Little Amélie or the Character of Rain

Little Amelie or the Character of Rain is an unusual and deeply moving animated film based on an unlikely source. Amelie Nothomb is a Belgian novelist who wrote Metaphysiques des tubes, which in English was known as The Character of Rain. This work is a very short novel that is semi autobiographical. Semi, because this is not straight memory. It is an impression and a lesson, as much as it is anything else, except perhaps a plea or simple statement.

Courtesy GKids

Set between 1966 and 1969 in Kobe, Japan, the film tells the story of the first three years of Amelie Nothomb, the daughter of a Belgian diplomat. As the film begins, the child that will be known as Amelie is born. Roughly examined by a doctor, who declares the child “a vegetable” due to a lack of response, the child is nonetheless taken home and loved by her family. Inside the child, we see that she believes herself to be God.

When an earthquake awakens the child from her nonverbal state, and her grandmother arrives with a special treat, everything changes. Is this a true representation of what is happening? Or, is it a metaphor for the way we begin to become aware of ourselves and our surroundings? It may not matter. There is a greater truth here than mere facts.

This is a film that deals in emotions and philosophies more than anything else, and it is a film where tradition and modernity meet. Being set in Japan, after the Second World War, we also get a heavy dose of trauma from that conflict. In this way, the film acts as a bridge and an elegy. It is, mostly, one of the more unique animated films of the past two decades. How often is a child the center of a film that is not a comedy or a melodrama, and how often does that child character not grate on ones nerves?

Courtesy GKids

This film has a terrific visual style, reminiscent of painted children’s books, with a decidedly Asian influence. There is something of the scheme from Princess Kaguya, here, but also from Madeline.  One might, at times, sense bits of the essence of Garden of Words, and other such works. While the main character is a young Belgian child, the spirit of the film and the character, is very much Japanese. This includes the push and pull within and without, which forms the dramatic tension of the second half of the film.

If the film has a flaw, it is that it throws viewers right into a rather complex setup, but if one pays attention and lets the film tell its story in its way, there are marvels to behold. This is a film that knows what it is doing, and which explores the themes of birth, death, love, hate, tolerance, forgiveness, honor and community, in ways few works of art try tackling anymore. It is a film that wants you to think and to feel, which may not be for everyone.

Courtesy GKids

This is a work about family, and finding yourself. It is about discovery, empathy and compassion. Of working through trauma, and letting go. Learning to be whole, and what that requires. Is growth life or is each stage in our lives an entire process of birth, death and rebirth? It is these sorts of questions the film posits, leaving them to the viewer to take in. It is a brilliantly subtle work, at times, obvious only when it is required. It is a film you could imagine any of the fantasists appreciating, just as well as masters like Ozu and Mizoguchi. It is one of the year’s very best films.

Little Amélie or the Character of Rain is now playing in select theaters.