Cullum~ I've been Spirited Away!

Spirited Away is one of my absolute favorite movies. I brought my boyfriend to the screening with me and he admitted to thinking it was a really good movie. We ended up spending the whole drive back to Belle Chasse talking about it (he’s a film buff)! I’ll be honest, I love all of Hayao Miyazaki’s films. When I was younger I remember thinking ‘for cartoons, they are surprisingly deep.’ Miyazaki definitely let his imagination run wild with this film, and it leaves you wondering how someone comes up with all the ideas he does and how they fit perfectly with the idea he is trying to get across. 

In Spirited Away the main character is a young girl (a reoccuring item in Miyazaki films) named Chihiro. She seems like she gets a lot of what she wants and appears to be a brat but she is still a very likable character. Her parents are moving her to a new town, which she is obviously unhappy about, when they stumble upon a deserted ‘village’ with a ton of food. It gives Chihiro, and even the viewers, a very uneasy feeling. Her parents begin eating all of the food claiming that they’ll pay for it later, and end up turning into pigs. Chihiro, with the help of Haku and Lin, avoids being turned into a pig also and gets a job working in a bath house owned by the nasty, mean Yubaba. Yubaba takes peoples names, and gives them new ones and when they forget their old name, they never leave the spirit world. Chihiro, given the name Sin, ends up earning brownie points for cleaning a stink spirit at the bath house. The spirit gives her what looks like a rock, but is edible, as a present for her help. Sin, as nice as she is, lets in a seemingly friendly spirit by the name of No Face. The bath house makes him crazy and he begins eating people but with the rock, she gets him to throw up the food and leave. 

Sin begins to fall in love with Haku and goes on what could be a dangerous journey to save his life. He stole Yubaba’s twin sister, Zeniba’s, golden seal. She makes him throw it up and returns it to Zeniba. Haku goes to Zeniba’s and brings Sin back to the bath house. She answers Yubaba’s question and she allows her to leave with her parents not remembering a thing. Over the course of the movie, Chihiro is on a journey of self-discovery. She falls in love, frees Haku from Yubaba by telling him his real name (as he saved her from drowning when she was little and he was still alive) and telling him he used to be a river spirit for a river that is now apartment buildings. With her help, Yubaba’s baby becomes nice and starts to walk. There is so much to talk about with Spirited Away but I’m going to have to cut myself short because I’ve already written 500 words! 

Cullum~ Nausicaa

As a little girl growing up in America in the 90s, I had a childhood full of disney princesses that never seemed to actually do anything. My Japanese Anime class was my first exposure to films that seemed to be geared toward a younger age that had princess’s who actually fought! The two anime that will be discussed in this blog are Nausicaa and Princess Mononoke. The two films, put together, complete a sort of image of a war against earth and its inhabitants from beginning to end. In both films, nature is trying to be destroyed but is saved by a heroine. 

In Nausicaa, the main character is a pretty, young, passionate, strong-willed princess named Nausicaa. This particular anime is set in a post apocalyptic world, after a war that managed to wipe out most of the ecosystem and most organized civilizations as well. There is a Toxic Jungle in which everything in it is lethal to humans. In Nausicaa, the Pejite are trying to destroy the toxic jungle by burning it. Nausicaa is a ally to the Ohmu in the jungle, they kind of look like giant caterpillars that you wouldn’t want to mess with. The ‘Giant Warrior’ is the weapon they plan to use to destroy the jungle and the Ohmu. When they go to use it, though, it doesn’t work. In the end, Nausicaa saves a baby Ohmu and gets run over by a herd of Ohmu drawn out of the forest by the Pejite. She survives, though, after the Ohmu revive her for her efforts and it ends happy with everyone living in peace.

In Princess Mononoke Lady Aboshi is destroying the forest to better her people and to make more iron in Iron Town. She is also killing the creatures that live in the forest. Her hatred for the creatures is the reason the main character, Ashitaka, has been fatally wounded and is now in search of a cure. Princess Mononoke, whose real name is San, won’t stand for the destruction Aboshi is creating. San is young, pretty and passionate just as Nausicaa was.  Aboshi takes the forest spirits head and her ignorance and destructive personality ends up destroying her own town in the end. San and Ashitaka return the spirits head to it and it ends up healing them and the lepers in the town. 

Cullum ~ Ah! My Goddess!

As I packed my bags for cruise vacation over Thanksgiving break, I made sure to remember Samurai from Outer Space. After reading a full chapter on what seemed like female empowerment, I was ready to get back home and watch Oh! My Goddess (well, not really since I was on a cruise, but I was definitely ready to get it over with!) After struggling with blackboard to get the words and sound effects to stop lagging fifteen seconds behind the actual film, I was ready to write!

On the whole chapter of what I read, I was disappointed to have read very little specific information on Oh! My Goddess. The book was right on the spot when it mentioned the whole bit about how in the film, Keiichi embraced Belldandy’s powers while in American shows, it is quite the opposite. In Bewitched, Darren dislikes Samantha’s powers. In Oh! My Goddess Keiichi is fine with being looked over by his Goddess. Even after all the baggage she comes with (after being used as a ‘Trojan Horse’/virus spreader, losing her memory, and having the pass through the Gate of Judgement) they still end up together in the end, and there love is still as strong as ever. 

While reading the book, it seemed like a romance like Belldandy’s and Keiichi’s is quite normal, but in the film, I felt as if it hinted that it was a bit strange. Celestin seems like he wanted her for himself and was not okay with her choice of a lover. In the book it seemed as if that type of coupling was socially acceptable. I believe one of the ‘salient issues’ was that love can overcome anything. After having her memories of Keiichi erased, she still ended up with him in the end. 

I hate to compare the film with Twilight but I have to for a moment. Let’s not pretend that we didn’t notice that when Keiichi drove to Belldandy’s temple at insane speeds without realizing that he was expecting Belldandy to save him from having an accident. That scene made me think of when Bella was being a complete retard and was driving her motorcycle super fast and jumping off of cliffs to see Edward’s face and be ‘saved’ by him. 

Cullum, Princess Mononoke

Prince Ashitaka received a wound that will kill him by defending his village of Emishi from a boar that turned evil. Now he must venture on to the west to try and find a cure for his disease. He rides right into a battle and begins fighting. His arms starts to change shape and he shoots the arms off of warriors. The warriors call him a demon after he rides off. A wandering monk tells him he fights like a demon, which is evil, but the prince is obviously a good character. He even feels bad about killing that bad samurai. The battle between good and evil is inside each and every one of us and its important. It makes us do things that no one wants to do, but need to be done. Soldiers are defenders of our country and are very good, but they kill other people which is bad. Without them, we wouldn’t be as safe as we are now.

Lady Eboshi believes the wolves stole Princess Mononoke’s soul and now she is out to kill the lady. Toke, the man the prince saved wife, was really nice to Ashitaka, but she yelled at her husband. All the men in iron town are yelling at their wives, but they risk their lives for the food they eat. The women are yelling at the men, but they make the iron in the town. Lady Eboshi is the reason the boar is a demon, because she shot it. Naturally, you would think that this would make Ashitaka hate her, but he actually saves her that night. San, Princess Mononoke, tries to kill her and he uses his curse to stop the fighting between them. Since Eboshi runs Iron Town and goes on the missions with the men, but she turned the boar into a demon. She seems really nice to everyone, but she keeps making weapons to create more destruction. She also took in the lepers, washed them, bandaged them, and let them live in the town when everyone else looked down on them. These reoccurring examples of how people have good and evil inside of them keep turning up.

Iron town, a town for outcasts, is run by Lady Eboshi. In Iron Town, they are at war with the forest for clearing it out to mine the iron in the town. All of the women have the same headdress on, and the same outfits in different colors.  They mine the iron in the town and work long hours and do hard work. The men go on dangerous journeys to obtain the rice that everyone eats. Lady Eboshi is trying to create rifles for the women so they can kill the forest monsters. The women are doing hard work and fighting. When Mononoke invades the town, both the women and men fight. 

Cullum, Grave of the Fireflies

Grave of the Fireflies was one of the most depressing and slightly life changing films I have ever seen. There are very few films in the world that could move you the way Grave of the Fireflies could move you. The film follows two siblings’ struggle for survival and love for each other. At the very beginning of the film, you discover that whatever the two siblings are going through, they do not survive it. Throughout the whole course of the movie you find yourself wishing they will live; that there will be a happy ending. 

The film takes place during the years of 1944-1945, at the very end of WWII. In the beginning of the movie, you see a man throw a fruit tin can, that he picks off a corpse, into some grass. The lid comes off and fireflies and Setsuko emerge from it. Setsuko sees the body of her dead brother and her eyes get wide at the sight of her brother. Before she can reach the body, her big brothers hand is on her shoulder and the flashback starts.

Seita, the big brother, and Setsuko, the little sister, find themselves orphaned after the bombing of their home, Kobe’. Their mother has passed away due to fatal wounds after the bombing and their father has died fighting for their country. In my opinion, one of the most moving elements in the film is how much Seita tries to protect Setsuko and how you can see how much they love each other just by their actions towards one another. 

The two lived with their aunt, briefly, but left their aunts house because she was treating them so unfairly. He even gave them the supplies he had buried at his house. He kept one thing from his former life and that was a fruit tin can. She was giving them really small portions and took half of the rice that Seita bought with the money he got from selling his mother’s kimonos. She was taking their rations and half of the rice that was rightfully theirs’. When they are one their own, farmers won’t sell them rice because they don’t even have enough for themselves.

        The two find themselves all alone, living in an abandoned air-raid shelter and poor.  One night, Setsuko brings a bunch of fireflies into the shelter and they light up the room. The two experience a short-lived moment of happiness together. When Setsuko wakes up and finds then dead, she buries every single one and asks why did they die, why do they live such short lives and why did their mother died. This is an important scene. Fireflies are beautiful creatures, but they have short lives. You appreciate them more because you don’t see them a lot. Setsuko, Seita and their mother are like fireflies. In the eyes of children, mothers are very important, beautiful people. Their mother, like the fireflies, had a short life. Setsuko and Seita also died very young. The point Nosaka is trying to make is that life is beautiful but it is short so appreciate it as much as you can until you burn out and die.

        Setsuko becomes malnutritioned and the doctors won’t give them food to feed her. At a last hope, Seita goes to the bank to take out all of his mothers money to buy food to save her even though Setsuko begs him not to leave her. When he gets back, Setsuko is on the edge of death and is hallucinating. Seita’s younger sister Setsuko dies and he gives her a proper burial. He uses some of the money to buy a really nice ‘coffin’ to cremate her in and keeps some of her ashes in his fruit tin can. Seita dies not long after his sister. 

Cullum, Harp of Burma

Harp of Burma is a two-part anime film adaptation of the famous Japanese novel Harp of Burma by Michio Takeyama. It is set towards the end of WWII. After my research about it on the internet, I found that it was also adapted into a Japanese film named The Burmese Harp and follows the same story. After reading Death and Other Bad Stuff in Samurai from Outer Space and watching the film, I came to a conclusion. The Japanese have no problem talking about death, whilst in America, bringing up the topic sets a kind of depressing mood in a conversation and is to be avoided. 

In Harp of Burma I could not stop thinking ‘Muzishima is so loyal’ and I kept wanting to say ‘spiritual’. He did not join his battalion in returning home because he wanted to bury his fellow Japanese soldiers. I think it is amazing how loyal Japanese soldiers are to each other and to their country. After reading War Films Depict Japan as a Misunderstood Victim I also could not help but think, ‘is this how loyal they really are or is this how they want everyone else to think they are?’ 

I do think the Japanese are depicted as poor pitiful victims after reading War Films Depict Japan as a Misunderstood Victim. Then again, there are far more films produced by Japanese directors than there are one produced by American directors. The Japanese don’t have a problem with discussing death. It is a natural part of life and it happens to everyone. Another big difference in Japanese and American views on death is suicide. In America, suicide is a way out that cowards take. As America is predominantly Christian, as Americans we see suicide as a sin. In the Japanese culture, for samurai, ritual suicide is praised and is honorable; this idea is true for most other battle situations. In Harp of Burma the Japanese soldiers accept the fact that they might all die now that the fighting has stopped. Sure, they may be sad about it, but they accept it. The Japanese accept the fact that the world is an amoral place. 

Cullum, Ghost in a Cyber-Shell

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       For some reason, the whole time I was watching this movie, I kept thinking about the movie called Surrogates, with Bruce Willis, and that movie scares me. Not because its meant to be a horror film, its actually quite good, but its set in the future and people hook themselves up to a computer and live their life through a cybernetic version of themselves (or whatever they want to be, look like, ect). Which brings me to the point I'm trying to make here, technology scares me, but it also fascinates me. I really enjoyed Ghost in the Shell because of the fact that a lot of it has to do with technology and how you can manipulate it to make it a bad thing. It also has a little bit of corruption in there, like in Botchan. Let's not forget another big issue in this film : identity crisis. In Black Swan and in Perfect Blue the main characters were going through MAJOR identity problems. 

The movie is set in the year 2029. Technology is far more advanced than it was when the movie was made, and pretty far off of what technology we have today. I feel like, the way we depend on technology now, that one day the world as we know it might be similar to the one in this film. In Akira technology is used to basically stalk the population and control them subconsciously. In Ghost in the Shell, people are able to be brain hacked. There is a character called ‘the puppeteer’ and its hacking into people and causing all kinds of rukus. The creator of the puppeteer ends up being Sector 6 and the government. Let’s be honest here, if the idea of someone being able to ‘brain hack’ you doesn’t scare you, you deserve to be brain hacked. 

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In Ghost in the Shell a lot of the world is cyborg, and of course there are still some humans.  In the film, they have cyberneticlly enhanced cops. The main one were focused on in the movie is Major Motoko Kusanagi and she is 95% cyborg, I think, and she was cyborged at a very young age. In our world, modern day and how it has been forever, people have always questioned their identities. People are constatly asking themselves ‘what is my purpose’ ‘why am I here’ ‘who am I’ ‘who do I want to be.’ In the film, the characters are doing the very same thing. The main one is our very own Major Motoko. In Perfect Blue Mima goes through a similar identity issue. Mima has everyone telling her who she should be and people even try to murder her and rape her because she isn’t being who they want her to be. Motoko isn’t even human (mostly), so try to think of the questions about identity she is asking herself.