While the internet IRL is drenched in morbidity and toxicity, Japanese filmmaker Mamoru Hosoda imagines a brighter semi-utopia in “Belle.” Five billion users have signed up to a virtual society called “U,” a vast chasm of lights and screens, and is populated by algorithmically generated avatars that supposedly bring out the person’s inner strengths.
For Suzu, a shy high school student, she enters U as an ethereal pink-haired songstress called Belle, whose angelic voice and inspiring songs quickly go viral.
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