Howls Moving Castle was shown at Venice. I have managed to download a
very short trailer of the film and it does look terrific - resonances
of Spirited Away in the drawing of some of the characters. As well as
Miyazaki's focus on female characters (even in Porco Rosso where the
hero is male), there is also his concern about living in harmony with
the environment and the consequences when people don't. The films also
don't seem to conform the usual need for continual dramatic conflict in
film. They seem to play out differently. Spirited Away seemed to be
about love, to me. Much like My Neighbour Totoro, which is supposedly a
children's film but I've watched it three times quite happily.
Grace of the Fireflies is absolutely extraordinary.
Cheers,
Jill
On Monday, January 17, 2005, at 01:34 AM, MJ Walker wrote:
> Well, I'm certainly going to read that D WJ novel you mention, thanks
> for the tip, Alison. Of his work I only know Princess Mononoke, which
> as you say is wonderful. The most striking feature of this story/film
> is that the heroine is an old woman for most of the time. Visually it
> is stunning, the geography being based upon some area like the Jura,
> either French or Swiss, with mountains & amazingly detailed towns,
> sort of pre-WW1 , but in one (? it was dubbed in French & I missed
> some of the explanatory bits so that I didn't quite grasp all the plot
> levels) of the worlds there is war, with immense flying creatures as
> bombers wreaking destruction & a host of other malevolent creatures.
> All the important figures including the wicked are female, with the
> exception of the magician-beast the heroine grows to love, the
> latter's boy apprentice & the hopping scarecrow who pursues her to
> help her out at dicey moments after she rescued him from mountain
> rubble - he turns out to be...well, musn't spoil your fun. It's 2004 &
> was premiered at some film festival; I suppose the French are the 1st
> to get it in their art cinemas - the rest of the world will probably
> get it later (I read reviews in the UK press about 3 months after
> seeing the film, as a rule). I'll think about getting *Grave of
> Fireflies* - not too keen on being emotionally devastated at the
> moment (this human cannot bear too much reality, the particularly evil
> ramifications of which are crowding in faster than I can deal with).
> cheers
> mj
>
> Alison Croggon wrote:
>
>> On 16/1/05 10:14 PM, "MJ Walker" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>>
>>> I'd like to direct your attention & I
>>> suppose great enjoyment to a new use of the Eros/Psyche myth in the
>>> great Japanese cartoon director Hayao Miyazaki 's *Howl's Moving
>>> Castle* based upon a fantasy novel by Diana Wynne Jones (which I
>>> don't
>>> know): an amazing & moving reflection on the awakening (and different
>>> phases) of the female eros, with mirror stages aplenty & more
>>> alternative worlds than *His Dark Materials*. It's certainly
>>> époustouflé
>>> me - oh Beauty & the Beast! (beauty of the beast, beastly beauty, la
>>> belle bêtise etc)...
>>>
>>
>> Hi Martin
>>
>> That's one Miyazeki film I don't know, nor do I know Diana Wynne
>> Jones'
>> story (though I know others of hers - she's fab, especially her
>> Tough's
>> Guide to Fantasy Land, which is hilarious). I'm a big fan, having
>> been
>> converted by Josh, who brought five dvds back from Japan. My
>> favourite of
>> those I have seen is Princess Mononoke, a masterpiece, where the
>> gender
>> politics are certainly very interesting. I'll have to look out for
>> Howl's
>> Moving Castle, it sounds great.
>>
>> An aside, also from the Ghibli studios but not Miyazaki, is an anime
>> called
>> Grave of Fireflies, which must be the most emotionally devastating
>> film
>> about war that I've ever seen.
>>
>> Best
>>
>> A
>>
>>
>> Alison Croggon
>>
>> Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
>> Editor, Masthead: http://masthead.net.au
>> Home page: http://alisoncroggon.com
>>
>>
>
>
_______________________________________________________
Jill Jones
web site: http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~jpjones
blog: http://rubystreet.blogspot.com/
Latest books:
Struggle and radiance: ten commentaries (Wild Honey Press)
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