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 Dersu Uzala Released August 2nd 1975. Directed by Akira Kurosawa This was both beautiful and melancholy. I wonder if Kurosawa was drawn to the story for personal reasons - after the commercial failure of Dodes'ka-den, maybe he was feeling somewhat similar to Dersu...out of his element, his primary abilities failing him... The wilderness setting of the film is beautifully rendered...but in a more utilitarian manner than I'm used to seeing from Kurosawa. The landscape is just allowed to be, rather than stylized or emphasized. I can't tell if this was to paint the wilderness in a harsher light or just as a focus on character rather than setting, but it seemed very in keeping with the film's tone. Unlike some of Kurosawa's other "mortality of man" features, this is one I could see myself revisiting at some point in the future. The focus on friendship makes it a much easier watch than some of his other films featuring the death of a lead by the end. The only real missed opportunity I see in the film is the lack of further exploration of the idea of unintended consequences. I guess the entire idea of bringing Dersu into a settled town is part of that...but it seems like the rifle incident comes out of nowhere. Up Next: Arrietty Released July 17th 2010. Directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi
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Jul 9, 2020 04:02
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 Arrietty Released July 17th 2010. Directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi After watching this one, I was legitimately surprised that it was a Ghibli film not directed by Miyazaki himself, and even more surprised that this was a directorial debut. It just felt so polished and so in keeping with the rest of the Ghibli output that I slipped right into watching this one. I suppose it helps that there was source material to draw from in the form of The Borrowers, but that was another factoid that I would never have picked up on just from watching the film itself. The animation on display here is, as is usual for Studio Ghibli, excellent. The mixing of Human Bean and Borrower scales works incredibly well, and there's some quite good little moments dealing with light in particular. I was wowed by the shot of Arrietty riding the little counterweight elevator, and the moment where the dollhouse lights are first switched on. Speaking of the dollhouse, this one swerved in a way that I honestly should have been expecting. I should have known better than to assume the little family would stay living in the walls, or move into the dollhouse to be friends with Shō forever. That's something I've been getting a lot of in this entire retrospective review project...a bit of bittersweetness where my American-centric would have expected either a saccharine happy ending or a tragedy. I was honestly expecting a little more time spent with the idea of Arrietty growing up and needing to make her own way in the world, especially when one of the first conversations in the film is between her parents making that exact same observation...and I could maybe see an ending with her remaining behind while her folks move on..but I guess that just wasn't the story that was going to be told (Maybe it's just how the books went? I don't know). Overall, its really hard to have much of a complaint about this one. The housekeeper seemed a bit too overtly malicious...but she was fulfilling the role of an archetype rather than a character, I suppose. Overall, this one was just a nice, fuzzy, feelgood piece and a great end to my weekend. Up Next: House Released July 30th 1977. Directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi
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Aug 10, 2020 05:34
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        Big Zatoichi Catch-Up Post. Directed by Kazuo Mori, Tokuzo Tanaka, Kimiyoshi Yasuda, Kazuo Ikehiro, and Kenji Misumi So after enjoying the original The Tale of Zatoichi and having access to the Criterion Channel, I decided to keep watching through the rest of the series, but I didn't want the thread to become this giant block of Zatoichi reviews. Full disclosure, my watch dates on these span May through July, so they definitely impacted my output for the thread. Apologies for that, if you're one of the negative 3 people champing at the bit for my Kurosawa or Ghibli thoughts. My "full" reviews for these films can all be found over on my Letterboxd account, but I'll post some overall general thoughts here. I waffled on how I felt about this films as I got started... the first few really felt formulaic in a bad way. There's the common perception of the idea of older films not really having to reinvent themselves too much since home media didn't really exist, rereleases and multiple watches didn't happen all that often...I don't know how objectively true that perception is, but Zatoichis 2 thorough about 5 feel like a case study in that style of filmmaking. They certainly aren't bad movies by any means, but they definitely don't really push the envelope much. They're different in particulars so returning viewers aren't literally watching the same film again, but similar enough in execution that there's zero chance of a newcomer getting lost. It's around movie 6 that the series seemed to find a better formula...build the movies around a really solid set piece or concept, so even if "Zatoichi comes to town and gets involved in some gang fights" remains constant, there's some unique aspects in each movie to really latch onto. The titular chest of gold in Zatoichi and the Chest of Gold ends up being mostly a plot macguffin, but still is A Thing to care about, and the film does have the whip and horseback duel at the end. Flashing Sword has one of the coolest final fights in the series, with the darkened room, the candle balanced on the sword....really solid stuff, though I'm surprised not more was made of the fact that a fight in the darkness puts everyone else on a blind man's footing. Fight, Zatoichi, Fight has the baby, and one of the most sweetly hilarious moments of the franchise so far with Ichi letting the baby try to nurse off him. Adventures threatens to fall back into the early films' formulaic nature, but the festival setting saves it from being entirely forgettable At this point I'm pretty well committed to finishing the whole series, so expect one or two more big roundup posts like this as I do so! Up Next: House Released July 30th 1977. Directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi
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Aug 10, 2020 06:14
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jivjov posted:Up Next: House Released July 30th 1977. Directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi gently caress yes. 
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Aug 10, 2020 23:17
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sean10mm posted:gently caress yes. you have made three posts total in this thread, and all have them have been related to House. I'm happy to oblige, and I'm glad this whole journey will finally pay off for you 
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Aug 10, 2020 23:40
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For what it's worth I have actually read & enjoyed your posts here.  House is just... something else.
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Aug 10, 2020 23:43
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I only saw House once about 7 or so years ago, and its just crazy enough that I'm not sure how much of it I imagined or not.
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Aug 11, 2020 03:00
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Just the excuse I needed to post one of Obayashi's commercials: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEqA84R0lYU
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Aug 11, 2020 18:19
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sean10mm posted:For what it's worth I have actually read & enjoyed your posts here. 17 minutes in so far, this is an absolute TRIP! What even am I watching?
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Aug 16, 2020 04:18
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jivjov posted:17 minutes in so far, this is an absolute TRIP! What even am I watching? A beautiful coming of age tale.
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Aug 16, 2020 04:56
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 House Released July 30th 1977. Directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi What an absolutely demented theme park ride of a film this was. I had read a synopsis before going in, so I was expecting horror in the vein of the last Japanese horror film that ended up in the thread...Ju-On. This was not that. This was borderline comedic at times, rather than "legitimately' frightening. I honestly kinda regret watching this alone at my PC. Were we not living in the spectre of Covid-19 this would have made a great late-night indie theater viewing...or at least sitting on the couch with a friend for. This was much more of an experience than a film, if that distinction is at all meaningful. To be completely honest, I just kinda had an eyebrow cocked for the entire runtime, and half my brain was going "holy poo poo, WHAT just happened?" while the other half was analyzing the over-the-top, deliberately-fake-looking SFX. I have a desire to poke around more into the director's filmography to see if there's any more instances of this particular visual style -- I've got a fondness for the 'heightened unreality' aspects of this production. Plus the setting being predominantly within the walls of the titular House was oddly....reassuring? in a cockeyed sorta way. In fact, the only real complaint I'll level against the film is that it honestly could have been 10-15 minutes shorter if they trimmed out some of the set-up before the ill-fated trip and the character of Togo. I was expecting a formula similar to slasher films like the Nightmare on Elm Street or Friday the 13th franchises....but really other than the tiny little coda, the pre-murder-House lives of the girls don't really become relevant at all, Togo is just used for a couple of tension-releasing cutaways rather than actually being a character, and Gorgeous is the only of the girls to really be a character rather than just a one-note stereotype. The first act prepped me for much more PLOT than the film itself was actually going to deliver. Special thanks to Forums Poster sean10mm for hyping this one up. Once I made my peace with what this movie actually was, it certainly did not disappoint. Up Next: Kagemusha Released April 26th 1980. Directed by Akira Kurosawa
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Aug 16, 2020 05:54
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House is actually about intergerational conflict in postwar Japan. It's the old generation attacking its own children, but with empathy for the wartime traumas of the older generation, which the youth are completely unable to relate to or understand except on the level of a romantic fairy tale. Which it definitely was loving NOT. The train ride is where he really lays all his cards on the table.  HOW ROMANTIC *Man is machine gunned* Obayashi's hometown was literally nuked in real life, killing his childhood friends... and the girls compare the mushroom cloud to like cotton candy or something. He's on the girls' side overall, but he's still being pointedly critical of their ignorance here. The catch of course is that House is just so crazy stylistically that it's hard to process anything and you kind of just  in response. Obayashi outright said he directed it to be the exact opposite of what the Japanese film establishment considered "correct" filmmaking, so if Kurosawa would do X in a scene, he would do -X/sqrt(2) or something The story of how it got made is nearly as nuts as the film itself, the Criterion documentary on it is good.
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Aug 16, 2020 13:12
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 Kagemusha Released April 26th 1980. Directed by Akira Kurosawa The dream sequence in this film alone is enough to make me lament the fact that there aren't 20, 30, 40 color films from Kurosawa. And that's even before getting into the artistry of the armor, the banners, the camp walls, the castle interiors. This movie is absolutely gorgeous from top to bottom. Even the more pedestrian sets have gorgeous woodgrains and stone work that I think would have been muddy or fuzzy in black and white. To the plot itself - I'm actually drawing parallels back to my thoughts on Dersu Uzala. This also ends up being a story of a man unable to do his job any longer...but instead of aging and become less physically able, he's revealed to just be an imposter. Through no real fault of his own, he's cast out....despite having been doing a pretty bang-up job up to that point. I'm given to understand that there was a certain amount of ousting going on in Kurosawa's professional life in the lead up to this film, so even if he wasn't actually a body double, I could absolutely believe that he was suffering from something akin to imposter syndrome. Was he still Akira Kurosawa, Acclaimed Filmmaker? Or had he at some point become Akira Kurosawa, Washed Up Has-Been? Crucial to this reading of the film is the ultimate fate of the nameless doppelganger...even after getting thanklessly cast out into the rain, with even the stablehands throwing mud at him on the way out, he follows the clan army around, keeping tabs on their progress, and ultimately futilely makes one last defiant charge against the clan's enemies. Depending on how you choose to look at it...its either a pointless gesture or the ultimate conviction of ideals. Did this need to be a three hour feature? Probably not....but on the other hand its hard to point at any particular time that was wasted. Maybe trimming out the asides to rival clans could have saved some time...but that would have make the political structure of the plot even more hazy and unclear than the likely-intentional level its already at. The double is a common thief, he can't possibly be expected to keep abreast of clan politics, and as such his performance is utterly reliant on the actual generals and leaders to sell. This was really drat good - regardless of how he personally felt about himself, Kurosawa absolutely still had his filmmaking chops. Up Next: From Up on Poppy Hill Released July 16th 2011. Directed by Goro Miyazaki
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Aug 16, 2020 22:49
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Obayashi's movies are a pain to find in the West, outside of private torrents, kind wandering twitter filesharers, and Youtube copyright artful dodgers. This channel used to have more films before, so I doubt that it will stick around much longer but it does have "His Motorbike, Her Island" and "Bound for the Fields, the Mountains, and the Seacoast", which are absolutely essential and even better than House, and also show that Obayashi is a far more than the "wacky japanese horror director" Criterion and MoC painted him. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNr22mpUvcIqP8Xc-hH4ASw/videos Also when are you getting around to "In the Realm of the Senses"? Or the Japanese New Wave in general?
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Aug 17, 2020 00:08
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That's not one that's currently on my list, but I'd be happy to add it!
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Aug 17, 2020 00:20
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Happy 5th Anniversary to this project...this project that I originally envisioned taking a little over a year to complete. A project which has ballooned beyond its original mandate of "Kurosawa and Studio Ghibli" and has since become "jivjov watches all sorts of Japanese films and other tangentially related movies". Especially with how close I am to the original projected ending point of the Kurosawa and Ghibli outputs, it may be a bit premature to start breaking down my favorites from both sides of that line, but given that this thing has been going on for half a decade at this point, I figured it was worth doing a bit of a look back and a small retrospective on some highlights. Maybe not my particular favorites, but just some things I especially enjoyed experiencing. On an overall note, I did really enjoy revisiting some films from the 40s and 50s in the early part of this journey. Even to this day, including the fact that I've branched out greatly from just watching Big Studio Blockbuster #215, most of my film watching is fairly contemporary. Seeing some classic films really helped me appreciate the artistry and craft of filmmaking in general. On the Studio Ghibli side of the retrospective, this is the most time I've spent with animated films since childhood, and this has really helped me shake out some deep seated bias that I didn't even know I was still carrying about animated features. One too many times I caught myself thinking "Wow this is really pretty for a cartoon" and having to mentally reset myself. I kinda intended this to be a longer post than this....but I kept wanting to get too deep in the weeds on specific films or rank things overall...and that's just beyond the purview of this post. So I'll cut if off and just say "here's to five years!" I don't think it's gonna go on for another 5...but I do intend on watching more Japanese cinema and posting about it even after the original slate of things I was going to cover are completed.
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Aug 18, 2020 02:22
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 From Up on Poppy Hill Released July 16th 2011. Directed by Goro Miyazaki This film seemed to exist precisely on that Studio Ghibli hallmark point between uplifting, bittersweet, and melancholy that I love so much. Like the studio's other 'slice of life' films, I really found myself just being carried along by the story, and the 92 minute runtime just cruised by without feeling either too brief or too long. The arc of the plot concerned with the renovation of the Latin Quarter school club building really made me lament not being more involved with school organizations in my own high school and college years, though I certainly was never without my own hobbies. I know a lot of the idyllic after-school club life is dramatized creative license for media....but that particular genre of story always hits hard for me. I honestly can say I wasn't a huge fan of the "Whoops this young couple is actually secretly siblings no wait they're not" aspect of the other main plot arc though. I have some personal opinions on that matter that just makes any plot line along those lines frustrating to watch. I do like the ultimate reveal that they are 1) not blood related and thus can have a socially acceptable relationship, and 2) just the general idea of these various families all ending up so intertwined and caring for each other's kids like this though. The idea of 'community' seemed to be a driving thesis of the film overall, and that's something the world needs a lot of right now. Up Next: Shogun (TV Miniseries) Released September 15th-19th 1980. Directed by Jerry London
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Aug 29, 2020 21:53
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I just finished The Human Condition Trilogy and holy wow what a ride. Just insane achievements in filmmaking and I'd thoroughly recommend seeing them. Part 2 really puts me in mind of the boot camp section of Full Metal Jacket.
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Aug 29, 2020 22:04
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a lovely king posted:I just finished The Human Condition Trilogy and holy wow what a ride. Just insane achievements in filmmaking and I'd thoroughly recommend seeing them. Part 2 really puts me in mind of the boot camp section of Full Metal Jacket. Yeah, that trilogy is absolutely breathtaking in both its scope and just how brutal a lot of it gets
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Aug 29, 2020 22:08
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Found a really good article about the Zatoichi series on the Criterion website.
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Aug 31, 2020 01:05
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I'm unfamiliar with Zatoichi, but there are twenty-six films!? I saw your earlier post, jivjov, and it seems like you've made it through at least nine of them so far. With long movie series like that, I"ve often wondered whether the characters grow much with time. Have you noticed that at all, or are the movies fairly stand-alone? Are there thematic through lines-in the films, or repeated symbolism or themes? Also, for there to be twenty-six films, it seems like the character really must have struck a chord with audiences. Do you have a sense for why the character was (I'm assuming) so popular? I'm interested to hear more. (Edit: I just realized we registered here on the same day!)
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Aug 31, 2020 01:28
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I kinda touched on that in my 2-9 summary post, but I think the idea of a genial, blind swordsman just struck as a fun movie protagonist. He's sorta an every-man, with plenty of "common" traits like enjoying drinking and gambling, but he's got a "gimmick" in being blind that can be used both for comedy and as an actual handicap. but then he also is an expert swordsman, so there's always the promise of a badass fight or two per movie. And the series predated VHS - they weren't gonna be rewatched on home media. I doubt the filmmakers expected the average viewer to actually watch all 25 of the original run of films. You'd just catch whatever one happened to be playing when you happened to go catch a film. As far as throughlines....there's callbacks here and there to Ichi's 'lost love', and a couple of the later installments visit aspects of his past like the mentor who trained him to be a masseur or the original forger of his cane-sword...but other than that, no there's not a whole lot of continuity, and they more or less all stand alone.
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Aug 31, 2020 01:59
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Cool, thanks for the information!jivjov posted:And the series predated VHS - they weren't gonna be rewatched on home media. I doubt the filmmakers expected the average viewer to actually watch all 25 of the original run of films. It's neat to think about that. I was born after VHS came out, so having access to movies has been a thing for my whole life. I love going to the movie theater, but I bet it was even more special back then, when you couldn't watch the same movies at home. Any idea if the series goes out with a whimper or a bang?
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Sep 1, 2020 04:20
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No clue yet--I just watched #12 the other night, so I've got over half the series to go
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Sep 1, 2020 04:26
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Electronico6 posted:Also when are you getting around to "In the Realm of the Senses"? Or the Japanese New Wave in general? This is a good movie, but it's very sexual. If you get to it post-Covid, choose your viewing partners carefully.
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Sep 6, 2020 02:28
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Jesus this fell by the wayside. My life fell apart in the last month or so, but I'm bumping this back up to commit to watching a new film for the thread Soon™️. Gotta keep things on track, might skip Shogun and go to another theatrical feature, but I'll get something up
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Oct 7, 2020 06:05
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jivjov posted:Jesus this fell by the wayside. My life fell apart in the last month or so, but I'm bumping this back up to commit to watching a new film for the thread Soon™️. Gotta keep things on track, might skip Shogun and go to another theatrical feature, but I'll get something up Best wishes! I enjoy reading about your experiences with these films, so I'm happy to hear you'll be continuing. But take whatever time you need to get your personal life in order too. I'm especially interested to hear how the rest of the Zatoichi series goes.
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Oct 7, 2020 16:35
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DorianGravy posted:Best wishes! I enjoy reading about your experiences with these films, so I'm happy to hear you'll be continuing. But take whatever time you need to get your personal life in order too. I'm especially interested to hear how the rest of the Zatoichi series goes. That's about the only stuff I've been watching lately, though I haven't gotten enough done yet to warrant another big wrap up post. You can see from my letterboxd history that September kinda got away from me, movie-wise  Gonna try to have a better October!
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Oct 7, 2020 16:39
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        Big Zatoichi Catch-Up Post 2. Directed by Akira Inoue, Kazuo Mori, Kenji Misumi, Tokuzo Tanaka, Kazuo Ikehiro, Kimiyoshi Yasuda, and Satsuo Yamamoto This particular block of Zatoichi films has some serious ups and downs in it. The first half of this set suffers a recurring problem of having a potentially really solid story stuck inside the body of a formulaic, 90-ish minute Zatoichi film that likely would stand on its own better than it would as part of this series. Zatoichi's Revenge, Zatoichi and the Doomed Man and Zatoichi and the Chess Expert all stick really close to this criticism...but Doomed Man in particular has a neat gimmick with another swordsman trying to take on Ichi's identity. Zatoichi's Vengeance actually becomes something of a character study on Ichi himself, which is something that the series seems to want to do more and more of as it progresses, and this one in particular does some interesting things with having characters acting as very direct foils to various aspects of Ichi himself. Zatoichi’s Pilgrimage has some great visual setpieces, between the seafaring opening and a temple visit in the first act...but quickly devolves into the standard formula. Zatoichi’s Cane Sword promises way more than it delivers on - Ichi separated from his sword....but he gets it back and all is well! But then we get to the good stuff, and the highlights of what this series really can be! Zatoichi the Outlaw takes the character study aspects of Vengeance and cranks it up to eleven, and we get an entire movie really delving into what exactly it means for Ichi to be dishing out dismemberment and death wherever he goes. This was the first film produced by lead actor Shintaro Katsu's own production company, and the difference in tone really shows. We go straight back to Daiei for the next few, which is disappointing, as I'd loved to see a more immediate payoff to Katsu Productions taking the reins. Thankfully Zatoichi Challenged doesn't completely squander the new direction of the series. The core plot is straight back to the typical formula, but a little more time is spent on Ichi's interactions with those around him, and his rival for the film is one of the more distinctive in the series to date. Still committed for the long haul, but of the 17 Zatoichi films I've watched so far, there's maybe 3 or 4 that I would ever really consider returning to outside of a whole future rewatch. Up Next: Shogun (TV Miniseries) Released September 15th-19th 1980. Directed by Jerry London
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Oct 21, 2020 04:49
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jivjov posted:Zatoichi the Outlaw takes the character study aspects of Vengeance and cranks it up to eleven, and we get an entire movie really delving into what exactly it means for Ichi to be dishing out dismemberment and death wherever he goes. This was the first film produced by lead actor Shintaro Katsu's own production company, and the difference in tone really shows. Thanks for the update! That sounds pretty neat. After 15 other movies, does the character study feel like it builds naturally on the earlier movies? Does it make you see the character in a new light? jivjov posted:Still committed for the long haul, but of the 17 Zatoichi films I've watched so far, there's maybe 3 or 4 that I would ever really consider returning to outside of a whole future rewatch. What's your favorite 1 or 2 movies so far? It sounds like you liked Zatoichi the Outlaw a fair amount. Can a new viewer jump in wherever they want, or do some of the movies benefit from seeing earlier films?
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Oct 22, 2020 05:09
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I'd definitely suggest watching the original first, but after that you really can just jump in wherever. And yeah, the character building moments that some of the later films have engaged in definitely feel like they're in keeping with the character's origins. It's, by necessity of the 90-ish minute format, painted in fairly big broad strokes...but it never felt jarring or out of character at all
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Oct 22, 2020 06:07
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Posting to give myself the impetus to do something with this project again. I work a half day Christmas Eve, gonna watch a movie after.
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Dec 22, 2020 04:34
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With the Ghibli collection on Canadian Netflix at the moment my brother has taken over the TV and he's going through the films. Today he watched My Neighbor Totoro and while I certainly don't think its a bad film by any means, it's certainly one of the weaker Miyazaki joints. It's definitely aimed at younger audiences than 27 year old me and its going for a very specific vibe of capturing a child's POV of the world rather than telling a traditional narrative. That's not a bad thing but again, the film doesn't really appeal to me compared to Miyazaki's other films. I'd also only seen the Disney dub of Totoro before and the Japanese language track hurt my ears. Its a lot of excited shouting from two young children in English and it was amplified in the original language. I'm mostly giving the film a bad rap because my brother stole the TV while I was watching Young Frankenstein to watch a movie not made for me with a language track that made my ears ring. Its not the movies fault and it wasnt made for me, but my brother insisted because Ghibli is a stamp of approval and its not like they could ever make movies that are better or worse than each other right? And then he wonders why I don't automatically watch shows or films in their original language "the way they were intended to be watched."
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Dec 27, 2020 02:55
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Arcsquad12 posted:With the Ghibli collection on Canadian Netflix at the moment my brother has taken over the TV and he's going through the films. Today he watched My Neighbor Totoro and while I certainly don't think its a bad film by any means, it's certainly one of the weaker Miyazaki joints. It's definitely aimed at younger audiences than 27 year old me and its going for a very specific vibe of capturing a child's POV of the world rather than telling a traditional narrative. That's not a bad thing but again, the film doesn't really appeal to me compared to Miyazaki's other films. I'd also only seen the Disney dub of Totoro before and the Japanese language track hurt my ears. Its a lot of excited shouting from two young children in English and it was amplified in the original language. Totoro definitely expects a certain type of engagement with the film, yeah. Going in looking to engage with the narrative is going to be disappointing compared to just vibing with what the film is doing
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Dec 27, 2020 03:36
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Interrupting a movie is a dick move. You are allowed to slap your brother silly for interrupting a classic likeYoung Frankenstein.
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Dec 27, 2020 03:50
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I don't get his thought process either. I can understand preferring sub over dub as I usually do that for live action movies but when I asked him why he preferred subs he said that it was so he could read all the dialogue and not have to follow along with the visuals onscreen as much, and also so he could watch shows and films at 1.75 speed like some maniac. That's one of the most baffling explanations I've heard. Anyhow, it is some major mood whiplash going from a black (and white) comedy like Young Frankenstein to a slow paced pastoral children's story like Totoro.
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Dec 27, 2020 04:11
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I mean Totoro has a fine narrative- it's just a film in which there is never really much *danger* or *darkness* compared to even your average children's story. The basic conflict is that the family's strained by the mother being sick, and Totoro and the other little forest spirits come out of hiding to help support the family. It's almost an experiment in tone- just how gentle a film can be without getting saccharine or smushy, just, a nice light story about a family finding some friends.
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Dec 27, 2020 06:59
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Like I said I dont really find much wrong with it outside of being way out beyond its target demographic and being annoyed at my Mel Brooks-a-thon getting interrupted. I was not in the right mindset for it and two bouncy kids shouting all their lines in a language I didn't understand made the whole thing into noise for me. I'm absolutely being unfair to the film and its my brothers fault.
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Dec 27, 2020 07:02
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Honestly it's a film that took a couple of viewings to hit me too. Granted part of that was at first I didn't get why everyone was casually accepting all these forest ghosts and is this some weird Japanese theology, and the answer to that is "sorta". The family's a bit more credulous than one IRL would be but that's part of the tone.
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Dec 27, 2020 07:04
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Totoro definitely feels super saccharine to me, but I've never been a huge Ghibli person in general.
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#
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Dec 27, 2020 07:22
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