Mai Mai Miracle

B

Directed by Sunao Katabuchi

Hayao Miyazaki's longtime contributor Sunao Katabuchi's "Mai Mai Miracle" is a modest but pleasant animated tale that pays homage to the tutelage of Miyazaki while nevertheless showing glimpses of Katabuchi's particular and exciting talents.

"Mai Mai Miracle" takes place in a small Japanese village where young Shinko lives on a farm with her parents, grandparents, and younger sister. Shinko is a vivacious young girl who believes that her cowlick gives her magical powers. When a girl named Kiiko arrives at Shinko's elementary school, the two quickly become firends and embark on a series of adventures along with a group of classmates. Katabuchi's film also features the parralel story of a young princess named Nagiko Kiyahara who lived in the same village 1,000 years before.

Inevitably, Katabuchi's work will draw comparisons to Miyazaki's due to their previous collaboration and indeed Miyazaki's influence is all over Katabuchi's work, from the rural setting to the lush watercolor art to the magical realism of the storyline involving a pair of young girls coming of age. The tone of the film, hopeful and whimsical but tinged with melancholy, is also very similar to some of Miyazaki's work like "Ponyo" and "My Neighbor Totoro" although Katabuchi's work doesn't delve so heavily into fantasy as either those. Katabuchi does, however, depart somewhat radically from Miyazaki in his choice to include more adult subject matter in "Mai Mai Miracle" and includes such heavy themes as death and suicide at its core.

"Mai Mai Miracle" does not achieve the emotional depth that Miyazaki's better work does but then again few films, animated or otherwise, do so and placing the bar that high for Katabuchi's first effort is both unfair and counterproductive but, as I said, comparisons are inevitable. I think "Mai Mai Miracle" also suffers to some extent by offering a free flowing, rather unstructured plot that meanders greatly until well past the halfway mark. I don't think "Mai Mai Miracle" requires a particularly tight plot since the film is, above all else, about two girls trying to keep hold of their sense of wonder in a cynical world, but a little bit more structure wouldn't have hurt. It isn't a poor effort though and I am excited to see what else Katabuchi comes up with in the future.