Little Amélie or The Character of Rain

While this may be a low concept story, the uniqueness of the animation makes this entertaining and even wholesome enough to watch. Not to mention, the deep yet simple relationship between Amelie and Nishio-san.

It's rare to find media about a toddler, and if they are, they often have to make the toddler act wise and mature beyond their years or they end up flat. While this is certainly true of Amelie, she does still have a childlike imagination and sulky petulance that grounds her.

My major issue is the third act. I feel like there was too much drama and doesn't really resolve anything nicely.

Overall though very cute, very wholesome feel-good story.

The landlady is angry with the maid because she betrays her country by loving Amelie. The landlady has been angry that her husband and son were killed in the war. The maid is sad for she lost her family in the A bomb catastrophe. May I ask , who started the war? Who victimized millions of Chinese over various massacres? Why Japanese insist that they were the victims and forgot what they did to victimize others? This film tells a story from an innocent child's eyes, beautiful Japan experience, yes, a fascination of western ppl towards eastern culture ,yes. But in all , it's a fairytale of a wealthy Belge family enjoy sometime in kansai mountain villa, only sentiments.

The film poetically and candidly explores the naive and universal gaze of childhood discoveries. It gently and magically captures the perspective of a three-year-old child, offering a dive into childhood where everything is wonderful. The filmmakers have successfully transformed the literary material of the novel into a visually captivating and emotionally rich work.

"Amélie and the Metaphysics of Tubes" is a personal and moving story that addresses themes such as identity formation, the preciousness of childhood memories, and the ability of wounds to heal over time. The film offers a dual perspective, both touching, sincere, and funny, through the childlike gaze of young Amélie and the profound discourse of the future author she will become.

In summary, "Amélie and the Metaphysics of Tubes" is a splendid animated film that captures the essence of childhood with poetry and sensitivity. It tells the story of a little girl who discovers the world and transforms, offering a touching and captivating work that celebrates the magic of childhood.

The animation is very nice, and it's a cute little autobiographical story, although one can wonder just how much detail could the author actually remember from the first three years of her life.

However, given the original title, which literally translates as "The Metaphysics of Tubes" and talk about God in the beginning, I was expecting something very different and can't help thinking that her book and subsequent movie have been way overmarketed. The translators probably saw this and toned-down the title to a more acceptable "Caracter of rain".

An animated coming of age film about a Belgian family who lives in Japan where a young little Amelie came to be. It practically shows her development as seen over a her own perspective - while she mythologize her origin story for a lack of better word.

Interesting way to present a kid's perspective. I personally think that it comes a bit too much at times especially it posits it's a child POV of her world. Like ok, she either gonna be narcissist if she thinks this way - literally the center of the world. But as time progresses, it does drop down into this more realistic viewpoint of her crumbling identity. It patterns her sense of knowingness with the story she tells.

Though, it really hits certain levels of interesting topics like the rising racial clash that is also being more present in current Japan. In addition, that weird subset of the immigrant experience. They were Belgians in Japan and they are growing this sense of Nationality. It grazes it.

Ultimately, It just lacks that x-factor. It's one of those technically good films but it never left a great impression. It tries to be expansive but it feels too juvenile without capturing that levels that I feel better films of this genre had. It works as a child film but as an adult watching it felt like it lacks that certain bent that I wish it had. It's the same way for Turning Red. It works but it never left that child film genre.

Soft Recommendation.