I opened Netflix to continue watching the Hometown Cha Cha Cha kdrama when I stumbled across the Violet Evergarden movie. It reminded me of my time at work in 2019 when my coworkers and I stayed after work to watch the Violet Evergarden TV show. The show was pretty emotional and I enjoyed watching her grow and learn more about herself and the world and use her letters to bring people closer together. So, I had to watch the movie.
The movie has a few different time periods, one time period is slightly after the TV show ended and the other main time period is a generation or two after she was alive. There were a lot of familiar aspects to the movie – Violet still loved Major Gilbert very much and longed to be by his side while she continued to work at the post office as a doll / scribe. The main customer Violet had in the movie was a terminally sick young boy in the hospital. Violet was kind enough to write a few letters to his parents and his little brother even though he didn’t have much money.
There were a few scenes that highlighted how much Violet continued to grieve for Gilbert, such as visiting his mother’s grave and gazing deeply at some brooches at a festival stand. After some investigation into an undelivered letter, the President of the postal office and Violet were able to track down the Major. The Major made a new life for himself and he continued to live with the regret that he failed his people and failed her. He was so ashamed that he couldn’t bear to face her and cast her away, similar to how Violet’s customer cast his family away when they visited him in the hospital. However, through the power of the written word, Violet was able to reach Gilbert’s heart and reunite after a long time apart.
I thought the movie was good. It was very similar to the TV show and the music and animation and the dialogue were basically the same style as well. It was crazy that the Major was actually alive. I am not sure what the plot of the movie would’ve been if he wasn’t in it, but I was not expecting him to be alive and well. It made me think that this was a cop out since she could’ve moved on with her life. But I’m glad that she was able to be happy in the end. The way that she is able to understand and communicate feelings and emotions to other people when she lived without for so long is amazing.
Jeffrey's Thoughts 