Miyazaki Marathon Day 7: Princess Mononoke

Name: Princess Mononoke
Type: Movie
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 133 min
Directed By Miyazaki Hayao
Produced By Studio Ghibli
Year Produced: 1997

The To Aru Kagaku no Home Theater Miyazaki Marathon... and then some... continues, despite public protest!

This is a "festival" where I sit down at spend about a week and a half watching all of the Miyazaki movies that I want to.  I didn't mention this last time, but I don't have any particular interest in Ponyo.

What's still to come are:

Monday of Next Week - Spirited Away (2001)
Tuesday of Next Week - Howl's Moving Castle (2004)


I've already reviewed Kaze no Tani no Nausicaa, Laputa: Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service, Porco Rosso, and Whisper of the Heart, so if you're interested in that, then check it out... back there.


During a more fantastic age in Japanese history (specifically the Muromachi Period), spirits were a more common sight than they are today.  Sure, those soot gremlins out of My Neighbor Totoro appear randomly, but not around America.

In this time, everybody's heard of the "Spirit of the Forest", which is... the spirit of the forest, the very life of the woods of Japan, but that's not the point right now, the point is that there is a very small village in the extreme countryside of Japan that's having some kind of spiritual... scare I guess, although they could be freaking out about bandits or something like that.

Prince Ashitaka, the... prince of the village (and of the Emishi people (look it up if you care, this is semi-historical)) is riding out to the watchtower on Yakul, a red elk.  He's going out there to find out what's got the village people so worried.  On the way there, he passes his sister and her friends, telling them to return to the village quickly.

At the watchtower, he peers out into the forest and spots something moving behind the barrier placed there.  As he and the old man on guard watch, a demon smashes down the wall and then... sneezes, I suppose.  When it does, the things "skin" comes off in the form of a bunch of weird worms.  It's a boar underneath... or at least until the worms fall back on top.

Achoo!

The demon spots Yakul and obviously sees a meal in it, and so charges towards the tower.  Ashitaka manages to scare Yakul out of his stupor, but in exchange, he doesn't have the opportunity to get down, and so the demon rams and tips over the tower, so Ashitaka grabs the old man and hops to safety in a tree.

Ashitaka gets down, the guard shouting after him to watch that the demon doesn't touch him, less the curse be on him too.

Ashitaka gets Yakul and then dashes after the demon.  When he manages to catch up with it again, Ashitaka tries to ward it off by... asking it nicely, since that's all you can do with a god/demon.  But it doesn't work.

 

The two burst out of the forest, Ashitaka and Yakul dashing on, but the demon pauses and then notices Ashitaka's little sister.  More food.

When it goes after them, Ashitaka gets in it's way, and when one of the little girls falls down, Ashitaka starts a fight with the demon, shooting it in the eye.

The demon gets seriously pissed, chasing after Ashitaka, and managing to grab onto his arm.

Ashitaka rips himself away, then fires another arrow, striking and killing the demon.

After the battle, all of the people run out to see what's left of the demon and their prince.  The place where the demon grabbed Ashitaka is burned with some kind of evil mark now.
The wise woman is fetched and she tends to the boar god, asking it to pass on peacefully, but the boar's bitchy and doesn't agree, and actually curses all the human race.  Wow.  That's not very nice of him.

Later that night, the village elders all meet (along with Ashitaka.  He is a prince, after all).  The wise woman uses fortune telling to determine Ashitaka's fate.  He's going to die.  That mark on his arm will eventually consume his entire body and kill him.  Kind of like cancer, I suppose.

 

Maybe because they don't like living with a cursed person, or maybe because of some ancient tradition, Ashitaka is forced/obligated to leave the village, which he does without complaining.
The only clue he's given is to go West.  That's helpful.  But wait!  The wise woman reaches insider her robe and pull out this; a ball of iron, in case you're wondering.

Before he actually manages to leave though, his little sister runs out (defying village law), giving him a crystal dagger to remember her by.

 This is important later.

And so Ashitaka sets out to the West to search for the answers that the wise woman was talking about, but he's going to find more than just answers.  There's always been a shitload more questions than answers, believe me.


Like I said a couple of posts back, this was probably the first anime that I ever watched, and I'm pretty happy about that.  I mean, it's got everything that a teenager needs; samurais, battles, blood... and that's it!  We're easy to satisfy.

Miyazaki's naturalist theme is back with a vengeance, along with a humanitarian element that has been rather rare since Nausicaa (it was a lot more stressed in the manga, but you could still pick up on the small issues in the anime).
This portrays the natural element a lot more forcefully.  It's presented as a battle, humans and technology vrs. the forest and spirituality.  It's kind of sad how you can relate this to pretty much every one of the world's issues...

The music was nice.  It wasn't to my specific style, but I found myself humming it quite a lot after I had finished watching it.  Serious Japanese influences, mainly because this is a semi-historical film.  The only thing in it that's not accurate is... you know, the flamethrowers.  I don't think that you can do that with gunpowder.
... and if you can, please don't write a million comments protesting your insane knowledge of explosives and firearms, because I find it kind of creepy and... boring.

Actually, I listened to the Japanese version for the first time.  It was really weird, amazingly.  The Japanese version was a lot quieter than the English one.  The Japanese voice actors were a lot more toned-down than the American ones, so that made is quieter, but there was also a lot of stuff said in the English version that didn't have a place in the Japanese one.  That was kind of cool.
... and Moro totally sounded like a guy, only it's not.  Kind of creepy, just like this.

Bwa ha ha ha ha!

It was my favorite one of all the Miyazaki movies, and in the unlikely situation that you actually agree with something that I've written here, you'll like it too.  So watch it, if nothing else.

Ghibli 13 Movie Collection (Dual Audio) Nihonomaru

Princess Mononoke Minitheatre

Coming up next!

Day 8: Spirited Away!

Miyazaki Marathon Day 6: Whisper of the Heart

Name: Whisper of the Heart
Type: Movie
Rating: Any Age
Runtime: 111 min
Directed By Kondo Yoshifumi/Miyazaki Hayao
Produced By Studio Ghibli
Year Produced: 1995

The To Aru Kagaku no Home Theater Miyazaki Marathon... and then some... continues, despite public protest!

This is a "festival" where I sit down at spend about a week and a half watching all of the Miyazaki movies that I want to.  I didn't mention this last time, but I don't have any particular interest in Ponyo.

What's still to come are:

Sunday - Princess Mononoke (1997)
Monday of Next Week - Spirited Away (2001)
Tuesday of Next Week - Howl's Moving Castle (2004)


I've already reviewed Kaze no Tani no Nausicaa, Laputa: Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service, and Porco Rosso, so if you're interested in that, then check it out... back there.


Shizuku is a typical Japanese high school girl.  She gets decent grades and has a close circle of friends.  Granted, she probably devotes a little too much time to a specific extracurricular activity than she should, but that's a teenage girl for you.
... It's reading!  Jeez, your minds are in the gutter.  It's a Ghibli movie, dammit!

That's always a bad sign.

Her friends are all members of some kind of choir/band or something.  For some unexplained and uncared reason, they're doing Country Road by that dude John Denver.  Only one problem though... it's in English.

So they've enlisted Shizuku to write them a Japanese version...

 Yes, an armature song writer myself, I'd say you've got talent.

... but that's a side note.

The main story here is what Shizuku finds written on the library cards of some of the books that she's brought home.

... that reads as Amasawa Seiji, by the way, in case you were like me and had to read the subtitles.

So who is this "Amasawa Seiji"?  What does he look like?  What are his interests, his favorite foods, his hair color?  And most importantly, why is he reading all of these books too?

These are just a couple of deluded questions that I'm sure were rocketing through Shizuk's head when she saw this, though she voiced only a couple.

The next day, she and her friend Yuko at their school.  This is another concept that I suppose only people who care about their school success could understand... why are the school gates open on a... not school day (I don't know the actual date)?

Either way, she goes into the school library and finds a book that she's been looking around for... and guess what's on the inside of the cover?

... Donated.

Kind of anti-climactic of me, yeah?

... FOOLED (NOT!)!

The book was donated by none other than her knight in paper armor Amasawa... Seiji.

She goes outside and meets her friend Yuko, giving her the lyrics that she's come up, and Concrete Road, possibly the best song ever written in Japanese.

... But little does Shizuku know that their get-together was not just about the song, but also about (what else) love (kissy kissy).

... No, not with each other, that'd just be a little too over the top for Ghibli.  Actually, Yuko has a secret crush that's only secret from the guy that she likes eventually.  To make things worse, she's been asked out by another guy (oh, the drama!)

They're both baseball jocks, but the guy that Yuko's into is named Sugimura (who's in their class), a fact that Shizuku discovers when Yuko nearly has a heart attack when Sugimura starts talking to Shizuku.  No, I don't know why this would freak her out so bad either, but there you go.

Yuko dashes off, and Shizuku follows her, dropping her new book and the sheet music as she does.

After a "Duh" conversation, Shizuku finally realizes what's happened to her stuff and dashes back to the school, only to find some creepy other high school reading the book.

... okay, he's not that bad actually.  He's good enough to make wisecracks, and gave the book back without arguing or anything.

But then he went and said this.

WHAT, FUCKER?!

Pissed off for obvious latent-attraction reasons, Shizuku goes home and... reads some more.  She also fantasizes about Mr. Amasawa some more too.

On a semi-unrelated note, Shizuku's sister who's come home after an extended leave has returned home for another unknown reason.

After a while, Shizuku's sister has her deliver their father's lunch to him at the library (he works there).  So she sets off grudgingly, since almost nobody gets along with their siblings...

On the way there, she meets... a cat.

Now, I don't know where the fascination with this obviously strange cat comes from, and I don't understand why the cat didn't just scratch her face off like my old cat did to my friends (it was actually kind of funny).

Either way, at Shizuk's stop, the cat also ditches and Shizuku goes running after him, only to lose him at a crosswalk.

As she continues her walk to the library, she finds the cat again, and after violating several trespassing laws, manages to follow it into a boutique of antique collectibles and crap... and a clock with this on it...

Can you read that?  It says Porco Rosso... does anyone get this?  Is Porco the Dwarf?

While there, she also meets...

Zie Barron von Vaderham.

... just the Baron.  I don't know who in their right mind would give such a title to a porcelain cat, but then again, I don't know why anime girls go into such a panic when the guy they like starts talking to someone they are talking too.  Keep your cool, girls (although it's kind of cute.  Unrealistic, and people looking for that are probably never going to get a girlfriend, but cute nonetheless).

After having a nice talk with the proprietor, Shizuku realizes that she's close to being late to delivering her father's lunch, so she dashes out of the store, inquiring if she can return again later.

Shizuku runs all the way down the stairs, a feat that is beyond many professional athletes, and arrives at the steps before the library... only to discover that she's dropped the lunch somewhere.

Just then, that guy who was reading her book back at school shows up, delivering her lunch to her before making another comment and riding off... singing Concrete Roads... good.  He's been converted... or assimilated.

... and I'll just leave the rest to the spoiler section.

Okay, so you're probably wondering what's with the / in the director section.

Miyazaki Hayao didn't actually direct most of this movie.  It was still written and produced by him and stuff, but actually that other guy; Kondo Yoshifumi directed pretty much everything.

It's a-freaking-live!!

Miyazaki directed the "fantasy" sequences of the movie, short though they may be, you could probably be see a little more of his style in there.  Elements from Kiki, Porco, and even Nausicaa, not to mention an almost trademark freeness of camera and angles, though it's a lot easier to do when you've got people flying.

Like I've said before, the music was epic.  Country Road in Japanese, not to mention Concrete Road, it just couldn't get much better.  Throw in a My Love is a Stapler, a Fuwa Fuwa Time, and you've got the best anime score on Earth!

Yet again, go with the Japanese.  There wasn't anybody outstanding in the English cast this time, but then again, it was a little-known movie.  I didn't know about it until I researched Miyazaki to do this.

This was a pretty good show, especially if you like semi-depressing plot lines.

Ghibli 13 Movie Collection (Dual Audio) Nihonomaru

Coming up next!

Day 7: Princess Mononoke!

Miyazaki Marathon Day 5: Porco Rosso

Name: Porco Rosso
Type: Movie
Rating: Any Age
Runtime: 93 min
Directed By Miyazaki Hayao
Produced By Studio Ghibli
Year Produced: 1992

The To Aru Kagaku no Home Theater Miyazaki Marathon... and then some... continues, despite public protest!

This is a "festival" where I sit down at spend about a week and a half watching all of the Miyazaki movies that I want to.  I didn't mention this last time, but I don't have any particular interest in Ponyo.

What's still to come are:

Saturday - Whisper of the Heart (1995)
Sunday - Princess Mononoke (1997)
Monday of Next Week - Spirited Away (2001)
Tuesday of Next Week - Howl's Moving Castle (2004)


I've already reviewed Kaze no Tani no Nausicaa, Laputa: Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro, and Kiki's Delivery Service, so if you're interested in that, then check it out... back there.


During the golden age of bi-wing airplanes, the sky is filled with pirates using sea planes to raid local commercial vessels.  In all this rather peaceful time, there are those who fly the skies tracking down and recovering stolen cargo; Bounty Hunters.
Among all of these fliers, there is one name that every pilot in the Adriatic knows; Porco Rosso, the flying pig.

 ... What?!

... Yes, you heard me correctly, I said pig.

Keeping the local skies safe from all of the pirates, Porco Rosso has made quite a name for himself, and earned himself a lot of fans and enemies, namely these guys...

Don't look very happy, do they?  Well that's correct, but now they've gone and hired an American to come and fight with Porco.  His name is Curtis, and he speaks very good Japanese and French... but not Italian... this again.

Now not only are they rivals in the sky, but also for the love of Gina, a singer at a club and another local legend.  "Every pilot in the Adriatic is in love with Gina".

Probably the best one out of the set that I've watched so far (not including Princess Mononoke).  It was funny and had action, anime dogfights!  Always fun to watch, though they can get kind of confusing if you don't know what's going on, but since in my past experience I have done a lot of research on military tactics, I was set (don't worry, it doesn't get that complicated).

Again, Miyazaki's love of things that fly comes back, this time making a staring role, though the naturalist/environmentalist theme was tuned way down again, possibly nonexistent in this one.
There was probably a humanitarian message in there if you were hypersensitive, but I'm not, so I couldn't tell you.

The music was pretty good, a couple of anthems and some other stuff.  There was also a solo that Gina did in the beginning, but I'm kind of adverse to older French songs.  A lot of vibrato and always depressing.

The Japanese version is the one that I stuck with, though the English one surprised me.  Actually, I've noticed that movies (namely Miyazaki movies because that's all I've seen) tend to have a better selection of English voice actors, so the English versions aren't bad.

Maybe it was the better quality that I found in this download, but the animation definitely looked better, a lot smoother, and it might have been a forced reaction to the abundance of action scenes in this movie.

Porco Rosso MegaUpload
- I'm sorry, but I couldn't find this all in one place.  For some reason, people haven't gotten around to ripping it in any kind of quality in one piece (it comes in parts everywhere though), so I had to find this by web searching it...
... So I'm sorry to whoever uploaded this, but good job, man!  French, Japanese, and English, damn!

Coming up next!

Day 6: Whisper of the Heart!

Miyazaki Marathon Day 4: Kiki's Delivery Service

Name: Kiki's Delivery Service
Type: Movie
Rating: Any Age
Runtime: 103 min
Directed By Miyazaki Hayao
Produced By Studio Ghibli
Year Produced: 1989

The To Aru Kagaku no Home Theater Miyazaki Marathon... and then some... continues, despite public protest!

This is a "festival" where I sit down at spend about a week and a half watching all of the Miyazaki movies that I want to.  I didn't mention this last time, but I don't have any particular interest in Ponyo.

What's still to come are:

Friday - Porco Rosso (1992)
Saturday - Whisper of the Heart (1995)
Sunday - Princess Mononoke (1997)
Monday of Next Week - Spirited Away (2001)
Tuesday of Next Week - Howl's Moving Castle (2004)


I've already reviewed Kaze no Tani no Nausicaa, Laputa: Castle in the Sky, and My Neighbor Totoro, so if you're interested in that, then check it out... back there.


Set in what I gather is roughly 1900 Germany, this movie is about a young witch: Kiki... I don't know her last name.  And her black cat Jiji.  Kiki and Jiji... okay.

Together in all kinds of weather.

When witches turn 13 (-ish), they are fully independent, and as such are supposed to venture out into the world to seek a career in whatever they want to do... magic-wise.  If they ever become something like a surgeon, the Black Book Guild will hunt them down and shove a broom up their ass.

Now officially a teenager, Kiki has been waiting for the perfect day to set out on her epic journey... and it has come.  And what luck!  Just in time for her movie!  All of the planets are aligning.

On the night of the full moon, Kiki and Jiji set out (on a broom), searching for their new home, with the only stipulation being that it be big and near the ocean.  Shouldn't be that hard to find.

GO!

Kiki and Jiji find their ideal city after only like... a day.

While trying to make a good first impression on the normal human citizens of this new town, Kiki almost flies into a double-decker bus.  After what I thought was some pretty impressive air evasive action, Kiki... gets a ticket.

After escaping the full extent of the law (including a strip-search and experimental interrogation permitted under the Patriot Act), she is treated rather rudely by everybody except the good-natured... old man locked at the top of the clock tower...

She mets the boy who managed to distract the cop long enough for her to make a calm getaway.  His name is Tombo... which totally doesn't sound like any language on Earth.  Would you name your son Tombo?

Then again, he does look like a Tombo.

Since the only thing that she's consciously good at is flying (though I didn't get that impression from her takeoff.  If that's her best, what's her worst skill... and how many people have died?), Kiki decides to start a delivery service (again with that sneakily simple plot... damn you, Miyazaki!).

I don't know how much I can say that it was pretty good.  It was fun, but not as... (grinds teeth) sweet as Totoro.

Actually, thinking back on it, I was worried yesterday after finishing the review on Totoro, that I might just be biased and blindly supporting Miyazaki.  I don't think that I am, but I'm probably not the best judge.

All that I can say is that Miyazaki's made some movies that I wouldn't stop to watch if I didn't know that he was involved in, but since I do know, I watch them... and they're pretty good.  I guess that's kind of what he is to me.

The music was shoujo anime music, which kind of fits because this was almost a shoujo movie, but it wasn't lovely-dovey gooey enough (thank God).  No offense, but I just can't handle that kind of stuff.  When guys start talking like that, their either homosexual... or lying.  Maybe not technically lying, but laying in on pretty thick.

I personally watched this in Japanese (because I'm like that)... until I figured out that Phil Hartman was in it, playing Jiji.  Phil... Hartman...

For your information, Phil Hartman is a god to me on many levels, from the work he's done, to what I can gather of his personality, and I greatly appreciate all the influence that he's made on my life.

 Sounds like something Hartman would say.

The English cast of one of the versions also had Kirsten Dunst out of Spiderman.  This I don't care so much about, but it was still interesting.

I've got one more thing to say about the language thing, and if you watch the movie, you'll figure it out yourself... but what is going on with the languages in this world?

I mean, you've got Japanese people listening to a radio with an American DJ... in Germany!  Could someone please explain this to me?

This movie was better than My Neighbor Totoro on the action front, but for some reason, it was loaded with a lot of upskirt shots.

She's also awfully flexible...

... Sorry, that's the way I am, I get perverted thoughts and can usually only control them for fear of reprisal or the idea that they might be misunderstood or whatever, but here, you don't know who I am, and I've done a lot worse... I mean just look at Midori no Hibi... and not even under the spoiler, right there in the visible body!  Besides, nobody's reading, so what do I care?

Miyazaki's style is becoming more unique and noticeable through his works.  A lot more colorful and pronounced, and seemingly smoother.  He's also taken on a big task with this movie.  Inter-city animes are very difficult to do, what with all of the detail that you need to add into the background.
On works like Kaze no Tani no Nausicaa, it was good that Miyazaki kept the background to a minimum (maybe it wasn't intentional), and in My Neighbor Totoro, it was set in a pretty remote location without a lot of fine detail needed, but in this one, you need some extra time to keep things... city-like.

I also noticed that the environmental theme was tuned way down on this one.  Actually, I don't think there was anything about the environment in here, but that's not disappointing, but rather kind of shocking after seeing Nausicaa which was all about it, and Totoro which featured a strong natural side.

Ghibli 13 Movie Collection (Dual Audio) Nihonomaru
Kiki's Delivery Service Minitheatre

Coming up next!

Day 5: Whisper of the Heart!

Miyazaki Marathon Day 3: My Neighbor Totoro

Name: My Neighbor Totoro
Type: Movie
Rating: Any Age
Runtime: 86 min
Directed By Miyazaki Hayao
Produced By Studio Ghibli
Year Produced: 1988

The To Aru Kagaku no Home Theater Miyazaki Marathon... and then some... continues, despite public protest!

This is a "festival" where I sit down at spend about a week and a half watching all of the Miyazaki movies that I want to.  I didn't mention this last time, but I don't have any particular interest in Ponyo.

What's still to come are:

Thursday - Kiki's Delivery Service (1989)
Friday - Porco Rosso (1992)
Saturday - Whisper of the Heart (1995)
Sunday - Princess Mononoke (1997)
Monday of Next Week - Spirited Away (2001)
Tuesday of Next Week - Howl's Moving Castle (2004)


I've already reviewed Kaze no Tani no Nausicaa and Laputa: Castle in the Sky, so if you're interested in that, then check it out... back there.


Set in the Japanese countryside (assumability the rice farming area), the story is about the Kursakabe family, consisting of two daughters Satsuki and Mei (older and younger), their father Tatsuo, and their mother Yasuko who's staying in a hospital in the city because of her weak constitution.  I'm guessing that moving out to the country-side was for their mother's health because Tatsou is a archeology teacher at a university, and the commute sounds hellish.

All of their earthly possessions are right there.

Either way, the Kurasakabe family loads all of their earthly possessions onto one of those... cars, I guess, I actually don't know what they are, but I've seen them in pictures.

Have you ever seen one of these in real life?  The shrine... not...

They arrive at their new home which... looks like Luigi's Mansion on a clear day (an obscure reference to an old Gamecube game which is strangely a lot of fun to play).  Though I can't complain, I've lived in worse.

Their new house.

They have a moving day, inspecting the house and discovering many new and interesting things about their new abode.  Such as the fact that it's haunted by living soot balls, or "Soot Gremlins".

 

Cough.

They apparently aren't dangerous, they can just get in you lungs, give you the Black Lung, and kill you (my opinion, I mean... they're balls of soot!  That's not a good thing!).

And so they settle into their new life there.  Satsuki starts going to a local elementary school, dad goes to teach at university, Mei starts exploring the local property (she's 4) and mom's... sitting all bored in the hospital.

During the course of her investigation, Mei discovers... the creatures on the Ghibli logo.

So they're... Ghiblis?

... I like it.

Mei follows them deep into the forest, and then into a hole in a tree, right out onto...

A big bear.

I don't know about you, but unless you're brain-damaged, you have the general sense that standing on the top of a clawed creature 20 times your size is a bad idea.  It's kind of like a basic instinct.

But Mei's not worried at all, and God knows why, because she's not brain-damaged, she's 4... okay, she's... inexperienced with the ways of killer beasts.

Turns out, it's a god, or something along the spiritual path, even better!  I think I'll walk on a god's stomach and see what happens.

But Totoro's (that's it's name; Totoro) one of those cool, chillaxed gods/spirits.  Not many of those outside Japanese philosophy/mythology (I don't want to offend anyone here).

So now the Kurasakabe's have got a new neighbor; Totoro, hence the title.  Miyazaki's sneaky like that.  So the rest of the story is about their interaction with the fuzzy Totoro, and about their mother(who's in the hospital, remember?).

Along the way they discover many new and wonderful things about the countryside, their other human neighbors, and ways to get around the "Shoe Custom".

Do you take off your shoes when you go inside?  I personally think it's kind of creepy to wear shoes inside, I was raised where you took off your shoes because of the carpets and hard-wood floors.  Plus I live in Hawaii, we're a melting pot.

This was a fun movie.  Actually it was (and I hesitate to use the word) sweet.  I don't like using this word because I usually use it in a different situation (usually applying to girls).

I wouldn't say that it was funny, but I did notice that it had those moments where you smiled without being amused (per sea), hence the "sweet" thing.

It was Miyazaki all over, I mean, he even wrote the ending song; Totori no Totoro, which wasn't bad, just like the opening song.

 ... And nobody does the "Tough Walk" like Studio Ghibli.

(Since I'm on the topic) The music wasn't bad, but again, not to my taste.  It was kind of the music you see in children's movies and stuff, and as I already stated a while back, I'm more into rock/techno music.  Don't worry, I'm making a point to review an anime that has my type of music in it presently, though I don't know exactly when I'm getting to it...

Japanese, though the English dub was very good.  I don't know what happened (though on a side note, Satsuki and Mei were played by actual sisters I think, people with the same last name at least).

You should probably watch this movie.  It appears to be Miyazaki's brain child or something, and it's an experience either way.  I mean, would you want to miss...

CATBUS?!

I know I wouldn't.

Ghibli 13 Movie Collection (Dual Audio) Nihonomaru

My Neighbor Totoro Minitheatre 

Coming up next!

Day 4: Kiki's Delivery Service!

Miyazaki Marathon Day 2: Laputa: Castle in the Sky

Name: Laputa: Castle in the Sky
Type: Movie
Rating: Any Age
Runtime: 124 min
Directed By Miyazaki Hayao
Produced By Studion Ghibli
Year Produced: 1986

The To Aru Kagaku no Home Theater Miyazaki Marathon... and then some... continues, despite public protest!

This is a "festival" where I sit down at spend about a week and a half watching all of the Miyazaki movies that I want to.  I didn't mention this last time, but I don't have any particular interest in Ponyo.

What's still to come are:

Wednesday - My Neighbor Totoro (1988)
Thursday - Kiki's Delivery Service (1989)
Friday - Porco Rosso (1992)
Saturday - Whisper of the Heart (1995)
Sunday - Princess Mononoke (1997)
Monday of Next Week - Spirited Away (2001)
Tuesday of Next Week - Howl's Moving Castle (2004)


I've already reviewed Kaze no Tani no Nausicaa yesterday, so if you're interested in that, then check it out... back there.


Set in (again, no name) what appears to be a coal or other fuel mining town, Laputa is a magical story about a young girl... actually, I don't have any idea how old the two main characters are.  About 12?

This is Sheeta, the main character.  You try and guess her age!

She is being held captive by a group of strange, suit-wearing men... gentlemen (not), for reasons unknown (I love that word... that phrase).  Suddenly, from out of the clouds comes...

Mutant... dragonfly things.

Well, you explain it!  I don't think that this could work, even in fantasy... especially not with two people riding...

PIRATES!!

And guess what, they've come for Sheeta (of course.  If you can't predict these kinds of things yet, you need to leave.  I actually think that a story about the hero's friend would be awesome.  Yeah, probably slightly boring, but it'd sure as hell be different).  Actually, they didn't come after her, but rather the jewel that she is carrying.

Doom.

So Sheeta brains her guard and escapes through the window.  She's just forgotten one vital thing...

Oh dear...

The fact that she's really high up.  She's above the clouds, for God's sake.  Looking back on it, she probably regrets her choice to brave the outside of the ship, but then again, hindsight is 20x20.

Sheeta manages to crawl along the hull of the ship until she gets to the window in the above picture... then she slips and falls.

If she died, then that would make it impossible to make the joke that I always do, but since she didn't, and I'm getting tired or being predictable, I'll just say this.

She flies away...

...

... no, seriously!  I'm not the boy who cried wolf, dammit!  She actually flew... not away, but she sure as hell floated!

Woah...

She floated down to the surface of Earth... or wherever, where she is spotted and then "caught" by this guy, Pazu.  The guy from Ghost in the Shell SAC before he grew up.  Not.

Pazu...

"Catch".

Actually, in all fairness, that's not what happened.  This is what it looked like (since it is a freaking screen-shot).

Yes, girls are heavier than they look (not intended to be a derogatory remark of any kind).  I can attest that you are not one of those heroes out of any number of B action films.  Neither are those heroes, actually, if you look, they're straining.

Anyway, now that everybody's after them, they've got to get away... naturally.

Okay, I watched this twice, and I have to say that I liked it a lot better the second time.  It had one of the best scenes in it, involving idiotic American-Style fighting!  No spins or twirls or anything, just punch as hard as you can.  It's pretty awesome... actually the whole scene was awesome...

POP YOUR BUTTONS, BOSS!!

WOOT!!

The characters were fun and awesome, and nobody that you cared about died, which was cool.  By the way, the above two characters (especially the second one) are among my top-ten favorites right now.

The music must have been good for the show because I don't remember it at all!  If I had particularly liked it though, it would have stuck in my memory.  I do get the feeling that it was a lot of light, probably woodwind instruments.

Both the English and the Japanese were good, and Mark Hamill makes a comeback as the bad guy.  What's going on there, man?  Am I going to see him in My Neighbor Totoro too?

 Mr. Skywalker?

Check it out, it's good fun.  "Clean" if that's the right word, though I'm not too thrilled about the term "Good, clean fun".

Laputa: Castle in the Sky Minitheatre

Ghibli 13 Movie Collection (Dual Audio) Nihonomaru

Coming up next!

Day 3: My Neighbor Totoro!