Well all month a cable channel did a tribute to Japanese artist Hayao
Miyazaki, I manged to catch all the films they aired on him, which is
almost the complete collection except for
Kiki's Delivery Service,
Castle Cogliastro and
Howl's Moving Castle. I already reviewed
Spirted
Away and
Princess Mononoke but
here are the rest in bulk. Read as many
or as few as you want. I was just bored and thought Id write up
some reviews for anybody who would want to read them. Thanks
Ill review them in the order I saw them
First up:
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1984) (PG)
The general plot follows a princess of a small village in the post
apocalyptic area (Nausicaa) after she deals with the poisonous forest
and unfriendly neighbor peoples who's lands are in trouble from the
expanding poisons of the forests. These lands of poisons have only
plants and insects who have evolved in order to adapt to these harsh
conditions. Humans, like Nausicaa and the neighboring cities cannot
inhale the air or live off the food of these forests. These people of
the cities in peril want to conquer or destroy the Valley of the Wind
for their own exploits.
OK the art for this film is probably at its most crude for Miyazaki,
but even then its still a masterpiece to look at. So let me talk about
the artwork first. The scenery of the Valley of the Wind is brought
into near reality sometimes. It really feels tranquil especially with
the windmills and the hilltops right nearby. It seems like a paradise
surrounded by nothing but perril. The few scenes that are in the forest
are also amazing. The only scenery I didnt like was towards the end of
the movie when it did get rather dark.
The characters were adequate. Nausicaa steals the film easily and
everyone else, while sometimes major, is simply in the background. Like
many Miyazaki films, the villains in the plot arent totally villianous
and arent rotten to the core, but they do do bad things which cause
them to be the antagonists. Though you really do see the depth in a
couple of them by the end, turning antagonists into protagonists, which
is brilliant. But some of the characters are one dimensional.
As far as the plot, its decent. A little too sci fi for me at times,
but I do like the ideas it presents. I really didnt care for the ohm
too much though. Not really that interesting a creature, not really
that well concieved. While the plot is usually the most important
thing, just because I didnt like pieces of it doesnt mean I didnt like
the movie. I did like it, and I do recommend it. And good lord, I
actually shed a tear in this movie!
8 out of 10
-----------------
Castle in the Sky (1986) (Unrated)
The plot starts out with Sheeta who has been abducted for unexplained
reasons at this point in an airship. Sky pirates attack the ship and
she tries to escape but falls. However her neclace inexplicably glows
and causes her to softly drift to the ground where an unsuspecting boy,
Pazu, sees her. She never saw any of this, though because she fainted
from the initial fall. Pazu takes her into his house where she
eventually wakes up...very confused. They talk about the myth of a
floating castle in the sky which they both would have interest in as
the plot goes on. Meanwhile, Sky Pirates and Government agents (who
initially kidnapped her) are trying to recapture her for her neclace,
which has more power than they originally thought.
Wow, lots of great stuff to be said about this movie. The scenery in
this film easily rivals any of Miyazaki's films, which is incredible on
its own as this film was created...well 3 years after I was born. There
is a lot of scenes you can just sit and gaze in awe about here, but
dont stand in awe too long as this film is a BIG adventure and very
fast paced, probably the most adventurous and most fast paced than any
other Miyazaki film. This aspect makes it both more and less
appealing than other Miyazaki films, which can have the foundation of
simply beauty and character depth to carry the movie, and all while
being patiently and beautifully done films. This film isnt all
that patient, and there arent too many scenes that really stare at the
beauty or wait for the audience to feel the depth of the scenes.
This film is non-stop action from story development and character
development. But even with this, we still get to know the
characters and we can still see the characters develop, and they are
developed so well in this film.
This film isnt as complex as other Miyazaki films either, and the major
villain of the film (voiced by Mark Hamill in the English version) is
truly a villain to the core. This is perhaps the only real
weakness this film has in comparison to other Miyazaki's works.
That said, it doesnt really detract from any of the story, and every
bit of it is magnificent and beautiful. This film EASILY ranks
among my favorites and ranks somewhere in my personal top 10 favorite
films
10 out of 10
-------------------
My Neighbor Totoro (1988) (G)
The plot follows two young girls as they move into a new home in the
countryside with their father. The fantasy of this world is
almost immediately apparent as the house is infested (though not in a
negative way) by dust spirits (who make appearances in
Spirited Away),
who crave the dark but will scatter away as soon as light hits
them. The younger sister starts investigating the nearby woods
and discovered there is a forest spirit living there, Totoro.
Totoro is friendly and inviting towards the young girl. They
become friends. Later the older sister (still young) also
discovers Totoro once Totoro is ready to meet her, and Totoro can only
be seen by those who he chooses to see. The other side of the
plot follows their mother who is sick in the hospital and both girls
desperately want to see her.
You want to talk about a great movie for a child to see. This is
definitely a children's film through and through and unless their heart
has grown cold already, they should fully enjoy this film. This
film breaks almost every precidence set by most films. There is
no antagonist...at all. There isnt any malice that needs to be
cleared up and the only problem that is ever presented to us is their
sick mother, who isnt even in dire trouble, rather she is just
experiencing a tough sickness and isnt quite well enough to be
mobile. And the father is completely accepting of the girls'
stories about Totoro even if he cant see him, himself. In almost
every film youd see, given this situation, the father would either say
their imagination is out of control or hed punish them for lying.
Rather he accepts the spirit and thanks him for being friendly.
This movie thinks outside the box, and that I compliment. The
scenery once again is magnificent. The fanstasy world mixed in
with reality is a terrific blend.
But...this film probably wouldnt appeal to everyone because of its very
different creation and thought process. And its also very much of
a G rated film, if ever there was one. The film is very slow
paced and it never ever leaves the land of innocence. Usually in
plots theres a point where you can never return to the point of
innocence. This film never leaves! So just be warned about
that. But this film has a true heart, its very warm and its
inviting to many. Its just if this isnt your style of film it
will never take you anywhere you want it to go. And I dont
believe Id be its target audience, so it didnt appeal to me as much as
others. I still recommend it, but with a buyer beware.
7 out of 10
-------------------
Porco Rosso (1992) (PG)
The plot follows a bounty hunter of the early age of flying in Italy,
circa 1920s. Only this bounty hunter has been cursed with the
head of a pig--his name, Porco Rosso. Yes I know, how
weird! But youll get over that fast. He is a terrific
bounty hunter pilot ruling the skies and he easily disposes of sky
pirates....until an American comes over and challenges him and shoots
his plane down. He survives but must go over to Malta to fix his
plane, where he meets an upstart plane technician, who also happens to
be a teenage girl. Rosso may not see eye to eye with her, but he
soon learns she has the talent to make his plane better. Rosso
struggles in thought between finding more money, revenge and just
trying to make a living.
If
Castle in the Sky appealed to you, then this film is right up your
alley. Again another very big adventure film that can take the
worlds of striking scenery and exciting plot and get the best out of
them. Its odd, the plot starts out as a real adventure ride of
Porco Rosso and the sky pirates, but by the end of the film, it becomes
really a character study, and even if this film has nearly as much
action as
Castle in the Sky, it has a tremendous amount of character
depth and development. And the sky scenes were just
awesome. There was no way you could turn away from the action and
beauty of them.
I absolutely loved the plot, with only a couple of shortcomings in a
couple places. I think there were a couple side characters that
this film didnt really need, but I liked Porco Rosso, the American
pilot and the teenage plane technician, and since theyre the 3
principal characters in the film, the fact other characters were weak
in the plot didnt drag this film down much at all. I could have
seen more and more of this film and it wouldnt have gotten old. I
wish there was more!
Probably my 3rd favorite Miyazaki film after
Castle in the Sky and
Princess Mononoke
9 out of 10
----------------------
Whisper of the Heart (1995) (G)
The plot starts out with a girl who loves to read discovering a boy has
signed out all the same library books she has. She has become
bored with her everyday life and seeks adventure. The plot
follows her in her everyday life, from her home and her school and
friends and family. She eventually encounters an antique shop
with several inspiring artifacts and meets a violin maker who she
eventually falls in love with, of course who also signed out all the
books she did.
This film wasnt directed by Miyazaki, but it was produced by Miyazaki
so it counts in the grand scheme of his films. This was directed
by Miyazaki's protige who sadly died shortly after the creation of this
film. And judging by the plot I basically gave a rough glance in
that little paragraph, you can tell its a different type of story than
the others. This film has little fantasy involved in the plot at
all, rather the plot is far more realistic, and it could have easily
been done in live action instead of anime. But theres some sort
of untouchable quality about anime done this way that is more touching
than it would have been had it not been anime, which is certainly weird
because youd think real people would be able to be more touching.
Not the case, I dont think here.
Whisper of the Heart is a touching very quiet adventure about people
rather than fantasy. So again, I dont know if or how this would
appeal to just about everyone. It certainly is more ordinary than
the other films Ive talked about. But I dont know, I still liked
this film to a point. It never really swept me off my feet but
the characters were real and the emotion they felt could be felt by me,
the audience. So in that aspect its very nice. And the
scenery here was perhaps among the most beautiful of any of the films
here, despite it having a very ordinary setting.
Again, buyer beware, and again its a film with a soul. Its also
eye candy. The plot had a couple weak points but no real major
complaints. They may have jumped the gun a little bit at the end,
but I wont divulge information there.
8 out of 10
------------------------
Only Yesterday (1991) (Unrated)
The plot follows an woman about to take a much needed and desired
vacation to the countryside to do manual labor in fields that farm dye
products. In her journey she reminsices about her childhood in
scenes that have effected her as an adult. Plots follow her ways
of life in both worlds, her attitudes in both worlds and her love life
in both worlds and where they are parrallel or perpendicular to each
other.
This film is also executive produced by Miyazaki and not directed by
him. This film is comparable to
Whisper of the Heart, but it is
very different in the same style. Once again, this film too could
have been easily done in live action, but I think it would have lost a
lot of its charm by doing it. What this film would live and die
on would be the flashback technique from her early life to her current
life. I think in the end, they did it well enough to appease
me. Sometimes certain flashbacks seemed out of place but they
never seemed to detract from the story and they never annoyed me about
their placement in the story. I really liked it when both worlds
were combined through her imagination.
The characters in the film, while not weak, werent as dynamic as others
Ive reviewed in this thread. The main character's character was
extremely well done, and her modern crush was also done well, but
everyone else seemed rather 1 dimensional, which is very odd for me to
say in this post as just about all the characters Ive discussed here
have been very deep. The plot was heartwarming and cold at the
same time, sometimes, which gave the film, itself, some depth.
Not the most intriguing film, and it didnt stand out a whole lot, but it was still good
6 out of 10
-----------------------
Pom Poko (1994) (PG)
The plot follows raccoons who have the ability to shapeshift, only
foxes and raccoons on earth have the power to shapeshift. Their
livelihood is being encroached by urban sprawl in Tokyo. The
raccoons must train their arts of shapeshifting to both fool and scare
away the people who are continually chopping down their forest so
they can live in peace again.
Another film that Miyazaki didnt direct but produced.
OK, here Im thinking, "All Right! Raccoons are the heroes AND the
movie has an awesome message about the negatives of urban sprawl and
forest encroachment!" So the film has already gotten on my good
side, and yes the premise of raccoons being shapeshifters is a little
absurd and off the wall, but Ill be happy to play along with that, as
long as its well done. Well I fully enjoyed the first half of the
film, which while it wasnt living up to all my expectations, was still
very enjoyable, funny, thought provoking and somewhat nice to look
at. I wasnt sold on the shapeshifting idea and I really didnt
care much for the forms the raccoons took when away from humans.
But that was ok, I can live with that. But the second half, I
couldnt think of one thing they were actually doing RIGHT except for a
few minutes towards the very end of the film, which only slightly made
up for the complete failure of the 2nd hour.
The 2nd hour was incredibly disjointed, it stopped making sense and the
plot was going in all the wrong directions. It lost me even after
all the good things it was doing in the first half AND the message the
film had. The film also stopped being humerous, so it was
changing its face too fast and too badly. The climax was
pointless and disjointed and what followed that was just an exhale of
whatever energy they didnt waste in putting the film in
production. It really dropped the ball, which is sad. The
characters were ok, but nothing special. Ah yes and perhaps they
were a little too visual with the male raccoon's anatomy...do we really
have to see that in a cartoon?
When the 2nd half failed as badly as it did, there was just no way this
film would be able to recover and I am forced to say I dont recommend
this film. No reason to see this when there are so many other
films worthy of attention
3 out of 10
If at first you dont succeed, dont try skydiving
Both diapers and politicians need to be changed--and usually for the same reasons
