Latest news with #Ochi
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
Forbes
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
‘The Legend Of Ochi' Cast And Director On A24's New Coming-Of-Age Fantasy Movie
'The Legend of Ochi' A24 'I have an allegiance towards the moral superiority of children, and the script was written from that perspective,' Isaiah Saxon told me during an interview ahead of the release of his feature film debut The Legend of Ochi. Right in the line of our favorite 80s coming-of-age movies, The Legend of Ochi takes place on the island of Carpathia, where Yuri, a young and shy girl played by Helena Zengel, befriends a wounded baby Ochi, an animal species feared and chased by her entire village. When discussing the misunderstandings and disagreements between the adults and the kids in the movie, Saxon said, 'Kids are just more open-minded, curious and often more alert to reality. Adults are often stuck in their own stories and patterns.' In The Legend of Ochi, Yuri indeed has a complicated and rocky relationship with her father, played by Willem Dafoe. As for her mother, Dasha, played by Emily Watson, she left when Yuri was little. Saxton cited Roald Dahl's novels as a source of inspiration for these characters. He said, 'Every adult in the Roald Dahl's stories and their dialogues are just manipulation and pathetic.' He added: 'He was also allied with the innocence and authenticity of kids.' Dafoe's character has a huge influence on the kids of the village and teaches them how to fight against the Ochi. He wears an armor and acts like a mean Peter Pan with his Lost Boys, orders the kids around and fills their heads with hatred against the Ochi. Willem Dafoe and Finn Wolfhard A24 Wolfhard's character, Petro, is on the other hand one of Yuri's only allies and even helps her escape her home in the middle of the night with the baby Ochi. In Yuri's bedroom, we can see a poster that says 'Destroy the Father' which is very telling of the relationship between Yuri and her father. Details like this one hidden on a set decor or even in a script can have a huge impact on an actor's performance. During the interview, I asked Zengel and Wolfhard if they remembered how these details helped them have a deeper understanding of their characters, or if a detail in particular stood out the most while reading the script. Wolfhard said, 'That's a great question! I read the script in 2020 but I remember just being really interested in my character's internal conflict, between being someone who's just like a normal kid, that just wants to express himself in some way by trying to be more like Yuri, more curious. But at the same time, he's caught between that and trying to be this sort of traditional masculine figure.' Wolfhard joked and added: 'Which is very fake, because you know, when you think of me, you think of 'Classic, masculine man!'. But I remember just really loving that in the script, I hadn't seen that in a while, so I was excited to have that sort of challenge.' 'The Legend of Ochi' A24 The precision of her character's description is especially what helped Academy Award nominee Emily Watson click right away with her character, Dasha, who now lives alone in the mountains, studying nature. Watson said, 'When I first read the script, instantly I thought 'This woman smells bad, she's messed up!' She's like a witch, there's something about her that's very knowledgable and true, she understands the science of these creatures, yet she kinds of missed the main thing, and her relationships are all completely dysfunctional. And she was married to a man who's essentially a child.' She added: 'When I read the description of her character 'The dash of her car is covered in litter, sweet wrappings and dead birds and there's a wooden hand on the stirring wheel,' I said, 'This smells interesting.'' Saxon's was determined to use puppets for the Ochi and not CGI. Zengel declared that six puppeteers were in charge of baby Ochi while she was interacting with him. She said, 'We wanted to really created a bond between the Ochi and Yuri and having it was almost like life to life, I was reacting to it with the different emotions, face expressions and the movement, it's a totally different experience. I was so excited.' 'The Legend of Ochi' A24 Their bond reaches new heights when Yuri realizes that she can speak the Ochi's language (which sounds a bit like a bird). I asked the director how writing the 'dialogues' between Ochi and Yuri also helped him get a new understanding of these characters. He said, 'They talk the Ochi language just a couple of times in the film, and the struggle is to just make it feel real, you know? Like what would be the common subject matter of these beings? What could they talk about?' He added: 'It's very physical and grounded in the universe, talking about bugs and dirt and trees and eating. Later when they start talking about feelings, it's not normally how you would write this type of scene, with a one word-dialogue. So the challenge was to see how much you can say with one word back and forth.'
Time of India
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
The Legend Of Ochi Movie Review: Reconciliation and myth collide in a slow-burning adventure
Story: Yuri, a young girl from a village living in constant fear of Ochis, mythical creatures, sets out to return a baby Ochi she finds injured. Along the way, she discovers her strength and strives for reconciliation between her community and the mythical beings. Review: It's tough to figure out if 'The Legend of Ochi' is aimed at children or adults, given the peculiar nature of the plot. On one hand, we see Willem Dafoe's character becoming violent towards the Ochis, mythical primate-like creatures, while on the other hand, his daughter, Yuri, forms a protective bond with a baby Ochi. This duality makes it hard to pinpoint the target audience, and in the end, the film becomes predictable and dull. While the stunning cinematography and the charming baby Ochi captivate at times, the film struggles with narrative depth. For most of its duration, nothing significant happens, and the film appeals only sporadically. Despite its captivating backdrop of the Carpathian Mountains, the plot fails to maintain a compelling rhythm, making it difficult to stay engaged. The story follows Yuri (Helena Zengel), a young girl raised in a tight-knit community in the isolated mountains of Carpathia. The people live in constant fear of the Ochi, elusive and dangerous creatures. Yuri's father, Maxim (Willem Dafoe), a strict man, has always warned her to avoid the Ochi, especially after the disappearance of her mother, believed to have been taken by the creatures. However, Yuri's world shifts when she discovers an injured baby Ochi in the forest. The bond between them grows, and Yuri even begins to understand the creature's language. Determined to return the baby to its family, she embarks on a journey. Along the way, she meets Dasha (Emily Watson), a herbalist with knowledge of the Ochi, who helps Yuri connect with the creatures and uncover their true nature. Yuri learns to challenge her community's fears and discovers her strength in striving for reconciliation between humans and the Ochi. Visually, 'The Legend of Ochi' is a standout. The cinematography captures the isolated beauty of Carpathia, with sweeping shots of mountains and dense forests. The setting, paired with the mystical Ochi, creates an atmosphere that could have made the film engaging. However, the film falters in its screenplay. The pacing is uneven, and much of the plot feels meandering and underdeveloped. The characters are not given enough depth, making it hard for viewers to form emotional connections. The balance between fantasy and drama is shaky, with the film failing to explore the potential of its premise fully. Despite the visuals and premise, the story feels thin and predictable, offering little originality. In terms of performances, Willem Dafoe brings a quiet menace to Maxim, the conservative father who invokes fear in his daughter and others. Emily Watson's brief appearance as Dasha is one of the film's highlights. Though her screen time is limited, Watson's portrayal brings a sense of wisdom and warmth. It's Helena Zengel's performance as Yuri that truly stands out. She delivers a natural, vulnerable performance that anchors the film with warmth and tenderness, providing much-needed emotional depth. 'The Legend of Ochi' had potential but falls short in key areas. While the film boasts stunning visuals and a few memorable performances, its underdeveloped plot and lack of emotional connection make it a missed opportunity. It doesn't quite live up to its potential, leaving viewers wishing for a more engaging narrative and sharper execution.
Yahoo
28-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
A Hollywood Anachronism That Still Holds Up
There's a legendary bit of movie-nerd lore that sums up Hollywood's shift away from using intricate little puppets. During preproduction on Jurassic Park, the stop-motion artist Phil Tippett was working to create animatronic dinosaurs—and then a visual-effects demo helped convince Steven Spielberg that CGI was ready to handle the assignment. After watching the digitally created reptiles himself, Tippett exclaimed, 'I think I'm extinct,' a paraphrase of which made it into the script. He adapted to the new world of special effects, but the glorious art of puppetry has largely passed into cinematic antiquity. That history makes The Legend of Ochi, a new film from A24, all the more distinctive. The writer-director Isaiah Saxon's feature debut recalls the furry, freaky children's media of yore—movies such as Gremlins and Batteries Not Included, which existed to both spook and delight younger audiences. Set in a fictional, secluded land of mountains and lakes, Ochi follows a plucky teen named Yuri (played by Helena Zengel), who's been raised by her father to fear and hunt the reclusive little beasties called ochi. While on an expedition, she comes across an injured baby ochi—a discovery that sends Yuri on an adventure that broadens her compassion and understanding. If the plot sounds like routine kids-entertainment fare, well, it is. The Legend of Ochi places the classic themes of growing up and learning not to blindly follow your parents' prejudices into a fantasy realm. The story makes use of other family-friendly tropes too: Yuri has a slightly eccentric dad (Willem Dafoe, playing to type) and a grumpy older brother (Finn Wolfhard). She also has an absent mom (Emily Watson) who left the family in part out of her exhaustion with their ochi-hunting mania. The viewer doesn't learn much else about life on this strange island, which visually evokes the '80s; there's a lot of puffy neon jackets and wood paneling, akin to the works Saxon seems to have drawn from. [Read: The last great year in film for kids and young adults] Ochi's dedication to capturing the spirit of its influences, however, is also the movie's greatest strength. The film comes alive anytime that Yuri is interacting with her little ochi friend, an animatronic puppet with big eyes, ears, and fangs. The critter reminded me most of Gizmo, the adorable star of Gremlins who eventually gives birth to the meaner, monstrous imps that wreak havoc. But the ochi have a wilder, less automatically whimsical vibe. Saxon never lets go of the notion that this sweet-faced pseudo-marsupial is a wild animal, all growls and moans—much more capable of biting through the skin than aiming a knowing smile at the camera. Zengel, giving an internal, light-on-dialogue performance, dials up the lonely Yuri's more primal side, making the bond between teen and creature a symbiotic one. While watching, I also found myself thinking of How to Train Your Dragon and its sequels: another set of fables about a teenager learning that monsters with teeth aren't automatically bad, no matter what your parents tell you. But the Dragon films actually are about raising a pet, learning how to tame them and win their love. As a blend of live-action moviemaking and practical magic, The Legend of Ochi has a more mythic quality, and even an experimental angle to it; Yuri comes to understand her companion's needs and quirks through intense trial and error, including a nasty bite that she initially believes could be responsible for her psychic connection with the ochi. Saxon's storytelling is weird and folky, yet it's tinged with something almost druidic too—as much as Yuri comes to love her companion, there's an air of spiritual danger to her meddling with their world and habitat. [Read: An agonizing love story, with puppets] All of the work done to make the ochi feel so tangible compensates for the film's less accomplished moments. The characters' impressive creation especially stands out in scenes that otherwise lean too heavily on hazy filters and digitally inserted backgrounds. (That Saxon had to clarify that no AI was used in the making of the movie is perhaps unsurprising; there's a glossy look to its environments, so much precious attention to detail that it becomes a bit overwhelming to take in.) CGI animals tend to have an anonymous sort of squishiness on-screen; no matter how great the tech gets, it can't overcome the fact that the actors are actually staring at a tennis ball. Every mechanical eyebrow twitch, however, convinces us that the ochi are living beings. Their halting growls and askance glances have a lifelike touch precisely because they're being puppeted by someone off-screen who's, well, alive. The sense of tactility calls to mind how this anachronistic way of creature-creation used to be the norm; it's the kind I'd love to see revived. Most Hollywood monsters aren't being rendered on this intimate scale, but there's a craftsmanship to Ochi that the bigger blockbusters could stand to reclaim. Article originally published at The Atlantic
Atlantic
28-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Atlantic
A Near-Extinct Style of Filmmaking, Revived
There's a legendary bit of movie-nerd lore that sums up Hollywood's shift away from using intricate little puppets. During preproduction on Jurassic Park, the stop-motion artist Phil Tippett was working to create animatronic dinosaurs—and then a visual-effects demo helped convince Steven Spielberg that CGI was ready to handle the assignment. After watching the digitally created reptiles himself, Tippett exclaimed, 'I think I'm extinct,' a paraphrase of which made it into the script. He adapted to the new world of special effects, but the glorious art of puppetry has largely passed into cinematic antiquity. That history makes The Legend of Ochi, a new film from A24, all the more distinctive. The writer-director Isaiah Saxon's feature debut recalls the furry, freaky children's media of yore—movies such as Gremlins and Batteries Not Included, which existed to both spook and delight younger audiences. Set in a fictional, secluded land of mountains and lakes, Ochi follows a plucky teen named Yuri (played by Helena Zengel), who's been raised by her father to fear and hunt the reclusive little beasties called ochi. While on an expedition, she comes across an injured baby ochi—a discovery that sends Yuri on an adventure that broadens her compassion and understanding. If the plot sounds like routine kids-entertainment fare, well, it is. The Legend of Ochi places the classic themes of growing up and learning not to blindly follow your parents' prejudices into a fantasy realm. The story makes use of other family-friendly tropes too: Yuri has a slightly eccentric dad (Willem Dafoe, playing to type) and a grumpy older brother (Finn Wolfhard). She also has an absent mom (Emily Watson) who left the family in part out of her exhaustion with their ochi-hunting mania. The viewer doesn't learn much else about life on this strange island, which visually evokes the '80s; there's a lot of puffy neon jackets and wood paneling, akin to the works Saxon seems to have drawn from. Ochi 's dedication to capturing the spirit of its influences, however, is also the movie's greatest strength. The film comes alive anytime that Yuri is interacting with her little ochi friend, an animatronic puppet with big eyes, ears, and fangs. The critter reminded me most of Gizmo, the adorable star of Gremlins who eventually gives birth to the meaner, monstrous imps that wreak havoc. But the ochi have a wilder, less automatically whimsical vibe. Saxon never lets go of the notion that this sweet-faced pseudo-marsupial is a wild animal, all growls and moans—much more capable of biting through the skin than aiming a knowing smile at the camera. Zengel, giving an internal, light-on-dialogue performance, dials up the lonely Yuri's more primal side, making the bond between teen and creature a symbiotic one. While watching, I also found myself thinking of How to Train Your Dragon and its sequels: another set of fables about a teenager learning that monsters with teeth aren't automatically bad, no matter what your parents tell you. But the Dragon films actually are about raising a pet, learning how to tame them and win their love. As a blend of live-action moviemaking and practical magic, The Legend of Ochi has a more mythic quality, and even an experimental angle to it; Yuri comes to understand her companion's needs and quirks through intense trial and error, including a nasty bite that she initially believes could be responsible for her psychic connection with the ochi. Saxon's storytelling is weird and folky, yet it's tinged with something almost druidic too—as much as Yuri comes to love her companion, there's an air of spiritual danger to her meddling with their world and habitat. All of the work done to make the ochi feel so tangible compensates for the film's less accomplished moments. The characters' impressive creation especially stands out in scenes that otherwise lean too heavily on hazy filters and digitally inserted backgrounds. (That Saxon had to clarify that no AI was used in the making of the movie is perhaps unsurprising; there's a glossy look to its environments, so much precious attention to detail that it becomes a bit overwhelming to take in.) CGI animals tend to have an anonymous sort of squishiness on-screen; no matter how great the tech gets, it can't overcome the fact that the actors are actually staring at a tennis ball. Every mechanical eyebrow twitch, however, convinces us that the ochi are living beings. Their halting growls and askance glances have a lifelike touch precisely because they're being puppeted by someone off-screen who's, well, alive. The sense of tactility calls to mind how this anachronistic way of creature-creation used to be the norm; it's the kind I'd love to see revived. Most Hollywood monsters aren't being rendered on this intimate scale, but there's a craftsmanship to Ochi that the bigger blockbusters could stand to reclaim.
