Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms

Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms is a 2018 fantasy film written and directed by Mari Okada. Okada was already famous in Japan as a writer of emotional TV anime, and this was the first feature film she directed. The studio P.A. Works made it, with character designs by Akihiko Yoshida and a sweeping orchestra score by Kenji Kawai. It opened in Japanese cinemas on February 24, 2018.

The film is set in an old-style fantasy world with castles, market towns, sailing ships and war. Far from the cities of normal people, there is a quiet land where a clan called the Iorph live. Their hair is pale and they stop aging in their teens, so they can live for hundreds of years while still looking young. They spend their days weaving a special cloth, the Hibiol, which records the story of their lives. Because they live so long, their elders teach them one important rule: do not fall in love with anyone from the outside world, or you will end up alone.

Maquia is a young Iorph girl with no parents. Even among her own people, she often feels lonely. One day, soldiers from the kingdom of Mezarte attack her home, riding on huge, ancient dragons called Renato. The kingdom wants the long life that runs in the Iorph's blood. In the attack, Maquia's close friend Leilia is taken away, and her friend Krim, who loves Leilia, is lost in the chaos. Maquia is carried off by a dragon and ends up alone far from home.

Wandering in the woods, she finds a village that has also been attacked. There she finds a newborn baby boy who has lost his family. Even though she is almost a child herself and knows nothing about the world, Maquia decides to take him in. She names him Ariel and chooses to raise him as her own son.

The rest of the film follows the two of them over many years. Maquia finds work, makes friends among ordinary people, and learns, sometimes painfully, how to be a mother. Ariel grows from a baby to a boy to a young man. But Maquia does not change at all. Soon people cannot tell if she is his mother, his sister, or something else, and this creates problems for them both. At the same time, a war is growing, and the fates of Leilia and Krim are still tied to hers.

The heart of the movie is the bond between parent and child. It asks what it means to love someone you know you will outlive, and how that love changes as the child grows up and needs you less. It is a sad story, but also a warm and hopeful one.

Maquia won strong praise from critics and prizes at film festivals, including the award for Best Animation at the Shanghai International Film Festival. Many viewers say they cried by the end. It is a good choice for anyone who loves big, emotional fantasy stories about family and time.