elody.klocko - 2014-10-13 06:48:29

Mari Iyagi - A story about letting go and moving on

So I watched this little Korean animation film called “My Beautiful Girl Mari” and was I surprised. It is probably one of the most beautifully created animated films. The movie doesn’t have to do with violence or hate, it just has to do with the tale of two boyhood friends that are about to be separated. As time goes on and they are about to just be separated and they see that their lives are changing rapidly. But in the midst of it, they find a fantasy world, which resonates with both of the boys’ insecurities and loneliness as they learn to carefully move on with life by letting go.

Now from the scenes you are seeing as I am talking in this review, you might be seeing something that is very peculiar about this film. Yes, the animation. This animation which was done in 2002 is very simple yet wholly done. It doesn’t stick to the conventional animation styles from the U.S. or Japan. They don’t have the silly and cartoonish art styles from the U.S. or the very try hard and moe styles from Japan. The animation just looks simple and complex enough to show the emotions of the character. Its art style was done by using computer animation, yet using traditional hand drawn animation to create beautiful images which goes inside the protagonist’s mind.  The subtlety of the animation is something I have never seen before.

The movie is more about the ride than the destination, so I know that the spoilers don’t really matter, but I’ll put it there anyway. But be sure to watch it. 

[Spoiler Alert] 

The only thing you can really feel in this movie are warm thoughts as you see inside the boy’s life. As the story shows every character there is, such as the caring mother, mother’s boyfriend, his pet cat Yo, his old grandmother, and his friend Jun-ho you begin to realize that they are all at a turning point in their lives. Her mother began to date after her husband’s death. Her grandmother is starting to dying of old age tries to aid the ones who will be soon left behind. The boy, Nam-woo are feeling more insecure as time goes on. The insecurity of loneliness because his father died, thus leaving him behind. Not to mention that he fears that his mother will forget about his father and himself after her relationship with the man beings to develop; and the upcoming departure of his best friend as their lives of adulthood begins as time passes. 

Nam-woo in all of this sadness such as loneliness tries to find some way of enduring and possibly moving on with being left behind. Like many children alike, he creates a fantasy world  with an angel-like animal girl to cope with it, which represents the enduring bonds of his friends and family. But with a reality check, his fantasies begin to slowly blur away as his loved ones will slowly fade away like the fantasy. Within that he learns to let go and move on, despite the fact that he doesn’t want things to change as the loved ones will still be there. 

This theme of loneliness and moving on is something all of us in our lives have or had to deal with. His loneliness and refusal of closeness with others by fear of abandonment is something many kids his age experience and later endure as grown ups. We may refuse to move on with things such as possessions and people and let them go. The main character Nam-woo represents it in such a fashion that that so realistic and harsh way. This movie tackles those themes in mature and realistic way. There is no such thing as a happy ending with a compromise nor sad absolutions. No, this world gives us options and questions to figure it our for ourselves to decide what is truly right and whether we will move on or refuse. 

[Spoiler gone]

Something that surprised me about this show is that, it doesn’t have any forced drama nor does it pander to the audience like Clannad. It’s not truly depressing like the King of Pigs or The Fake, which some junkies crave and like. It’s just a very soothing experience, which I’m sure that everyone has experienced before in their lives. Really the only gripe I had about this animation was its animation where the ‘camera’ was moving side to side and it looked laggy, but other than that everything else was great. 

My beautiful girl mari is wonderfully crafted, but I do understand why some people might not like this movie. It’s slow and ambiguous. Sometimes, people can not understand that life itself is slow and ambiguous. The director and writers achieved a realistic notion of loneliness, but people can only understand straight forward shows. The non-linear openness is something I find to be truly exquisite compared to the Japanese b-porno movies. 

This movie does almost everything correctly in terms of its beautiful animation, score, themes, and something to think about after we watch this piece of art. This is truly something meaningful in animation. A very underrated animation, which is something everyone should watch at least once.

I give it a 9/10.