A deaf girl, Shoko, joins a new school and is immediately the target of the class bully, Shoya. This causes her to leave the school and him to become ostracised by his classmates. A few years pass and Shoya sets out to find Shoko and redeem himself.
A movie with some great themes: (anti-)bullying, treatment of people with disabilities, tolerance, friendship, forgiveness and redemption. My only worry before watching this was that these would be handled in a trite, moralistic, patronising manner. Turns out the morals of the story are handled reasonably sensitively and in a non-condescending way. There are other problems though.
It started quite well, showing the background to the issue between Shoko and Shoya, building an engagement with the characters and a degree of intrigue around how Shoya would resolve the issue. However, from a point the plot just drifts. By this time there's already a large degree of resolution to proceedings and it's as if the writer and director were just padding the script.
Some of the sub-plots they use to kill time are a bit silly and some of the characters introduced a bit irritating. I was then hoping for a final portion to the film that then regained focus and tied everything up but this didn't happen. While there are one or two emotional moments the film fizzles out, rather than ends on a high note.
A pity, as this had heaps of potential, was very well-meant and started very well.
A movie with some great themes: (anti-)bullying, treatment of people with disabilities, tolerance, friendship, forgiveness and redemption. My only worry before watching this was that these would be handled in a trite, moralistic, patronising manner. Turns out the morals of the story are handled reasonably sensitively and in a non-condescending way. There are other problems though.
It started quite well, showing the background to the issue between Shoko and Shoya, building an engagement with the characters and a degree of intrigue around how Shoya would resolve the issue. However, from a point the plot just drifts. By this time there's already a large degree of resolution to proceedings and it's as if the writer and director were just padding the script.
Some of the sub-plots they use to kill time are a bit silly and some of the characters introduced a bit irritating. I was then hoping for a final portion to the film that then regained focus and tied everything up but this didn't happen. While there are one or two emotional moments the film fizzles out, rather than ends on a high note.
A pity, as this had heaps of potential, was very well-meant and started very well.