Contemplative Weeb Reviews

Wolf Children

Art comforts the disturbed and disturbs the comforted and Ōkami Kodomo no Ame to Yuki or Wolf children did exactly that. It comforts and disturbs , it causes pain but also makes you feel truly happy. This movie is a masterpiece. The way it incites emotion is just indescribable but I'm going to attempt to describe it.

The movie follows Hana, a college student in Tokyo who lives alone. One day in college, she sees a boy, reaches out to him and they start dating. This is followed by the most beautiful, romantic and aesthetic montage of them 'dating'. It will make even the most cold hearted people (like me) want to 'fall in love'.
Eventually, the man reveals that he can transform into a wolf. He is a Japanese 'ookami' and his kind are extinct and he's the last of them. After this, they start living together and Hana gets pregnant and gives birth to a beautiful baby girl on a snowy day and she is named Yuki(snow in Japanese). And very soon she has a second child Ame, named after rain as he was born on a rainy day. On one such rainy day, Hana notices that her husband has not come home. She opens the door and sees that there are groceries and his wallet left. She takes her kids and walks around Tokyo until she notices her husband's body as a wolf in a canal...
This event is heartbreaking to watch, but immediately we see our protagonists, Hana realise that she now has to look after her two children who are 'ookami' all by herself and make them capable to live their lives.

This movie is narrated by Yuki in past tense. It shows us how self sacrificing Hana had to be and how much effort she had to put in to raise her children all alone. She had to give up on her education, the city she was living in and even any kind of social life in order to ensure the safety of her children. Through this movie, we see her figuring everything out slowly. We also see 2 children come into their being, in a way.  They're just children and do not really understand that being half a wolf is not normal or something that they need to control. They're just being themselves and existing without thinking. I think this demonstrates a child's innocence beautifully. Children don't know right from wrong, good from bad, selfish from selfless. They're just existing without having to think much or rather they can't think much and there is something so pure and beautiful in that and especially how they've shown it in the movie. We see Ame run to his mother to comfort any time and ask her to make it alright by simply patting his head and saying "daijobu, daijobu" and he feels better and I think that explains innocence.
Later in the movie, we see that it is Ame who chooses to leave the comfort of home and his mother and to go live as a wolf in the woods at the age of 10. I think this symbolises how maturity is not just about age. Now obviously, maturity is not just leaving home or self realisation but the knowledge of knowing who you are and what you want.
We also see, Yuki conform to societal norms and trying to be 'girly' because she wants to fit in and have friends. Now, this is an idea that I think is more often than not looked down upon. People say you should 'be yourself'. But what of being 'yourself' isn't making you happy?  What do you do then? In the end, 'yourself'is not absolute, personality and likes or dislikes are not concrete. People evolve and change due to influence and maybe, it's okay. Maybe you don't want to be weird, lonely or left out. Maybe acceptance is something you strive for, company is something you strive for and that's okay. You should not maybe try to be not 'yourself', but changing and evolving is not a crime but at the same time being 'yourself' and know what you want isn't either. I think the 'crime' is simply judging people for their choices. We evolve, grow and change constantly so it's okay.
Finally I would like to address the beautiful direction and transitions of this movie.
There are a couple of scenes which are so well done and which do such a good job of inciting emotions in you without dialogue.
The first one is where we see a shot from the outside of two classrooms where Yuki is always sitting on the first bench and Ame always on the last. This shows that she's loved by teachers and students alike and is 'fitting in' while Ame is not. He's just going to school as he has to. But what this shot does is so impressive
The second shot is where we see that it snows and Hana along with her kids Yuki and Ame just go an run around and have fun and this is just so beautiful because it just shows their relationship so beautifully. Ame and Yuki doing what they want under the watchful, protected and loving eye of their mother and are happy .