The main man Miyazaki made this movie in 1997. He said it would be his last, but then decided to make Spirited Away a few years later. Here is a statement, and I’m not just saying this to be a contrarian: I think Princess Mononoke is a better movie than Spirited Away. Now, put down your pitchfork and hear me out. Where Spirited Away fails, I think Princess Mononoke succeeds. Both films are excellent, don’t get me wrong and if you end up watching these two movies because of my blog then I think I have done my job.

The things that make Spirited Away fantastic are done just as well by Princess Mononoke while creating a cast of characters that act out a deep and thoughtful story. Now, this is usually the part where I give a blow by blow description of the film. However, this movie is almost 140 minutes long and we could be here for 2,000 words if I’m not careful so, I’m going to be a little more sparse in the plot description. Go watch the movie and come back.

We start out with a giant boar-demon attacking a small village. The prince of the village, Ashitaka, fights the boar and defeats but is wounded on his right arm. He goes to the wise woman and he tells him he must cut his man-bun off and leave the village never to return as a result of his demon-infected wound. He gets on his elk, Yakul, and shares a heartfelt good-bye with his younger sister who gives him a small dagger to remember her.

So we get some landscape shots of Ashitaka riding on Yakul’s back and the music swells. He rides by a village that is being attacked by samurai. They attack him and Ashitaka discovers that his wound has given him powers. How does he know this? Because he decapitates a dude with an arrow. Let me say that again. He cuts a guy’s head off with an arrow. This is no Disney movie, folks. The extent of Ashitaka’s powers are unclear but it’s safe to say he is super strong and takes less damage.

He comes across a town where a monk named Jigo helps him buy some rice. They talk about demons and spirits and stuff and Ashitaka gets on his way. Later, some people are driving oxen up a mountain and get attacked by giant wolves. They shoot the wolves and some guys fall down the mountain. Later on, Ashitaka finds some men injured in a river and carries them through the forest back to their town. He also sees a girl hanging out with some wolves. On the way through the forest, he sees the forest spirit. That’ll come up later.

Their town is a huge industrial complex that produces iron. It’s named: Iron Town, nice job Neil. Now would be a good time to mention that while the film is written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki the English dub is written by Neil Gaiman, so you know it’s good. Anyway, the town is led by the film’s best character, Lady Eboshi. She thanks Ashitaka for returning the men and allows him to stay in the town.

The town is made up of prostitutes, brothel girls, lepers, thieves, criminals, and all sorts of societal outcasts. The town produces iron and makes guns and ammo. Lady Eboshi explains that they have to cut down the forest to get the iron ore and the animals of the forest are fighting back. She talks about a giant boar that they shot and Ashitaka realizes that it’s the same boar that he fought and laid the curse on him. His cursed arm goes crazy and draws his sword but he is able to keep it under control. One of the lepers talks about how Lady Eboshi gives everyone in town a chance.

Lady Eboshi is a great character. Cinema has taught us that a character who runs a big corporation and chops down trees to dig iron would be a bad guy. However, Eboshi is a more complex character than that. She’s very funny, is nice to Ashitaka and welcomes all sorts of diverse people in her town. She’s voiced by Minnie Driver, who gives the best performance of the movie and is responsible for one of the great laughs of all time. Laugh

The wolf girl, San, shows up and fights Eboshi. This happens. Ashitaka gets shot by a woman from Iron Town and just keeps walking. He opens the massive town gate using his super strength. San takes Ashitaka to the forest and the spirits heal him. Ashitaka, San, some wolves hang out for a little while. The animals of the forest, chiefly the boars, start planning an attack on Iron Town. Meanwhile, Lady Eboshi starts making her plans to kill the spirit of the forest. She gets help from Jigo who has a letter from the emperor pardoning them for killing the Forest Spirit. He gives his men to Lady Eboshi for the attack. The animals start attacking and the people of Iron Town move into the forest to kill the Spirit of the Forest.

Ashitaka makes his way back to Iron Town and realizes that while the men are away with Eboshi the women and lepers have fallen under attack by samurai. Ashitaka rushes to the forest to tell Eboshi about the trap but she does nothing and pushes forward. They make it to the center of the forest and Lady Eboshi takes aim and shoots the Spirit of the Forest. She shoots it once but it does nothing. Then shoots it again and its head comes flying off. All hell breaks loose as Jigo takes the head.

Eboshi gets her arm bitten off by one of the wolves. A black fog emanates around the forest and Iron Town. It destroys Iron Town Ashitaka and sets fire to the forest. San and Ashitaka work together to get the head back from Jigo. Jigo gives the head back after a fight and hell stops breaking loose. Lady Eboshi thanks Ashitaka and he tells San he’ll stick around and help rebuild Iron Town.

Princess Mononoke is the best dub with the best voice acting yet. As I said earlier Neil Gaiman wrote the English dub and it’s really good. Everyone in the movie gives a really amazing vocal performance. Most English dubs of Studio Ghibli films have big movie stars as the voice talent. However, this has Billy Crudup, Claire Danes, Billy Bob Thorton, and Minnie Driver. All these people are good actors in their own right, but most people don’t see a movie and say, “Oh, Billy Crudup is in that, better go see it.” This helps the characters come through as opposed to just hearing an actor’s voice.

There is no good guy or bad guy in Princess Mononoke. Ashitaka is told by the wise woman at the beginning of the movie “to see with eyes unclouded by hate.” Ashitaka is a blank slate for the audience. We see the movie through his eyes and since they are unclouded we make our own decisions about the conflicts of the film. This is a stroke of genius by Miyazaki. This is part of the reason I think this movie is better than Spirited Away. Also, there isn’t any vomiting.

The message of the movie is that man and nature should live in harmony. This message is excellently delivered. The movie came out in 1997 so you might expect some Al Gore heavy-handed environmentalism, but that really isn’t the case. It’s very subtle and I think that’s better than even what I saw in Nausicaa.

I really like this movie. Roger Ebert called it “The Star Wars of animated films.” That’s high praise. If Miyazaki had kept his word and this truly was his last film I think it would be held in the same regard as Spirited Away. Anyway, here’s some music.

Tim’s Best Comment: When Tim first saw Jigo he said, “That guy is a bro.” After he takes the Spirit’s head he said, “I was wrong about him being a bro.”

Next Ghibli: Howl’s Moving Castle

Rating: 5/5

From Up on Poppy Hill is directed by Miyazaki. Not Hayao Miyazaki, but his son Goro Miyazaki. Goro did a pretty good job, that being said I liked this one a lot more than Tim did. It was a new one for me as it came out in 2011. The first part of the film is incredibly charming, then it takes a turn and it’s a doozy. I think the other elements of the film make up for said doozy and make this a solid effort.

The movie opens on a school-girl, Umi, waking up in the morning and preparing breakfast for her friends and family in her grandmother’s house. She explains that her father has passed and her mother is studying in America. Since then she lives in her grandma’s house and takes care of her sister and the renters of the house. She lives by a harbor in a town outside Tokyo. The harbor is especially busy since Tokyo has been awarded the 1964 Olympics.

As a part of her morning routine, she raises naval flags to signal ships in the harbor. We see one ship answer her flags but she does not see it. After some more getting ready for school scenes Umi and her sister Sora go to school. During lunch, a group of boys who spend their time in the school’s club house, known as the Latin Quarter, start making a demonstration to keep the clubhouse from being demolished. One of the boys jumps off the roof of the school and into a pool to show his dedication for the cause. He lands in the water and Umi quickly runs to help him up. The school newspapers take photos of this event and when Umi realizes that there are cameras around she lets go of the boy and he falls back into the pool.

In the early ’60s in Japan, there was a large emphasis on revitalizing the country. After the end of WWII and with the Olympics coming many people in Japan were focused on getting rid of the old and focusing on the new. The school clubhouse is in danger of being destroyed as a result of this thinking.

A day or so later Sora asks Umi to go inside the Latin Quarter with her to get a picture of the boy autographed. They go inside the clubhouse and are told that the boy is the head of the newspaper and they can find him in the same room as the archaeology department. As they walk through the dirty building they meet a cast of colorful characters, chief among them the philosophy club which is made of one guy who tries to tell them the meaning of life. They find the archaeology department and by the same token the newspaper. They meet Shun, the newspaper’s editor who jumped into the pool and Shiro, the class president. Sora gets the autograph and Shun asks Umi to help him with some printing.

I got a little emotional at this point. Shun is voiced by the late, great Anton Yelchin. I really liked Yelchin in the Star Trek movies. He was a great actor and it’s just such a shame that he died so prematurely. Anyway, RIP Anton Yelchin.

Umi does some work for Shun and returns home in the evening. She starts to make dinner but realizes that she needs some pork and doesn’t have enough. She rushes to the market but on her way runs into Shun on his bike. Shun gives her a ride as the song Sukiyaki plays in the background.

Sukiyaki is a great song. It was a big hit in Japan in the ’60s. I know it because it is a playable song in Wii Music. Anyway, here’s that. Sukiyaki The music in the rest of the movie is really good too. I’d say it’s the best music in any of the Studio Ghibli movies I’ve seen so far. It’s so chill and really represents the era of the movie. Morning Song

Shun and Umi get to know each other as Shun prepares for a debate where the students will argue what they want to be done with the Latin Quarter. The debate goes nowhere but later Umi convinces the student body to renovate the building to keep it from being torn down.

A few days later one of the renters of Umi’s grandmother’s house is having a going away party. They invite Shun and Shiro. Umi shows Shun around the house and shows him a picture of her father with two other men in naval attire. Shun is shocked to see this picture and quickly excuses himself. He goes home and looks at the very same picture.

After this scene, Tim said, “Oh, their dads were buds.” I was a little more suspicious though. The renovation of the Latin Quarter continues as Shun starts to ignore Umi. A few scenes later Shun goes to his step-father and asks if the man in the picture, the same one that Umi showed him, is truly his father. His father confirms and with that, this charming movie about Japanese school kids trying to save their clubhouse has turned into an incest mystery.

Now, I am perfectly aware of cultural differences between the East and West. And I also understand that this is all a metaphor for not being able to have everything you want in life, especially when you’re young. But, come on Miyazaki you didn’t have to make the leads brother and sister to illustrate this.

A few more scenes happen and Shun tells Umi what he has discovered. She is obviously distraught over this information, but they agree that have to just be friends (duh). The students have finished cleaning up the Latin Quarter, but Shiro informs them that the school board has decided to demolish the clubhouse without even having seen it cleaned up. Now the only person they can appeal to is the school Chairman who lives in Tokyo and is a prominent businessman. The students implore Shiro to appeal to the Chairman he agrees to go with Shun the next day if Umi comes with them. Umi agrees and the three of them go to Tokyo.

They wait for hours outside the Chairman’s office as they don’t have an appointment. Eventually, they get in to see him and Shiro makes his case. The Chairman admires their passion and agrees to come to the school the next day. That night, Shiro runs off into the city saying that he has to visit his uncle, leaving Umi and Shun alone. The two of them discuss their situation and profess their love for each other. But again, that would be incest so…….

That night Umi’s mother returns from her studies in America. Umi asks her mother about Shun and she sighs knowingly and pulls out the same picture with the three men. Apparently, everyone has this picture. She explains that one day shortly after WWII Umi’s father came home with the baby of one of the other guys in the picture who had just died.

The next day the chairman comes to their school and looks at the Latin Quarter. He makes light of the philosophy kid but is pleased overall with their work. He declares that they need a new building but that he’ll have to find somewhere else to put it. During this Umi gets a call saying that the third man in the picture is on a ship in the harbor and that he can tell Shun more about his father. They race to the harbor as their classmates celebrate the Latin Quarter being saved.

They get out to the ship and talk to the guy. The guy pulls out a picture, but this time it’s a different picture and he explains how Shun looks just like his father who is not, in fact, Umi’s father. They ride back to the shore and Shun stepdad winks at him knowingly as the credits roll. I guess this is not going to be an Arrested Development situation.

This movie was really charming and I liked it. The decision to do what I’ll refer to as ‘incest intrigue’ is an odd one and kind of takes away from how good the rest of the movie is. They could have and probably should have done something different. The rest of the movie sort helps prop all this up. Overall I think this was a solid entry from someone other than Hayao Miyazaki. Holy shit guys, I almost forgot to mention. Red River Valley is in this movie. It was one of the first songs I learned to play on the guitar and it holds a special place in my heart.

Tim’s Best Comment: “That’s April Ludgate!!!!!!” Referring to the fact that Aubrey Plaza voices a minor character in the film.

Next Ghibli: Princess Mononoke

Rating: 4/5

 

Yes, I know, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind is not technically a Studio Ghibli film. It was made before the studio’s founding in 1985, but come on. It was written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata is the producer and it came out only 1 year before Studio Ghibli came to be. So, I think it’s close enough. I watched this because I am at home this weekend and cannot watch with Tim and didn’t want to watch something super on-brand without him. Official Studio Ghibli release or not this was still a really good movie.

We start off with a hooded man riding through a ravaged village. He comments (in the voice of Patrick Stewart) that another village has fallen. We cut to the opening credits where we see the earth consumed with fire. There’s some narration about The Seven Days of Fire, an apocalyptic event that occurred 1,000 years ago which wiped out civilization and created the Toxic Forest ruled by mutant insects.

We see a young woman riding an air glider and exploring the toxic forest. This is Nausicaa. She collects samples for study and heads out when she hears a disturbance outside. On her glider, she sees the man from earlier being chased by a giant mutant bug. She uses her wit and some gadgets to turn the bug around. On the ground, she speaks to the man, Yupa, who she knows. They talk and soon enough the two of them reach Nausicaa’s village, known as The Valley of the Wind.

Nausicaa is the princess of the valley and her father is quite ill. That night Yupa, Nausicaa, her father, and a wise woman sit by a fire and talk. The wise woman tells of a 1000-year-old prophecy that tells of a savior “clothed in blue robes, descending onto a golden field.” While this prophecy is being told Nausicaa is suspiciously wearing blue. Which is totally not obvious at all.

Anyway, they see a ship from the city of Pejite crashes in their valley later that night. Nausicaa tries to save a young woman on the ship. She pleas with Nausicaa to destroy the cargo of the ship and perishes. The cargo turns out to be the embryo of a Giant Warrior, one of the creatures who set fire to the earth 1,000 years ago.

The next day a large army known as the Tolmekians invade the valley, execute Nausicaa’s father and steal the embryo. Nausicaa flies into a blind rage after her father is killed and kills many Tolmekian soldiers. She is about to be overwhelmed before she is stopped by Yupa who implores her to stop killing and go along with what the Tolmekians want. The Tolmekians say they just want to talk.

I watched this movie with my dad and my sister. They provided what Tim usually does. After the Tolmekians said they just want to talk my dad said, “They’ve got a hell of a way of talking. Coming in with tanks and killing the king.” Nausicaa realizes that the Tolmekians will easily defeat the villagers in The Valley of the Wind. She lets them take the embryo and goes with them along with five hostages to the Tolmekian capital to wake up the giant warrior.

The night before the hostages leave Yupa discovers Nausicaa in a secret garden with toxic plants. Nausicaa has discovered that the plants themselves are not toxic but rather the polluted soil and water makes them toxic.

The next morning they leave. While on their way to the capital their plane gets attacked by a Pejite ship. Nausicaa saves herself, the other four hostages, and the Tolmekian queen and lands in the toxic forest. After upsetting and calming down some bugs Nausicaa goes off to save the pilot of the Pejite ship that shot them down, Asbel. The pilot turns out to be the brother of the girl on the ship that crashed in the Valley of the Wind. They fall into quicksand and discover a secret area below the forest. Nausicaa discovers that the plants are purifying the water and soil and creating a clean area.

They return to Pejite and find it ravaged by insects. They explain to Nausicaa that they have lured a group of insects out of the forest and into the Valley to wipe out the Tolmekians. Nausicaa attempts to warn the people of the valley but is kidnapped by the Pejite soldiers. Nausicaa sits crying in a holding cell when the mother of Asbel and a number of Pejite sympathizers help her switch places with another girl and escape on her glider.

Nausicaa changes clothes and is now wearing pink. This concerned me greatly since the prophecy talked about a man in blue. On her glider she finds two Pejite soldiers baiting thousand of giant bugs with a wounded baby bug. As the giant bugs descend on the valley the people take shelter and the Tolmekian queen wakes up the Giant Warrior to fight the bugs. It shoots some blasts of fire at the bugs, but it disintegrates since it was woken prematurely.

Meanwhile, Nausicaa rescues the baby bug and gains its trust, while getting her clothes drenched in its blood. Its blood just so happens to be blue so that Nausicaa’s clothes can be blue now. Nausicaa takes the baby bug and stands in front of the stampede, but is run over. After a few moments, the herd calms down and raises Nausicaa up using their golden magic powers, healing her. Nausicaa wearing blue and walking on a field of gold has now fulfilled the prophecy. As if we didn’t see that coming from a mile away.

The Tolmekians and bugs leave the valley and the Pejite people stay to help them rebuild. The credits roll and the last image of the film is a tree growing deep beneath the toxic forest.

So, this one is a pretty fun romp. The message is that man shouldn’t mess around with nature. I think that’s about it though. It isn’t one that reaches into the depths of the soul like Spirited Away, but it’s got a good message and expresses hope for the future of mankind. I wonder if the Wall-e was inspired by this one. They both end on kind of the same moment. At the end of the movie my sister jokingly said that the message is that, “Man is the scourge of the earth.” Overall I thought this one was a lot of fun with good action and characters.

Best Comment: After killing some people Yupa tells Nausicaa to stop all the killing. My Dad said, “No, kill all the bastages!!!!!!!!”

Next Ghibli: Something from this century

Rating: 4/5

Well, I kept my word this week and watched something not directed by Hayao Miyazaki. Instead, we watched one of the saddest movies I have ever seen. If Isao Takahata, who passed away earlier this year, wanted a movie that is an 89-minute slow burn of sadness then he certainly succeeded. Despite all this, I enjoyed this film very much and so did Tim.

Grave of the Fireflies opens on our main character, Seita, talking about the night he died, September 21, 1945. We then see Seita as he takes his last breaths on the floor of a crowded train station. A janitor comes by and takes some food and a small tin off his body. Seita looks on as a ghost while his body is swept up around. The ghost of his sister, Setsuko, joins him and they hold hands as they board a train.

That’s right, this animated movie from 1988 opens on a 14-year-old boy dying and meeting up with the ghost of his sister. It’s a pretty somber beginning, but it sets the tone that this movie isn’t messing around.

The movie flashes back to the final days of WWII in Japan. Seita and Setsuko are at home with their mother while the air raid siren sounds. The mother goes to the shelter as Seita buries their food in the backyard. Seita picks up Setsuko on his shoulders and they run around the city streets dodging bombs as fire rains down on their town.

The bombing ends and their town is leveled. Separated from their mother they go to a local school turned hospital. There Seita finds his mother, burned head to foot. Her body is covered in blood-soaked bandages. The doctors express hope but they say she needs to go to a real hospital in the city. Seita tells Setsuko that their mother is sick. Setsuko starts crying while Seita does gymnastics in the background. There’s a lot of juxtaposition in this movie.

The next day maggots are crawling all over the mom’s body as she is thrown into a mass grave. Seita and Setsuko go to their Aunt’s house to stay for a while. Seita finds out that his mom is dead but tells neither the Aunt or Setsuko. Seita writes a letter to his father in the navy in hopes that he’ll be able to help them. After a week or so of living with the Aunt, who is just the meanest person, they essentially get kicked out (even though they’re the ones who decide to leave). During this scene, Tim kept on commenting on what a bitch the Aunt is.

They set up camp in a small abandoned shelter next to a small lake. During these scenes we intermittently see the ghosts of Seita and Setsuko looking at themselves just as we are. The area has many fireflies and at night they catch them and use the fireflies to illuminate their shelter. The next morning many of the fireflies are dead and Setsuko buries them. This is the moment where the title makes sense.

Soon enough the siblings run out of means to get food. Setsuko starts stealing food from farmers and going into town during air raids to ransack houses. This works for a while until he gets caught by one of the farmers late at night. He beats up Seita and takes him to the police. The cop takes pity on Seita and runs off the farmer who brought him and offers Seita a glass of water.

Setsuko waits for Seita outside the police station as he is overcome with sadness and weeps. After a few more days in the shelter, Setsuko becomes very sick and they go to the doctor. The doctor looks at her and determines she is sick from undernourishment. Seita asks the doctor for medicine but he says that all she needs is some food.

Now, let me ask you this: If you got to this point where you and your sister had been starving for days and she was on death’s door what would you do? Would you swallow your pride and ask your Aunt for help? Is that what Seita does? Nope.

He waits a little while before withdrawing some money his mother left for him in the bank. He goes to buy some food for Setsuko and brings it back. He gives her some watermelon as she proceeds to chew on marbles and rocks. Seita goes out to prepare some food and while he is away Setsuko perishes.  He goes to a crematorium and buys some coal to cremate his sister. He puts her body in a box on top of the coals and sets it on a hilltop. He sits there all day until the sun has set and the last ash of the fire goes out. He places her ashes in a candy tin along with his father’s picture.

The ghosts of Seita and Setsuko that we’ve seen throughout the film get off the train and sit on a bench overlooking the city. They are happy and healthy. Roll credits.

I thought there was going to be 10-15 more minutes of the movie when it ended. I thought we would see how Seita got to the train station. The movie just ends though and I thought that was the right decision. At this point, I was tired of seeing Seita struggle and had already seen how he dies.

This was a really sad one. It’s not an 89-minute tear fest but it slowly broke my heart. To see kids struggle and die is certainly not fun. Takahata said that he made this film so that the youth of the ’80s would understand what their parents went through WWII. It certainly accomplishes that. There’s a metaphor in here about Seita’s stubbornness. The Japanese were unwilling to surrender at the end of the war even though the war was basically lost and their allies had surrendered. Seita is unwilling to ask his aunt for help even though his sister is dying and he has nowhere else to turn. He holds out hope that his father will write him back and help him. The Japanese people held out hope that the emperor would live forever.

Tim’s Best Comment: After Seita finds out that Japan surrendered Tim ran around the room saying, “Yeah baby, Japan surrendered!!!” Tim obviously showing his nationalist side.

Next Ghibli: I don’t know. I’m going on break this week so Tim and I won’t be together. Maybe I’ll watch a bad one with my family.

Rating: 4/5

 

Spirited Away is a movie everyone likes. I say this with the knowledge that 5 critics on Rotten Tomatoes gave it a negative review. Rest assured those critics are idiots as this is one of the great movies of all time. Talking about this movie is like talking about Star Wars, there isn’t much to be said that hasn’t already. So, I will now attempt to construct an original opinion on Spirited Away.

The movie opens with our main character, Chihiro, moving to a new home with her parents. She is very nervous about this and laments about how she will miss her friends. Soon enough her Dad gets lost and starts driving down a forest path. They stumble on an old building which turns out not to be old at all as the dad assumes they have found an old amusement park. Chihiro’s parents find a food stand and before you can say, “Why don’t they just leave?” they begin to stuff their faces with food.

Chihiro, like any kid would, starts wandering around the ‘park’ and finds a bathhouse and sees a young man standing outside. The boy, named Haku, tells her she must leave immediately before the sun sets. As it gets darker Chihiro begins to see ghostly figures and when she finds her parents they have been turned into pigs. She tries to run home but what was once a small stream has now become a massive river. Chihiro pouts for a little while before eventually meeting back up with Haku who tells her she must get a job in the nearby bathhouse.

Chihiro has been ‘Spirited Away’ to the spirit realm. This is very similar to something like Alice in Wonderland or The Wizard of Oz where a young girl must survive in a strange world by doing a bunch of stuff.

So, with that Chihiro begins doing a bunch of stuff as she falls down some stairs and into the boiler room of a six-legged man named Kamaji (voiced by David Ogden Stiers) who sticks his neck out for her by sending her upstairs to Yubaba, the witch who rules the bathhouse. Chihiro indeed gets a job from Yubaba after a severe amount of badgering. However, Yubaba changes Chihiro’s name to Sen so as to control her. She is taken under the wing of Lin and the two of them become friends.

Haku warns Sen that she must not forget her real name, as he did. This is how Yubaba controls the workers of the bathhouse and the only way she can free herself is if she holds onto her name. By the way, this would be a good time to mention the fact that Haku can turn into a dragon sometimes. That’ll come up later.

Later that day a stink spirit comes to the bathhouse. As a test Yubaba gives this stinky customer to Sen and Lin. Using her wits and some stolen soap, given to her by a mysterious spirit she let into the bathhouse, Sen is able to give the stink spirit a bath. As a reward, the stink spirit gives Chihiro a little ball of medicine that sort of looks like an Osage orange.

The next day Haku, now in dragon form, comes back to the bathhouse severely injured after going on a mission for Yubaba. Sen sees him and does all she can to get to Yubaba’s office to keep him from bleeding out. Meanwhile, the spirit who gave the soap to Sen, No Face, starts stuffing food down his face and paying for it using gold, which seems like a sound financial transaction.

Tim kept on predicting that No Face would be revealed to be Sen’s parents. On the surface, this isn’t a bad prediction considering how helpful No Face was being. However, this is very wrong. No Face starts eating the workers of the bathhouse and refuses to leave when asked to by Yubaba. At this Tim said “Oh, I was wrong. That’s a bad man.”

Sen gives half of her Osage orange to Haku and it cures him. He spits out a small gold stamp that he stole from Yubaba’s twin sister. Turns out this stamp is some powerful stuff and Kamaji gives Sen train tickets to return the stamp. However, before Sen can get on the train she has to lure No Face out of the bathhouse. She gives the other half of the Osage orange to No Face who starts throwing up all the food he ate.

There’s about a metric ton of barfing in this movie. I really don’t like to see vomit coming out of mouths in films. I think it’s a lot worse than hearing the f-word or seeing some nudity. Those two things I think are an automatic R-rating. Anyway, I think vomiting is gross. That is all, this tangent is now over.

So Sen and Lin say good-bye and No Face gets on the train with Sen. This is a really good scene. Eventually, they reach Yubaba’s sister, Zeniba, to return the gold stamp thing. At this point, Zeniba informs Sen that it was not the Osage orange that healed Haku, but rather her love for him. This is all the more convenient when Haku shows up in dragon form to take her home.

So, as they ride home Sen remembers with no prompting that she fell into the Kohaku River when she was little. The river current saved her from drowning and she remembers this as the first time she met Haku. So, because of this, they figure out that Haku is a river spirit and his real name is the Kohaku River. With this, the curse on Haku is broken.

If I have one complaint about the movie it would be this. It’s very random and isn’t set up too well. They mention the fact that the two of them have met before. Then out of nowhere she just remembers this crucial piece of info. There are flaws in every movie.

They get back to the bathhouse and Yubaba gives Sen one final test. She must pick her parents, who are pigs, out of a group of pigs. Since she isn’t an idiot, Chihiro knows that none of the pigs are her parents. Yubaba tears up her contract and gives her back her name. Chihiro finds her parents after a heartfelt good-bye with Haku. Her dad asks her if she is scared to go to a new school and she says that it doesn’t seem so scary.

I would be remiss not to mention the amazing animation. This once again is the great Hayao Miyazaki. And once again this movie is made using pens and pencils and paints. It is a triumph that such a film was made without the use of computers. The other amazing thing is that almost every single set and character in the movie is completely unique from the last. Even the background characters are all completely different from one another. Richard Roeper (AKA Not Gene Siskel) said in his review with Ebert, “It’s as if every child in Japan did a drawing and they put all these characters into a movie….You couldn’t do this movie if it wasn’t animated…it would have to have a budget of a billion dollars.”

The major theme in Spirited Away is remembering one’s name and the identity of one’s parents. These two themes can be seen as an emphasis on the importance of remembering where you came from. These can not only be seen in the film but also when looking at the context of the film’s production. Miyazaki said that Princess Mononoke (coming soon) would be his last film and hand the reign of Studio Ghibli over the younger animators. Then he realized that he was one of the best living filmmakers and decided to make Spirited Away. Add to that the fact that the film was made in 2001 when many animated films were being made using computers.

The film combines the old and the new as it is animated on paper but is shot digitally. When Chihiro and her family first walk into the park there are a bunch of old dilapidated buildings among the new shiny ones. The old buildings represent Japan’s traditional values. The bathhouse with all its rich customers and food represent consumption and Japan’s shift to capitalism and western influence on Japanese culture.

The film is hopeful that the future generations of Japan will respect Japanese traditional values while also moving forward into a new economic age. The film also hopes that the future generations of filmmakers will respect the analog processes that film making came from while also stepping into new digital techniques.

Was that too much legitimate film criticism for this blog? The music in this movie is really good here’s a link to that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptwcZ574blo. Even Tim commented on how good it was. That’s all I have to say on Spirited Away. If there’s one movie in all the ones I talk about that you consider watching I hope it’s this one. I’m not kidding when I say it’s a masterpiece.

Tim’s Best Comment: This is more of a moment than a comment. When they were at Zeniba’s house No Face is spinning thread and Zeniba says “No Face, where did you learn how to spin thread, you’re really good at this.” After she said this Tim started cracking up. I don’t know why he thought this was so funny. This is ties for when Sen was eating a dumpling and Tim said, “That looks like an uncrustable.”

Next Ghibli: Something not directed by Miyazaki. I want to keep it fresh.

Rating: 5/5

Porco Rosso is a very underrated work as far as Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli are concerned. The film is certainly held in high regard, but not nearly as much as the other movies I’ve done on this blog. On the one hand, it’s an exciting movie filled with action and humor. On the other, it’s a movie with themes of guilt and fascism with a bittersweet ending. I for one loved this movie (this is one I hadn’t seen before). It’s a weird mix of cartoon and noire that has Michael Keaton voicing a pig. Need I say more?

I will say more considering the fact that this is a blog. The opening of Porco Rosso is very similar to that of Kiki’s Delivery Service. Main character laying out on a sunny wind-swept day listening to the radio. Except for this time Porco is listening to a report about pirates in seaplanes attacking a ship carrying gold. The movie is set on a chain of islands in the Adriatic sea during the 1930s. Pirates use seaplanes to rob ships, Porco Rosso is a bounty hunter who hunts down pirates at the behest of the shipping companies. Porco is a WWI veteran who deserted the Italian Air Force, as a result of that he was cursed to be a pig. Just like how there’s no explanation for witches in Kiki’s Delivery Service there’s no explanation for him being a pig.

After Porco takes down the pirates he goes to a seedy bar owned by his friend Gina. This is the scene where the movie goes full Noire. A bunch of pirates sit at a table talking to an American, Donald Curtis, about contracting him to help take down Porco. Gina starts singing a song in French as Porco walks down the stairs and all the pirates look at him. He goes to the bar, orders ‘the usual’ and Curtis goes over to talk to him. All this in an animated movie from 1992 with a pig as the main character. Tim said shortly after this scene, “This feels like something made more for older people.”

This frame comes after the last scene I just talked about and is quite frankly one of the movie’s best.

Anyway, Curtis agrees to help the pirates. They team up to rob a cruise ship while Porco’s plane is in disrepair. He can’t fix his plane by himself and has to take it to Milan to have it fixed. On the way to Milan Porco runs into Curtis and gets shot down in one of the great cheap shots in movie history. He hides from Curtis on a small island and is marooned for two days before getting rescued by a tug boat. Now in Milan, he calls Gina to say that he is alive. Gina begs him to leave Milan, as there is a warrant out for his arrest in Italy what with him being a deserter. Porco has to fly though, and goes to his friend Piccolo for repairs.

Porco was able to save the fuselage of his plane, leaving most of his plane needing to be rebuilt. Piccolo entrusts this job to his granddaughter, Fio. At first, Porco is uneasy with this with her being so young and a woman. After seeing her designs he agrees to let her design and engineer the plane.

Fio really admires Porco as he is one of the best pilots in the Adriatic and has heard many of his stories from WWI. He is having nothing to do with Fio, but she continues to admire him. Soon enough Porco’s plane is ready. The catch is that Fio has to come with him. They evade the secret police and get back to the Adriatic. The next scene cuts away to Curtis climbing over the wall to enter Gina’s garden behind her house. Curtis tells her about a movie he’s making in Hollywood and asks Gina to come with him. Gina laughs at him saying that she in love with Porco. She says that every day she sits in her garden and waits for Porco to visit her but he never does.

Porco makes it back home with plane intact and Fio at his side. When he arrives he is ambushed by the pirates from earlier. They plan to kill him and steal his plane, but Fio convinces them to let him have a rematch with Curtis. She tells them that they need to have honor instead of just being ruthless pirates. Honor is one of the big themes of the movie, exemplified when Porco says, “I’d rather be a pig than a fascist.” Curtis shows up to accept the rematch. The bet is if Curtis wins Fio has to marry him and if Porco wins Curtis has to pay off his debt for fixing the plane. The two men(?) accept and the fight is scheduled for the next day.

That night while Porco counts his ammo and Fio asks him how he became a pig. He narrates a flashback where he gets into a dogfight after the wedding of a man in his unit. It’s a terrible fight and every man in Porco’s unit dies except for him. Porco has a vision after the fight where he sees his friends’ planes enter a line of planes above the clouds. After this Porco deserts the air force feeling shame and guilt that his friends died and he survived. Porco is literally a pig, the audience, as well as the other characters, see him that way. But, it’s his shame and guilt that makes him one.

The next morning Porco and Curtis have their fight. Porco makes Curtis waste his ammo and Porco’s gun jams turning their airborne dog fight into a boxing match. As they punch each other Curtis reveals to Porco that Gina loves him. Meanwhile, Gina gets a message from a friend of Porco’s in the Italian air force saying that the Italians are coming to arrest him. Back at the fight Porco and Curtis knock each other into the water at the same time. The first one to get up wins the fight which ends up being Porco. He gets up as he hears Gina’s voice warning him that the Italians are coming. Porco and Curtis work together to chase off the air force and thus begins the Porco Rosso’s controversial ending.

Fio starts narrating about how she went to work for Gina and eventually went back to run the plane shop and Curtis made it in Hollywood. The last line of the movie is, “And as for how Gina’s bet turned out…Well, that’s our secret.” Gina’s bet refers to her betting that Porco will never visit her in her garden. Many people feel as though this is an unsatisfying ending claim that it doesn’t solve whether the Porco stays a pig and if he gets together with Gina. I have the answers.

The last shot of the movie shows Gina’s garden without her in it. This implies that he did go to visit her in the garden and they got to be together. As for whether or not Porco ever gets turned back into a man I honestly don’t think it matters. Nothing will take away the guilt he feels from his war days, but he has his honor which is the main theme of the movie.

Anyway, there’s my blog post. Sorry, it’s over 1,000 words, I had a lot to say about this one. I’m going to start a rankings page very soon so stay tuned for that. I know I said last week I was going to do Spirited Away, but some extenuating circumstances happened.

Tim’s Best Comment: *a fly lands on Porco’s plane* ‘Oh, a fly’ *Fio blows the fly away* ‘Oh, the nerve to blow away that fly!!!’

Next Ghibli: Keeps your fingers crossed for Spirited Away. If not I’ll do The Wind Rises.

Rating: 4/5

My Neighbor Totoro is one of the cutest things of all time. It’s no mistake that a film featuring two little girls and several large furry creatures is the one that put Ghibli on the map. There’s a reason why they chose Totoro as their logo that appears before every movie they’ve made sense and a reason why I used that logo for this blog.

My Neighbor Totoro is a 1988 film written and directed by Mr. Hayao Miyazaki. The film focuses on two girls and their father who move to a rural area to be closer to their mom in the hospital. In this new house, the girls begin to see spirits in the nearby forest. The spirits help the girls as they deal with the possibility of losing their mother.

The film doesn’t have a plot so much as it has a situation upon which things happen. Maybe that’s the definition of what a plot is but my point is that in Totoro there isn’t a final goal to the film. It’s really just a series of whimsical and charming scenes. Now, in some movies, this would be a criticism, but here the humor and the characters work so well and the situations are so real and believable that it doesn’t matter that the plot doesn’t start until minute 60 of an 85-minute movie.

The girls begin to see what their dad refers to as ‘spirits of the forest’ who appear to them in times of need. As they go on their adventures with their titular neighbor Totoro they do so without their dad. In one of the more famous scenes, the girls help Totoro and the other spirits make a tree grow in their backyard. The tree becomes huge and the two girls sit in the tree with Totoro as he plays the flute. One of the best pieces of comedy in the whole movie comes when it cuts to the dad completely oblivious to the tree in his backyard. Of course, they wake up in the morning and the tree is gone.

I bring up this scene because one of the big debates of the film is whether or not the girls are actually seeing Totoro or if it is a figment of their imagination. No one else sees the forest spirits for the duration of the film and the girls cannot find any evidence of them when they try to show their dad. The movie wants you to think that this is all a figment of their imagination until the very end.  Indeed, even Tim picked up on this too during our viewing, asking some very interesting questions and expecting me to have the answer. This from a guy who thinks Smart House is one of the all-time greats.

This would also be a good time to mention the incredible score of My Neighbor Totoro. Ghibli hit it out of the park with the music here and it’s especially noticeable in the tree growing scene. Here’s that for you now, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZgBjQFMPvk

At the end of the film, the girls get very upset because they just found out their mother is not coming home from the hospital because she has a cold. The older sister goes on about how the doctor said her mom just had a cold the last time she was going to come home. This is a very effective emotional scene as she begins to cry over the prospect of her mother dying.  The younger sister runs off to visit her mom in the hospital which is a bus ride away. Obviously, this is very concerning to everyone in the village because it’s getting late and the little girl can’t make it there by herself. Studio Ghibli does a great job of being fun and whimsical while having an underlying sense of realism.

Ultimately Totoro ends up helping the girls and brings both of them to the hospital and home safely. Now, I’m going to take a stand on the debate of the movie. I believe Totoro is real because I don’t think the ending of the movie works without him being real. I really don’t have much to complain about this movie. There’s this really weird song that bookends the movie and it plays over this psychedelic stuff. It’s really weird, I have no clue why it’s there. So, other than that it’s a good movie. 

Tim’s Best Comment: “So I guess Totoro is supposed to be a figurative manifestation of their mom, right?”

Next Ghibli: Spirited Away

Rating: 4/5

 

Kiki’s Delivery Service is one of my favorite films of all time. When I was little we would often rent the movie from Blockbuster. Yes, I am old enough to remember a time when you had to go to a brick and mortar store to get movies. The movie holds a special place in my heart, but my love for the movie goes further than simple nostalgia.

Kiki’s Delivery Service is written and directed by the great Hayao Miyazaki. It is about Kiki and her cat Jiji starting a business and coming of age. Kiki is a 13-year-old witch who must leave her home for one year to complete her witch’s training. The fact that witches are a thing in the world of this movie is given no explanation and is established with maybe 3 lines of dialogue. I was expecting Tim to have some reaction to this, but he just went along with it. In my opinion, this is what’s great about Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki. Without a moment of hesitation, Tim was able to believe the world they had set up.

Kiki leaves home on her mom’s broom (because you know, witches can fly on brooms) and finds a city that has not seen a witch for a very long time. Soon Kiki opens a delivery service using her broom to deliver packages across the city. As the film progresses, Kiki begins to lose her witch’s powers including flight and the ability to hear Jiji. After receiving advice from a friend she is able to regain her powers.

This movie has the signature awesome Ghibli animation. I give a lot of credit to Miyazaki for this. Not only does he write and direct most of his movies he is also heavily involved in the drawing. That’s right, I said drawing. The great animation is made even more impressive considering the fact this film was made in 1989. That means that actual people drew with actual pencils and actual ink and actual paint on actual paper. Computer animated movies are great, but they can be lazily produced (I’m looking at you Illumination). When all those ‘actual’ things are working together it’s very hard to be cheap.

 

Now would be a good time to mention the fact that I am watching these movies in English. I understand the purists will say that I need to watch in Japanese to fully appreciate Ghibli, but I’m willing to bet the Japanese actor is not better than Phil Hartman. Hartman voices the cat Jiji and is the best voice actor in the movie. It is made all the sadder that this was his last movie role before his tragic death. The other voice acting is pretty good too. Kirsten Dunst is the voice of Kiki and the woman who voices Bobby Hill and Pajama Sam has a small role. The dub is a little awkward sometimes, but welcome to watching things that are dubbed, Sam.

At one point in the movie, Kiki loses her witch’s powers. Tim said something along the lines of “I never expected the movie to take this turn.” Kiki is feeling the pressure of living somewhere new and having the responsibilities of a new job. This is the aspect of the movie that resonates with me the most. After leaving home and moving into an apartment myself I have a greater appreciation for Kiki when she says this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcJRuK5ujws.

Eventually, Kiki gets the advice that she needs to find inspiration in life and not try so hard. Soon Kiki is able to use her powers to save a boy who is dangling from a runaway blimp (it’s a long story, watch the movie). Earlier today I was having trouble writing this blog post, I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to say. So, instead of pressing, I took a page from Kiki. I went to the rec center, worked out, and then just chilled for a while. Soon enough I was 668 words in. It’s a little cheesy and meta, but it’s a piece of wisdom that I think every student could use.

I really like this song that’s in this movie. I didn’t really know how to work this in organically. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQYHO0xsfqU

I already knew I liked this movie, so there are no surprises there, Tim enjoyed it too. In fact, we watched My Neighbor Totoro immediately after it as per Tim’s request.

Tim’s Best Comment: “I never expected the movie to take this turn.”

Next Ghibli: My Neighbor Totoro

Rating: 4/5

I think giving movies ratings is kind of dumb, but since I’m an online movie critic I think I kind of have to. A lot of people see ratings and translate them to the American grading system which is dumb, but that’s not what my ratings mean. I will give every film a score out of 5.

1/5 = Offensively bad A film that has little or no redeeming qualities. It’s lack of quality borders on incompetence. No one involved had any idea what they were doing.

2/5 = Deeply Flawed A film where the bad outweighs the good. It’s a movie that’s not worth the time. Those involved were trying to make something good but fell well short.

3/5 = A Movie This is just a movie. It has good moments but is not something you should give money to in the theater. If you were flipping channels on a Sunday afternoon and saw this movie you might tune in.

4/5 = A Solid Flick An all around good movie. Well written, directed, shot, edited and acted. One that I would recommend giving money to see in the theater.

5/5 = Masterpiece A true masterpiece of cinema

I might give half ratings if something really is on the edge.

The other day my roommate revealed to me that he had never seen a Studio Ghibli movie. Of course, this disturbed me greatly. Almost immediately we watched one of my favorite films of all time: Kiki’s Delivery Service. When I was a kid my family rented that movie from Blockbuster about as much as any other movie.

So, Tim, my roommate, and I watched the movie. Tim is not the quietest person in the world while watching a movie. I’ve learned to deal with this, but I’ve also learned that more things he says while the movie is going on the more he is enjoying it. Needless to say, Tim was making a lot of comments while Kiki was flying around on her broom. After the movie was over he made the best comment of the evening, “Can we watch another one?” Obviously not turning down the chance to expose someone to more Ghibli we immediately started watching My Neighbor Totoro. It was a good evening.

Anyway, I figured that Tim would want to watch more in the future. The topic for this blog fell into my lap. We are going to watch every Studio Ghibli film and I will tell you what I think of it as a Film Studies minor and what Tim thinks as a loud movie watcher. Now I’m sure people are going to ask me the following questions: ‘Sam, are you a fan of anime?’ and ‘Sam, aren’t you a little bit too old to be watching cartoons?’. First, there are two types of anime I like: Studio Ghibli and the Pokemon Animated Series. Second, I really hope I never get too old to watch cartoons or well-crafted cinema.  I would go in chronological order, but I’m already out of it and doing this way keeps people on their toes. Anyway, I hope you enjoy my blog. Stay tuned for some in-depth talk about Kiki and Totoro.

 

*all images used in this blog are very good images. Whoever created them did a really good job. They are well composed and beautiful.