THE LEGEND OF OCHI

Name: THE LEGEND OF OCHI
Item: THE LEGEND OF OCHI
Author: Review

"Love and Empathy Restores the World"

Family Content: -1 Caution advised for older children, including teenagers, and sensitive adults.

Entertainment Quality:

	None	Light	Moderate	Heavy
Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

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What You Need To Know:

THE LEGEND OF OCHI is a unique, sometimes stunning, fantasy adventure for families with older children. The story focuses on Yuri, a shy blonde teenager living on the remote island of Carpathia near the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains in Romania. All her life, Yuri’s father has taught her to fear and hunt some mythical creatures living high in the mountains. Yuri’s loving but comically militant father thinks the creatures are demons. He organizes Yuri and some local boys to hunt the creatures. However, Yuri finds a baby creature wounded and alone. She befriends the creature and wants to return it to its mother.

The setting in THE LEGEND OF OCHI is strange and beautiful, with stunning visuals and amazing puppetry depicting the mysterious creatures. Best of all, THE LEGEND OF OCHI has a wonderful, heartfelt ending where Yuri’s family reunites, reconciles and establishes a connection with the creatures. Yuri’s mother calls it a “miracle.” That said, THE LEGEND OF OCHI has some Romantic, feminist elements. It also has some scary moments and brief foul language. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for older children.

Content:

(BB, Ro, Fe, E, C, Ab, L, V, AA, M):

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:

Strong moral, pro-family worldview where a separated family reunites and reconciles and where motherhood is extolled, marred by some Romantic, feminist, environmentalist elements, the father is harsh but concerned for his daughter, and the movie has a slightly ambiguous attitude toward Christianity where the father is fixated on killing demons but the ending is miraculous (in fact the word “miracle” is cited at least twice by the mother), and there’s a brief image of a church service;

Foul Language:

One “s” obscenity, a GD profanity and an OG exclamatory profanity;

Violence:

Light, somewhat scary violence includes a lengthy scene at night where a middle-aged man leads a group of boys and his teenage daughter on a hunt for creatures he calls demons that threaten livestock (the hunt is scary), some rifles are fired, teenage girl befriends a wounded baby creature (the creatures look like a species of monkeys that communicates by musical sounds, the girl bandages the baby’s wounded paw with difficulty, the girl tries to get some food for the baby at a local grocery story, but they cause a ruckus, and the teenage grocery boy gets out a rifle to fire, the girl and the baby crash through a glass window and run away, baby creature bites teenage girl’s arm, and it becomes infected but her mother cures the wound, and human encounters with the creatures in third act are scary since neither the people nor the animals know what the other is going to do (the people have guns and the animals have sharp teeth);

Sex:

No sex;

Nudity:

No nudity;

Alcohol Use:

A man seems to be drunk in one scene;

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:

No smoking or drugs; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:

The heroine’s father is a little harsh, comical and mistaken, but he’s genuinely concerned for his daughter and family reconciliation occurs when he discovers the truth.

More Detail:

THE LEGEND OF OCHI is a unique, sometimes stunning, fantasy adventure about a family living near the Carpathian mountains in Romania who are split over how to deal with a group of strange creatures living high in the mountains who endanger their livestock. THE LEGEND OF OCHI has some amazing outdoor scenes, expert puppetry and a stirring ending that extols family, reconciliation and motherhood, but the movie’s pro-family premise is marred by some light Romantic and feminist elements, an ambiguous attitude toward Christianity, some scary moments, and a few obscenities and profanities.

The story focuses on Yuri, a shy blonde teenager living on the remote island of Carpathia near the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains in Romania. All her life, Yuri’s father has taught her to fear and hunt some mythical creatures, called Ochi, living high in the mountains. Yuri’s loving but comically militant father thinks the creatures are demons who threaten their livestock. He organizes a group of local boys, led by his adopted son, Petro, to hunt the creatures, and Yuri tags along.

After one nightly hunt, however, Yuri finds a baby Ochi wounded and alone. She befriends the creature, which is relatively harmless, though it bites when fearful.

Yuri rebels against her father and runs away from home. She wants to return the baby creature to its mother. Yuri’s quest leads to an encounter with her own mother, who disagreed with Yuri’s father about the creatures. She left the family and lives in a cabin at the foot of the mountains, where she’s trying to understand the creatures.

THE LEGEND OF OCHI is a unique fantasy adventure designed for families with older children. The setting is strange and beautiful, which allows Writer/Director Isaiah Saxon to craft some stunning visuals. This is especially true as Yuri climbs into the mountains to find the Ochi’s habitat. Saxon also uses some amazing puppetry to create the creatures, who resemble some kind of monkey with sharp teeth and look pretty lifelike.

Best of all, THE LEGEND OF OCHI has a wonderful, heartfelt ending where Yuri’s family reunites and reconciles and establishes a mystical but grounded connection with the Ochi. Yuri’s mother calls it a “miracle.” The ending’s scenes of reconciliation and reunion are sure to bring a tear or two.

That said, THE LEGEND OF OCHI has some Romantic, feminist elements. Yuri’s father is harsh and has a lack of understanding, while her mother is wiser. Also, there’s a Romantic, environmentalist attitude toward the mysterious Oochi creatures. However, this is tempered by the mother’s compassionate attitude. For example, she also comes across as a steward of the environment who’s adopted a compassionate attitude toward the Ochi creatures. Finally, THE LEGEND OF OCHI has some scary moments, one “s” word and a strong profanity.

So, all in all, MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for older children and very young teenagers.