Howl's Moving Castle: Second to Last Week

Man I've seen this movie several times and have always walked away satisfied with the viewing, but I don't know...maybe I was having a bad day or maybe it's because I'm now familiar with the caliber of Miyazaki's work, but I really disliked this film. It was still a great film compared to most anything else, but for Miyazaki I thought this was really lacking.

Things I didn't like about HMC:
1. The Ending!
I know we went over this in class, but yeah...really? That lame tacked on bullshit everyone gets what they want everything is restored to normal and they fall in love. Plus Turnip Head is a prince...what??? That really threw me for a loop and bothered me.

2. Howl's Transformation
What...I don't buy it. One second he's this spoiled, immature, annoying brat and then Sophie confesses her love and suddenly he's a changed man...I don't think so. Maybe I'm interpreting this incorrectly, but there was nothing that happened in between one day him being a baby and the next him standing up and taking charge. And all because of Sophie! This reminds me of common Hollywood romance films that depict pathetic women who waste time waiting around for some guy, who she will somehow change so he is able to grow up and achieve his full potential...a false ideology which has now resulted in a mass amount of single 20-something year old women who are just waiting for the right man for them to change to come along...gross gross GROSS!

3. The themes were not as complex as other Miyazaki's.
Yeah identity and the idea of belonging or family, but usually a Miyazaki film includes this theme as well as technology vs. nature, industrialized society and the individual's place, dealing with spirituality in an industrialized world, magic and aiding the individual, class structures, isolation, maturation, consumerism. Yeah some of these were included in HMC, but I was disappointed that they weren't explored as explicitly as they were in his other films.

4. The light people
The spirit stars or something that dance around in a circle in the sky...what?

Those are my number one complaints, but by listing these complaints it also makes me think of some of the things I did enjoy about the film:

1. The animation
Freaking beautiful. The level of expertise in the drawings was really magnificent and breathtaking at times. One of my favorites is the castle itself. Good stuff. Howl's room with all the trinkets. The field cottage place.

2. Howl's look
When he has blonde hair he is absolutely David Bowie circa 1989 Labyrinth. Sexy.

3. The idea of time...what's the word...I don't know I can't think of the word.
But the whole time warping of sorts with Sophie moving into Howl's past. Which is also prevalent in Spirited Away at the end when it appears that much time has passed since they entered the tunnel.

4. The dog
Love that dog spy. So cute and wheezy.

5. Sophie's Spell
I liked that Sophie was transformed into an old woman and throughout the film would morph into becoming younger and younger, but at the end her hair remains gray. This is the kind of "deassurance" and un-perfect ending that a girl can get behind!

Anyways...yea yea yea

Week 11: Princess Mononoke Part DEUX

YOWZA! This film just gets better and better and butter. Bread n' butter. Which reminds me I need a sandwich.

Okay so I'm glad that I got to watch this film again. There's definitely a lot going on and it was difficult to digest the first time and even the second, but I'll try my best to make sense of my scattered musings about this film.

First is the title, Princess Mononoke...thanks for lecture, because I missed it Mononoke-hime means nothing. So San is the Princess of nothing. Which makes sense because everything is destroyed at the end, but obviously that's not the point of the title of being called princess. At the same time though it could be interpreted as royalty through conquering or negotiation have different lands that are under their control. However who really owns the land? You can say that you own France, but man France could be destroyed in a typhoon tomorrow, then what would you have...

I mean that's obviously unlikely to ever happen ever, but the point is that the use of titles and the idea of ownership is sort of pointless. Which brings me to my GWS class and consumerism and the futility of STUFF!

Also San I really understood as a character. She is like an animal and words do not mean that much to her. Often times I've noticed in Miyazaki's films there is the issue of displacement or not belonging. San is human, but does not identify or relate to the human world. Or Porco Rosso, as a pig he is not one of the guys. Or Kiki as a witch tries to fit in with the world of normality.

Shoot there are so many things I want to talk about with this film and don't know where to start it!

The little kudama, clickingheadedlittlemenbabiesforestspirits. I thought they were so interesting espescially because they are not really explained or their relationship to the DeerGod/Night Walker...they are his little minions and forest protectors, but they don't really protect the forest...at least not what was shown in the film.
Lady Eboshi and her badass ways.

Princess Mononoke

Whoa whoa whoa whoa.

I think last week I said Porco Rosso was my fave...but wowy zow. I'm overwhelmed as this is my first time watching the film, but I'm into it. I'm into it in a big way.

The skill of animation has definitely been amped up a notch. This might have to do with computer capabilities, but it's done in such a subtle and skilled way that it doesn't even feel like computer animation. I seriously was getting teary eyed at the brilliance that is the Night Walker...sorry that's lame I know, but man...so beautiful!!! The colors and way it moves...was insane.

My mind has been blown. I don't even know how to start critiquing this film or analyzing it because there was just so much going on.

I guess what I'll say for now is I was intrigued by the lead character being male. This is one of the few male protagonists.

Aw man and the demon!!! Those writhing worms was so gnarly. And I have to say San's introduction...best in cinema history? Sucking blood out of a wounded wolf. I like that gory business. Which is maybe why I enjoyed Princess Mononoke so much...it definitely has it's faire share of gore!

I'm definitely glad we're watching this twice.

WEEK 8: PORCO ROSSO

I had never seen this gem. My friend Nick has been hassling me to see this film ever since I made him watch Kiki's Delivery Service. I kept putting it off. I don't know but that cover doesn't really make me want to rush out and watch it, even if it's Miyazaki!

My friend Nick has great taste and I can't recall being steered wrong from a recommendation by him, even if we greatly disagree on the epic brilliance that is the Korean vampire film Thirst. So after finally getting to see the Crimson Pig...it begs the question...why has it taken me so long to see this film?!?!

I want to say that this is my favorite film so far that we've watched of his. Which is difficult to say because I have loved every film we've watched so far...but man...

It's really a different film for Miyazaki. the only magical element of it is the fact that he has this "spell" cast on him which makes Porco a pig.

There were really interesting issues as to how the other characters actually see Porco because there are two different occasions, first with Fio, when Porco tells the story of how he got his curse, but at the same time the story doesn't explain at all why his face looks like a pig. When he finishes it there's a moment where she glimpses and sees him as a man. Also at the end after Porco wins the fight his friend asks to see his face again because he for a second catches a glimpse of the pig as a man. By being a pig he is exluded from the laws of the world for rational humans. This allows Porco Rosso to exist in a sort of gray zone.

Week 7: Kiki's Delivery Service

Kiki's Delivery Service is magical...literally, but also just magical as in it makes me so happy every time I see it. Kiki is a girl on a mission and she's going to do her thing and try even when it's not working out for her. She doesn't let things hinder her.

Except for when she gets deathly ill which is understandable. Girl can't go riding around on a broom in the middle of a rainstorm!

I was not able to attend the class discussion because of my participation in the strike, which was disappointing because I always enjoy the discussions and feel that they offer insight into the films that I wouldn't normally have thought before.

Also I've noticed that the music in Miyazaki's films are always super legit! I'm into it.

Kiki's loss of magical powers seems to coincide with technology and the idea that technology can do everything that she does magically. But it also seems to relate to firstlovecrush babedude Tombo and that situation, although I'm not sure directly how they relate. It might have to do with the fact that Tombo was on the dirigible or that he was creating his OWN flying machine. But Kiki's flying abitliy is also linked as a creative outlet, like Ursula with her art who suggests she let it go and not worry about only to have it come back to her at a later time...

Also what's the deal at the end. She can no longer understand Jiji, which is really disappointing because Jiji's so great! Does this relate to Jiji's cat love or is this solely reliant on Kiki and her maturity or I guess no longer necessary need to have conversations with her cat because she has other friends...

Week 6: My Neighbor Totoro

This film is a bit different compared to the rest of Hayao Miyazaki's work up until this point. All of his other films have taken place in other worlds that don't have specific locations. They are a bit of a blank slate for Miyazaki to work with.

MNT is specific. It is post-WWII Japan, which affects the way the viewer interprets the film. As a viewer one has a better idea as to who the characters are and where they come from.

The sisters, Satsuki and Mei are extremely dynamic characters and their relationship is illustrated in a realistic way. Satsuki being the eldest looks out for Mei and takes care of her. However they are still sisters and do not always get along.



The greatest part of MNT is seeing how children react or handle with stressful and upsetting situations. Their mother who has is sick with some unnamed disease must stay in the hospital. The scene where Satsuki finds out that she has taken ill, the girls are depicted lounging around the house, exhausted. It is never explicitly said, but the art of Miyazaki is that time is implied because strewn on the floor surround Mei are neglected toys. It means that she was playing with toys attempting to distract herself from the seriousness of the situation at hand and gave up, exhausted and slept.

One of the unanswered questions of the film is whether Totoro is in fact real. He is real for the girls in their world, but whether or not Totoro exists in the world of the adults. The ending implies that Totoro is in fact real because of the corn that Satsuki and Mei's parents find on the windowsill, that was engraved with "For Mom" However there is the logic of the situation. How could the girls possibly have traveled so far if there was not really a CatBus? Although Miyazaki by not explaining this seems to want us to not focus on this issue. That it doesn't really matter. What matters is that the girls are able to grow up and to accept their situations better because of Totoro. He is offers the care and attention that they were not receiving previously.

Castle in the Sky and Todorov!

The first time I saw Castle in the Sky, I really despised it. I thought the plot was cheesy and the characters bothered me. I'm glad I had the opportunity to watch it again because my opinion of it has definitely shifted.

One thing I've noticed with Hayao Miyazaki films is the settings are similar. There's a definitely technologically advanced society, what with complex and inventive flying machines, but there's also an old world, European feel to them. It's this idea that these are complex societies, but they've somehow digressed to the old ways of technological uses. Maybe the society has reached a tipping point where it once was industrialized, but became too expansive and collapsed in on itself.

Todorov's article on The Fantastic was very interesting. It appears that Castle in the Sky would fall under the category of fantastic marvelous. There is never a moment of hesitation where the magical world that the characters live in needs to be justified. It just is the way it is. Of course it's normal that a girl should be slowly floating down from the sky.