Chirin no suzu

Watching this several times as a child was quite the experience 15 years ago, and now that I've found it again it still has a film experience like few others. If risky, it's a great display of morals and life lessons recommended for family viewing with young kids. While it still holds up as an adult, I was fortunate to have learned from it many times over years ago. Trying to find it today is hard enough . . . but believe me it is well worth it no matter what the age. Anime fans especially will find this a great entry to Masami Hata's filmography. With impressive art work and unique designs, "Chirin No Suzu" represents a worthwhile experience. While some of the lyrical songs are not so hot when recorded in English, the musical score is nevertheless captivating. But even the voice acting is far better than much released today. Unfortunately is went out of print in the mid-1980s from RCA Columbia Home Video, and has not received any new format release to my knowledge, at least in the US. Look hard for it and you will be quite satisfied! It's an artful, intense, enjoyable, and important landmark in Japanese animation.

A story about life and death and the lessons from it as well which also can cause devastating consequences.

*** SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS***

I own this wonderful movie, one film of many that I am proud of. Basically, the plot of the film short is based on a baby lamb named Chirin, a playful and curious lamb who goes just beyond the safe boundaries of the paddock fence he lives in one day and is scolded by his mother. He also wears a bell around his neck to keep him out of danger. (Think "Bambi") Well, one night the wolf that Chirin's mother kept warning him about that lives on the mountain outside the fence comes to their farm and invades the barn in which they live. (There are many sheep, not just Chirin and his mother) The wolf comes to the farm occasionally for a feast of lamb, and when he's about to pounce on and devour Chirin, his mother jumps over him to protect him. She dies. Then, Chirin, fueled by rage of his mother's death, leaves the farm in search of the wolf. He pursues the wolf, determined to be stronger in order to strike down the wolf that had killed his mother. (Yes, the very wolf Chirin wants to have train him, he also wants to kill.) Well, years pass, Chirin grows up to be a merciless killer with the wolf at his side. As partners, they ravage the land and kill all that stand in their way. As a last lesson the wolf teaches Chirin, he takes him back to the very place he had left years before to go join the wolf. He begins as if he is fearless of the thought of killing his own kind but, sees a lamb and he remembers his childhood and refuses to do it. The wolf heads in toward the barn to do it for him but, Chirin won't let him kill his past life. He charges the wolf one last time, and runs him through with his dagger-like horns. Then, even after slaying the wolf the sheep are too afraid of him to let him live with them. They lock him out and finally he realizes that without the wolf now, he is completely alone. He leaves, and later the sheep claim to hear the bell Chirin wore as a child to protect him from danger, ringing quietly in a raging blizzard. The End. It's a bit depressing but, most children would probably be too young to understand the deeper concepts the movie displays. All in all, the movie is really very good, enjoy!

This movie is simply amazing! I can't even begin to describe the many emotions you feel while watching it.

Every time I watch this I never feel like I am watching an animated movie. This film is so powerful and gripping! The movie is about a young lamb who's mother is killed by a wolf. Chirin is devastated and goes out seeking the wolf; hell bent on getting revenge.

This film is dark and may not be for everyone. I must say that this is one of my favorite films and it is very touching while being sad at the same time.

Supposedly this film was made based to be a cautionary tale about Japanese children being sent off to war and never coming back. Thus the mother sheep telling Chirin never to leave beyond the farm gate. Leaving the farm only meant death.

A 2-D Japanese animation movie that tells the story of Chirin, a baby ram who wears a ringing bell and wants to become a wolf.

The first part of the movie is very bucolic, with Chirin is in the farm with his mother and all the sheep eating, playing and frolicking around. Chirin is the cutest thing ever. The second part of the film, in which Chirin trains to be like a wolf, is much darker in colors, sharper in lines, and darker in mood, but it is also more interesting.

The story has all the elements of traditional storytelling, in which Nature, family, social relationships, life and death are explored naturally and organically, and in which the children are expected to learn about them from an early age.

In fact, the movie is a terrific way to teach children that Nature and the natural order is what it is, despite its harshness, we like it or not, that Nature has its own logic, that you cannot change your nature without becoming lost and isolated -an outcast. It also shows that all natural creatures have a right to live, and that you cannot consider one good and the other bad, as even the bad ones have their reasons to behave the way they do. Finally, the movie shows that resentment can harm and ruin your life.

To modern standards and moronic treatment of children, this could be considered an adult movie. The thing is, no child is going to like the end and is going to cry through, but with the parents by his/her side, he/she will learn an important lesson in life.

The animation is simple but very cute, with an adorable drawing of Chirin and of all animals, except for the wolf and other fierce animals, which are, of course, ugly and frightening. What is more, the animation reminded me of Disney, old-Disney, especially of Bambi, to which Ringing Bell relates both in the drawing style and in the message conveyed.

The movie just lasts 47 minutes.