The Boy and the Beast

What’s it about?

Ren is a 9-year-old orphan boy who prefers to roam the streets of Tokyo than live with his relatives. One night he discovers an entrance to a parallel universe called Jutengai, which contains many beast-like creatures. Among these beasts is a warrior bear named Kumatetsu.

 Ren admires the fighting skills he sees in Kumatetsu  and asks to learn from the warrior. At first the two clash a lot but they eventually become friends and live together for many years. At the age of 17 Ren feels the need to go back to his own world where he meets a young girl called Kaede. He now has to choose between living as a human or a beast.

What to look out for

There are some violent scenes in this movie such as:

• Many physical fights with punches being thrown.
• Weapons such as swords and katanas are used in fights – one character has a katana stuck in his chest which makes it bleed.
• There are explosions in one of the cities – no one is injured, but property is destroyed.

In addition there are also several scary scenes, which would frighten young kids such as:

• There are many scary beasts in Jutengai, Kumatetsu is a large bear with glowing red eyes but is not dangerous or threatening to Ren.
• Ren is an orphan who roams the streets and at one point he has to fight the darkness within himself.

Moral of the Story

The messages of the story are that you should get to know someone before making a judgement about them and that it’s important to ask for help when needed and to listen to people who have more knowledge or wisdom about a matter.