Latest news with #Carpathian
Metropolis Japan
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Metropolis Japan
Nosferatu Metropolis Japan Movie Review
A young, ambitious estate agent (Nicholas Hoult) ignores the superstitious locals' advice and enters Count Orlok's Carpathian castle, soon realizing his mistake. While waiting at home for his return in plague-ridden Wisborg, his lovely wife (Lily-Rose Depp) starts to have strange, psycho-sexual dreams about the creepy count, a being of pure evil that has become obsessed with the young is one for those who like their horror gothic. Very, very gothic. Writer/director Robert Eggers has nicely blended elements of Bram Stoker's original 1897 Dracula with F.W. Murnau's (unauthorized) 1922 silent-film adaptation and added his own inimical innovations in sumptuous Eggers's most effective decisions are in the casting. The vampire is brilliantly played by Bill Skarsgard, who's no stranger to creepy characters (he was the sewer-dwelling clown Pennywise in It). Egger regular Willem Dafoe demonstrates great range as an occult expert who steps in when the count arrives in Germany and starts making macabre the biggest takeaway is the stunning performance by Depp. She frequently manages to eclipse even Skarsgard, which is no easy manner. Jonny's kid was born to play this sensuous, physically demanding part. This is Egger's best film to date, and that's saying something. Remember this is the guy behind such viscerally ethereal films as The Witch, The Northman and The Lighthouse. If you're on his vibe, you have a major gothic treat in store. (132 min) Out in theatres now. Can't get enough of horror movies? Head to our articles 10 Japanese Horror Movies to Watch and The Top 10 Japanese Movies Of All Time to find your next watch.
The Hindu
04-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
‘The Legend of Ochi' movie review: Sweet, simple, stunning dive into the meaning of life
The Legend of Ochi, Isaiah Saxon's feature film debut, which he has also written, is a simple story, marvelously told with a breathtaking mix of location-shooting, puppetry, animatronics, computer animation and matte paintings. The fantasy film uses a whimsical palette to tell its tale of acceptance and family. Yuri (Helena Zengel) is a lonely girl living on a farm in the Carpathian Mountains with her father, Maxim (Willem Dafoe). Though Yuri misses her mother, Dasha (Emily Watson), Maxim insists she left them, and it is no use Yuri trying to find her. After his parents' death, Petro (Finn Wolfhard) also stays with them. Yuri has always been told to stay home at night, away from the Ochi, the vicious beasts of the jungle laying waste to people and livestock alike. Maxim trains the boys of the village to be clever hunters of the Ochi. When Yuri finds a baby Ochi with its leg in a trap, she decides to take it back to its people. Along the way, there are dangers and discoveries aplenty, including a bite getting infected. Maxim does not want to believe Yuri left of her own accord, preferring to believe she was taken by the Ochi and mounts a rescue for his daughter. The Legend of Ochi (English) Director: Isaiah Saxon Cast: Helena Zengel, Finn Wolfhard, Emily Watson, Willem Dafoe Runtime: 95 minutes Storyline: In the remote Carpathian highlands, terrorised by vicious beasts called the Ochi, a girl finds a baby Ochi and determines to get it home to its family Shot on location in Transylvania, The Legend of Ochi makes one want to grab a plane, hare it to the Apuseni Mountains, and count stars by the Bâlea Lake, a glacier lake in Central Romania. Dasha's cottage, which looks foreboding and enigmatic, proves to be a refuge for Yuri and the Ochi and also where she learns of her roots. As Maxim puts on his ridiculous helmet and armour, one thinks of Don Quixote and tilting against the windmills. Dafoe is a master at creating these damaged characters, with an altered sense of reality, while Watson is her competent self as the wise woman of the woods. Wolfhard does not have much to do except silently stand and absorb everything with his big, dark eyes. The visual effects and puppet work (seven performers worked on the baby Ochi) are outstanding. The sequence at the supermarket, out of which Yuri and the Ochi break out dramatically on a shopping trolley, is a fun one. The majestic mountains, the still lakes, the lonely sheep and solitary cars puttering away on narrow mountain roads all contribute to the fairytale feeling of a land time forgot. Saxon — who has directed music videos for Icelandic singer Björk and American rockers Grizzly Bear — uses music and silence effectively in The Legend of Ochi, making it that rare beast, a quiet children's film! The Legend of Ochi is currently running in theatres
NBC News
28-04-2025
- Entertainment
- NBC News
How did the creature from 'The Legend of Ochi' get so cute? Director Isaiah Saxon explains
The baby creature from 'The Legend of Ochi' has captured the internet's heart — just as its creators intended. Director Isaiah Saxon tells about how his ideas came to life for the ochi, the name of the wild beasts who live in the forests surrounding a remote village on the fictional island of Carpathia, where the family-friendly movie is set. 'The goal with designing the ochi was to create a realistic-feeling undiscovered primate species, so that a kid watching the film could wonder, 'Have I just not seen the BBC nature special yet on this animal?' Like, this feels like a real animal,' Saxon says. 'The Legend of Ochi,' out April 25, stars Helena Zengel alongside Finn Wolfhard, best known from his role as Mike Wheeler on 'Stranger Things.' When Zengel's character Yuri discovers a baby ochi who has been left behind, she's determined to do whatever it takes to get the adorable creature back to its pack. The pair go on an adventure through woodlands, waters and even a grocery store, where the baby ochi quickly melts the hearts of the characters and viewers alike. Filmed in the Carpathian mountains of Romania, the film takes fantastical elements from its location — but the magic of the baby ochi is that it is a puppet, Wolfhard tells "I didn't see the ochi actually in action until I was on set, and the puppeteers showed me. Basically, they said, 'Do you want to meet him?' And I just looked at the puppet, and it looked up at me and blinked and had head movements,' Wolfhard said. 'It was like a truly real creature.' There are complicated mechanics behind bringing the ochi to life, Wolfhard says, but it all comes together to make the ochi appear like a real-life animal. 'The ochi had a whole team of people, and all the puppeteers are actors because they are all trying to get a very specific performance out of the ochi,' Wolfhard says. 'It was six people piloting one creature, as opposed to just one actor, but they were such amazing performers. That's why I like working with practical effects — it's so fun because you have that human connection with it.' Saxon says inspiration for the gremlins came in part from his longtime obsession with Chinese golden snub-nosed monkeys. He also took elements from lemurs, tarsiers and other primates for the look of the ochi, while borrowing from birdsong and the noises dolphins make for the language the animals use in the film. 'It wasn't looking to movie creatures or mythical creatures. It was looking to nature,' he says. 'I really wanted to pull from the wide variety of superpowers that you do find in nature, and real patterns in zoology, and put them into one fictional animal.' The cuteness factor for the baby ochi was important from the start, Saxon says. After drafting up several drawings of what the ochi would look like for the film, Saxon says he reached out to John Nolan Studios in London to create animatronics for the creatures. 'They made a prototype that was completely furless and had no facial movement, but immediately, the five puppeteers brought it to life, it was just completely convincing that this was a real being,' Saxon recalls. 'It was absolutely adorable from the break.' Saxon says designing the baby ochi as a puppet adds characteristics that play into how lovable the creature becomes throughout the film. 'A lot of the little imperfections that you might see in a baby primate trying to move learn how to move their own body, those are the types of little things that come through in rod puppeteering,' he says. 'So it had that vulnerability from the beginning, from the puppetry.' Once the crew was on set filming in Romania, 'there was a tremendous amount of effort in just like, policing his cuteness,' Saxon says of the baby ochi. He joked about a 'last-minute rhinoplasty' to make the baby's nose cuter after realizing it wasn't quite right, and other situations on set to ensure the creature had the look he was going for. The film, which launched in theaters in New York City and Los Angeles on April 17, is headed to theaters nationwide on April 25. But the hype for the charm of the baby ochi is only just beginning, as viewers start to react to the gremlin on social media. 'I just watched THE LEGEND OF OCHI and I want everyone to know that I would die for this little guy,' one user posted on X. 'I completely adored THE LEGEND OF OCHI. It pulls inspiration from Amblin movies like E.T., Jim Henson's classics, and even Ghibli, but still takes tons of *weird* swings that create its own identity full of wonder,' another X user wrote. 'They literally don't make family adventures like this anymore.' 'Just like 'E.T.' was for so many of my generation I hope there's a kid out there whose new favorite movie is THE LEGEND OF OCHI and it inspires them to become a filmmaker,' another X user posted. 'Lovely movie.' Another X user said: 'The Legend of Ochi is a wholesome fantasy adventure. It has really beautiful puppetry and practical effects that really make the Ochi come to life. You love every second baby Ochi is on screen. The world feels very beautiful and unique.' Others, understandably, were just reacting to finding out how adorable the baby ochi is. 'How have I not heard about this darling baby Ochi until today?' a user wrote on X, adding a teary-eyed emoji and two heart-eye emoji. 'In love with this little guy,' another X user said with a heart-eyed emoji. 'can't wait to see the movie!' 'Omg he's perfect,' another replied on X to a photo of the baby ochi puppet wearing a baseball cap. A24, the film's distributor, also joined in on the fun, posting a photo of the baby ochi with its arms raised with the caption, 'When you find out The Legend of Ochi isn't nationwide until next Friday but you need that little guy right now.' 'The Legend of Ochi' debuted in theatres on April 25.
BBC News
22-04-2025
- Science
- BBC News
Cornwall-born lynx kitten prepares for rewilding journey
A nine-month-old Carpathian lynx born at Newquay Zoo is starting her journey to be resettled into the wild, keepers female cub, the first UK-bred lynx to join the initiative, was due to enter a week-long quarantine next week before her transfer to Germany at the end of the month, staff quarantine, the lynx will move to Zoo Karlsruhe in Germany, where she will undergo specialised training in hunting and survival skills within a semi-wild environment under the auspices of Europe's Linking Lynx programme. Her release into the wild was anticipated for autumn, contingent on her progress, the zoo said. Dr Kathy Baker, research officer for the zoo's owners, the Wild Planet Trust, said: "This demonstrates how even smaller facilities like Newquay Zoo can make substantial contributions to international conservation initiatives. "We've planned every detail to give her the best chance of thriving in the wild."While the cub prepares for her journey, her parents, Kicsi and Onyx, remain on at Newquay Zoo and people can follow the lynx's progress on the zoo's social media channels.
Los Angeles Times
18-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
‘The Legend of Ochi' supplies creature comforts, tactile fantasy and a touch too much effort
Getting swept away by a fantasy world is one of moviegoing's more rarefied pleasures, disbelief dissolving as readily as a pill on the tongue. That makes achieving it a tricky endeavor. Count first-time feature director Isaiah Saxon among the more hardworking and dedicated magicians to attempt it of late with his mist-laden cryptozoological fable 'The Legend of Ochi,' a wade in the waters of Miyazaki and Spielberg (that is, the Spielberg of 'E.T.' and 'Gremlins,' mind you). A great deal of care — the handmade, digital and location kind — has gone into realizing this earnest, archly amusing tale of a brooding teenage girl bonding with a threatened furry forest creature. Indeed, figuring out where the rapturous, realistic Carpathian geography ends and the effects wizardry begins is something of a thankless (and, to be honest, buzzkilly) endeavor. At the same time, writer-director Saxon's own virtuosity, occasionally aggressive, eventually leaves our hopes for real emotions wanting, once we've become attuned to the dazzle. High in the mountains of their island community, Yuri (Helena Zengel) is the black sheep in her motherless family. A gentle soul with a barely disguised contempt for the hunting culture fostered by her warrior-fetishizing dad Maxim (a reliably grizzled Willem Dafoe) and silently accepted by her sensitive-looking older brother Petro (Finn Wolfhard), Yuri has been taught to fear what lies beyond their open farmland. But the true paranoia is saved for the mysterious, primate-like species called ochi, beasts that once again evade a nighttime hunt led by Yuri's father, ludicrously armor-accessorized like a cosplay centurion, leading a posse of rifle-wielding boys from the area. Her hilariously deadpan assessment of it all over the family meal the following night is a grumble: 'It's stupid.' Later, checking the bear traps, however, Yuri encounters a big-eared baby ochi cowering in a hole, its hind leg bloodied. Squirreling the creature home in her backpack, she assuages its hissing-and-squawking terror with some simple nursing, then decides the right thing to do is reunite her new friend with its family. That this sincere notion dovetails with an itch to vacate her dour, oppressive home only adds to her determination. The quest takes further dimensions when the pair's language barrier inexplicably collapses, followed by Yuri encountering her long-absent mother (a deliciously grimy and weathered Emily Watson), a solitary sheep-herder who's an ochi expert, it turns out. Like a lot of folk-fantasy movies grounded in recognizable reality, 'The Legend of Ochi' explains too much about its mythical critters — a job Watson is regrettably saddled with — when what's called for is a defter storytelling touch. Especially since we know where this quirky human-versus-beast showdown is headed in terms of ecological lessons about harmony between species and dramatic resolutions regarding the stubbornness of parents and children. A graduate of music videos, Saxon — like the Gondrys and Jonzes before him — excels at sheathing his yarn in idiosyncratic humor, atmosphere and technique. Burnished by Evan Prosofsky's painterly cinematography, 'The Legend of Ochi' is a beautiful case for the tactile spectacle of puppetry as maybe the most intimate enchantment tool. And yet, by film's end, we're left with smiling admiration for its peculiarity and artistry instead of a catharsis, because too much of 'The Legend of Ochi' feels like a presentation. Good actors are game pieces more than characters, settings are backdrops more than environments and David Longstreth's crescendo-packed orchestral score (like avant-garde John Williams in its best moments) too often feels insistent than convincing. It's a jewel box of a film, for sure, with a nice message inside, but losing yourself in its world is where it falls short.
