RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BELLE AND THE DRAGON ! ❤️
In this movie, Beauty (Suzu) and the Beast (Kei) are not really in love, especially because they meet in the virtual world of U and therefore have no idea who they really are behind their avatars. It is nonetheless the meeting of two kindred spirits, linked by their respective wounds and traumas :
- Both take refuge in the world of U to become someone else, to be able to do what they cannot do in reality and momentarily forget and exteriorize their suffering. It is this respective suffering that makes them recognize each other and attracts them to each other.
- Both have complicated relationships with their fathers, (on a different scale, but all the same) for Suzu it’s the lack of communication, for Kei it’s the mistreatment he suffers from the latter.
- Finally, both seem to have a great trauma related to the death of their mother. For Suzu this is the theme of the film. For Kei, it is in subtext with the portrait of a scratched and blurry woman hanging in her castle.
They love each other, and declare it, without seeing it in a romantic way. The song “A Million Miles Away” performed by Suzu at the end of the film represents both her personal healing, her love for her mother, and her love for the Beast. She sings to convince Kei to trust her, so that he will allow her to save him. But to be able to save him, she must first reveal herself as she is, that is to say as Suzu and thus face who she really is, without any artifice, that is to say “ Belle ”. Facing the trauma of his mother’s death and moving on, healing himself. In other words, she must first save herself. During this scene, there are multiple flashbacks, such as the death of his mother and the moments spent with the Beast. Suzu finally understands why her mother was so able / cared to save the life of a stranger, since now she has the same goal. The song is clearly a love song, “I send you this I love you through my song” addressed as much to his mother as Kei/the Beast. Once she meets him in reality, Kei returns that “I love you” and she thanks him. They are two beings who found comfort in each other, who understood, recognized and positively influenced each other. Suzu inspires Kei to be braver and try harder. She gave him hope. As Kei freed Suzu’s heart from fear.
Nevertheless, it’s still a adaptation of “Beauty and the Beast”, and contrary to what many say, I don’t find that the romance between these two characters is completely evacuated, although the heroine seems “in love” with his friend childhood: Shinobu.
The romantic subtext is notably present through :
- Songs. It is very clear that they can just as much be read in a platonic way as in a romantic way, the choice of interpretation being entirely left to the spectator.
- The cinematography, more specifically through the shots.
First of all, there is this passage, where the friends of Suzu’s deceased mother tell her that she is in love with a boy “a bad boy” that she would be the only one who could understand. But Suzu’s friend clearly does not belong to this category! The insinuation (which I don’t think is gratuitous) is therefore very clear to the viewer. One of the women even explains that when she was in high school, she wrote a song for the boy she loved and sang it to him. Moreover, this passage takes place just after a scene between Beauty and the Beast.
The next scene, we see Suzu thinking about the lyrics of a song. And while her thoughts are first focused on his childhood friend, they eventually drift to the Beast, to whom she later sings the song during their dance.
The shot of the dance stage frames their faces, where the characters look into each other’s eyes. Then, Beauty closes her eyes and leans towards the Beast, almost as if to kiss him. Following this, the Beast then closes his eyes, while Belle reopens them and smiles upon seeing that the Beast has closed hers before giving her a long hug.
As for the end of the movie, when the characters meet in the real world, we are entitled to an embrace, coupled with a face to face face to face, with again a close shot where they look each other in the eye, confessing how much they influenced/changed each other, their eyes sparkling respectively.
This type of framing immerses the two characters (and the spectators) in a great intimacy (although they are not alone) and it is typically the kind of cinematographic code that one finds in couples / romantic duos.
Yes, Beauty (Suzu) and the Beast (Kei) aren’t really in love. Again, they love each other and declare it, without seeing / thinking it romantically. (and it’s fucking beautiful…) But that doesn’t preclude the romantic subtext between the two. I see the meeting of Suzu and Kei as that of two kindred spirits, (whatever meaning one gives to this term) which I think that over time, once they both have overcome their traumas and improved their situation, they will most likely be able to develop a relationship of a romantic nature.
Especially since it is very clear that Shinobu, for whom the heroine has a crush, does not share her feelings. Or at least, nothing indicates it in the movie.
