"I wanted this movie to be like two girls dancing"
"the flutter of an eye"
"an intake of breath"
"hair swaying like a pendulum."
"Everything girls are made of becoming music."
In "Liz and the Blue Bird", director Naoko Yamada
attempt something seemingly no one else in the industry would try
It takes an experimental approach
representing the culmination of everything that makes Yamada and the staff at Kyoto Animation special,
A visceral sensory experience.
It uses each of its visual and audial components
to individually and collectively tell its story.
The film follows two girls
Nozomi and Mizore
As they prepare for their final performance together in the Kitauji High School Concert Band
the free piece, features a duet between Mizore's oboe and Nozomi's flute
In a composition based off the fairytale: "Liz and the Blue Bird"
A story that sounds a lot like their own.
Yamada describes the two like so:
"Nozomi is cheerful happy and full of life"
"She's a girl who plays the flute through the love of music."
"This Nozomi then calls out to Mizore."
"Mizore, always alone, is pulled out of her own world."
"This is instilled into Mizore, and Nozomi's world becomes everything to her."
it's about the complexity of
communication in our connections to others
The divide that exists between us when we fail to...
and the challenges and pain brought on by attempting to bridge that gap.
How do you open the feelings of others, if you cannot open yourself?
The film shares the same core staff as "A Silent Voice".
With Yamada back in the director's chair...
Kensuke Ushio composing the soundtrack...
Futoshi Nishiya on character designs...
and Reiko Yoshida the screenwriter
In many ways, it feels like a natural progression for the production team from that movie
Where "A Silent Voice" took plenty of its own chances
coupling the team's avant-garde style to a widely popular manga.
Liz, takes it a step further.
Building off her work on its parent TV series "Sound Euphonium",
Yamada takes an already established property and molds it into something completely new.
For starters, almost the entire film takes place inside the school.
Ostensibly, such a lack of diversity in it's setting could quickly grow stale.
But the film makes exquisite use of the space
to have it feel as restricting and isolated
or open, and free, as need be.
Its rooms and halls have a cool refined beauty to them
in direct contrast to the vibrant land of the fairy tale.
The decision makes narrative sense as well.
Much like the fairy tale world is the domain of Liz and the girl...
The school is the world of Nozomi and Mizore
Nozomi is the center of Mizore's universe.
There is no world outside of the one they share
Nishiya radically altered the look of the characters
giving them an air of maturity and grace.
The revamped designs are simpler
and as a result more malleable
allowing for more continuous, organic expression.
Yamada noted how the thinness of the lines creates a certain sense of fleetingness.
From the slight aversion of their eyes, to the way they carry themselves.
She wanted to capture these soft, ephemeral moments in the build-up of feeling
Inserting such delicate movements and gestures to peel back their layered emotions.
In addition to its look and feel, the sound of the space makes it come alive.
There's a rhythm to it all
Look no further than its opening scene
Kensuke Ushio carries over his minimalist style found in the soundtrack for "A Silent Voice"
But here dials it up a notch.
Ushio tends to weave diegetic sounds into his music to create this fascinating interplay
between the world on screen, and our experience of it
Nowhere is that more prevalent than here.
For Liz
Yamada and Ushio decided to use the sounds of objects found in the school as music.
Even recording themselves doing things around the actual Kyoto school Kitauji is based on.
Such as tapping objects like the wall or glass window
to create the most authentic effect.
The results is nothing short of dazzling.
The spares keystrokes of a piano,
matched to a chorus of shoes clattering across the hall,
and the metronomic swaying of hair with each step.
As they put the concept of the film together
Ushio said Yamada talked about decalcomania
a technique of pressing paint between sheets of paper to create a mirror image
Ushio used the process himself
spilling ink on sheets of music, folding them together,
and putting the result to sound
to produce these atmospheric tracks.
This is also how they made the abstract Bluebird animation.
While the two sides may appear identical
they are slightly different.
Much like Nozomi and Mizore,
they don't exactly line up.
Yamada described how the shape of Mizore's love towards Nozomi
doesn't match the shape of Nozomi's for Mizore.
"But I don't think it's just that the shapes are missing each other."
"It's a bit like two cogs of different sizes coming together for just a brief moment."
"I wanted to depict this moment between the two in a hopeful manner."
Liz and the Bluebird represents an enormous risk.
A franchise film pivoting away from its franchise.
At times barely recognizable.
Yet, It's a risk Yamada was steadfast in taking on.
Don't get me wrong. This is still "Sound! Euphonium".
If anything Liz deepened my love for this franchise even more.
But it feels much more private, and personal.
I'm again left with the same question I asked after Yamada's previous two films
Where will she go next?
With each passing work, her voice grows clearer, and more assured.
They all bear a distinct flavour, that so plainly hers
None more so than Liz.
What separates Yamada from so many others is her willingness...
nay her eagerness, to experiment.
To test the limits of what she can do with this medium.
Yamada is not the up-and-comer she once was at the time of "Tamako".
She's a bona fide studio leader, a confident director, and an industry innovator
She may not have the name recognition of the industry's biggest stars
Her work might not cast the same broad appeal.
But she's pushing the medium to a whole new space.
No longer standing at the entrance to the universe.
But a blue bird, reaching out into an endless sky
"Liz and the Blue Bird" is the result
of the insanely talented creative minds at its core, daring to be different.
How else do you wind up with, as Ushio put it:
"an old man like me recording whilst tapping a school chair"
as the director laughs in the background.
It's a genuinely unique experience. Unlike anything else from this medium, or any other
On its face "Liz" is a simple tale,
But that's where Yamada shines brightest
Much like "Tamako Love Story", it's in that simplicity
she parses out such a richly woven, and deeply felt emotional experience.
One we all can relate to
because it scratches at the very essence of our humanity.
We don't see the competitions the band works towards.
This isn't about nationals, or winning gold.
"Liz and the Blue Bird", is the story of a dance between two girls.
Of coming together and growing apart.
A love story and a tragedy.
The relationship, at its heart, feels as though it may blow away in the breeze
Fragile and fleeting.
A transient moment in the lives of these girls.
You'll want to catch, before it disappears
You can watch listen "Liz and the Blue Bird" in US theaters beginning November 9th.
For a complete list of showings and locations
head to the Liz homepage, on "Eleven Arts" website.
I'll put the link in the description
I want to thank "Eleven Arts" for sponsoring this video
as well as distributing the film and allowing me to watch it before the release
This film means a lot to me and I encourage everyone watching this to see it in theaters if you can
Even if you have no experience with "Sound! Euphonium".
It's a must watch for any fan of the medium.
I can't wait to see it again myself.
On that note, Thanks for watching. See you next time