Mo fa a ma (1998)

User Rating:

7.5/10   

Director:

Siu-Di Wang

Release Date:

13 October 2000 (Hong Kong)

Genre:

Animation | Comedy | Fantasy

Plot:

A 5 year old kid moves to live with his grandma in a small town at Taiwan. Soon after, he discovers that her grandma is not only a vendor...

Plot Keywords:

Taiwan | Ghost | Black Comedy | Surrealism | Taiwanese

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Wen Ying

...

Grandma (voice)

Also Known As:

Grandma and Her Ghosts

Country:

Taiwan

Language:

Mandarin

Color:

Color

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Gui si (2006)

Taiwanese-style Miyazaki is actually pretty good

Grandma and her Ghosts is an animated film from Taiwan, something of a rarity compared to Japan's massive anime output. This is no mere copy of the Japanese product, however, for it is distinctly Taiwanese, particularly with its emphasis on folk beliefs regarding the deceased and the fate of their ghosts. There may be some resemblance to Miyazaki's films, but it is different enough to stand on its own.

The main storyline has to do with Dou Dou, a young boy left at his grandma's house when his mother has to go overseas for family reasons. Dou Dou is scared of his grandma, and her strange house, especially when left there alone while his grandma goes to other houses to carry out various rites for the dead. Despite his grandma's intention to protect him from sight of the spirits that are her daily companions, it is not long before he discovers their presence. Needless to say, in the course of the movie, both of these reluctant companions will be affected by their being tossed together by fate. There is also a demon-possessed cat and an odd assortment of ghosts to spice things up.

The presence of ghosts and demons, some almost pitiful, some quite threatening, means this is not a movie for small children, though in a way, to shield them too cautiously would be to duplicate the grandma's own wish to shield her grandson from this important area of human experience, one which children are naturally curious about. Unlike another reviewer, I would not call this a children's film per se, though I think older children could gain from it.

The animation itself is quite colourful and appropriate to the subject matter. It is modestly hand-drawn, with definitely no overblown 3D CGI. The voices of the actors (at least in the Mandarin version I viewed) were also good, especially that of the grandma, whose voice was coarse and authoritative, capturing the personality of the old lady superbly.

At eighty minutes, it is just the right length, and especially noticeable in its absence is the kind of disproportionately lengthy climax that so many anime movies seem to suffer from (Steamboy, for example). Compared to Miyazaki's products, it is less polished, but endearing for the same reason.

Chinese viewers will see much that they recognize, and non-Chinese viewers may also find it interesting for its portrayal of folk customs and beliefs. Besides ethnographic appeal, there is enough humour and basic human interest to make this a movie well worth seeing, even for the non-anime fan.