Narai-juku

Narai-juku is a 2017 Japanese animated coming-of-age supernatural horror film written and directed by Gorō Miyazaki. The film was animated by Studio Ghibli for the Nippon Television Network, Dentsu, Hakuhodo DY Media Partners, Walt Disney Japan, Mitsubishi, Toho and KDDI and distributed by Toho. The film features Ty Simpkins as Ken Sukase and Mae Whitman as Koharu. Set in the eponymous town, the film tells the story of a group of seven outcast children who are terrorized by an extraterrestrial being, only to face their own personal demons in the process. The film received generally positive reviews, with critics praising the performances, animation, visuals and musical score. The sequel, Narai-juku Chapter Two, was released on September 13, 2019.

Cast
Ty Simpkins as Ken Sukase

Mae Whitman as Koharu

Release
The film was released on September 15, 2017.

Music
On March 23, 2017, Benjamin Wallfisch was announced as the composer of Narai-juku 's score. Wallfisch stated that Jerry Goldsmith, John Williams, Alan Silvestri, as well as Dave Grusin's composition for The Goonies (1985) were largely influential in the score of Narai-juku, as he felt so passionate about those "big thematic style of scoring", albeit at the same time wishing to go beyond the idea that it would be a purely orchestral and adventurous score. According to Wallfisch, he had to develop a theme for Pennywise which included finding and creating music that could infect all the other melodies as there are several themes in the film but the Koharu score is a very quiet and whispered childlike tune using very high strings. Wallfisch spoke of Koharu's second theme, inspired by Whitman's portrayal, in which he used the old children's song "Oranges and Lemons", which had always disturbed him as a child: "We knew we wanted some kind of children's song to signify Koharu's strange and demented inner monologue. I also very subtly use certain melodic fragments from it in other themes, for example the piano music that opens and closes the movie."

Transcript
Narai-juku/Transcript

Opening logos






Critical reception
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 86% based on 386 reviews, with an average rating of 7.30/10.