Lessons learned in life, witchcraft or not

Grandparents are interesting people. Looking up to them as youngsters we seem to think they are embodied with a large amount of experience and great sense of understanding of the world. You would think that somehow they have special powers from all their collected wisdom. After witnessing the Grandmother (Sachi Parker) in The Wicked Witch of the West is Dead (西の魔女が死んだ, Nishi no Majo ga Shinda), you start to wonder if she seems almost supernatural.

Mai is a 13 year old girl, who we learn shortly in to the film seems to have trouble fitting in with others at school. Perhaps she's a social misfit, depressed... it's not really known if her condition is an act of rebellion or something she can't control herself. Her family decide that she needs to spend some time with her grandmother, a British lady who in the past came to Japan after marrying a Japanese man. Grandfather has passed on sometime ago, but Grandma has remained to work in her secluded rural home, decked with flowers, perfectly teeming gardens, and working her nearby open fields with such tender care as if they were her grandchildren themselves.

Mai however asks her grandmother an intriguing question. She has always heard stories from her mother that her grandmother is a witch. Peaking her curiosity Mai asks Grandmother to teach her witch lessons, and asks if she has special powers herself. With a sly smile Grandma really doesn't go into details about her past, but in order to help Mai learn some important life lessons, she plays along.

The Wicked Witch of the West is Dead has to be one of the best coming of age stories for young girls that I have seen. It ironically bears strong similarities in look and feel to another Japanese film (brilliant in it own right) called Spirited Away by Hayao Miyazaki. I say ironically because Miyazaki is a brilliant director who makes animated movies. The Witch of the West is of course.. not animated or cartoonish in any way, but both films feel more real than anything that could be imagined. Their subject matter is also identical (young girls coming of age and finding themselves).

The other fantastic quality of this film, is it gives a window into a world that no longer seems to exist in Japan due to rapid industrialization, and global influence. There is a quiet serene pastoral quality of life, a return to the land, and of spending time with friends and neighbors. A neighbor even remarks to the Grandmother that she's more Japanese than anyone of true ethnic origin. Probably because she always has the best sake around and refills his glass when he stops on by, but even more so because Sachi Parker embodies a calm sense of purpose and moral grounding that commands attention whenever she is on screen. It is a remarkable performance, where small words uttered by Grandma's perfect Japanese, can make mountains move.

I wouldn't dare give away the ending to this film, the viewer is tempted and teased by their desire to wonder if Grandma really does have special powers. Nevertheless, it has been one of the most memorable films I have seen in a long time.

Trailer can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6LTU9dgQwM