60. Sing A Bit Of Harmony (Ai no utagoe wo kikasete); movie review

 

SING A BIT OF HARMONY (AI NO UTAGOE WO KIKASETE)

Cert PG

109 mins

BBFC advice: Contains mild bad language, threat

I could watch Japanese anime all day long.

Sure, the animation is quirky if you have been used to traditional Disney but its stories always have a poignancy that those from the West rarely do.

Yasuhiro Yoshiura's Sing A Bit Of Harmony is a case in point. Its presentation is vibrant, its storyline is modern and its messages will touch hearts of any age.

It has been screened in either dubbed English or subtitled Japanese and I opted for the latter when I visited Sheffield Cineworld.

Yoshiura's film centres on Satomi (voiced by Haruka Fukuhara) - a teenage girl whose mum works for a developer of artificial intelligence.

Indeed, the film is set in a town which is dominated by the company for whom many parents of Satomi's schoolmates work.

Consequently, AI is part of their everyday lives - for example, Satomi is woken by an Alexa-like voice and her curtains are opened on her orders.

Thus, it is not too surprising to her when she gets wind that a form of artificial intelligence is being tried out as a pupil at her school as an experiment to see if the students can recognise the difference between human and machine.

Shion (Tao Tsuchiya) is, however, different to what she might have expected.

Indeed, her single objective is ensuring Satomi's happiness. The problem is the harder she tries, the more attention she draws to herself.

Sing A Bit Of Harmony is a beguiling film - pleasing on the eye while tackling everyday issues subtly and smartly.

In common with the recently released Belle, it addresses teenage angst over school and love and a one-parent scenario.

The additional interest is the focus on artificial intelligence and this provokes thought on just how much it will dominate our society in the near future.

Let me just ask Alexa.

Reasons to watch: A beautiful anime which addresses some big issues

Reasons to avoid: Maybe a bit fanciful for some

Laughs: None

Jumps: None

Vomit: None

Nudity: None

Overall rating: 8.5/10

Did you know? In October 2021, Sing a Bit of Harmony won the Audience Award at the Scotland Loves Animation film festival. It also won the Best Animation Film Award at the New York City Film & Television Festival 2021. In Japan, it is also nominated for the Excellent Animation of the Year in the Japan Academy Film Prize 2022. 

The final word. Megan Shipman (Shion in the English dubbed version): Even though there’s these elements of things that are a little more advanced or technologies are more advanced and we don’t have things quite like that, I think the idea behind wanting to belong and fit in and have your kind of group of people who understand you is universal." Digital Fix

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