Movie Thoughts: Taiki (2019)

 

• Released: February 3rd, 1993
• Directed by: Mirjam de With
• Running time: 1h 25min
• Rating 3/5

Synopsis

Bruno and his parents have an argument while on vacation in Sweden. His parents briefly leave him behind to teach him a lesson, but when they come back for him Bruno in his anger has run away into the forest. There, he befriends a wolf, whom he names Taiki. Meanwhile, his family is desperately looking for him.

My Thoughts

Some stuff this movie does pretty well. Some stuff about it suuuucks. So let's delve into both.

I'll first get the good things out of the way: I like the bond between Bruno and Taiki, it's honestly the best part of the movie. Bruno is also a decent character (pretty generic but nothing bad) and his acting is solid. There's also some pretty nature shots in this movie.

Buuuut that's where my praise for this movie ends. A huge issue can already be inferred from the premise: Bruno's family sucks. Like, capital S sucks. They're unlikable assholes who left their son behind in the middle of nowhere in Sweden where dangerous animals roam near a road where he could get hit by a car. I don't blame Bruno at all for running away. And then a lot of the movie is still focused on Bruno's parents and it tries to paint them as sympathetic when, no, I am not rooting for these characters. 

They're unlikable at best and terrible parents at worst. And then they also coax Bruno's sister into lying about them being not terrible parents. Sure, they're maybe not abusive, so they're not the worst parental characters I've ever seen in a movie, but they're still awful people. And the fact that a huge portion of the movie is focused on them and we're supposed to see them as sympathetic just doesn't work.

The acting on the sister was also pretty bad in this movie. She also wasn't a very likable character honestly, because she threw out Bruno's SIM card so he had nobody to reach and kept nagging him. Sure, Bruno isn't innocent, either, but at least he's not a terrible and unlikable character. His family is.

Also, while I do praise Bruno and Taiki having a sweet relationship together, I do think that it could've been written a bit better. As is they become friends really, really quickly and are pretty much inseparable very soon thereafter. There's not a lot of growth or anything. It's not terrible or anything, but it is paced a bit quickly and all.

So yeah, overall this is a mixed bag of a movie that does some things right and some things poorly. I personally enjoyed the scenes with Bruno and Taiki, but the family scenes had to go in my opinion. These are some of the least likable characters I've come across in recent times.