Koe no Katachi ( A Silent Voice ) 聲の形
Can't play the video with my current internet signal but hopefully, this is the right one 😂. Anyway, this trailer is from Youtube in which Moviesclips INDIE allowed embedding.
A Silent Voice (Japanese: 聲の形, Hepburn: Koe no Katachi, lit. 'The Shape of Voice') is a 2016 Japanese animated drama film produced by Kyoto Animation, directed by Naoko Yamada and written by Reiko Yoshida, featuring character designs by Futoshi Nishiya and music by Kensuke Ushio.src
Warning: This post is full of spoilers 🤣 and very much contains my own opinion of the movie... also some nonsensical ramblings like that of a deranged person.
Can't remember how many times I have watched this masterpiece of animation so far but I have watched it again during my week-long isolation from the internet (and away from Hive, which did wonders to my skin by the way 😁).
Let's start with the main characters:
Shoya Ishida (石田 将也, Ishida Shōya ♂): This is the main protagonist.
Shoko Nishimiya (西宮 硝子, Nishimiya Shōko ♀): Now this person is the center of conflict for this magnificent story about hope, love, and redemption.
Now, the SPOILER:
The story revolves around an incident between Shoko (Sho-chan) and Shoya (Sho-kun) during their middle school years. Shoya is the typical delinquent... this is shown at the beginning of the movie with the music My Generation by The Who to emphasize this 'aspect' of him.
On a personal note: I am a delinquent myself during middle school... branded as a regular 'visitor' by my school's guidance counselor 😂.
Shoko on the other is a deaf-mute. During middle school, she was transferred to Shoya's school, specifically his classroom. Her 'circumstance' attracted 'annoyance' and indifference from the class, the worst of the bullies is our main protagonist Shoya.
I don't think I need to explain why being deaf-mute attracts 'annoyance' and indifference... just being different is more than enough for people to treat you differently, truth be told.
Anyway,
Karma is real (in my personal experience) and our protagonist went too far, causing physical harm and forcing her—Shoko to transfer school again.
Thus the bullying was exposed, and so, Shoya's (so-called) 'friends' pinpointed him as the mastermind. Being branded as a bully he was subjected to humiliation and was ostracized his entire middle school years. This left his personality in tatters, hampering his ability to communicate properly and look people in the eyes.
Bullying is a problem not just in school but also at workplaces... I know this first hand as it is prevalent in the shipping industry back in my early years. Now we have posters around the ship telling every sailor that 'bullying' is punishable by law... but it didn't entirely stop.
Now we have the story's main conflict or the driving force of the story. So how does the story resolves itself? How does Shoya redeems himself from being a bully? How does Shoko reacts looking at the face of the person that made her middle school life 'horrible'? What does the future hold for both of them?
Here are some hints:
- Shoya (now in high school) studied sign language
what for?
- So he could 'talk' to Shoko
And so the rest of the story unfold from here... you could either imagine it or watch. 😂
ACCOLADES
Screenshot taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Silent_Voice_(film)
The film opened at #2 at the Japanese box office behind Makoto Shinkai's Your Name, and grossed a total of ¥283 million from 200,000 admissions within two days of its premiere across 120 theaters.src
In China, the film grossed CN¥44.5 million ($6.7 million). It also grossed $310,407 in the United States and Canada, $110,552 in the United Kingdom, $437,577 in Bolivia, New Zealand, Paraguay, Spain, and Thailand, and $5,471,482 in other territories, bringing the film's worldwide total to approximately $33 million. src
It was the 19th highest-grossing film in Japan in 2016 and also the 10th highest-grossing Japanese film of the year in the country src
Makoto Shinkai, director of Your Name, called the film a "fantastic piece of work" and a "polished and grand production" which even he is unable to replicate src
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 95% based on 37 reviews, and an average rating of 7.61/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "As beautifully crafted as it is powerfully written, A Silent Voice looks at teen bullying from a soberingly hard-hitting perspective that's uncommon for the animated medium." src
Author's Notes
Did I say spoilers? 😂 I love the movie... this is me baiting people to watch it (of course watching it is your own decision). HAHAHAHA 🤣
I was actually planning to post a full hardcore NSFW but this kind of story interests me more. I am thinking of doing posts like this aside from my usual short story prompts and contest.
I wondered why in the movie it was named "the shape of voice" when the movie itself is named "koe no katachi". I can understand a bit of Japanese... so it felt like a really bad translation.
In the Philippines, the film was first televised on August 25, 2019, at 11:00 AM through ABS-CBN's digital subchannel, Asianovela Channel, with an encore at 9:00 PM. It was aired again on April 10, 2020 (Good Friday) and for this time, it was broadcast through ABS-CBN and its high-definition service as part of their Holy Week schedule, a month prior to its controversial franchise renewal and broadcast stoppage. src 🤣
Above is the hand sign for "See you later!" 😁
All links go to Wikipedia.org.
The pictures and the banner in this post were made or taken by myself, ©