Maybe you're fortunate enough that your mother is still alive and in your life. Maybe you have a sister or a cousin or a niece who is a mother you love. Or maybe you're married to a mother, or maybe you're a mother yourself. Either way, there aren't a lot of great movies out there about moms. But one of the best movies I've seen is also the best tribute to hard working single moms out there, and I don't mean that with any snark or sarcasm.

Wolf Children ([English trailer)[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SlB-SpDMKI); also available in Japanese with English subtitles) (known locally as Ōkami Kodomo no Ame to Yuki, lit. “Wolf Children: Ame and Yuki”) is a story about a single mother trying to raise two special-needs children (in this faerie tale, their special needs are that they’re literally werewolves, but it could be a stand-in for any atypical children). The city life doesn’t work for them, so they find a deal on a cheap house out in the country where they expect to be left alone. But, living off the land is harder than they thought, and they have to rely on a small town community to get by, but their mother has never been afraid of hard work.

While living in the country, she gives her kids (cubs?) the opportunity to grow as humans, or as wolves, or as a combination of both, but they also must face the consequences of their choice, since the family is known to not have pets, and wolves are endangered (and thus, rare, and considered pests) in Japan.

While the film is set in Japan, it’s been nearly fully translated to English. You can watch the full movie in English, with the exception of the song that plays at the end (and at times throughout). The song is only subtitled at the end, but you might not notice it’s saying anything as the lyrics seem to be hummed. Watch it through the credits, not because there’s a post-credits scene (there isn’t), but because the song will be subtitled… and you’re probably going to need a moment after the ending, anyway. Also, while the film takes place in both Tokyo and the rural countryside, there’s nothing you wouldn’t understand, not being from there. It’s all relatively straightforward. Even the names are explained. Hana (pronounced “hah-nuh”) means flower, and she is constantly shown in a field of flowers or with flowers. Yuki (pronounced “you-key”) means snow (the name of the girl) and ame (pronounced “ah-may”) means rain (the name of the boy), as it was snowing when she was born, and raining when he was. Rain and snow also feature later in the film as well, and this is deliberate. It’s a faerie tale, after all.

A lot of people like the snow chase scene (shown in the trailer), but my two favorite scenes are the classroom slide (as in, the camera will slide back and forth between the siblings’ classrooms) and the curtain scene. You will absolutely know what the curtain scene is when it happens.

Anyway, the point of posting this on Mothers Day is, while a lot of attention will be focused on the adorable werewolf cubs/wolf children, the mother really is the main character. The point of the movie never deviates from showing how hard mothers work and how much they sacrifice for their children, and that point isn’t any less clear by the time the credits roll. Is it a sad film? At times, yes, but mostly it’s an inspirational film. Wolf Children is also filmmaker Hosoda’s best work. His films Belle (based on Beauty and the Beast) is absolutely worth watching in 4K on a big screen. Summer Wars is also pretty, but a bit shallow. The Boy and the Beast, and Mirai (Japanese for “future”) both fell flat, IMO. That leaves The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, which is a solid time travel/time manipulation story that is worth watching, and his second best film.

You could do a lot worse for Mothers Day, but you’d be hard pressed to do better, at least as far as films go.