Obsession. Strength. Trust.

International flavor imbues a French film about Japanese mountaineers, an American release set in a mythologized Southeast Asia and a Japanese anime set largely in a virtual world. Each deserves a look.

‘BELLE’

“Belle” is “Beauty and the Beast” in the virtual age, with commentary on papering over insecurities IRL with online avatars as a shy girl becomes a singing cyber-star. It’s full of the wildly imaginative visuals expected from a top anime director (Oscar-nominated Mamoru Hosoda). It’s also a musical, enlivened by songs that would fit on any J-pop station. And it veers into a serious drama about child abuse. What? There’s a method to the rainbow-colored madness. Hosoda says that hard turn is an expression of something he detected in the 18th century original version of the tale.

“If you look at the undertones in the story, it’s a very male-dominated society in which ideas of beauty are very restricted. That perception could be a form of violence that lurks just below the surface,” he said through a translator.

“In the movie, it’s a much more literal depiction of violence, but there’s this idea that it’s hidden just beneath the surface.”

He says the two sides of the Beast are clear even in the original, but “Beauty is very onedimensional — [just] this visually perceived beauty. Today, beauty is something that is self-defined, and how we think about it is important.

“So in the same way that the Beast has this duality, the Beauty should also have this duality. And one of the ways that’s expressed is strength. I think the strength that she finds is quite beautiful.”