Belle (2021) Movie Review (but surprise: it’s psychological-based)
Mamoru Hosoda’s Belle was first previewed in Cannes 2021 and received a whopping 14 minutes standing ovation. And I think, this movie deserved every second of that clap.
Belle tells a story about a timid yet loved to sing teenager named Suzu. When she was little, Suzu’s mother died saving a young child from being drowned in the river and left Suzu all alone. Her death made singing seem so hard for Suzu since it was her mother who taught her love for music, Suzu was shown to suffer some aversive reactions when she tried to sing.
She found solace when she found out about the virtual reality, U. She takes on an internet persona named Belle and found out that she could sing her fullest when she was in U and as Belle. Little that she knew, she immediately became an internet-famous in U for her singing talent and capabilities.
During one of her concerts, a monster name “Beast” wrecked chaos at her concert. However, instead of being furious, Suzu was intrigued to learn about the Beast a little more. She was determined to learn who the “Beast” really is and what are their secrets they hold that they committed things like that.
Through the story of stunning visuals, a heart-wrenching performance delivered through detailed animation and powerful shots, and a hauntingly beautiful singing voice by Nakamura Kaho; Belle delivered a powerful cinematic experience. And how it focused on my area of interest, which is adolescent development and internet behavior.
Depiction of Childhood Trauma as Secrets in Belle
“Everyone have secrets that they kept inside of them”
The concept of “secrets” is being held closely in this movie, especially in Suzu. Suzu’s secret is that she is still grieving for the accident that took her mother’s life. She felt enormous anger, sadness, and trauma which even affected her ability to sing.
This secret of hers even gave an effect on her relationship with his father and her late mother’s memory. Suzu and her father became very distant, both physically and emotionally while Suzu finds it difficult for her to sing, even puking at the thought of her singing freely.
At the beginning of the movie, we saw small Suzu spending time with her mother, laughing and goofing around together without a care for the world. We also see how her mother is the one who introduced her to the world of music and singing and it made Suzu fall in love with singing and music itself.
However, due to witnessing her mother disappeared in front of her and the slow realization that she was abandoned (that time), Suzu began having complicated yet aversive reactions to everything that her mother taught her to love.
When we talk about childhood trauma, we must also take into consideration that childhood trauma may affect and manifest in children in different ways.
However, research shows that childhood trauma can disrupt brain development as they grew up, finally reaching the adolescent stage. Brain development is crucial for adolescent development itself. The brain is designed to help us to strategize how we live our lives and when it learned uncomfortable strategies due to trauma that the teenager lived as a child, it may manifest differently. As for how NACAC explained on their website:
Trauma, abuse, neglect, major life transitions, and other past experiences or environments contribute to how the brain develops during the crucial period, as the brain calls upon familiar behaviors or frequently used parts of the brain to determine what areas of the brain to strengthen and what areas to weaken in this mental “growth spurt.”
This weakened part of the mental “growth spurt” would make the teenager with a history of childhood trauma developed an inability to cope or process their emotions successfully. In the movie itself, we clearly see in Suzu was shown as highly anxious, easily panicked, and even screamed so loud when she was asked to sing in a karaoke alongside her friends because she was feeling overwhelmed.
However, Suzu was still shown to have supportive people around her, like Hiro, her best friend; Shinobu, her protective childhood friend; and the choir ladies who took Suzu under their wing; and even her father and the family dog. Psychologists and mental health practitioners alike called it a protective factor of childhood trauma, which could help the children to effectively cope with their trauma. It did help Suzu to sort of maintain her daily life but it still is not enough.
Suzu was shown feeling even more lonely when she reached her teenage years. She had no one to share this heavy secret that was filled with his childhood trauma with and she even lost connection with the one thing that she loved the most, singing and music until she was introduced to the virtual world of U.
How Internet helped Suzu to Understand, Accept, and Forgive
As someone who grew up with the internet in my teenage year until now, Mamoru Hosoda’s take on describing how a teenager, Suzu, would navigate to find herself as an internet persona hits too close to home for me. All because I was also that teenager years ago.
(I didn’t become an internet persona famous but having an internet persona certainly helped me to cope with every problem that I have as a teenager).
The Internet had helped and assisted me to connect with people with the same struggle I had when I was a teenager. I was connected with a bunch of wonderful people who like animes and mangas. I was alone, yes, but I did never feel “alone”, alone.
As humans, we can’t heal in isolation, we weren’t just programmed that way. We strive and thrive better when we are together when we have people and meaningful connections with us and that connection itself are what drives us to be “whole”.
Throughout most of the movies that he directed (especially in Summer Wars), Mamoru Hosoda has ways of portraying the Internet with a positive lens. His characters, usually high school students, maneuvered on the Internet, and through their journey, they slowly find what they are searching for. He admitted that he might be the only person who painted the Internet and social media in a positive light.
Personally, I think it’s a refreshing take than the realistic take about the Internet and social media, which usually explored their bad side and aspects (The Tinder Swindler documentary did not help). And yes, Internet has tons of bad things, such as scamming, phishing, identity theft, and even depression.
However, the Internet and social media still have their great sides, such as assisting us to connect with everyone all around the world and especially in Belle, how it could help us connect with love, empathy, and humanity; ultimately helping someone in need.
This particular moment was shown prominently in this movie as Suzu/Belle’s huge intention to connect with the Beast. Suzu used to spend a lot of time of her time alone and distanced herself from the people around her. However, slowly she began to understand and open herself towards everyone, to trying to learn the Beast’s identity after learning that the Beast looked like he needed help; and it was particularly shown when she talked about Ruka, a beautiful girl who confides to her about her crush.
Besides helping others, Belle also depicts when the Internet helped Suzu to fully accept herself for she really is. A country bumpkin Suzu who loves to sing, not just as Belle, the ultimate Internet Persona.
Ultimately, Suzu’s found out that her wanting to help Beast does not stem from her wanting to do a good deed as a famous Internet Persona, but she really wants to connect and help Beast as Suzu. As her own self.
Sure the movie teased about some romantic involvement, such as Suzu’s cute teenager crush with Shinobu or Beast’s affection with Belle but I don’t think that romantic relationship is the core of this beautiful movie.
At the end of the day, this is a story of Suzu who is trying to discover her true self without hiding behind “Belle”. This is a story of Suzu learning about forgiveness, as she slowly understands what her mother went through when she disappeared in front of her and began to forgive.
Yesterday, I watched Cinema Therapy’s reactions to the movie “Encanto” (best movie of 2021 hands down) and I recount the line: “Forgiveness can start from our willingness to shift our perspective with the goal of understanding. Sure, it will never justify their actions and how they used to hurt us, but it can help us to understand and ultimately, forgive them.”
During that particular scene, (you know, the tear-jerking scene), we slowly see as Suzu shifted her perspective and began to slowly understand everything during the day that her mother left her. Later in the epilogue, we could see that Suzu is depicted to be more carefree as she happily chats with everyone with a wide grin, and ultimately, accept the request of singing together with her friends as Suzu.
In a way, Belle is indeed a love story. But it wasn’t your classic romance story or the Beauty and the Beast story, nor a love story of Suzu with Shinobu.
Ultimately, “Belle” is a love story between Suzu and her own self
Anyway, you can watch Belle on Netflix now!
So if you’re finished reading and you haven’t watched Belle: Go watch it. Now. I cannot guarantee that you will like it as much as I do, but I can guarantee you that you are going to have a really amazing time.
