It’s a bit difficult for me to be too critical of this movie, because I like it a lot. It’s an ambitious story that comes so very close to completely succeeding. But in listening to a few people’s takes on it and reading some others, I think they do point to some valid criticisms.
Story Form
To start, I want to point you to something called kishotenketsu. This is a story form. The word is a compound word, made up of four Japanese words that are for the four parts of the story form.
Ki—The intro. The story and the characters are introduced.
Sho—Story development. The characters live in their world, go about life.
Ten—A twist, turn, or something different. This incident changes things for the characters.
Ketsu—A new normal, life isn’t quite like it was before.
One thing I’ve seen about this story form is that it can be used to create stories where conflict isn’t necessary, meaning stories where there are no dragons to slay, no evil masterminds to knock from their thrones, no villains to bring to justice. Those kinds of things can be there, but they aren’t necessary. That’s also why I’m reluctant to call the “ketsu” part the resolution, because it may not really resolve anything.
I think this story form can be applied to Belle.
Ki—The main characters are introduced early on, though some of the introductions are subtle. We’re also introduced to the world, or rather, worlds, both the “real world” in Japan and the virtual world of U. We’re also told Suzu’s backstory, which explains the difficulties she’s going through. We meet her circle of friends and her father. Although the story begins in U, a lot of this early part focuses on the real world.
Toward the end, though, we’re in U with Belle holding a concert that is interrupted by the last two main characters; the Dragon and Justin.
Sho—A lot happens to Suzu in the real world, and to Belle in U. I don’t want to put too much spoiler material here, so I’ll just say that Suzu as herself and Suzu as Belle is put through some difficulties.
Ten—The question “Who is the Dragon?” takes a very dark turn, and it becomes about much more than satisfying a bit of curiosity, but about helping two people in a potentially dangerous situation. To hopefully win the Dragon’s trust, Suzu does something that in the context of U is very radical, and then does something maybe even more dangerous in the real world.
Ketsu—This would be the last few minutes. Suzu returns to her home town, and meets her father and her friends. Things have changed. Suzu isn’t a completely different person from what she was when the movie began, but she has changed a bit, she has grown.
Success
If I were to see the movie as being only about Suzu’s story, about her finally getting over her mother’s death, I could be very happy with this movie.
Suzu is a very likable character, and it’s easy to sympathize with her. She isn’t perfect; for example, she keeps her distance from her father for most of the movie, though the ending does promise that she might open up more to him. And I’ll admit, I’m not a fan of pop music, so sometimes her music as Belle isn’t to my taste.
But the movie tells Suzu’s story very well.
Failure
But the problem is, the movie isn’t just about Suzu.
Perhaps the movie’s most intense moment is the scene that ends when the boy Kei delivers his rage-filled “I’ll help you” speech. There have been hints that the real person behind the Dragon is hurting in some way, but this scene not only raises the stakes, but also changes the tone of the story, and “moves the goalpost”: can Suzu really help these two boys, or is all she can do is simply say “I’ll help you” without really being able to help at all?
And I don’t think it can be said that the movie showed her really helping end a bad situation.
In a way, that’s an unfair statement. So far as she could do anything, it could be said that she did what she could, and it would be up to others in positions of legal power to deal more thoroughly with this domestic abuse situation, which maybe they did off-camera. But I’ll admit it’s still unsatisfying that we aren’t really given much of a hint that at the least this legal process was begun, that at the least when Suzu left the boys they were being taken to a safer place to stay.
Conclusion
Belle is one of the better recent movies that I’ve seen. But it has its flaws. That doesn’t keep me from enjoying it, or keep me from recommending it very strongly.
