Animated Discussions: Wolf Children by Mamoru Hosoda

I am not so much of a wolf ... as I am a rabbit. But you know that I love my cartoons and that I love Japanese cartoons particularly.
Yesterday I watched "Wolf Children" -  Mamoru Hosoda's 2012 film release, very reminiscent of the Ghibli tradition of fantasy family tales for all ages.

Its story is about student Hana who falls in love with a mysterious young man she sees at her college lectures. But his dark secret is that he is a werewolf, a race long thought to have died out in Japan. Their love affair continues and he and Hana go on to have two young children: a girl, Yuki (Snow), and a boy, Ame (Rain). Fate forces Hana to lose her lover and soon the intrusions of modern urban life prove too much for Hana and her tiny human-wolf children. Hana moves to a rural community and the film follows the family as the children grow towards adulthood. How can Hana raise them as a human on her own? And how will they live? As wolves or humans?

I enjoyed the film very much but somehow it missed something that I find in the Ghibli classics. It's not so much the visuals, I think, as in the story-telling. Ghibli or rather Miyazaki's characters can be subtly drawn in terms of ambiguity or gender "type". In Hosoda's film it seems that boys are expected to be "tough" wolves and girls to be more human "tender" and perhaps woe betide if they do not conform that easily. Mmmnn! (She do say stroking her old-lady chin thoughtfully.) But it's a great story which involved me and The Old Man easily on a wintry evening.

And I wouldn't mind getting hold of a copy of the the next Hosoda: "The Boy And The Beast".

Hayao Miyazaki Tribute Video Clip From Madman Entertainment

Because Miyazaki's  "last" animation is out now - "The Wind Rises" -  I have to share this tribute from Madman Entertainment, Australia.
Me? I still love "My Neighbor Tortoro" and "Spirited Away" most.

Animated Discussions: Kijek/Adamski - Shugo Tokumaru Music Video

Shugo Tokumaru / Katachi from Kijek / Adamski on Vimeo.

From Polish animators Kijek / Adamski. If my previous animation post sampled the impromptu, "simple" end of things.... this music video is a pearl of the more complicated kind. (Quote from their Cargo page: "...made with approx. 2000 silhouettes extracted from PVC plates using computer-controlled cutter.")

Animated Discussions: Miyazaki and Giraud (aka Moebius)

Two "Greats" talk and give us an insight into the meeting of the European and the Japanese worlds of imagination and film-making. The late Jean Giraud, French comic book artist and animator  and Hayao Miyazaki.... the "Man" of Japanese anime... discuss the influence of each others work in the (previous post) video.

Animated Discussions: YouTube Interview with Hayao Miyazaki and Jean Giraud (Moebius)

Animated Discussions: Japanese Gods: Hayao Miyazaki & Princess Mononoke

So... I must be passing through a Japanese phase.

I'm listening to a Japanese crime story on my MP3 player.... and the other evening I turn to my comfort food - animation .... in this case "Princess Mononoke" by Hayao Miyazaki.

Released in 1997 it is one of Miyazaki's greats. Gods and men battle for ownership of the land.... or should I say the earth. I like the "foreign" quality of the spirit-world in Japanese anime. Westerners love to make their gods look like human kings and queens. Anime spirits are definitely "other".

I'll leave the critical discussion to this here video clip from New York Times.

Critics' Picks: 'Princess Mononoke' - NYTimes.com/Video

All Wired Up

.... to my MP3 player. Yes, I know I am supposed to be cool and have an iPod but I am not that cool. I have a bus pass. I have an MP3 player.

OK. OK. It be also a longstanding PC Girl versus ApplePerson. I don't do much in the way of Apple stuff. This is why I am not cool.

Anyhoo... I have this little player what does radio as well. But I do not have music on it. I have books on it. I used to like talking books so now I get them via Audible and attempt to keep up with Mrs D and her crime reading.Tell you what, though. It do not pay to listen in bed. I do fall asleep and have to back-peddle until I find a bit of book I do recognise and start over again.

But it be ideal for stuff like ironing, mending, making, sitting sunbathing.... or like yesterday... when The Old Man (who be an old crock as you may know) has to get his annual check up at the Hospital. And this hospital be in the next county so that's a hundred mile trip to see the doc for ten minutes then a hundred miles back home. I do go to keep him company on the drive... and I sit in the sun listening to "Salvation of a Saint" by Keigo Higashino ( very detailed and precise and slightly off the wall Japanese police procedural. Very Japanese....) .....while he sits indoors in the waiting room for an hour.

The Old Man do stagger out with a clean bill of health on the cancer front and  it is indeed a lovely day. So we do go home via Tavistock for lunch. Not been there before. Nice place. May go there again.... Next Checkup.

Animated Discussions: Japan - Tekkonkinkreet

The other day I do watch Tekkonkinkreet which be a 2006 Japanese anime based on Taiyo Matsumoto's Manga series from the 1990s.

It's the story of two orphan streetkids "Kuro" (Black) and "Shiro" (White). Kuro is an angry streetwise kid and Shiro is a dreaming innocent. Black and White, see? Anyway this is their story of survival in the gritty corrupt streets of Treasure Town with its cops and Yakuza.

I do love the little film so much... the dark gritty streetlife, the fantasy, the art work.... I do get myself a copy on DVD straight away.

Tekkonkinkreet 2006 - Movie Trailer

S-S-Steam Thinking: Japanese Anime, Goth-Lolis, etc.

Thought I'd bounce around up here again for a bit.

Cos I am reading up about Steampunk in Wikipedia... and the article mentions Hayao Miyazaki's anime, in particular "Howl's Moving Castle", and I do really love that one cos I never grow up (Click the link for a trailer viewing.)

And I am thinkin that maybe there's a steampunk connection with the Japanese street fashion thing of girls dressing in pseudo Victorian stuff. We are talkin Goth-Lolis here - "Gothic Lolitas".

So I should enjoy the film "Steamboy" . But sadly I don't. I remember quite a lot of "Bang! Bang! You're dead". So much so, that I get bored with it. I also think that the film is package heavy, content light. And the trailer (click on the "Steamboy" link above) shows that it does indeed look very sumptuous and kind of breath-taking and also...well.... Steampunkish.

Travels with my Film-Life: Still in Japan

Mmmn... we's still here. This time it's 1959 and we are visiting the tight world of a neighbourhood on the outskirts of Tokyo - with all that implies.

It's Yasujiro Ozu's "Good Morning". And I think it's very funny. I love the photography in this one. And sometimes the music reminds me of an Italian film of this period.

The plot very much revolves around two young boys' desire for television; whilst the film itself observes the manners and formalities of neighbourly life - as in the greeting of the title. For one character - polite small talk is the oil that smooths the running of daily life. Certainly, for others, its absence ... causes gossip and suspicion. The film is a delight.

I can't point you to a very good clip with English translation. But try this one here for a flavour of the film.

And if you would like to check my post about Ozu's "Late Spring" - click here.

"Good-bye" or should I say - "Sore dewa".

Animated discussions : Japan

And by the way... all this travel to Japan through the eyes of Ozu and Hirokasu Kore-eda which repeat the images of piled up buildings, steep steps, railways and roads? Well, I experience a weird overlay of the cloud-swept, steep townscapes of some Japanese anime films. Most notably the Studio Ghibli animations. And the sound of the wind in the trees and the high-pitched cicadas are all there too.

Why do I think of this? Well I watch "Whisper of the Heart" - all to myself - and see and hear these very things. This animated film is written by Hayao Miyazaki, and directed by Yoshifumi Kondo. And I'm really glad I take time out on a cold rainy afternoon to watch it. I'll never grow up.

You can watch a trailer for "Whisper..." by clicking here.

Travels with my Film-Life: Japan again

The Old Man decides to prolong our stay by viewing Yasujiro Ozu's 1949 film - "Late Spring" the following evening. In part, this is because of comparisons made between "Still Walking" (see previous Post) and Ozu's work.

I find the music for "Late Spring" difficult to cope with. It gets in the way for me, at least initially. And, with the characters, you have to take time to adapt to an older generation of mores and Japanese tradition; for instance - the constant smiling and nodding of the "daughter" lead.

But it's worth the effort. If you manage it - you find that underneath the formality and etiquette you are led into an intimate and surprisingly moving film depicting this small family in post war Japan.

You can view a You Tube clip from Ozu's "Late Spring" by clicking here.

Travels with my Film-Life: Japan

So The Old Man insists we visit Japan - by watching the 2008 film "Still Walking" by Hirokazu Kore-eda.

In a steeply hilled coastal town we wait as family members gather for the memorial day of the eldest son. We listen to them bickering and preparing food. We watch them visit the cemetery; watch the children playing and climbing to pick the flowers of a crape myrtle, for the director - a symbol of the family; and we watch the family politics play out.

It's a slow and gentle film and it takes me a while to slow down my pace to match it. But once I do, I find it absorbing. The film's director is known for his previous work in social issue and documentary films. When I discover this, I can understand better the slow, objective narrative of this film.

You can see a trailer for "Still Walking" by clicking here.

Animated discussions: Fairy Tale Dreams

The Old Man say: "You can tell my story."
I say: "Oh Yeah?"
He say: "The first cartoon film I saw in the cinema was "Snow White". I was four. I was so frightened by the Wicked Witch, I had nightmares for months. The worst was when she baked me in a pie with the apples."
Long silence.
"Get your own blog" say I.

Nevertheless, that's what's so powerful about animation. It makes real the fantastic, the impossible, the surreal. "Look. It moves around, it walks, it talks, it must be real," Our Little Child's Brain says.

Yes OK, I too have a Walt Disney Witch image burnt into my Little Child's Brain. But mine was Sleeping Beauty's Wicked Fairy. Towering tall, all cheekbones and scarlet lips. Like Gloria Swanson in "Sunset Boulevard", she was "... ready for my close-up now, Mr De Mille".
Clothes rippling behind her in the wind of her fury.

Which reminds me. Why is the wind always blowing in Japanese Anime films? Hair blows, skirt hems flap, the grass ripples and clouds sail across the sky.

And so whilst on the subject of Fairy Tale, I'm thinking Hiyao Miyazaki now. And some of my favourite animated films have been his. "Spirited Away", "Howl's Moving Castle" and my current absolute - "My Neighbour Totoro". Which is gentle, with a hint of something else - the world of the spirits. There's a cicada-ringing countryside; a crazy surreal bus ride through a rainy night; and the wonderful, wonderful Totoro himself.

(My current Mozilla FireFox look is called Parasol Totoro.)

So am I a sentimentalist? Because I like cute cartoons? But they don't have to be cute.

Let me tell you sometime about "Waltz with Bashir". That's not cute.