I feel as if we have been bidding Studio Ghibli farewell for a long time - that between The Wind Rises, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, documentary The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness, and now When Marnie Was There, we've been lamenting this end of an era on and off for several years straight. They absolutely deserve a long victory lap, and I certainly don't want them to just go away, but each time one of these is released, I feel lousy that it's ending.
And I'm really not sure how I feel about the end finally coming not with one from Hayao Miyazaki or Isao Takahata, but very talented newcomer Hiromasa Yonebayashi. It's Yonebayashi's second film as director, after The Secret World of Arrietty, and is much stronger than that fine debut effort. He's not the only talented young filmmaker who has been working at Ghibli, but having that company in limbo makes one wonder what (and where) his next project will be. Will Madhouse or Toei or some other company hire him, will he work on developing his next feature in the hope that Ghibli will be more than a conent management company by the time he means to start animating?
Of course, it could be very interesting to see what becomes of Hiromasa Yonebayashi, Goro Miyazaki, and others working there if they do wind up elsewhere. Both of Yonebayashi's movies are in Ghibli's house style, and while the influence of that style reaches out beyond the studio itself (see, for example, A Letter to Momo), I'm very curious whether the people who made their mark at Ghibli will see working elsewhere as a chance to stretch in new directions or if they will carry what works with them.
At any rate, this potentially final final film is a good one. Niece-worthy, although I'm not exactly how much they'd like it. It's pretty easy to recommend the ones that are fun and full of fantastic images to them, but When Marnie Was There is kind of heavy at times. The almost-nine-year-old might be up for it, though I don't know how much she would go for smart ghost stories, but the younger ones might need a couple years before they appreciate something that is not quite so obviously exciting or friendly as the Disney material they love.
Omoide no Mânî (When Marnie Was There)
* * * * (out of four)
Seen 6 June 2015 in Landmark Kendall Square #2 (first-run, DCP with Japanese soundtrack and English subtitles)
Toward the end of When Marnie Was Here, I found myself feeling a delightfully paradoxical appreciation for how it was put together: It somehow feels simultaneously surprising and inevitable, with the symbolic and the literal overlapping in ways that should not have been deflating but instead strengthened the story. Not bad for a movie about 12-year-olds and in large part made for that age group, though it never feels the need to shout to get their attention.
The first of these girls we meet is Anna Sasaki, who looks at some of her classmates and says that there are people inside a circle and outside, with her among the latter. Soon after that, she has a serious asthma attack, prompting her guardian Yoriko to send her away from Sapporo to spend the summer with Yoriko's aunt and uncle, Setsu & Kiyomasa Oiwa, for clear air in the country. While sketching, Anna is transfixed by a dilapidated mansion across the marsh, once the vacation home of a group of foreigners although it has changed hands several times since then. Sometimes she sees lights in the windows, and one night at high tide she finds a rowboat docked nearby. She needs a bit of help when she reaches the mansion, and that's when she meets Marnie, a blonde girl about her age, who says they must be each other's secret.
That's the start of a gothic story, an odd choice when the main character is an antisocial pre-teen girl. It becomes fascinatingly appropriate, though - Anna, in her youthful way, is as withdrawn and cold as the women typically seduced by ghosts in the grown-up version of these stories; in fact, she's often more direct about her self-loathing than those protagonists. The offer of friendship is as much a temptation for a girl that age as romance would be for one five or ten years older, and in some ways it is even more believable that Anna would keep investing in it, even though she's clearly a smart enough kid to know that she is in the midst of something outside the ordinary.
Anna proves to be a fascinating creation; director Hiromasa Yonebayashi and character designer Masashi Ando (both collaborated on adapting Joan G. Robinson's novel with Keiko Niwa) envision her as sort of androgynous toward the start, a no-nonsense look that lends itself to adventuring and serves as a contrast to the design for Marnie, who is all pink dresses and long hair, although no delicate shut-in flower. As Anna grows over the course of the movie, she becomes more feminine, but it's not the same kind of super-girly look Marnie favors; rather a casual but mature image, and the introduction of a younger character serves to heighten the contrast.
Beyond visual design, Sara Takatsuki is giving an impressively nuanced vocal performance (at least, in the subtitled Japanese version I watched; I'm sure Hailee Steinfeld is fine in the English dub); getting across the numbness and anger that both define Anna early on, as well as the growing confidence and compassion she displays later. Kasumi Arimura gives Marnie a youthful excitement without it feeling exaggerated as it often can in animated features, hiding a sadness but not denying it. Nanako Matsushima shines as the worried guardian (I'm genuinely curious to hear what Geena Davis does in the dub), while Toshie Negishi & Susumu Terajima lighten a lot of scenes as the Oiwas.
There's also a wonderful precision in how Yonebayashi crafts his picture, both in small ways and large. Observe how Anna sharpens her pencils with a sliding blade rather than a contained pencil sharpener or snaps them by pressing too hard; it establishes her as a bit more than sad, even if she is quiet in motion as well as voice. Watch her attempting to step into or row a boat for the first time - it's clumsy in exactly the way it should be for someone inexperienced. Check out how the coloring (an animated film's lighting) subtly shifts between scenes - and not so subtly in others, as we see the same bedroom occupied by two different girls. These are all places where an animated film might cut back, because those small details require a lot of conscious effort, but the attention to detail is appreciated here.
Some of that same precision is available in the writing, although my extremely limited Japanese leaves me wondering how much is translation, and may be different between the subtitles and dubbing script. For instance, the subtitles don't spell out the relationship between Anna and Yoriko initially beyond them not being biologically related - Anna calls Yoriko "Auntie", and Setsu finds that unusual, and I went to step-parent issues. Later, Anna's bluish eyes are noted, and it's hinted that the fact that she has some foreign ancestry might account for why she feels like an outsider, and that blonde-haired Marnie may be a way of helping her accept that about herself. Yonebashi and company don't really go that way in either case, but not only doesn't it feel like a misdirection, but the thoughts a viewer may have along those lines feel useful - they may not figure into the actual plot, but thinking this way allows the audience to understand Anna better, so that when the filmmakers do start connecting their dots, it feels like more than a puzzle being put together.
That feels extraordinary. When Marnie Was There already seemed like as exceptional an animated film as one can generally expect from Studio Ghibli, but the way it brings its ideas together while still remaining fairly simple deserves extra praise. Ghibli's future is undecided, but in Yonebashi, it either has an excellent future or a potentially great legacy, at least if his future projects are as good as this one.
(Previously on EFC)
Showing posts with label Studio Ghibli. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Studio Ghibli. Show all posts
Sunday, June 07, 2015
Saturday, January 03, 2015
The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness
I have very little to say about this one - the audience ate it up, with applause at the end, but I found that it had the feeling of a very long Electronic Press Kit piece - maybe not exactly a puff piece, but mostly meant to please, and anything which highlights its subject's difficulty does so in a way that also emphasizes his brilliance.
It's kind of unfortunate that it's playing alongside Isao Takahata's The Tale of the Princess Kaguya rather than Hayao Miyazaki's The Wind Rises, because it is much more about Miyazaki's movie than Takahata's, even if it has the end result of making one more curious about "Paku-san" and his movie.
Yume to kyôki no ôkoku (The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness)
* * ¾ (out of four)
Seen 2 January 2014 at the Brattle Theatre (first-run, DCP)
The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness is sometimes described as "a year in the life of Studio Ghibli", and one which is potentially its last year as an active production house. Many fans will likely be fascinated to watch renowned director Hayao Miyazaki work on his final film, although the documentary will give them more access than insight.
That's especially true for those who are most likely to drawn to Mami Sunada's picture - they already know that Hayao Miyazaki creates painted storyboards for his films rather than a conventional screenplay, or that longtime producer Toshio Suzuki hired Miyazaki to create the manga that eventually became Nausicaä in the Valley of the Wind while editing an animation magazine. They know the ins and outs of creating traditional animation, even if they are sometimes a bit taken aback at just how painstaking it is.
The access is impressive, though - not quite total, but Miyazaki and Suzuki certainly appear to allow Sunada plenty of freedom to look over their shoulders. Miyazaki, in particular, becomes a subject that merits the viewer's attention, charismatic and folksy but often expressing a pessimistic view of the world. It's an intriguing portrait, although one likely to be very much influenced by what the audience brings to it. Does this joviality serve to mask how he can be the sort of genius that can be very difficult to deal with, and is it done deliberately, especially with Sunada always being around?
Full review at EFC.
It's kind of unfortunate that it's playing alongside Isao Takahata's The Tale of the Princess Kaguya rather than Hayao Miyazaki's The Wind Rises, because it is much more about Miyazaki's movie than Takahata's, even if it has the end result of making one more curious about "Paku-san" and his movie.
Yume to kyôki no ôkoku (The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness)
* * ¾ (out of four)
Seen 2 January 2014 at the Brattle Theatre (first-run, DCP)
The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness is sometimes described as "a year in the life of Studio Ghibli", and one which is potentially its last year as an active production house. Many fans will likely be fascinated to watch renowned director Hayao Miyazaki work on his final film, although the documentary will give them more access than insight.
That's especially true for those who are most likely to drawn to Mami Sunada's picture - they already know that Hayao Miyazaki creates painted storyboards for his films rather than a conventional screenplay, or that longtime producer Toshio Suzuki hired Miyazaki to create the manga that eventually became Nausicaä in the Valley of the Wind while editing an animation magazine. They know the ins and outs of creating traditional animation, even if they are sometimes a bit taken aback at just how painstaking it is.
The access is impressive, though - not quite total, but Miyazaki and Suzuki certainly appear to allow Sunada plenty of freedom to look over their shoulders. Miyazaki, in particular, becomes a subject that merits the viewer's attention, charismatic and folksy but often expressing a pessimistic view of the world. It's an intriguing portrait, although one likely to be very much influenced by what the audience brings to it. Does this joviality serve to mask how he can be the sort of genius that can be very difficult to deal with, and is it done deliberately, especially with Sunada always being around?
Full review at EFC.
Monday, September 10, 2012
This Week In Tickets: 3 September 2012 - 9 September 2012
Busy week!
A lot of it was packed into the weekend, but there was a lot of good variety. I must admit, I'm kind of disappointed in myself that all I did for moviegoing on Labor Day was The Ocean Waves; I was still pretty wiped out from the pre-code marathon on Saturday night. Getting old sucks.
Still, I was happy to get the chance to see a couple favorites on the big screen. I kind of wonder if Regal would have announced and advertised that The Avengers was going to be one of four films they played on the deluxe RPX screen for a reduced price if they knew Disney would be bringing it back Labor Day weekend to try and goose the box office a little bit; the $5 I paid to see it in 3D on the screen with the great sound and comfy seats was less than half what the 2D show in one of the lesser screens cost. Not that this was a bad plan; there wasn't a whole lot worthy of the deluxe screen that weekend and reduced prices might have given some people impetus to sample and discover that, yeah, it really is worth a buck or two to upgrade from the standard. Suffice it to say, that wasn't exactly the plan with Raiders of the Lost Ark on the Imax-branded screen across town; despite basically being promotion for the upcoming Blu-ray release, that's a full-cost ticket, and I half-suspect that it will look better in 35mm at the Brattle.
Between them, there was one long day of movies - I saw (and liked) [REC] 3 at midnight on Friday, got home, and because there was still blood pumping, wrote a review before hitting the sack at four-thirty. You'd think my body would take the hint and let me sleep until noon, but no, the body can't read a calendar like the brain can, and it tought I had to go to work or something on Saturday. So, I was able to make it to matinees of Branded and Bachelorette and regret it. That is one occasion when you make use of the refillable large soda, let me tell you, although that second Coke Zero tastes disgusting.
Also disgusting: Sunday's baseball game. Well, not really completely disgusting, as Buchholz looked really good and might have won the game for the team if not for some subpar defense in the 4th. Still, it was nice to head down to a friend's seats and visit toward the end of the game, especially since I got stuck holding extra tickets again.
Umi ga kikoeru (The Ocean Waves)
* * * ½ (out of four)
Seen 3 September 2012 in the Brattle Theatre (Castles in the Sky: Ghibli, digital)
The Ocean Waves is seen relatively rarely in the United States; having been made for Japanese television, featuring no fantasy elements, and not being directed by either of Studio Ghibli's most renowned filmmakers (Hayao Miyazaki & Isao Takahata), it never received a DVD release here. Too bad; it's a nice little movie, worth a look if the touring Ghibli retrospective lands in your town.
Taku (voice of Nobuo Tobita) and Yutaka (voice of Toshihiko Seki) were never in the same homeroom at school, but became close friends when they were the only ones to protest the cancellation of their class trip. One day, Yutaka calls Taku during vacation to give him exciting news about a transfer student: Rikako (voice of Yoko Sakamoto) comes to their small town from Tokyo and is pretty, athletic, and smart; Yutaka clearly has a crush already. But when Rikako gets in a bind during their senior class trip, it's Taku she turns to, leading to a number of messy situations.
Though Taku serves as the movie's narrator and certainly comes into his own over the course of the film, the focal point is clearly Rikako, his first experience with how simultaneously wonderful and frustrating women and other people can be. For a character in a seventy-two minute animated movie, she's a surprisingly rich creation - often aloof, scheming, and self-centered, although the roots of her less appealing qualities serve to make her a sympathetic figure. She's clearly got some issues, and they are lodged deep enough that it's going to take more than a weekend with Taku to resolve them.
Full review at eFilmCritic
The Avengers
* * * ¾ (out of four)
Seen 4 September 2012 in Regal Fenway #13 (second-run, Sony digital/RPX 3D)
It's interesting to see how there's been a bit of walking-back of some of the ebuillant praise of The Avengers from the start of the summer, though I still like it as much as I did then. I think part of that is sidestepping comparisons to The Dark Knight Rises in end-of-season/year pieces. When director Joss Whedon says "it's not a great film, but it is a great time", that's a line being drawn: You can have the critics who talk about thematic richness and real-world parallels, but man, did allow that we blew stuff up really well.
And that's fair, but it is worth mentioning that I dropped some cash to see this again for a second time four months later and I don't know if I'll do that should The Dark Knight Rises still be playing the Aquarium in November. The Avengers really is a lot of fun, and of the three superhero movies to come out this summer, it's the one that happily embraces its genre the most. The Amazing Spider-Man never seemed to really embrace the fact that it's about Peter Parker fighting a were-lizard who wants to turn the rest of New York into were-lizards; TDKR (like its predecessors) does such a good job of grounding its world and avoiding the overtly fantastical material from the comics that it's sometimes tough to recognize just how much larger than life those movies are.
Still, it's kind of amazing that Marvel started this franchise with Iron Man, both because Iron Man is pretty close to that universe's Batman, and has ramped it up to flying space monsters within about five years. And over the course of the next cycle leading up to Avengers 2, they're going to have James Gunn direct a movie that features Rocket Racoon. That, folks, is kind of amazing.
Raiders of the Lost Ark
* * * * (out of four)
Seen 9 September 2012 in AMC Boston Common #2 (special engagement, Imax-branded digital)
Raiders of the Lost Ark is as close to perfect as a movie can be, and I've said things along these lines before (though apparently not since 2006). I don't know if I still think it gets better every time I watch it - in part that's me; I vacillate between favoring its recreation of classic acting styles and something more naturalistic; I've gotten more analytical with scripts and can spot where it doesn't quite make sense - but it's still really, really good.
And, it's not just really good, but gets better toward the end. Not that there aren't great moments before then, but once Indy punches out of the Well of Souls... Well, the sustained action until the end is amazing. The fistfight on and around the flying wing has the sort of precise choreography you generally expect from Hong Kong, humor, and just an amazing way of escalating , with each thing Indy and company does making something else happen that will catch up with him two or three beats later in the scene. Then, it leads into the horse/car/truck chase, and you know how Indy says "Nazis... I hate these guys!" in Last Crusade? He really does; there's a nasty sort of joy on his face as he throws them from the truck. And then the island...
Yeah, any chance to see it on the big screen is money well spent. If you're in Boston, well, I'm certainly not going to suggest missing it while it's on the Imax-branded screen at Boston Common, although I did think there were a couple of weird moments with projection, and unless Imax has upgraded the specs of these theaters in the last couple of years, the raw resolution (basically HDTV quality) is actually less than the 4K screens everywhere else in the building. There will be a new 35mm print playing the Brattle at the end of October, though, and for less money to boot.
A lot of it was packed into the weekend, but there was a lot of good variety. I must admit, I'm kind of disappointed in myself that all I did for moviegoing on Labor Day was The Ocean Waves; I was still pretty wiped out from the pre-code marathon on Saturday night. Getting old sucks.
Still, I was happy to get the chance to see a couple favorites on the big screen. I kind of wonder if Regal would have announced and advertised that The Avengers was going to be one of four films they played on the deluxe RPX screen for a reduced price if they knew Disney would be bringing it back Labor Day weekend to try and goose the box office a little bit; the $5 I paid to see it in 3D on the screen with the great sound and comfy seats was less than half what the 2D show in one of the lesser screens cost. Not that this was a bad plan; there wasn't a whole lot worthy of the deluxe screen that weekend and reduced prices might have given some people impetus to sample and discover that, yeah, it really is worth a buck or two to upgrade from the standard. Suffice it to say, that wasn't exactly the plan with Raiders of the Lost Ark on the Imax-branded screen across town; despite basically being promotion for the upcoming Blu-ray release, that's a full-cost ticket, and I half-suspect that it will look better in 35mm at the Brattle.
Between them, there was one long day of movies - I saw (and liked) [REC] 3 at midnight on Friday, got home, and because there was still blood pumping, wrote a review before hitting the sack at four-thirty. You'd think my body would take the hint and let me sleep until noon, but no, the body can't read a calendar like the brain can, and it tought I had to go to work or something on Saturday. So, I was able to make it to matinees of Branded and Bachelorette and regret it. That is one occasion when you make use of the refillable large soda, let me tell you, although that second Coke Zero tastes disgusting.
Also disgusting: Sunday's baseball game. Well, not really completely disgusting, as Buchholz looked really good and might have won the game for the team if not for some subpar defense in the 4th. Still, it was nice to head down to a friend's seats and visit toward the end of the game, especially since I got stuck holding extra tickets again.
Umi ga kikoeru (The Ocean Waves)
* * * ½ (out of four)
Seen 3 September 2012 in the Brattle Theatre (Castles in the Sky: Ghibli, digital)
The Ocean Waves is seen relatively rarely in the United States; having been made for Japanese television, featuring no fantasy elements, and not being directed by either of Studio Ghibli's most renowned filmmakers (Hayao Miyazaki & Isao Takahata), it never received a DVD release here. Too bad; it's a nice little movie, worth a look if the touring Ghibli retrospective lands in your town.
Taku (voice of Nobuo Tobita) and Yutaka (voice of Toshihiko Seki) were never in the same homeroom at school, but became close friends when they were the only ones to protest the cancellation of their class trip. One day, Yutaka calls Taku during vacation to give him exciting news about a transfer student: Rikako (voice of Yoko Sakamoto) comes to their small town from Tokyo and is pretty, athletic, and smart; Yutaka clearly has a crush already. But when Rikako gets in a bind during their senior class trip, it's Taku she turns to, leading to a number of messy situations.
Though Taku serves as the movie's narrator and certainly comes into his own over the course of the film, the focal point is clearly Rikako, his first experience with how simultaneously wonderful and frustrating women and other people can be. For a character in a seventy-two minute animated movie, she's a surprisingly rich creation - often aloof, scheming, and self-centered, although the roots of her less appealing qualities serve to make her a sympathetic figure. She's clearly got some issues, and they are lodged deep enough that it's going to take more than a weekend with Taku to resolve them.
Full review at eFilmCritic
The Avengers
* * * ¾ (out of four)
Seen 4 September 2012 in Regal Fenway #13 (second-run, Sony digital/RPX 3D)
It's interesting to see how there's been a bit of walking-back of some of the ebuillant praise of The Avengers from the start of the summer, though I still like it as much as I did then. I think part of that is sidestepping comparisons to The Dark Knight Rises in end-of-season/year pieces. When director Joss Whedon says "it's not a great film, but it is a great time", that's a line being drawn: You can have the critics who talk about thematic richness and real-world parallels, but man, did allow that we blew stuff up really well.
And that's fair, but it is worth mentioning that I dropped some cash to see this again for a second time four months later and I don't know if I'll do that should The Dark Knight Rises still be playing the Aquarium in November. The Avengers really is a lot of fun, and of the three superhero movies to come out this summer, it's the one that happily embraces its genre the most. The Amazing Spider-Man never seemed to really embrace the fact that it's about Peter Parker fighting a were-lizard who wants to turn the rest of New York into were-lizards; TDKR (like its predecessors) does such a good job of grounding its world and avoiding the overtly fantastical material from the comics that it's sometimes tough to recognize just how much larger than life those movies are.
Still, it's kind of amazing that Marvel started this franchise with Iron Man, both because Iron Man is pretty close to that universe's Batman, and has ramped it up to flying space monsters within about five years. And over the course of the next cycle leading up to Avengers 2, they're going to have James Gunn direct a movie that features Rocket Racoon. That, folks, is kind of amazing.
Raiders of the Lost Ark
* * * * (out of four)
Seen 9 September 2012 in AMC Boston Common #2 (special engagement, Imax-branded digital)
Raiders of the Lost Ark is as close to perfect as a movie can be, and I've said things along these lines before (though apparently not since 2006). I don't know if I still think it gets better every time I watch it - in part that's me; I vacillate between favoring its recreation of classic acting styles and something more naturalistic; I've gotten more analytical with scripts and can spot where it doesn't quite make sense - but it's still really, really good.
And, it's not just really good, but gets better toward the end. Not that there aren't great moments before then, but once Indy punches out of the Well of Souls... Well, the sustained action until the end is amazing. The fistfight on and around the flying wing has the sort of precise choreography you generally expect from Hong Kong, humor, and just an amazing way of escalating , with each thing Indy and company does making something else happen that will catch up with him two or three beats later in the scene. Then, it leads into the horse/car/truck chase, and you know how Indy says "Nazis... I hate these guys!" in Last Crusade? He really does; there's a nasty sort of joy on his face as he throws them from the truck. And then the island...
Yeah, any chance to see it on the big screen is money well spent. If you're in Boston, well, I'm certainly not going to suggest missing it while it's on the Imax-branded screen at Boston Common, although I did think there were a couple of weird moments with projection, and unless Imax has upgraded the specs of these theaters in the last couple of years, the raw resolution (basically HDTV quality) is actually less than the 4K screens everywhere else in the building. There will be a new 35mm print playing the Brattle at the end of October, though, and for less money to boot.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
