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.