{"id":1185108,"date":"2026-02-16T03:19:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T03:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/?p=563844"},"modified":"2026-02-16T03:19:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T03:19:10","slug":"how-the-legend-of-ochi-director-found-his-perfect-throat-whistler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/how-the-legend-of-ochi-director-found-his-perfect-throat-whistler\/","title":{"rendered":"How the Legend of Ochi director found his perfect throat-whistler"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In A24\u2019s new fantasy adventure movie The Legend of Ochi<\/em><\/a>, the titular apelike creatures communicate via strange chirps and whistles. Their unique vocals\u00a0become 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 Yuri\u2019s father (Willem Dafoe) view the ochi as aggressive, but Yuri learns that they\u2019re not as dangerous as her village believes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

[Ed. note: <\/strong>This post contains slight spoilers for The Legend of Ochi.<\/em>]<\/p>\n

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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 \u2014 a mix of musical birdsong and dolphin noises, but realistically made by a primate. One serendipitous encounter on YouTube really made everything click together. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was looking for human sounds, and I looked up the term \u2018throat-whistling\u2019 on YouTube,\u201d Saxon told Polygon ahead of the movie\u2019s release. \u201cI found this guy named Paulythebirdman Manalatos<\/a>. He just had one video on his account, and it was him in a hoodie in his basement. And he’s like, \u2018Hey guys, I figured out this thing I can do in the back of my throat. I sound like a bird.\u2019 And he goes, \u2018Aah!\u2019 The thing that comes out of his mouth is the actual audio that we used in the movie. I’ve ripped it from YouTube. The first time the ochi speak is that<\/em> recording from that YouTube video.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saxon says he reached out to Manalatos, who was immediately drawn to the movie\u2019s script. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe said, \u2018Oh my God, this is my life story. My mom was out of the picture, and I turned to black metal and throat-whistling to express myself,\u2019\u201d Saxon said. <\/em>\u201cWe got him into the booth, recorded him for a couple of days, just going through the whole script, and just like any other actor, hitting every little emotional beat through throat-whistling. It was incredible. In the edit, I mixed in a little bit of mockingbird and raven and whale for the larger adult ochi, but it’s almost all him.\u201d<\/p>\n

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