In a way, 12-year-old Kokora feels locked in place. She can’t go to school without feeling physically ill. And she’s far too ashamed and tied up in emotional knots to explain why. So she just stays home. She looks out the window. She beats herself up for being so weak.
Kokora’s dad really isn’t in the picture, but she does have a loving, hardworking mom. And there’s also a very caring and attentive teacher, Ms. Kitajima, who is more than willing to listen and help. Kokora even has one friend who might hear her out. Though, lately her friend, Moe, has been drifting away.
Still, getting any of them involved would only make things worse. She’s sure of it. And so, Kokora stays alone in her bedroom. Locked and broken. Day after day after day.
Then one afternoon, her full-length mirror begins to glow. And when Kokora touches its smooth luminous surface … she’s drawn right inside. She finds herself outside the entryway of a huge castle. It’s a stone fortress sitting atop a rocky peak, surrounded on all sides by open ocean as far as the eye can see.
Oh, and Kokora realizes that she isn’t alone at that castle entrance. There is also a young girl wearing a wolf mask there. She calls herself the Wolf Queen. And she ushers Kokora inside the grand stone manor beside them.
In fact, there are six other kids Kokora’s age waiting inside in the huge entryway, with its crystal chandelier and massive spiraling staircase. They have all been called there, the Wolf Queen explains, for a game. One with specific rules.
Their task? To find a hidden key to an unreachable room. Both are somewhere within this massive castle. And they have one full year to discover the key and unlock that wishing room.
Ah, yes. The room will grant a wish, anything the key holder desires. When the key is used, everyone else will forget the castle and everyone in it.
Here’s the biggest rule. The kids can come and go as they please via their mirror connections. But the castle is only open between 9 am and 5 pm. If they do not return home before 5 pm, they will be eaten. By a wolf. A large, terrifying and very deadly wolf.
With that, the Wolf Queen disappears. And Kokora is left with this gaggle of strange teens. Should they work together to find this mysterious key? For that matter, what is this place? How did it even come to be? And why have they, among all the people in the world, been called here?
Kokora has one other question that she doesn’t voice: Why does she feel less anxious and fearful in this group?
She isn’t convinced she would ever have come to this lonely, separated away castle if she’d been given a choice. But Kokora’s pretty sure that when she leaves … she’ll want to come back again.
[Note: This film is presented in Japanese with English subtitles.]
The teens are unsure of one another at first and confused about the meaning of the game they’ve been given. But as their year begins to pass, they grow closer and more comfortable with one another. They even start to share with their new friends—each revealing their personal weaknesses and struggles.
In fact, the teens are all somewhat like Kokora. They’ve endured bullying (a massive problem for Kokora), physical abuse, heavy parental expectations and the emotional pain of lost love ones. And slowly, each of them begins to rely on the understanding, comfort and friendship they receive from the others.
Eventually, the discovered key and wish aren’t used for anyone’s initial idea of a grand wish, but to save one of their own from dire consequences. Their love and sacrifice for one another become healing factors in their lives.
We also see adults and parents who go to whatever lengths necessary to love and aid the kids.
There are magical elements here, in the form of the glowing mirrors, the connected castle and its wish; the super strong Wolf Queen; and the fiery wolf creature that shows up later in the story. That’s all interconnected with the messages of the movie, but those fantasy bits are never fully explained.
[Spoiler Warning] The closest we get to an explanation here involves a character on her death bed who tells her crying little brother that she will ask God to grant him a wish.
A girl at Kokora’s school falsely accuses her of “hitting” on her boyfriend. The same girl yells out a school window to an adult teacher, calling him “Mr. Hottie.”
Kokora and one of the teen boys are both bullied. In the boy’s case, we see him after being beaten up, covered in bandages. Kokora, however, is pushed and emotionally abused by a popular girl who lies about her and enrages a crowd of schoolmates. They show up at Kokora’s house pounding on the doors and windows and yelling threats at the frightened girl.
Part of one teen girl’s story includes a moment when an adult male appears to try and sexually abuse her. He pushes her around, tries to trap her in a room and pulls her hair. But she gets away. (It’s implied, however, that this might not have been the man’s only attempt.) She is emotionally distraught but not physically harmed.
The same young woman is later cornered by a huge flaming wolf. Though we don’t see an attack, the teen is likely “eaten” just as the Wolf Queen had warned. The raging wolf also smashes things in the castle, including most of the teen’s mirrors.
We see an ill young girl on her deathbed. Kokora initially thinks that her wish would be that her bully would disappear from the Earth. But later she realizes that in comparison to some other people’s selfless wishes, hers was “so petty.”
There are two uses of “d–n,” several uses of “crap” and one of “dumb a–” in the dialogue. In addition, someone is called “stupid” and told to “drop dead” by a bully.
None.
Some adults are swayed by a convincing, but lying, teen without looking into the young girl’s false and harmful claims.
Based on a novel and manga by Mizuki Tsujimura, Lonely Castle in the Mirror paints a realistic picture of the world while also adding a magical touch that blurs the lines between fantasy and reality.
There are no spells cast or wands waved, but the beleaguered school kids at the story’s core are given a fairytale-like place of escape behind a magical mirror. It’s a place where they find sanctuary, form relationships, reveal their painful difficulties and gradually heal.
This slowly paced pic isn’t, then, so much a rollicking kids adventure as it is a gentle film that deals with the damaging effects of bullying, abuse, the death of loved ones, and the pressures on kids to conform and excel.
Now, that might sound a little low key and glum on the surface, but it’s not. Lonely Castle simply gives its viewers an appealing, hand-drawn “magic mirror” of their own. By that, I mean the story. It creatively encourages adults to offer struggling kids a lifeline when they need it, and to do so with gentleness and patience. And it suggests that bonds of friendship, love and empathy are keys that those who feel broken can use to unbind themselves and the similarly wounded people around them.
After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.
