08-05-2025, 04:52 PM
Knowing next to nothing about The Legend of Ochi I took a punt on it in an afternoon matinee.
As the lights dimmed, I realised I was the sole audience for this mysterious film.
As the credits rolled, I first felt a little sad because this visionary film deserves a wide audience and much acclaim but I also felt an emotional high that an independent film seemingly out of no where can still fully tap the cinema's intrinsic power to transport humans to a realm of otherness and personal inquiry.
Set in the spectral, raw and often jaw dropping beauty of the Carpathian mountains, this tale of an alienated teenage girl attempting to reunite a young fantastic beast (the eponymous Ochi ) with its reclusive clan seems to follow the familiar Campbellian Hero's Journey and while that is a valid reference point, writer/director Isaiah Saxon's project is far from slick, sentimental Hollywood fodder conjuring a subtle, bewitching spell that seems to have it's weirdly beautiful roots sunk deep in the dark soil of European fairy tale and folk traditions while remaining comftably contemporary.
The film also transcends earthy folk traditions to truly transcend into realms of thrilling symbolic strangeness with interesting subtexts on theme of communication and the chaos wrought by the breakdown of said.
This film is very strong. It is VERY cool.
As the lights dimmed, I realised I was the sole audience for this mysterious film.
As the credits rolled, I first felt a little sad because this visionary film deserves a wide audience and much acclaim but I also felt an emotional high that an independent film seemingly out of no where can still fully tap the cinema's intrinsic power to transport humans to a realm of otherness and personal inquiry.
Set in the spectral, raw and often jaw dropping beauty of the Carpathian mountains, this tale of an alienated teenage girl attempting to reunite a young fantastic beast (the eponymous Ochi ) with its reclusive clan seems to follow the familiar Campbellian Hero's Journey and while that is a valid reference point, writer/director Isaiah Saxon's project is far from slick, sentimental Hollywood fodder conjuring a subtle, bewitching spell that seems to have it's weirdly beautiful roots sunk deep in the dark soil of European fairy tale and folk traditions while remaining comftably contemporary.
The film also transcends earthy folk traditions to truly transcend into realms of thrilling symbolic strangeness with interesting subtexts on theme of communication and the chaos wrought by the breakdown of said.
This film is very strong. It is VERY cool.