Director: Naoko Yamada Studio: Kyoto Animation Genre(s): Drama Rated: Not Rated |
When my therapist asks me what haunts me the most I tell her
it is the choices I made as a kid that I wish I could take back. There is an unpleasant truth in that as kids
we are, naïve, brave, and optimistic. We
are learning life as we go along but we feel we are invincible. We all have that day where we truly realize
we have done something wrong. We have
that moment where we understand just how cruel we can truly be. That day of our lives and that moment in time
sinks into us and never leaves. It will
change the way we interact with the world and how we understand it. “A Silent Voice” voice follows a young man
who once bullied a deaf girl when he was in middle school because he thought
people found it funny and it made him popular, only for him to discover people
hated him for it, and realize that the very person he bullied was doing her
best to protect him for this unpleasant reality.
There is only a brief amount of time where we witness the
school bullying before jumping forward to where the boy is now a man, and the
memories of his cruelness have stuck with him.
He decides to seek out the girl and try to be her friend, in hopes of amending
his past mistakes. When he walks through
the halls of school everyone has an X on their face, symbolizing how
disconnected he truly is with the world that surrounds him. At first, we think “A Silent Voice” is going
to be about redemption from a man who was once a bully but is now a good
guy. Life is not so simple though, and
neither is this movie. The film also
shows us the point of view of the deaf girl, who is secretly suicidal because
she feels her problems have been a burden on her family for a long time (and
sees no end in sight). Both have acquaintances
they have known since middle school, and there are scenes where they talk quite
frankly about how much different life could have been.
Is the fall out between friends the result of just one
boy? Was there a bigger problem of
shifting the blame and not sharing concerns when there was a time those
concerns could have been addressed? Can
anyone truly move on from their past mistakes, or is the reality that they are capable
of such terrible things in the first place just too much to bear? These are the theme of a movie that is bold
enough to ask the questions, tough enough not to back down on the hard answers,
and sensitive to know how to make them relatable. The most startling thing about “A Silent
Voice” is that it gets that none of its characters are evil. It understands that good people do terrible
things, and how the guilt of doing said things have a much wider effect on
their lives than we realize sometimes. Sometimes, the best thing we can do is
just apologize, which is something many of these people have difficulty doing.
The sad thing about “A Silent Voice” is that it is by every
definition one of the best films of the year.
It uses editing, acting, music, and visuals to help us fully understand
the people we are following. It is
directed with confidence by Naoko Yamada, joins fellow director Makoto Shinkai
in challenging the world with thoughtful, emotionally resonating movies that
are geared for smart people, that just happen to be animated, and give
audiences a fully mature experience without needing to result to the crass
humor American studios think audiences need when watching an adult animated
movie. What’s more, this is a movie that
tackles some subject most live action directors would not dream of tackling,
and does so in a way that leaves a mark on your heart. It’s just a shame that it is animated because,
like the title suggests, it will blow through theaters like a whisper and many
will never know it was there. We should reflect
on this sad truth, but few probably will with “Thor: Ragnarok” playing next
door.
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| CONSUMER ADVICE |
Parents, there are multiple scenes of bullying and at least one major story twist involving attempted suicide. Not a movie that kids should watch a alone, but one that would be good to watch together. Recommended for ages 8 and up.
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