The Boy and the Beast

The Boy and the Beast (2015) is Mamoru Hosoda's animated fantasy, and you can watch it online on iFILM. Nine-year-old Ren has just lost his mother and bolted from his guardians. Alone on the streets of Shibuya, he slips through an alley into Jutengai — a parallel city run by beasts.

There he's adopted, more or less by accident, by Kumatetsu: a hot-tempered, friendless warrior who badly needs an apprentice and has no idea how to teach one. So they learn together, mostly by bickering. Renamed Kyuta, the boy grows up swinging a wooden sword and trading insults with a creature who is, underneath the gruffness, just as lost as he is. The Japanese voice cast includes Koji Yakusho as Kumatetsu and Aoi Miyazaki as the young Kyuta.

Made at Hosoda's Studio Chizu, the film returns to the question that runs through all his work: what makes a family when you have to build one yourself. It's a coming-of-age story with real fists in it — warm without going soft. Good pick for Hosoda fans and anyone who likes fantasy with a temper. Stream The Boy and the Beast (2015) online on iFILM.