Ring Wandering

About an aspiring manga artist who searches for inspiration for his comics, Ring Wandering is generally well made and has a low-key charm, but it ultimately doesn’t entirely work. It’s certainly affable enough, and it goes places you wouldn’t necessarily expect — some nifty stuff happens (that I won’t spoil) — but ultimately, I’m just not sure that it particularly adds up to anything. It’s never a great sign when a movie ends and you’re like, “what was the point of that…?” It’s not even that the movie is particularly obtuse, and it certainly has its charms, but so much of it feels half-baked and borderline unfinished (in particular, the would-be emotional ending is thoroughly unearned).

** out of ****