A few weeks back I tried to mop up the last of the Studio Ghibli films I hadn't seen. Those films being what could be fairly described as the 'girlie' ones, I felt a bit embarrassed renting them. Good thing Sally was with me, so I tried to make it look like she wanted to see them!
Whisper of the Heart is, amazingly, about an adolescent Japanese girl suffering the trials and tribulations adolescence. What plot there is revolves around her having a crush on a teenage violin maker(!), and her attempts to match his brilliance and dedication by writing a crap novel. The earnestness of it all is certainly cheesy, but the uncomplicated nature of the emotions was strangely compelling. [Cue gravelly American voice over: "a magical coming of age story about having the courage to dream..."] Written (but not directed) by Miyazaki.
In somewhat more familiar territory for me, Isao Takahata's Pom Poko is about this species of 'raccoon dogs' living on the outskirts of Tokyo. Their territory is bulldozed over for a new residential development (neatly, the same development in which the girl from Whisper in the Heart lives - the two films were made around the same time) and these raccoon dogs then attempt to fight back using their Shinto magic. Sounds bolshy, but the raccoon dogs are largely cheerful creatures, who only kill humans a little. And somewhat spectacularly, these creatures (the males anyway) have voluminous testicles, which may be used as weapons of war. Haha, Japanese anime weirdness! Awesome.
(Should also do a shout out to Takahata's masterpiece, Grave of the Fireflies, about two children starving to death in the aftermath of the Tokyo firebombings in WWII. Depressing as hell, but brilliant.)
Then we watched Miyazaki's Kiki's Delivery Service, a flick about a young witch trying to grow up and get ahead in a picturesque Mediterranean sea-side town, etc, etc. This film is highly regarded, but I felt it was a bit slight compared to later flicks Whisper of the Heart, and Spirited Away.
For a bit of a change from all the saccharine we watched Kon Satoshi's Millenium Actress, a stream of consciousness tale about an aging actress reliving her life through an interview, with her life and her films strangely mingling together. Highly recommended. Asohi also did Tokyo Godfathers, another fun flick, and more recently Paprika, which is being shown as part of the film festival in about half an hour. (I'll be waiting for the DVD to come out in a couple of years, just so I don't have to hang out with those film fest tossers.)
Finally, I checked out Steamboy from Katsuhiro Otomo, the guy who did that crazy arse flick Akira. As you may guess, it's a steampunk story, set in London at the time of the Great Exhibition. While the film's portrayal of the english is merely awkward (not least the hero's unfeasible surname 'Steam'), the plot is outright awful - a flimsy contrivance to deliver a lot of mind-numbing, apocalyptic, and above all steam-powered, action.
Kind of feel like I've done Anime for now. That said, Cowboy Bebop looks quite interesting, and I'd love to check out those late 1970s Gundam movies (the original ones). And I still haven't seen Miyazaki's 1979 Lupin III flick. However, aside from these it does seem like I've done the majority of the films or series that don't have titles like 'Oh My Goddess!' and 'Spriggin'.
Really I should try something different like New Wave French cinema. But would it be a quarter as entertaining as raccoon dogs with giant nads?
Posted by stuart at July 28, 2007 7:36 PM