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LU OVER THE WALL
Director: Masaaki Yuasa Cast: The voices of Shôta Shimoda, Sôma Saitô, Minako Kotobuki, Shizuka Itô, Kanon Tani MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 1:52 Release Date: 5/11/18 (limited) |
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Capsule review by Mark Dujsik | May 10, 2018 This bizarre animated movie from Japan is part fantasy, part pop musical, part coming-of-age story, part tale of an interspecies friendship that borders on romance, and, mostly, really quite strange. Lu Over the Wall does embrace its strangeness, from its concoction of a story to its animation style, but that only prevents it from becoming too off-putting. The story involves a teenage boy named Kai (voice of Shôta Shimoda) who secretly creates music. A pair of other teens are looking for a new band member and enlist the uncertain Kai. While rehearsing on an island off the shore of the town, Kai encounters Lu (voice of Kanon Tani), a mermaid who likes everyone and everything but really, really loves music. Eventually, Lu helps the band with their music, becomes an online sensation, and is the impetus for a lot of renewed distrust and fear of merfolk within the local population. The screenplay by Reiko Yoshida and director Masaaki Yuasa is all over the place. We're never quite certain what the goal here is, beyond giving us an assortment of weird sights and happenings. Lu is a sweet, innocent character who can control water, turning it into isolated blocks that rise in the air, and also create other merfolk with a single bite from her sharp, pointy teeth. She proves this by turning a kennel-ful of stray dogs into "merpuppies." Lu's fin can also transform into legs when music plays, allowing her and coercing others to dance. The motions here feel unnatural, especially in the way that the animators have warped the perspective of various limbs, which change sizes with their movements. A general cuteness is the name of the movie's game—at least up until a point. The third act is devoted to some kidnapping, Lu's giant whale shark of a father becoming enraged, and a progressively destructive natural disaster. It's dark in a way at which the rest of the movie doesn't even hint, and whatever real-world concerns the movie may be trying to address with its climax are lost amidst the movie's hectic nature and vague mythology. Lu Over the Wall is an at-times pleasant oddity, but its charms dissipate once it becomes clear that there's nothing beneath its odd surface. Copyright © 2018 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
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(for some peril and thematic elements)
