Sometimes the most extraordinary tales begin in the spaces between what we fear and what we feel. The Legend of Ochi is a throwback to family movies from the 80s and early 90s. You know the kind: a kid with a unique worldview + an alien, robot, or monster go on the run to find something the creature needs—because the kid’s parents just don’t understand. That nostalgia combined with a fairytale-in-the-modern-world style, makes The Legend of Ochi such an enchanting experience.
It sounds like a simple tale: “In a remote village on the island of Carpathia, a shy farm girl named Yuri is raised to fear an elusive animal species known as Ochi. But when Yuri discovers a wounded baby Ochi has been left behind, she escapes on a quest to bring him home.” That simplicity is all the setup you need because, like the creeping dread in Stranger Things or the iconic bike ride in E.T., The Legend of Ochi sweeps you into another world—almost like a portal fantasy—with all the strangeness and unexpected laughs you’re dreaming of.
We go on this adventure with Yuri (Helena Zengel) who made me believe in her as a hero. She’s the kind of girl who could save the galaxy but might just save the farm, or the forest, or the peace—and do all of that without holding back or losing the wonder she sees in the world. This trait eventually connects her to the mother she lost, while connecting us to the key themes of “a mother’s love.” Another familial bond—between brother and sister—leads to one of my favorite lines. “You’re only nice when no one is watching,” Yuri says to her adopted brother, Petro (Finn Wolfhard). Those words stopped Petro and me cold, causing us to contemplate that dagger of hard truth and what the duality caused by peer pressure means in the real world.
Yuri’s partner in crime is Baby Ochi, a seriously sublime convergence of puppeteering and design. Baby Ochi is reminiscent of Gizmo the Mogwai from Gremlins and our beloved Grogu, aka Baby Yoda. When the trailer first dropped, the internet thought the character was computer-generated, because the creature design and puppeteering are just that good. Baby Ochi feels alive, with personality, shortcomings, and a tangible spark of life that makes you expect him to show up for interviews to talk about the behind-the-scenes antics.
As the antagonist, Willem Dafoe does what needs to be done. He’s the slightly insane Maxim, Yuri’s dad, and the leader of a backward cult of Lost Boys (Peter Pan, not the vampires). Maxim is a mashup of Don Quixote, Captain Ahab, and Captain Hook. He is someone so obsessed with hunting and killing the Ochi for what he believes they took from him that he’s starting to unravel. When he shows up in medieval armor like he’s going to slay a dragon you will giggle—you can’t not giggle. The twist here is that whether or not he survives is completely up to his daughter and his ability to see Baby Ochi through her eyes.
What amazed me is writer/director Isaiah Saxon is a patient filmmaker and his director of photography, Evan Prosofsky, has an incredible eye. They didn’t mind waiting to get the perfect shot without relying on effects. This movie took six years to make, and it shows. Some shots were only possible for maybe 15 minutes per day because of the lighting. For example, Emily Watson as Dasha, herding sheep on a hill during golden hour. It’s a fleeting moment of gorgeous sunlight that only happens once a day but not every day. Most productions would be too pressed for time to make it happen, but not here. They say the golden hour is when the light becomes magic. Now that I’ve seen it in Legend of Ochi, I believe it. Over the course of three days, I got to see two instances of the most incredible and evocative cinematography I’ve seen in a while. The Legend of Ochi is one, the other came from Autumn Durald Arkapaw in SINNERS—sheesh, they’re doing the kind of work that leaves you staggered by its beauty.
The setting helped the cinematography. Romania provides an otherworldly canvas that enhances the fantasy elements. Shot entirely there, it’s hard to tell what was shaped by nature and what was dreamed up by the production design team, led by Jason Kisvarday. Some of the vegetation is so fantastical you’ll think you’re seeing it through the looking glass. There’s a scene in the swamp where the molded spines of a tree crest up out of the water like the ribs of a long-dead beast. So unreal, so pretty. There are also visual allusions to things like King Kong‘s Skull Island. Rioter Julian also mentioned Peter and the Wolf and Wes Anderson. All of those are examples of what our friend Sean Causley calls “the dark fantasy vibes” that take your breath away and allow this fable to breathe.
The Legend of Ochi feels like a live-action scion of Studio Ghibli, with all the blossoming wonder and iron thorns that come alive in those fantastical worlds. That is a feat for Saxon—to sweep us up and away so similarly to Hayao Miyazaki, without copying the master but conjuring new lore. This one truly sings.
