Lonely Castle in the Mirror (2022)
Directed by:
Keiichi Hara
Written by:
Miho Marou
Based on “Lonely Castle in the Mirror” by Mizuki Tsujimura
Licensed by GKIDS
Studio: A-1 Pictures
Runtime: 116 minutes
Released on December 23, 2022
Recently I have been on an anime movie kick, which caused me to randomly start selecting films from work (I work in a library now). This was one of the films that I randomly selected to see. Read more about why I am watching animated and anime related films in a previous post called “Autism and Me”.
I want to emphasize again what I said in the reason section that this was originally a random selection for a film to watch. I didn’t go into it at all because of any aspect of the film, but I am so glad that I watched this film. Have you ever watched a film and said after that it is exactly what your soul needed? This was that film for me.
The film centers largely on a female that gets invited to a castle with several other children. It is the finding out the stories behind each character that is so engaging. We see them going to the castle several times over the course of a year and by the end of this film, I was an emotional wreck. I was ugly sobbing and my partner was having to say that it would be okay. It was THAT DEEP by the end. It was such an emotional film. There are themes in this that one would not expect to be in it, but these themes are what made me have respect for this film.
The animation here is solid and never takes you out of the overall narrative. I find it important in animation to have smoother lines, unless you are doing experimental type of animation. This was obviously not trying to do that, so I appreciated that it was crisp and clear. There are so many questions regarding who each character is because of their hidden secret backstories, so it felt vital that the characters not be easily confused for each other. Each character has a distinct look and feel about them. I never questioned who was doing what because of poor choices by the animators. It added the necessary element to make this such a masterfully done animated feature.
We, in society, talk about needing trigger warnings things that may impact us emotionally. We want those things so we can avoid, but I think sometimes our bodies need that ugly cry. An element at the end of this film helped me to ugly cry out something from my own life. It allowed me to process it on a deeper level because I went into this film open to whatever it would involve. I didn’t see what the triggers would be for me. Yes, there are a few things that will definitely be potentially triggering from people. I won’t give them away because I think it is what makes this a powerful form of media. It needs those elements to push us to our emotional limits. It needs us to know that we are still human to make it the film that it is. I can’t say enough good things about this film and I highly recommend if you are able to find a copy to watch to devour this film.
There is a Japanese written book by Mizuki Tsujimura that this film is based on. I have it on my shelf to eventually read because I want to see how they compare to each other story wise.
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