Parents' Guide to The Village (2023)

Movie NR 2023 120 minutes
The Village (2023) movie poster: in front of a traditional Japanese theater stage, as assortment of Japanese people are lined up facing forward

Common Sense Media Review

JK Sooja By JK Sooja , based on child development research. How do we rate?

age 15+

Drab thriller has sexual violence, gore, and blood.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 15+?

Any Positive Content?

  • The Village (2023): A Japanese man center sits looking forward and left toward a stage performance
  • The Village (2023): A Japanese man center hunches over looking at a Japanese Noh mask in his hands
  • The Village (2023): A Japanese woman left and a Japanese man right each hold a fan horizontally in their left hands and face forwards as they practice a Japanese Noh dance performance

Parent and Kid Reviews

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What's the Story?

In THE VILLAGE, a depressed young man named Yu (Ryûsei Yokohama) must work off a debt incurred by his mother and her gambling habit. Working and living in a traditional Japanese village, Yu sorts trash -- until he gets a break when an old childhood friend comes back from Tokyo to work for the company that owns the waste plant. She gets him a better role and soon things start to look up. But sometimes bad things happen to good people.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say : Not yet rated
Kids say : Not yet rated

Unfortunately, this drab thriller is a downer, and its redeeming qualities don't make up for it. The beautiful cinematography in The Village, for example, doesn't make up for how gray, dark, and boring the visuals generally are. Almost entirely, the story is one long downward spiral toward a violent end. Except for a brief period of happiness, this tragedy is a long watch and isn't very entertaining. While some viewers may feel for main characters Yu and Misaki, it's clear from the beginning that there will be no happy conclusion for them, nor will there be any justice for the unfortunate things that happen to them.

Understandably, being a tragedy, the terrible things that keep happening to Yu and Misaki are part of the genre and "meaning" of the story, but beyond the idea that sometimes people just have hard lives and cannot escape cruel and unfair fates, there isn't much else here. Sure, the themes here are trying to play off traditional Japanese Noh theater and drama, but this connection is so loosely and vaguely drawn that it's hard to figure out where and what the message is exactly. There are hints of a supernatural element that are teased early on here and there, but none of these are ever followed through on clearly.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about violence in thrillers. Was the violence in The Village over the top? Do you think the moments of gore, blood, and injury detail were justified? Why, or why not?

  • Could you tell where this movie was headed? If so, how could you tell?

  • Yu and Misaki make difficult decisions in this film. Would you have done the same? Why, or why not?

  • What do you think Noh (classical Japanese dance and performance, a kind of theater) has to do with the story? Do you think this connection was well established? Why, or why not?

Movie Details

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The Village (2023) movie poster: in front of a traditional Japanese theater stage, as assortment of Japanese people are lined up facing forward

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