New movie from Studio Chizu: BELLE!
Hot off the presses: We’re going back to the virtual world with Studio Chizu’s upcoming movie in 2021: Belle!
Ever since “Summer War” and “The Girl Who Leapt Through the Time,” Studio Chizu has become known for bright, mind exploding visuals and storylines packed with science fiction, action, and wonder. Watching a Studio Chizu movie is an instant transport into hidden colorful realms.
Belle will be released in the Summer 2021 in Japan. The story reads more like a virtual version of Beauty and the Beast. Our heroine is 17 year old country girl Suzu. Suzu lost her mother at a young age and has been unable to sing due to her grief. As Suzu’s relationship with with her father becomes more distant, she also begins to disconnect all together from reality. So she turns to the online space called “U” as her online persona, Belle.
Inside this online space, she is able to sing freely as Belle. Very quickly, her singing grabs the attention of a mysterious dragon-shaped creature…
Mamoru Hosado:
“I hope you can enjoy our world that is now evolving at the speed of light while savoring those things that really matter to us, in this film.”
Message from Mamoru Hosda
(Studio Chizu Director):
“BELLE is the movie that I have always wanted to create and I am only able to make this film a reality because of the culmination of my past works. I explore romance, action and suspense on the one hand, and deeper themes such as life and death on the other. I expect this to be a big entertainment spectacle.
I have directed films in the past, exploring the implications of the Internet and how our younger generations will transform the world with their own amusement. At the same time, the Internet has a more negative side to it, where people slander others without a second thought, filling it with misinformation. In spite of this, I believe that it is marvel that will expand the possibilities of humanity. I wanted to depict this massive shift in our relationship with the Internet in a way that would pave a path towards our future.
The unprecedented events of last year have accelerated the paradigm shift in our online interactions with one another, be it the workplace or our personal lives. As this era continues to change, unbound from the shackles of yesterday’s common sense, capturing this global phenomena felt like an inevitability
Yet, the things that we must cherish, largely remain the same. Legacies we have inherited from generations past, will continue to exist and adapt to the new age and new tools that will now shape it. This shift is more apparent than it has ever been because of the era in which we currently live.I hope you can enjoy our world that is now evolving at the speed of light while savoring those things that really matter to us, in this film.”
About Studio Chizu
Studio Chizu is Director Mamoru Hosoda's headquarters that was established during the production of Wolf Children. Director Hosoda gave the studio its name, Chizu ("map" in Japanese). The main characters in Hosoda’s films possess a vitality and life force for choosing and cultivating a future of one's own free will.
Director Hosoda's philosophy of movies is that "they should serve the public like a park where many people gather.” Studio Chizu is a place that embraces Director Hosoda's thoughts and philosophies on movies and his works. Studio Chizu is most known for its feature-length animated films, “The Girl Who Leapt Through Time,” “Summer Wars,” and “Wolf Children.”
