A young boy, Yoki is climbing a mountain path with his mother in a pouring rain when suddenly the rainsoaked ground is swept away crushing his mother in a landslide and leaving the boy injured. The boy searches for her while being observed by a woman. The scene shifts to a winter landscape, a traveling man, Ginko played by Joe Odagiri (Kamen Rider Kuuga, Azumi ) inquires at a house if he might stay in their shed until the storm passes he’s invited in, he then tells them his name and occupation. The servant, who’d invited him in, informs him that the homeowner would like to see him. He meets with her where she asks him to give a diagnosis of three of her servants who’d lost hearing in one ear a common occurrence in the mountain village. The owner tells him that their ancestors told that this was caused by a Mushishi.I had never watched the anime or read the manga but I know that both are pretty highly regarded so I had high expectations for the movie but I was pretty disappointed in the result. I found it very slow, the plot at times just lumbering along. The best parts for me were when he was working on his cures for the people he met along the way, such as the arc of the movie with Yu Aoi (Hana and Alice, Osen) as Tanyu and the opening case of Un and AH Mushishi. His back story was just too slow and uninteresting to me. I liked it enough to someday find the time to watch the anime where the back story spread over more cases would be more interesting to me.Direct download the movie here. The soft subs are here.
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