8 hours Ago By Serena Neumeyer • Times of San Diego
Join the 13,000+ people who get Times of San Diego in their inbox at 8 a.m. every day – plus breaking news alerts.
We’re also adding weekly updates from San Diego neighborhoods soon! Select a location below. By clicking sign up, you agree to the terms . A24 continues to push boundaries in Hollywood with breathtaking visuals and lifelike puppets in its latest fantasy film, The Legend of Ochi .
But despite its transformative cinematography, the incredible visuals couldn’t make up for the film’s underdeveloped storyline. The film showcased vibrant colors and scenic landscapes to bring the enchanting island of Carpathia to life. The Legend of Ochi evokes the same nostalgic charm of 1980s family classics like E.
T. the Extra-Terrestrial and The NeverEnding Story , which similarly center on a young protagonist navigating a coming-of-age journey. Join the 13,000+ people who get Times of San Diego in their inbox at 8 a.
m. every day – plus breaking news alerts. We're also adding weekly updates from San Diego neighborhoods soon! Select a location below.
By clicking sign up, you agree to the terms . The audience follows Yuri ( Helena Zengel ), a young girl who feels like an outsider amongst her adopted brothers and father ( Willem Dafoe ). From a young age, she is taught to fear the nocturnal creatures that inhabit the island — the Ochi, a primate-like species with orange fur, blue faces and deep, black eyes.
But when she comes across an injured baby Ochi, her empathy compels her to question the beliefs she grew up with and embark on her own journey to return it to its home. Visually, though in an enchanting setting, the film draws its strength from maintaining a sense of realism, especially by using puppetry to capture every breath and movement of the Ochi. According to director and writer Isaiah Saxon , a team of five puppeteers operated the baby Ochi on set, which is what made it so impressive and life-like on-screen.
Filming in various locations in Romania also lent the film a magical yet grounded aesthetic by using the country’s natural landscapes to illustrate the island of Carpathia. The combination of rich forests, vast mountainsides and winding rivers allowed the audience to not only immerse themselves in the beauty of this island but also find empathy for the Ochi being persecuted by the people within it. Narratively, the film suffered from minimal dialogue and a lack of background development, which left many unanswered questions.
Viewers were left without crucial details needed to understand the climax of the story, which made the ending underwhelming and incomplete. The film should have delved deeper into the relationships between the characters, such as the bond between Yuri and her brother Petro ( Finn Wolfhard ), or the unresolved conflicts between her parents. There was a lot of context left out of the film that would’ve explained the origin of the island’s deep-rooted fear of the Ochi and trauma that led to Yuri’s broken family.
The “happy ending” felt forced because the emotional arc of the characters wasn’t clear. Without a strong emotional foundation, the ending lacked the depth it needed to have an impact on the audience. This was reflected in the film’s poor box office performance.
According to Box Office Mojo, The Legend of Ochi earned around $1.93 million domestically and slightly more than $2 million worldwide — falling well short of its estimated $10 million budget. Its opening weekend on April 18 brought in roughly $52,500 in four theaters.
Overall, the film indicates a bright future for A24’s ability to push creative boundaries in visual storytelling, but its weak storyline hindered the film from reaching its full potential. The Legend of Ochi could offer a fun watch for young viewers, but it lacks the depth needed to engage older audiences..
