Cute Devil

I somehow forgot this was Obayashi when I was about to put it on, but thank god it is.

Obsessed with this horribly windy wedding we start on, the shared resolve of all those present to not let the leaves and dirt flying around everywhere affect them. As the wind continues to rapidly pick up pace, the extent to which that inconvenience actually does bother them becomes more and more apparent. Oh, and also, the bride crashes through a window and dies in comic fashion, which has to be a really big downer.

Ryoko is the main character, but the Cute Devil in question is Alice, I suppose. Ryoko becomes convinced she has psychic powers that killed her boyfriend in Austria, and goes into a mental hospital. In an amazing case of psychiatric malpractice, she's released for regaining her senses for apparently the first time in three years, and she convalesces at.

I thought I recognized Ryoko's actress, and I made a funny sort of face when I realized that, after Suddenly, Like a Storm, my next film with this actress would also probably not end well at all. (Reporting in from the other side...the ending is actually comically grim. Maybe the next one I watch will have a happy ending.)

Alice's mother Keiko is also really wonderful, being obviously scared as shit of Alice to the point of hating her, but unwilling to admit to herself or anybody else that anything is happening. She steals some key scenes with her strange behavior and barely-disguised anxieties.

I like that this evil kid movie is about a kid that's really just selfish in the way kids can be. Her mom's inability to deal with everything happening is as much of a factor in how evil Alice is as anything else.

Of course, there's also an infinitely more sinister character than Alice, in the pervert from the boathouse.

For me, one of the standout scenes happens when Ryoko wakes up from a nightmare to find Alice hammering the heels of her shoes because the man from the shoe store said it helps them last a long time. There's something so off-putting about it, even though it's actually a perfectly innocent thing to do. Another standout is the finale after a somewhat lame exposition dump, when Alice puts her full creativity into repeatedly trying to kill Ryoko.

The film kind of flirts with the idea of the supernatural, but it's never completely clear if anyone actually does have psychic powers or not. Some of these various setups seem unlikely without the influence of psychic powers.

It's definitely not on the same level as a lot of Obayashi's other films, but there are some incredible shots in here that bring the rating up for me. Also, the novelty of seeing someone point out that a murdering child could probably benefit from psychiatric care was really nice.

"Mom, Aunt Fuyuko died...so I can have her veil, right?"

I somehow forgot this was Obayashi when I was about to put it on, but thank god it is.

Obsessed with this horribly windy wedding we start on, the shared resolve of all those present to not let the leaves and dirt flying around everywhere affect them. As the wind continues to rapidly pick up pace, the extent to which that inconvenience actually does bother them becomes more and more apparent. Oh, and also, the bride crashes through a window and dies in comic fashion, which has to be a really big downer.

Ryoko is the main character, but the Cute Devil in question is Alice, I suppose. Ryoko becomes convinced she has psychic powers that killed her boyfriend in Austria, and goes into a mental hospital. In an amazing case of psychiatric malpractice, she's released for regaining her senses for apparently the first time in three years, and she convalesces at.

I thought I recognized Ryoko's actress, and I made a funny sort of face when I realized that, after Suddenly, Like a Storm, my next film with this actress would also probably not end well at all. (Reporting in from the other side...the ending is actually comically grim. Maybe the next one I watch will have a happy ending.)

Alice's mother Keiko is also really wonderful, being obviously scared as shit of Alice to the point of hating her, but unwilling to admit to herself or anybody else that anything is happening. She steals some key scenes with her strange behavior and barely-disguised anxieties.

I like that this evil kid movie is about a kid that's really just selfish in the way kids can be. Her mom's inability to deal with everything happening is as much of a factor in how evil Alice is as anything else.

Of course, there's also an infinitely more sinister character than Alice, in the pervert from the boathouse.

For me, one of the standout scenes happens when Ryoko wakes up from a nightmare to find Alice hammering the heels of her shoes because the man from the shoe store said it helps them last a long time. There's something so off-putting about it, even though it's actually a perfectly innocent thing to do. Another standout is the finale after a somewhat lame exposition dump, when Alice puts her full creativity into repeatedly trying to kill Ryoko.

The film kind of flirts with the idea of the supernatural, but it's never completely clear if anyone actually does have psychic powers or not. Some of these various setups seem unlikely without the influence of psychic powers.

It's definitely not on the same level as a lot of Obayashi's other films, but there are some incredible shots in here that bring the rating up for me. Also, the novelty of seeing someone point out that a murdering child could probably benefit from psychiatric care was really nice.

"Mom, Aunt Fuyuko died...so I can have her veil, right?"