A coming-of-age story set in Beast Kingdom, which you can enter if you go down a particular alley in Tokyo. Mamoru Hosoda’s animation is a captivating reflection on fatherhood and the modern family.
Nine-year-old Ren is lonely. His mother passed away and he hasn’t heard from his father since his parents divorced. Refusing to live with his guardians, Ren escapes and is found on the streets of Tokyo by Kumatetsu, a beast that resembles a bear. Kumatetsu needs an apprentice to be able to become the ruler of the Beast Kingdom, but no one wants to learn from the rough and unsociable master of martial arts. The beast invites Ren to become his apprentice, although human children are forbidden to live in the netherworld. An exception is made for Ren—the Beast Kingdom’s grandmaster sees that Kumatetsu can teach the boy to be strong, while Ren can also help his teacher.
Traveling between worlds, coming of age, and family relationships are recurrent themes in the work of screenwriter and director Mamoru Hosoda. His Mirai explores sibling jealousy, Summer Wars is a study of family relationships in virtual reality, Belle looks at domestic violence against children, and Wolf Children explores child-parent relations. The Boy and the Beast is about Ren’s adoptive family of beasts as well as his actual human family. The main things that define a family in Hosoda’s world are a close relationship, freedom from prejudice, and the ability to support and protect one another.
The film will be screened in Japanese with Russian subtitles.
The Boy and the Beast
Director: Mamoru Hosoda
Japan, 2015. 119 min. 18+