The Girl from the Other Side (2022)
★★★ — The Girl from the Other Side (2022)
There's a moment early in The Girl from the Other Side where a masked, dark-limbed creature sits beside a small sleeping child in a forest that looks like it's been painted in dreams, and nothing happens. No jump scare, no sudden movement, no dramatic sting on the soundtrack. Just stillness. And it's genuinely beautiful. That moment told me exactly what kind of film I was in for, and, depending on your patience for that sort of thing, it'll either hook you completely or have you reaching for your phone within twenty minutes.
This short animated film is adapted from a manga, and it takes place in a world divided between the "Inside" and the "Outside," separated by a curse that works more as a felt presence than an explained mythology. On the Outside, a mysterious masked being cares for a young girl named Shiva with quiet, almost parental tenderness. He can't touch her. She doesn't fully understand why. And the film, wisely, doesn't rush to explain it either. The world-building happens around the edges of their relationship rather than through exposition, and there's something genuinely lovely about that approach.
The hand-drawn animation is the headline act here, and it earns every bit of praise it gets. The linework is delicate, almost fragile, and the watercolour textures give every scene the quality of an illustrated page brought gently to life. The forests are shadowy and soft at once, beautiful and unsettling in the same breath. Every frame feels considered. I kept pausing to sit with compositions that most animated features would blow straight past in service of plot momentum. It reminded me a little of the deliberate, atmosphere-first approach I admired in Fantastic Planet (1973), where the world itself carries as much meaning as anything the characters say or do.
I watched in Japanese with subtitles, and I'd recommend doing the same. The voice performances are subtle and sincere, particularly the low, careful register of the Outsider and the bright, guileless curiosity of Shiva. Their conversations are small, unhurried things, but they carry real emotional weight. There are hints here of isolation, of otherness, of a kind of love that exists across an unbridgeable distance. Heavy themes, worn lightly.
But here's where I have to be honest about the mixed feelings. The film is so committed to mood over momentum that it sometimes tips from meditative into inert. There's no real conflict in any conventional sense. No plot engine turning over. It's less a story you follow than an atmosphere you inhabit, and while I respect that enormously as an artistic choice, I won't pretend I didn't feel the deliberateness of the pacing pressing on me. If you've ever found yourself mildly restless during the quieter stretches of a Studio Ghibli film, this will test you more. At the same time, if you're the kind of viewer who finds Blue (1993) utterly absorbing rather than frustratingly spare, you'll probably adore every frame of this.
As a short film, it doesn't outstay its welcome, and that's the right call. Any longer and the lack of narrative propulsion would become a genuine problem. As it stands, it functions more like a chapter than a complete work, an opening movement that establishes a world and a relationship without resolving much of anything. That's fine. That's its nature. But it does mean you leave wanting more in a way that's only partially satisfying.
Three stars. Gorgeous to look at, quietly affecting, and made with obvious care and craft. If you go in expecting a plot, you'll be frustrated. If you go in expecting a mood, you'll find something genuinely worth your time. Just don't expect thrills. This one deals in the other kind of feeling entirely.
Rating: ★★★ | Year: 2022 | Watched: 2026-04-13
Where to watch
Watch in the US
Stream: Crunchyroll
Physical: Amazon US
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Related on Movies With Macca
More from Japan: Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain (2024) · Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II - The Ashes of Rage (2025) · Blue (1993) · The Ghost of Yotsuya (1959)
More from the 2020s: Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain (2024) · Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II - The Ashes of Rage (2025) · The Long Walk (2025) · Americana (2023)
More animation: Fantastic Planet (1973) · Alice in Wonderland (1951) · Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain (2024) · Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II - The Ashes of Rage (2025)
More drama: Viy (1967) · Wonder (2017) · A Better Tomorrow (1986) · Beautiful Boy (2018)
