The Girl From the Other Side feels like a gentle breeze. There is a soft, melancholic reflectiveness to the simple animation that lends itself to personal reflection as we watch a beast protect a child, and the child protect the beast. The music is light, the characterizations are astute in its simplicity, and the journey is wrapped in melancholia. Directed by Yutaro Kubo and Satomi Maiya and based on the popular manga series, this is an animated film out of Japan that eschews the intricacies of its source material for a journey that uses simplicity to explore the complex interiority of its characters. It feels slight, but the emotional arc of this journey does eventually weave its way into our subconscious.
After an off-screen war displaces Shiva, a young girl, in a forest, Teacher, a man-turned-beast, finds her before the soldiers, and takes her back to his home. A day or two goes by. Then he decides to take her to a village with other people who may be able to look after her. Then we take one last trip with them. We learn about this curse that transforms humans, and the loneliness that accompanies it.
There isn’t much of a plot to speak of, with the film feeling aimless as it meanders around with these characters as they slowly form a bond that comes from companionship. The melancholic tone lends itself to accentuate the emotional perspective of this beast, and the way the innocence of a child displaced by war shows him his own soul and reminds this beast of the man he once was.
The animation is fascinating in its simplicity, modeled after picture books, with a stillness to the environment that lends itself to a quiet reflectiveness. This is a movie that wants the audience to think. Not necessarily about the movie itself, but about our own life and our own interiority as people. I found my mind getting lost in thought throughout the film, sometimes wandering away from the film altogether, but I always found my way back, which created a unique experience as I let the film wash over me while letting my brain find its own path into the material.
The design of Teacher and Shiva are simple, but what’s interesting about them is the way they’re shaded. As you are watching the movie, you’ll notice that the character design never allows either Shiva or Teacher to be still, even as they interact with a still environment, because they are drawn as if they are actively being shaded in. The lines within their body are constantly shifting from left to right and vice versa, creating this odd chaotic effect within the tranquility of a picture book. This shading is thematically relevant, speaking to the interiority of who they are and the internal struggles that they face. They can never be still, even as they are sitting, or even as they sleep. There is always constant motion within their bodies, like the flame of a flickering candle.
Movies usually aren’t made so your mind can wander away from the screen, but The Girl From the Other Side feels like it is asking you to daydream, and eventually you’ll catch back up with where the film is in its journey. In the process maybe you will gain a more intimate understanding of your own soul. This is a sad, melancholic film about the darkness of a lonely soul, but then it transforms into a hopeful elegy, ending on a beautiful note of self-acceptance. A moving work of art that lingers.
