Sneha Jaiswal's Blog, page 37

Holland Review: Suburban Secrets Boil Over in Last Act

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)

Nancy, a school teacher at an American town called Holland, starts suspecting her ‘perfect’ husband of having an affair when she finds polaroid photos in his shelves. They don’t own a polaroid camera. Her private investigation into her husband’s whereabouts with a fellow teacher leads to unravelling of secrets nobody is prepared for.

Created by Mimi Cave (director) and Andrew Sodroski (writer), the 2025 movie ‘Holland’ stars Nicole Kidman as protagonist Nancy, while Matthew MacFadyen plays her Optometrist husband Fred Vandergroot. Gael Garcia Bernal portrays Dave Delgado, Nancy’s colleague, the innocent (sort of) bystander who becomes ‘collateral damage’ in the murky affairs of the Vendergroot family.

There’s something off about everything in “Holland” right from the start – from its clearly cosmetic setting of a small, wannabe Dutch town in America, to its ‘happy’ inhabitants, whose biggest life event is attending the Tulip Festival. It’s hard not to think of Kidman’s movie Stepford Wives, which was all about picture-perfect families living in a dreamy suburb with twisted secrets.

Although, in Holland, the eventual story twist is more personal, even if staggeringly shocking. But the super slow pace, and the deceptively bland first act about an evidently bored wife trying to play Nancy Drew and possibly solve a mystery that might not even exist, makes it hard to care about Kidman’s character. Besides, Nancy’s credibility is derailed at the very beginning of Holland, which opens with her suspecting her son’s babysitter of stealing an earring, only one, not even the entire pair, which, obviously seems highly unlikely. Nancy’s son Harry (Jude Hill) spends most of the movie being upset with her, although towards the climax, there’s a significant shift in their relationship.

Matthew MacFadyen’s role is relatively small in comparison to that of Kidman, but manages to be unsettling as Fred Vandergroot, whose patience and forgiving attitude towards Nancy makes you start questioning what their history is. He is almost always smiling, but one can sense something seething underneath, you just don’t know what. Nancy mentions how he ‘saves’ her and gives her a new life, but unfortunately, we never get their back story. Gael García Bernal as Nancy’s friend Dave provides the rare comical moments in Holland, and most of them aren’t necessarily intentional. Dave is shifty, an ‘outsider’ in the town, whose attempts to help Nancy seem to stem more from a need to belong than from any real romance or affection between them.

If there’s one thing I really liked about Holland, it’s the way it cleverly portrays people trapped in self-dug graves. Nancy feels bored and trapped in her marriage, but instead of taking the straightforward route to end it, she tries to uncover an affair, hoping to pin the blame on Fred and secure easy custody of their son. She’s the kind of person who prioritizes social status and appearances, even if maintaining the facade comes at a high personal cost. The town thus becomes representative of people like her, it’s merely a hollow imitation of the place they aspire to be in, but comes nowhere close. The film attempts to be a biting thriller but ends up only half-engaging, despite a fairly intense climax. If the first half had been more tightly written, Holland could have been far more memorable.

Rating: 2.5 on 5. Watch ‘Holland’ on Prime Video.

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Reading Why Nations Fail

Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)

Phew!

That was a long read. And I cannot bring myself to rate ‘Why Nations Fail’ by Daron Acemoğlu, James A. Robinson because despite being quite tedious and repetitive at times, it’s also a wealth of knowledge, with several intriguing theories, all accompanied by fascinating historical anecdotes and real tales.

I began reading ‘Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty’ in August 2024 and finally finished it in March 2025, during that duration, lots of things transpired, including Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson winning the Nobel Prize in Economics for their theories in October 2024. At least, I picked the right book to understand why economies around the world struggle with growth in comparison to first world nations.

So what’s the crux of the book? The writers, through historical examples, illustrate how extractive institutions and extractive governments, the ones who are only interested in fattening their own coffers by exploiting citizens, cannot achieve long-lasting economic growth. That sounds pretty simple right, as if you could’ve come up with the finding yourself… but well, the real life applications and implications are far more complex than that. So the authors go centuries back, tracing the history of inclusive democracies, and why poorer nations are unable to repeat the same formula or success.

The book opens with a striking illustration: two cities with identical weather, topography, and people of the same racial background – yet vastly different in economic status and healthcare systems, simply because they lie on opposite sides of a border governed by two very different political systems. It reminded me of the time our family visited Nepal for the first time to attend a wedding. We were on the groom’s side, who lived in the Indian city of Raxaul, which borders Nepal’s Birgunj, where the bride’s family stayed. I was only 12 at the time, but I’ll never forget us walking from dusty Raxaul, where women still covered their faces with sarees, into Birgunj, which felt like stepping into a different dimension: it was cleaner, quieter, and the women wore hip jeans and shirts. It was like walking from the 1980s into the 2000s.

The point is, Why Nations Fail makes economic amateurs like me rethink the way we look at the world. From the fascinating history of how Australia became a dumping ground for Britain’s “unwanted,” to the differing ways South America and North America were colonized, the book is filled to the brim with historical examples that explain why modern institutions turned out the way they did.

This book can be tedious and repetitive, but it’s also absolutely worth a read if you aren’t an expert in Economics (like me) and enjoy historical anecdotes. What’s a fun non-fiction economics book? Freakonomics, an absolute breeze (both one & two), however, ‘Why Nations Fail’ offers a lot more ‘food for thought’ to readers.

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Spare Me Your Mercy Series Review: Deaths, Debates, & Doubts

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)

‘Spare Me Your Mercy’ is like an episode off popular crime shows, where a serial killer is on the loose, and a bunch of clueless cops are scrambling to solve the case.

Directed by Wo Worawit Khuttiyayothin (‘Century of Love’, ‘Laws of Attraction’), the eight-episode Thai series is based on the novel “Euthanasia” (การุณยฆาต) by Sammon. JJ Krissanapoom Pibulsonggram plays primary protagonist Thiu, a serious young cop, who transfers from the big city to his village to take care of his terminally ill mother. When Thiu’s mother passes away before he makes it to the village, he begins to be get suspicious of the circumstances under which she died when another terminally ill patient dies prematurely in the village, with clear signs of home intrusion. As he probes the case, he becomes entangled with the village’s beloved doctor Dr. Kantaphat, portrayed by Tor Thanapob Leeratanakach.

Now since the series is called ‘Spare Me Your Mercy’, viewers can guess a major twist in the tale within the first five minutes of the series, although, to the creators’ credit, it’s revealed in the first episode anyway. We all know something is fishy about the doctor, even Thiu finds him suspicious, but the doctor’s radiant smile and inherent charm begins to slowly melt his heart. Everybody Thiu meets during the course of his investigation only has words of praise for the Doc, labeled as ‘angel’ by many. But perhaps he has too soft a heart and is killing off his own patients as an act of ‘mercy’, because he cannot watch them suffer?

Some of the other suspicious characters in the tale are a senior nurse called Onanong (Fresh Arisara Wongchalee), Somsak the director of the local hospital (Gandhi Wasuwitchayagit), and a young pharmacist called Boss Chanchai (Aelm Bhumibhat Thavornsiri). Each of them seem to have their personal agendas. Aelm Bhumibhat Thavornsiri stands out as the eccentric Boss, who is revealed to have a tragic childhood, marred with abuse, and severe trauma. Boss is quiet on the outside, but emotionally turbulent and unwittingly malevolent. Fresh Arisara as nurse Onanong serves as steady supporting character, who is always by Dr. Kantaphat’s side, almost like a protective maternal figure.

‘Spare Me Your Mercy’ isn’t the most suspenseful thriller, you can see the twists coming, but it does raise a powerful question: should euthanasia be legal in Thailand? There are two doctors in the series who stand on opposite sides of the debate, one calls it nothing but murder, while the other sees it as offering terminally ill patients, who are expected to die in a few months anyway, a dignified death without inevitable suffering.

The quaint remote village where the story is set in, offers a visually pleasant backdrop for this divisive debate. One episode is particularly moving, where a local tribe is shown to be prepared for one of their members to die, welcoming his death with rituals, instead of drowning in tears of grief. The community spirit, traditions, and emotional connections between families offers a fresh break from stories set in big cities. The background music is also good, particularly a track called ‘Just A Tale’ by Nont Tanont, which fittingly plays behind a romantic sequence in the show.

JJ Krissanapoom Pibulsonggram and Tor Thanapob Leeratanakach as the police-doctor protagonists have great screen presence, although the romantic tension between them isn’t electric. But well, this isn’t a romantic-drama, so it’s okay. However, since the suspense is slim, ‘Spare Me Your Mercy’ could’ve been a lot more entertaining as a 2 hour movie, instead of being an overstretched eight-episode series.

The climactic episode is a mixed bag, but at least it doesn’t take a conventional ‘happy ending’ route, instead offering a charged confrontation between the protagonists, closing the story on a grey note.

Rating: 6 on 10. The series is on iQIYI.

Paradise Review: Years for Euros, Ethics Optional

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Kartik Sudershan (Twitter | Instagram)

Sophie Theissen (Iris Berben) is the CEO of AEON, a biotech company that offers people a second chance at youth. They can regrow limbs, reverse age, and essentially sell time itself. The catch? Someone else must give up their years in exchange for money. The wealthy pay, and the poor, often from refugee camps or slums, sell off decades of their lives to survive in this German dystopian film by Boris Kunz, Simon Amberger, and Peter Kocyla.

AEON’s star salesman, Max (Kostja Ullmann), is particularly adept at persuading the desperate to make these life-altering sacrifices. Business is booming for this corporate giant, until the radical anti-AEON group, the Adam Group, begins targeting recipients in an effort to expose and dismantle the system they deem unethical.

Despite the rising violence, AEON’s board, ironically all youthful thanks to donated years, pressures Sophie to boost profits while cutting research budgets. Max remains loyal until tragedy strikes: a fire in his home leaves him €2.5 million in debt. To his horror, his wife Elena (Marlene Tanczik) had put up her 40 remaining years as collateral. In an instant, she ages dramatically, and Max finally sees AEON’s system for what it is: exploitation disguised as innovation.

When he learns that the beneficiary of Elena’s years is none other than Sophie herself, Max snaps. He kidnaps Sophie, and with Elena, flees to Lithuania to find an underground company that promises to reverse the process. But a twist awaits: the woman they kidnapped is not Sophie, but her daughter, Marie. The Adam Group catches up to them and plans to use Marie as bait. The final act spirals into chaos, exposing cracks in both Max and Elena’s moral compasses. The plot is further complicated by cracks in the primary couple’s relationship, which given the struggles they go through, feels foisted in the tale only for emotional brownie points.

While Paradise presents itself as a sleek sci-fi thriller, it’s clearly a metaphor for modern capitalism, where the rich extend their luxuries at the cost of the poor’s very essence. The performances are uniformly strong, the story gripping, and the pacing tight—wrapping up effectively in just about an hour. However, for a film set in a dystopian future, ‘Paradise’ often doesn’t look futuristic enough, there’s something dated about the cinematography and settings that dilute the visual authenticity of the tale.

But well, except for a few plot and pacing hiccups, ‘Paradise’ is an entertaining dystopian tale that raises interesting questions about youth, beauty and humanity.

Rating: 7.5/10. Watch ‘Paradise’ on Netflix.

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Flowers of Evil Volume 5 Review: Michief and Despair

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)

Last volume wasn’t my favourite, but I was hoping for a new character to step in and bring some new twists in the tale. That doesn’t exactly happen, but Ai, Saeki’s close friend does become a more prominent character in “Flowers of Evil” volume 5, unlike a forgettable supporting face.

Volume 4 of Flowers of Evil ends with Kasuga clearly picking Nakamura over his crush Saeki, while the latter surprisingly continues to be mad about the boy, even after finding out he had stolen her gym clothes. Volume 5 shows Kasuga in a new light; he is no longer as shy and quiet as he was before. Instead, he is up to new mischief with encouragement from Nakamura. Some of their nonsensical antics include hanging underwear on a statue at school.

The primary focus of this volume is Saeki’s attempts to bring Kasuga back to her side through desperate measures. Saeki is determined to tear up the new pair, while her best friend Ai wants to report Kasuga and Nakamura to the cops. Kasuga and Nakamura, however, are busy living in their own twisted bubble, constantly plotting new ways to shake up their sleepy town, which now includes doing something on a much larger scale at the upcoming summer festival. Their dynamic is clearly a lot more sadomasochistic now, with Nakamura treating Kasuga like her slave dog, and the latter more than happy to comply.

Again, I have mixed feelings about this volume and feel that Saeki’s obsession with Kasuga doesn’t make a lot of sense. The love triangle is being dragged out by the creator for the sake of adding sexual tension to the story. And, as I also wrote previously, the actions/pranks by Kasuga and Nakamura have lost their shock value and feel repetitive now. The last few pages do have a lot of tension, mild violence, and a twist that lands all three protagonists in a lot of trouble. If nothing else, Shuzo Oshimi really manages to make the reader wonder how the tale is going to continue.

Rating: 2.5 on 5.

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Tall Dark and Handsome: Short Film Review

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)

Varun is a young British-Indian man, nervous and excited about asking his pregnant girlfriend Ellie to marry him. He’s got a ring and all that. But when they run into Ellie’s ex-boyfriend, who happens to be an Indian-origin man, Varun starts wondering if Ellie has a ‘type’, leading to a changing point in their relationship.

Created by Sam Baron and Amit Shah, the short film “Tall Dark and Handsome” is a clever dark comedy about how Varun (played by Amit Shah) begins to overthink his girlfriend’s (Laura Aikman) behavior. He begins to freak out, wondering if she her over-enthusiasm about Indian people and culture is a red flag. Is that a fetish? Should that be a problem? Or is Varun the one spiraling?

“(You called her Mummyji?) I’ve literally never called her Mummy-ji!” Varun tells Ellie after a pleasant dinner with his parents. I’ll give him the slight benefit of the doubt: it is a little weird to hear someone else call your parents ‘Mom,’ ‘Dad,’ or any other variant of parental endearment, especially if they’re not your sibling.

Amit Shah is excellent as the anxious Varun, portraying the character’s fears, doubts, and insecurities with sharp ease, it’s both convincing and mildly comedic. Laura Aikman, as his cheery girlfriend Ellie (who may or may not have a fetish), is also entertaining as the quintessential “white girl who goes for brown boys.” Both sides of the family make brief appearances in the tale to highlight the cultural differences between the two of them.

The best part about Tall, Dark, and Handsome is that the couple directly confronts Varun’s concerns, engaging in a pleasantly candid and charged debate over whether Ellie’s preference for Indian men should be considered problematic. The creators also provide satisfying closure to this bubbling tension between the two. With wit and subtlety, they depict how personal insecurities can be projected onto a partner, leading to self-sabotage.

If this came to me as a script to edit, I don’t think I’d have any suggestions for improvement, except that it could’ve added a few more minutes of arguments and subtle racial tensions. For a 14 minute short film, “Tall Dark and Handsome” is tense, darkly funny, and ends with a pretty good twist, which packs in a psychological and moral lesson too.

Rating: 5 on 5. Watch it on YouTube, it’s also embedded below.

Tender Is the Night – And Hard It Is To Read

Rating: 1 out of 5.

Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)

It’s difficult to explain in words how awestruck I was as a literature undergrad when I read The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald – not because of the plot, but because of the way he spun some sentences with an effortless, effervescent charm. Unfortunately, not even the slightest sliver of that literary magic was to be seen in “Tender Is the Night”.  So, it took me almost 3 months to finish reading the novel, which if it were interesting, shouldn’t have taken me more than 3 weeks, and that is if I were hard-pressed for time, and not more than three days otherwise. Sigh.

I’ve been dreading write this review, just as much as I dreaded picking up “Tender is the Night” over the many weeks it took me to come to its end. The novel starts from the point-of-view of 18-year-old actress Rosemary Hoyt, who is holidaying at the French Riviera with her mother and falls in love at first sight with an older handsome man she spots on the beach. The fact that he is already married, doesn’t deter the young actor from pursuing a dalliance. We learn the man is Dick Diver, a 34-year-old psychiatrist, who is married to Nicole Diver and has two kids with her. Despite his marital status, Rosemary and Dick start an affair and through flashbacks we learn about Dick’s turbulent life with Nicole, and the source of all his problems is Dick himself. Yep, Dick is a Dick.

The flashbacks also reveal that Nicole was originally a patient at the facility where Dick works. So… let’s just say, if a psychiatrist like Dick Diver existed today, he wouldn’t just be ‘cancelled’, he could even face some potential jail time. This tale hasn’t aged well at all, is problematic in its themes, over-romantic in certain other areas, and is just an unreadable mess. But given how good Scott’s writing style is, I kept reading, hoping for the story to get better at some point, and honestly, somewhere in the second half, it does offer some tragically interesting backstory to why Nicole was in a mental health institution at a very tender age, but it only makes the overarching tale seem even more problematic.

If you’re a little confused about whether you should be reading Tender Is the Night, just ask yourself if you’re okay with a male protagonist who takes advantage of a mentally ill patient, marries her, then blatantly cheats on her with a younger woman, all in the name of romance or escape. Of course, the tale isn’t that simple. Dick dives into a hellish hole he creates for himself by marrying someone he knew wasn’t mentally stable, leading to lots of problems in the union. And while the author doesn’t explicitly state that Dick might have married Nicole not just for her beauty but also for the great wealth she comes with, you can’t help but be suspicious that the money could’ve been a great motivator too. He is hardly ever working in the novel, and is mostly just hosting parties and chilling by the beach, which has to be on his wife’s money. So yeah, Dick is definitely a dick. That’s my biggest takeaway from this novel.

Rating: 1 on 5 stars.

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Shotgun Wedding Review: Random AF But Funny Enough

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)

“At no time during our wedding did I imagine walking through the jungle holding a hand grenade!”

There are thousands of ways a wedding celebration can go wrong, but having it gate-crashed by a crazed group of violent pirates who hold all wedding guests hostage in a swimming pool will probably not make it to a 1000 Ways to Ruin a Wedding list. Created by Jason Moore (director) and Mark Hammer (writer), the romantic comedy “Shotgun Wedding” stars Jennifer Lopez and Josh Duhamel as bride Darcy and groom Tom Fowler, whose destination wedding in the Philippines is taken over by armed pirates. The couple must save their loved ones—but before that, they have to resolve their own last-minute differences.

One of the earliest funny twists in “Shotgun Wedding” comes within the first fifteen minutes, in a scene where Darcy’s ex-boyfriend Sean Hawkins (Lenny Kravitz) arrives at the wedding venue in a helicopter. Dude doesn’t even RSVP, wasn’t even invited by Darcy, but shows up after being asked by her dad, because they used to work together. Groom Tom Fowler fumes at the unexpected cameo and starts having last-minute jitters on the day of the wedding. So when everyone at the wedding is getting kidnapped and intimidated, the bride and groom are having a meltdown in a different part of the resort, unaware of what’s happening. But once they learn of the situation, they try to tackle the pirates, one by one, in hilariously violent ways.

Cheech Marin plays Darcy’s wealthy father Robert Rivera, while D’Arcy Carden plays his young new girlfriend Harriet. Jennifer Coolidge provides plenty of funny moments as Carol Fowler, the groom’s mother, with Steve Coulter playing the father. Lenny Kravitz is super fit for his age—and yes, very good looking too—but his part in the movie falls flat; someone with better comedic presence was needed. Perhaps Dwayne Johnson or maybe Mark Wahlberg. The movie, of course, is largely steered by Jennifer Lopez and Josh Duhamel as the lead couple working to get rid of the pirates and save their relationship. Their antics include getting stuck with an unpinned hand grenade, which naturally leads to some mad moments.

The ‘jungle-beach’ location of their wedding resort serves as a great visual element in “Shotgun Wedding,” slightly reminiscent of Sandra Bullock’s action-comedy “The Lost City,” which also came out in the same year. In that, you’ve got Sandra in a blindingly shiny dress trying to survive in a ruthless jungle; in this, we get Jennifer Lopez in a gorgeous dress that keeps getting progressively ripped through the wedding day. But she still continues to look as great as ever, even when only half her wedding dress is left on her, with stains and dirt that would make many other brides look like homeless women in discarded tatters.

“Shotgun Wedding” has several funny moments, some are too over the top and random, but quite a few manage to evoke laughs. However, unlike its title, the film’s 1 hour 41 minute runtime really begins to bog the pace down. The creators should’ve chopped the length by 15 minutes at least, if not more. Regardless, it’s a pretty fun movie to watch on the weekend with friends, especially if you’re a JLo fan.

Rating: 3 on 5. Watch ‘Shotgun Wedding’ on Netflix.

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Baban Baban Ban Vampire Season 1 Review

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

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“Baban Baban Ban Vampire” is a wacky vampire comedy anime that’s meant for adult viewers who enjoy fantasy fiction and comedy laced with sexual innuendos and is based on the manga by Aya Fumio. The series follows Ranmaru Mori, a 450-year-old vampire who works in a Japanese bathhouse, with his eyes set on the owner’s teen son, Rihito Tatsuno. Ranmaru’s peculiar preference? Drinking the blood of pure, virginal, 18-year-old boys. But he has a rule: he must wait until they turn 18. Until then, he has to fend off others who might corrupt his “meal.” ​

With quirky characters, absurd misunderstandings, and over-the-top humor, this series is a riotous twist on vampire tropes. Ranmaru Mori is based on a real historic Japanese figure by the same name, who was a famous Samurai working for Oda Nobunaga. After surviving the human world for over four centuries, the Ranmaru Mori of “Baban Baban Ban Vampire” starts working in a bathhouse, with the sole agenda of devouring the owner teen son Rihito, when the boy comes of age.

But as soon as Rihito starts a new school year, he falls for his classmate Aoi Shinozuka, a sweet and charming girl. Alarmed, Ranmaru begins scheming to prevent Rihito from being lured away by a teenage crush, going so far as to drive Aoi off. However, in an unexpected twist, Aoi ends up falling for Ranmaru instead, though he remains completely unaware. What follows is a hilarious love triangle that only grows more chaotic as new characters enter the scene, many with romantic eyes on either Ranmaru or Rihito. Season 1 of “Baban Baban Ban Vampire” was airing as the same time as “Sakamoto Days,” and some of this vampire comedy episode were much funnier.

The animation has a nostalgic feel, reminiscent of early 2000s anime, and stays loyal to the manga’s character designs. While the anime quality isn’t the best, it’s adequately entertaining to keep viewers engaged. The first episode sets the tone with Ranmaru dancing to a track called “Bad Vampy,” his moves are very similar to Michael Jackson’s iconic moon-walk, in-fact, the way Ranmaru dresses up when he goes out ‘hunting’ in the night, also seems inspired by Michael’s pop songs.

As the series progresses, the plot thickens with the introduction of new characters and increasingly absurd situations. By episode 4, Ranmaru enlists the help of Franken, a muscly teen thug, to keep girls away from Rihito, a plan that hilariously backfires. ​The introduction of Sakamoto, a vampire-hunter and high school teacher, in episode 5 adds some mystery and violence in the series. His personal vendetta against Ranmaru leads to unexpected alliances and comedic confrontations. Episode 6 delves into Ranmaru’s past, revealing his tragic relationship with Sakamoto’s ancestor and adding depth to the otherwise lighthearted narrative.

The series doesn’t shy away from introducing even more characters to stir the pot. Episode 8 introduces Kaoru Yamabe, a purple-haired gyaru girl with a tough exterior and a complicated home life. Her aggressive interest in Rihito and clashes with Ranmaru inject fresh energy into the storyline. By episode 9, misunderstandings abound, with Ranmaru concocting harebrained schemes to keep Aoi away from Rihito, all while remaining oblivious to Aoi’s crush on him.

The penultimate episodes ramp up the chaos, with episode 11 introducing yet another unexpected love triangle, handled in a comical manner that keeps the tone light. Episode 12 serves as a breezy “filler” episode but ends on a menacing note, hinting at violent trouble in the form of a new vampire. ​

Overall, “Baban Baban Ban Vampire” is a rollercoaster of comedic chaos, filled with misunderstandings, eccentric characters, and unexpected twists. While it may not be the kind of show that leaves you on the edge of your seat, its quirky charm and unabashed silliness make it an entertaining watch. Just don’t expect any profound revelations – this anime is all about the laughs.

Rating: 3.5 on 5. Watch the series on Netflix.

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‘Shuna’s Journey’ Book Review

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)

“These things may have happened a long time ago; they maybe still to come. No one really knows anymore.”

Set in an isolated, impoverished little kingdom with failing crops, Shuna’s Journey by Hayao Miyazaki is inspired by a Tibetan folktale. Unable to watch his starving people work themselves to death to harvest barely enough grain, Prince Shuna embarks on a quest to find the fabled “golden grain,” which could solve his kingdom’s food shortage problem forever. The prince rides his loyal Yakkul, a creature that’s a cross between a camel and an elk, and the two of them face witches, bandits, and monsters along the way.

During his travels, Shuna meets a possible romantic partner, whom he soon parts with in order to continue his quest to locate the golden grain. In the second half of the graphic novel, Hayao Miyazaki takes our hero to the end of the world, where Shuna stumbles upon the “God-folk,” their part of the world filled with nature’s bounty – dense plants, flowers, creatures, and crops in full bloom. But of course, stealing the golden grain wouldn’t be easy. Shuna must risk everything, his body, his sanity, his spirit, to fulfill his dream of ruling a prosperous kingdom that never goes hungry again. It is his compassion and determination that ultimately define his strength.

The artwork in the book by Hayao Miyazaki for “Shuna’s Journey” is dreamy, with the water-paintings resembling pencil sketches, that lends them a childlike innocence. For those already familiar with Miyazaki’s works, the character illustrations are slightly similar to the work we see in his films, especially ‘Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind’. In fact, Shuna’s world is also a bit like the fantasy land of Nausicaä, which exists in its own time, a world that’s not densely populated, and is divided into scattered kingdoms, but not as post-apocalyptic in nature.

Shuna’s Journey is only 160 pages long, and despite its fantasy setting, its central theme is powerful – that being a benevolent ruler may not be easy, with a path laden with hardships, but a leader who puts their citizens first will ultimately be rewarded with success.

Rating: 4 on 5.

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