After falling in love with an interloper, Hana the 19-year old finds out that this man is not a human but a wolf. Hana knowing the dark truth follows her heart and gets married to the “wolf man” who dies in an accident and Hana is left all alone on her own with their two children, half human and half werewolf.
Silence abounds; the wordless sequences are stunning. There are a few schmaltzy, sloppy-sappy moments, but the attention to Romantic-poetry detail is sublime. Rarely has maternity, or maturity, been shown with such poetic force on-screen.
The film towers over all the Hollywood animated films about ogres, monsters, and archfiends like Mount Everest over an ants' nest. Japanese animation at its pinnacle.
A stunningly beautiful, unabashedly sentimental, and surprisingly complex story that works as both a coming-of-age film and a study of the trials of being a single mother.
