My Neighbor Totoro is super simple. It's pleasant enough to watch, but I wouldn't exactly call it a must-see.
I've been wanting to see My Neighbor Totoro for a long time, and I finally did it. Out of the five or so Miyazaki movies I've seen, it's definitely the simplest. Totoro himself is kind of creepy. He roars a lot, and his teeth are disturbing. The scene with him standing in the rain with the leaf on his head, holding an umbrella, is pretty iconic, though. The cat bus was creepy, too. And Mei was really weird-looking. That was hard to get past. I liked how there was a musical cue for everything that happened, though, like even a butterfly flying around.
There’s
nothing really spectacular about Kiki’s Delivery Service, but it holds
up well for something that’s 27 years old, and it’s interesting seeing
how everything plays out.
Kiki’s Delivery Service holds up pretty well for a movie that’s old as hell. I didn’t have any idea it was so old when I watched it. It’s weird that they translated the term to “witch.” I guess it makes sense with the broom and the familiar and the black and everything. But it sounded like they were saying something more like “mage.” I feel like there’s probably a more positive term they could have used/could have been using other than “witch.” I’m sure the dialogue as a whole was better in Japanese. It’s always a bit weird in the subtitles.
Miyazaki's movies all seem to match the same theme of "stop fighting and
respect nature," and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind is no
exception. It is visually interesting, and you can't help but like
Nausicaä, so I'd lean towards recommending it even though it's not
exactly mind-blowing.
I'm pretty sure my college boyfriend liked Nausicaä, but it's been so
long since I've thought about it that I could be totally wrong. I wanted
to watch My Neighbor Totoro, which I haven't seen yet, but the plot was
too simple for my company and they chose Nausicaä instead. It reminded
me a lot of Princess Mononoke. I did like Nausicaä more, though. Except
for the name. They pronounce it so weird, with an "sh" for the "s." I do
like the animation style, although the hats were really distracting and
weird.
Nausicaä herself was a cool character. I liked her outfit. You can't *not* like someone who's basically just nice to everyone/everyone's hero. Again the message is super heavy-handed, though. "Stop fighting and try to understand each other." Okay. I guess it's a good thing to tell kids.
The World of Kanako is basically about drugs, rape, violence, mental
illness...all kinds of gritty stuff. But the cinematography and
soundtrack are beautiful, and I was captivated watching it play out.
The World of Kanako is a pretty crazy movie, but I'm generally into that kind of thing. I love how it hits you right out of the gate with violence; it's all stylized, and really well done. The movie as a whole looks great. The music stood out, too, especially the parts when it was punctuating something happening on screen, like when it stopped in the middle of the scene with Matsunaga. The animated scene was great, especially the way it ended with the doorbell ringing. I liked the blood-splattered cuts anytime someone attacked Akikazu. Speaking of which, that guy was a superhero - he could really take a beating.
I can't exactly say I know what the point of "Kumiko, the Treasure
Hunter" was, but it was beautifully shot and interesting to watch.
I've read reviews of people saying Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter is slow enough to be boring, but I didn't find that to be the case at all. Maybe it was just because of the mood I was in when I watched it. I could totally relate to how disconnected Kumiko was from everything that was going on in her life.
Princess Mononoke wasn't exactly the epic I was expecting. The theme is pretty simple, but the
animation is solid, and it held my attention for the entire movie.
I like Miyazaki's work, so Princess Mononoke has been on my
"to watch" list for a while. Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle
were better, but at least this wasn't as bad as Ponyo. The animation was good,
and it held my interest for the entire time. Maybe it's one of those movies
that's better for its iconicity than it is for watching for the first time. I
liked San's general look/outfit, but other than that there wasn't anything
really striking about it, visually or thematically.
Miike's Hara-Kiri is beautifully directed, but
it's also depressing, boring in parts, and not terribly original.
I'm having a problem finding movies I'm interested in. I
was watching the trailer for Blitz seeing if I could get into it enough to
watch it, and I felt like I wanted to see something with swords. I had
Hara-Kiri on my list of movies to watch, so I watched the trailer for that. I
wasn't exactly sold, but I decided to go with it anyway. I wanted something
with a little substance, even if I was running the risk of being bored.
Apparently, according to IMDb, the original was better. I
didn't even know there was an original. I found out about the remake when I was
looking through Ignatiy Vishnevetsky's reviews. He liked it, and I've always
been interested in Miike's stuff. 13 Assassins was good, although everything
before that was pretty crazy. I can't even believe I watched that stuff
anymore. Supposedly the original draws you in more, and there's more dialogue
between the father and the clan guy.
That would've been good, because my suspicions were right:
I got bored, especially in the middle. I really lost interested when they took
the focus away from the present-day stuff and started talking about how Hanshirô
knew Motome. The cinematography was great, though. I loved the camerawork and
the sets. It really was beautifully directed. I don't know why Miike shot it in
3D. That probably didn't add much, although it would've been a good effect with
the falling snow.
I liked the slow, deliberate pacing of the camera and
people's movements, and the fact that we saw what happened to Motome and then
afterward learned why it happened made it more interesting.
A refreshing movie after the last two. It really captures the simple,
beautiful things. The story's nothing spectacular, but it's not hard to
watch. I didn't like the ending, though.
Unbeliveably visually unappealing.
Ugh. How am I supposed to like an anime that completely lacks attractive
characters? The twist at the end was interesting, although partially
predictable, but I didn't enjoy the animation style at all.
This went up 127% in popularity in the last week on IMDb. Possibly
because I just searched for it. It was fairly fast-paced and slightly
poignant; felt a little empty because of the pacing, though.
In terms of this being a Miike film, it's actually a little
disappointing. Maybe the fact that this is a classic Japanese story,
told as a Western, set in "Nevada-Utah," with Japanese actors who are
speaking a language they don't know (English), was weird enough that he
decided the story itself should be normal. It was a little surreal to
need subtitles on something in English. The movie doesn't seem to have a
whole lot to say, and it's probably better if you've seen Yojimbo
and/or Django, but aside from a few disturbing things happening, it's
interesting for aesthetics alone.
