What is an Ochi? In a sense, it’s ET meets Gremlins or Yoda. That being said, he pretty cute and yet the natives are trained to fear and hunt them down.
A-24’s The Legend of Ochi is about a shy girl raised to fear the legendary creature. That is until she discovers a baby abandoned. Now it’s up to her to return it to it’s family while trying to keep hunters from killing it.
The film, stars Helena Zengel as young Yuri and she does a exceptional job of captivating the audience and making them want to know more. Similarly the way she interacts with her older actor on set is amazing. She has a certain maturity to her acting, that is unique to see as she interacts with both the Ochi as well as the other actors, including Nosferatu’s Willem Defoe and Emily Watson. Similarly Defoe and Watson add and extra parental element that is always encouraging to see when out of their children’s life for an extended period of time. It’s a heartfelt reunion that takes us for surprise when Watson and Zengel embrace for the first time. Defoe likewise is always amusing to watch with his unique sense of humor.
All in all at an hour 36 minute runtime, The Legend of Ochi will bring you into the woods, similar to Gremlins,where Ochi is misunderstood and similar to ET where at the end. The only mission is getting Ochi home. That being said, it is a unique story, in true A-24 style. It will have audiences laughing, crying and fully eungulfed in the Legend of Ochi.
The film came out in theaters April 20th and is currently showing in one near you.