In a remote village on the island of Carpathia, a shy farm girl named Yuri is raised to fear an elusive animal species known as ochi. But when Yuri discovers a wounded baby ochi has been left behin...
In a rather depressing day and age where most movies either can’t settle on an identity or can’t make good on a predictable story without breaking it to pieces, “The Legend of Ochi” feels like a solid middle ground, a much better effort on A24’s part than what they did with Death of a Unicorn. Is that saying much though?
Maybe, maybe not.
Step right up, this is yet another adventure narrative regarding reuniting another lost loved one with its family and the girl embarking on that quest guaranteed to learn a different view of the world than the one she’s been forced into by her absentee parents: another modern day rendition on a tale literally as old as time. This is a charming if not inert throwback to other 80’s adventure films and its incredibly light on story, one where the visuals do most of the heavy lifting and where there is plot involved but the tactile structure and carefree momentum is detrimental enough to where any slight deviation or shape to the journey remain strictly as images and ideas — a context waiting for a text. Modest ambitions to one side, the familiar ground it treads never fully coalesces its dreamscape trappings into something to call its own but why else do they say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery?
It’s designed to pay tribute to a kind of movie that rarely gets made anymore and subtleties be damned, if you loved 1980’s children entertainment, this is the closest time capsule back to that covered time period.
Highlighting the importance of communication and finding your voice are played out themes but still important ones that are almost too easy to mess up or squander…..and this is one squandered mainly through lack of dedication to flushing it out. As much as I appreciate the power behind reconciliation and how all parties must make an effort to come back together for a reunion to work, how they get there are only loosely threaded together. But hey, at least they actually do follow through on that and give it a natural conclusion as opposed to how they handled its other themes of industrialization and modernization. You can definitely tell the contrasts being made are supposed to draw on Studio Ghibli’s overarching on nature, environmentalism, and the relationship between humans and the natural world except for a really simple theme, it’s given a very shallow spotlight here that doesn’t even get a proper resolution. Not much about the topic deviates from what’s already been said about it however and the emotional relevance it’s supposed to bring just doesn’t follow through.
At least Mickey 17 pretended to give a shit about placing importance on the colonialism, exploitation of resources and the dangers of encountering unfamiliar lifeforms in a hostile environment.
I always seem to find my curiosity piqued when someone brings a music video style of directing over to the world of film. Isaiah Saxon harnesses that energy and weaponizes that charming, giddy modernist insight through both the concept and narrative style here with a decidedly old-school, sprightly hand…..at least, that’s what his direction seeks to mimic.
I love how retroactively old-school many of the visual flourishes are here. There are production designs out there more immersive than this but the manner in which the natural primordial beauty of Carpathia is harnessed and employed, it goes beyond achieving its primary function of enhancing the sense of whimsy and wonder to further render the rural, surrealistic setting. Matte paintings both cloak and inspirit the feral yet winsome landscape of this world, rich with a grandiose practicality bolstered by an Amblin-inspired atmosphere and the type of unfettered scope and scale you’d normally see in an Eastern European film; the other Romanian locations should’ve been a dead giveaway to me though. By following the ideal blueprints for an A24 sandbox with a few minor tweaks, the practicality of its landscape to painstakingly obsessive lengths does transport you to another plane of existence even if that illusion doesn’t entirely hold.
And trust me, it does waver from time to time.
What becomes readily apparent even from the first viewing is how this movies presentation and practical magic dwarfs and overshadows the narrative's apparent hurdles in nearly every conceivable aspect. Evan Prosofsky doesn’t make the most out of all his shots but the minimalistic approach to his cinematography supplies the wispy, spacious atmosphere for the entire adventure while the editing’s transition from one set piece to another with aplomb, coupled with the cinematography’s vibrant color palettes and whimsical visual flairs constantly dancing on the periphery of the frame or just slightly out of focus in the background, makes for a movie that is, if nothing else, consistently pretty to look at.
Pacing never once drags its feet despite the one and a half hour runtime, the tone tows that precarious balancing act between surrealist wonder and irregular disquietude, the use of diegetic and non-diegetic music is predictably lavish in its orchestrations and timbres, adding to the film’s warm ambiance even if it tends to get irritating after a few minutes and then there’s the visual effects, CGI, animatronics and puppetry, combined seamlessly to create a captivating and realistic assortment of creatures in the Ochi. Resembling a blend of Yoda and tree monkeys, the intricate detail in their design was remarkable, making each creature seem both lovable and lifelike, as if they might walk right off the screen.
Frankly, the most disheartening aspect beyond the so-so narrative is the acting; not terrible but hardly worth praising. Being the veteran performers they are, Willem Dafoe and Emily Watson hardly have to sleepwalk to extract the necessary gumption out of their roles to remain compelling; they’re the only two consistently entertaining here though. Our main star Helena Zengel only comes to life in brief spurts, Finn Wolfhard was drastically underutilized and everyone else almost feels strictly immaterial. If the characters they were assigned had more depth and the dialogue a lot less indecipherable, maybe I‘d be a wee bit more interested.
Look, in spite of its creative lulls, with these minor squabbles aside, it’s a decent break away from everything else being churned out of the bowels of Hollywood lately and even with the by-the-numbers approach masking some genuine flashes of brilliance, I don’t get any enjoyment out of picking this apart. Far from one of A24’s strongest entries but this still wasn’t half bad.
