Polygon.com / 26.04.25

How the Legend of Ochi director found his perfect throat-whistler

In A24s new fantasy adventure movie The Legend of Ochi, the titular apelike creatures communicate via strange chirps and whistles. Their unique vocals become a pivotal plot point, especially after lonely 12-year-old Yuri (Helena Zengel) runs off to return a baby ochi to its colony deep in the forest. For the most part, people like Yuris father (Willem Dafoe) view the ochi as aggressive, but Yuri learns that theyre not as dangerous as her village believes. [Ed. note: This post contains slight spoilers for The Legend of Ochi.] Yuri eventually learns how to communicate with the creature, and later, learns from her estranged mother (Emily Watson) that the ochi sometimes engage in a beautiful, harmonious song all together. Writer-director Isaiah Saxon had a very clear idea of what he wanted the ochi to sound like a mix of musical birdsong and dolphin noises, but realistically made by a primate. One serendipitous encounter on YouTube really made everything click together.  I was looking f...
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