Ringing Bell (1978) I've been teasing this one all day, and watching it I was thinking about how it plays to someone depending on what they know and expectations. If you went into it completely innocent and thinking it was a kids film, there's dialogue right at the beginning that sets this up as a Bambi experience. There are cute moments with the prancing lamb, but the threat of the wolf beyond the fence all but tells you this will contain some death. A quick loving scene between the lamb and his mom and you can easily figure out where the story is headed.
For a while, this was my problem. The film is only 46 minutes long, so there's no time to build the world or introduce characters. There's only enough time to focus on impending doom. So, if you go in cold you catch on quick and if you go in knowing what the film is really about everything is too stripped down for emotional resonance. The scene where wolf kills mom has a couple of interesting shots, but there's no real emotional gutting, no matter how much the baby lamb cries and wails. (And yeah, there's a brief moment here where I'm thinking, "why was I interested in watching this again?")
The stage is set for Tarantino's Bambi 2, but here is where things get very interesting, and Japanese in terms of questioning the path of revenge. The lamb directly confronts the wolf and asks to be trained to be a wolf and not a sheep (unsubtle metaphor). The wolf agrees, and a unique relationship forms between them that humanizes the wolf while it sharpens the sheep's anger. I'm stopping there, but I wanted to give you a flavor of what an interesting turn the story takes.
Tonally this is as consistent as a South Korean film, which is to say it's not and yet it kind of is. The brief cute moments don't match up with the Watership Down scenes of darkness and violence, but having them both in the same movie is such an interesting approach. Also, while the violence is harsh it isn't bloody, which makes it easier to take seriously and not dismiss it as being manipulative for cheap thrills.
Rating: * * * - Very GoodThere's a dubbed version on YouTube which I've read is terrible. I was able to find it with subtitles.