Film Review: Modest Heroes

In 2014 when it was speculated that the legendary Japanese animation company, Studio Ghibli, was going shut down after Hayao Miyazaki made the announcement that he was going to retire. During this period of reshuffling and restructuring, Yoshiaki Nishimura and some other staff members founded Studio Ponoc, and released their first feature, Mary And The Witch’s Flower (which is great, by the way) in 2015. Thankfully, and unsurprisingly given his history, Miyazaki is not retiring and is currently working on Studio Ghibli’s next film, and after the success of Mary And The Witch’s Flower, Studio Ponoc will be continuing to create animated films as well.

Which leads us to Modest Heroes, which is quite different from what we’ve seen from this group, as the full title – Modest Heroes: Ponoc Short Films Theatre, Volume 1 – implies, it is meant to be the first in what will hopefully be a series of anthology films (at least, in the loosest sense) where different directors will create short films that are packaged together and released to theaters.

The film consists of three shorts, the first one is “Kanini & Kanino,” by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, the director of When Marnie Was There, and Mary And The Witch’s Flower. It’s the most fantastical of the three shorts, focusing on a family of small sea people. The titular characters are the young twins who find themselves left behind after their father is swept away by a storm. It’s the most simplistic of the shorts here, and it’s also something doesn’t seem to stretch the filmmaker’s narrative capabilities. However, it is elevated by stunning animation which mixes 2D and 3D; at one point, it almost seemed like they used real footage of a river in the background while the twins are running around in the foreground, and it manages to keep dialogue to an absolute minimum, seemingly to used for characters to call out names and such. The visual storytelling is on point, and it makes for a impressive experience.

The second short, “Life Ain’t Gonna Lose,” by Yoshiyuki Momose, an animator known for numerous Ghibli films, takes the near complete opposite approach of “Kanini & Kanino.” Gone are the bright, vibrant colors, the heavy black borders, and fantasy elements. Instead it’s a slice-of-life tale expressed in soft, warm colors, with animation that feels painted, which blur and often take on abstract strokes during intense movement. It’s somewhat similar to the style of The Tale Of The Princess Kaguya. It’s about a mother and her son, and the boy has a severe allergy to eggs. It follows their day to day routines, how they cope with his allergy, what they do when he has an allergy attack. It’s also fairly straight forward, but it manages to provide a lot of nuance with the two central characters, even in quiet moments, and it presents their love for each other in an endearing way. For some reason, I’ve always had a preference to the more grounded Ghibli films, and this one captures the warmth and empathy and charm that I often found in those films.

The final short is “Invisible,” by Akihiko Yamashita, another Ghibli animator, who is the only one here making a directorial debut, and this is easily my favorite of the three. It makes an immediate impression, as the world is presented in desaturated colors and gritty details, giving the film a cold, haunting feel. Then it blows you away by introducing the main character, who is an invisible man, as the animation tracks his moves and routines while maintaining the feeling that there is something physical where there is nothing. The logistics that went into designing each shot, making sure the glasses are in the right place, and that they take every movement and angle into account in astonishing, especially as things get intense in a big climactic sequence. Aside from the spectacle, it resonates as a story about loneliness, isolation, depression, and the desire to belong. It’s a stunning piece, and I really hope Yamashita gets to direct more in the future.

If you’re a fan of Studio Ghibli, and that circle of filmmakers, then I really don’t need to sell you on this. It provides everything you love about their films, and it does so with different voices and styles and techniques that take advantage of the medium of animation. While there is no framing device of any kind, the shorts are still tied together thematically, as they all follow characters who find the courage in themselves to face obstacles that may not seem epic, but are the sort of personal hurdles that many people can relate to in some degree. The shorts are increasingly better and more interesting, and the animation is, obviously, wonderful. It shows that Studio Ponoc doesn’t need to worry about being the shadow of Studio Ghibli, as they clearly have what it takes to create a legacy of their own.