UK Premiere / Feature – International
Showing @ Filmhouse 1, Sat 18 June @ 12:20 & Mon 20 June @ 19:45
On general release now @ cinemas near you.
Hiromasa Yonebayashi / Japan / 2010 / 94 min / Japanese with English subtitles
I can barely put something down without losing it moments later. People say I’m scatty, but the truth is there’s a much more exciting explanation: Borrowers.
You’d have to have grown up in a cave not to know anything about the Borrowers. Tiny people only 10cm tall, they live under the floorboards of typical human houses, borrowing (let’s not beat around the bush – they steal) the things they need for their own tiny homes and their threatened survival. Based on Mary Norton’s fantasy novels, the ‘little people’ have been the subject of numerous films and TV series, and are now making a comeback in this animation. This time the main focus is Arriety, a young teenage Borrower on her first mission to get some sugar and tissue when human boy Sho spots her. As the pair slowly become friends, the Borrowers face losing their home and their lives when they’re discovered by an unimpressed adult.
This is a great story for children, but equally enjoyable for adults. By pursuing a classic, timeless tale, the producers have cleverly broadened their potential audience as many will undoubtedly be drawn to the film because of the childhood memories it evokes. There’s also an absence of child-orientated clichés; the ending isn’t particularly ‘happy’ and the baddies don’t get their comeuppance. The animation is impressive, with a level of detail and realism that is usually absent from Western cartoons but very typical in Japanese. Not a single scene is given a blurry uniformity – even in the background – with beautiful scenes of flower-strewn grass and glistening water that catches the breath at times. The movements and expressions of the characters are incredibly expressive and funnily uncanny, removing a heavy reliance on dialogue. A huge amount of time and effort has clearly gone into producing this film, and as animation goes it is a visual feast for the eyes.