, always saying they'll take action but never doing anything to follow through, and with this film they ended up proving those words true. Suzu did nothing to help the boys' situation. Her words did not match her actions because if this was in a real world setting, she would have severely endangered them all, leading to more severe abuse and even death!
If anyone is ever in a position where they can help victims of abuse escape their abusers, it should only be performed with careful research on how to handle the situation and/or with highly trained professionals! Do not do what was shown in this film! - peytonmaddern - 10 August 2022
Randomly watched
Watched this with no prior knowledge and enjoyed it.
Had me tear up 2 times.
Also the vocals?? Damn.
Not a movie I'd play on repeat(as I do this sometimes), but the music definitely is!
A confidence booster and a great story with wonderfully made parallels throughout, go a long way-and this one did.
Great job writing! & I have taste and no credible, so I'd know.
