Liz and the Blue Bird

A Japanese animated film. Mizore and Nozomi are at the same school, in the same concert band. Mizore plays oboe, Nozomi flute; they are in their final year and graduation is close. The band's new piece is adapted from a fairy tale. In the story a girl living alone finds a wounded blue bird one day; she heals it, they begin to live together, and in the end she has to let it go. In the middle of the piece there is a passage for oboe and flute. The two have to play it together, and it will not come right. From there the film is about the relationship between the two girls. Mizore is attached to Nozomi; she cannot picture a future without her and joined the band because of her. Nozomi is looking ahead and hesitates to say so. What the narrative is interested in is not friendship but parting: which of them is the girl and which is the bird stays open to the end, and the answer is the opposite of what is expected. The fairy-tale sections are drawn in a separate style with soft colours, and the two lines keep referring to each other. The striking thing about the film is its silence. There are no long speeches; footsteps, doors, breath and instruments carry most of it. The camera looks often at feet and hands. Naoko Yamada directed; the music is by Kensuke Ushio. It comes out of the world of a television series but stands alone, and its tone is very different from that series. Who it is for: anyone who likes quiet animation built on detail and stories of adolescence. Who it is not for: anyone waiting for incident; almost nothing happens and the whole weight is in the looks.