My daughter who is a little too young to watch The Boy and The Heron asked me what happens in the movie, so I gave her a recap. I quickly realized that I would need to explain what World War 2 was which meant I needed to explain Hitler and the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I was putting together a lot of the pieces of the film while describing the film to her.
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Sick of Myself (Syk pike)
Really funny. It’s very blunt and relentless with its commentary, similar to something like a Ruben Östlund movie, which I can see being really off-putting and annoying to some people, but I really enjoyed it as an absurd dark comedy. Kristine Kujath Thorp plays her role perfectly.
First Reformed
Watched this late last night and I loved it. Wonderful cinematography, great acting, especially by Ethan Hawke. Really cool and interesting choice to have Lustmord do the soundtrack. I really like how it gets introduced into the second half of the movie. The way the dark ambient pieces are incorporated I thought was pretty effective.
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One thing I really loved is that this felt like one his most surreal films, something that almost tapped into the spirit of a Satoshi Kon film. I also love that this surrealism was set against an almost Ozu-like realism that employs the backdrop of the early Showa period. This makes it similar to My Neighbour Totoro which I’ve always considered an homage to Ozu juxtaposed with fantasy that creates a fantastic narrative and thematic dichotomy. The Boy and the Heron achieves something similar albeit with different thematic concerns.
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I enjoy the way he tapped into the aesthetics of locations from his past work, creating disparate spaces that function symbolically. In particular the traditional architecture of the pre-Meji era that is bordered by Meji Restoration era mosernization, that then gives way to a type of pre-enlightenment European architecture that boils over with the film’s fairytale symbolism.
I like that you see the tower which looks nothing like any of the architecture around it, and then one of the old ladies explains that it fell from space. Is Junji Ito writing this? I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on why the tower fell from space if you have any. You certainly have more architectural knowledge than I do.
One thing I really loved is that this felt like one his most surreal films, something that almost tapped into the spirit of a Satoshi Kon film. I also love that this surrealism was set against an almost Ozu-like realism that employs the backdrop of the early Showa period.
It is definitely Kon-like. A director that was on my mind throughout was Terrence Malick as there are some absolutely gorgeous landscape shots in this film. I also felt very 2001 when Mahito entered the trapezoid to see his granduncle.
I interpreted the film as being about moving past your trauma and making the best of your reality instead of giving in to daydreams about “how things could have been if…” I even half joked on BlueSky that the movie is Miyazaki asking the question “What if I were more of a boat guy?” The offer that granduncle makes at the end of the film is essentially “you can live in your own dream world” and Mahito says no. Would rather live in painful reality. I wonder what my kids think the message per se of the movie is.
What’d you think of Joe Hisaishi’s work? I’ve been listening to the score since. I have come around to enjoying it on a similar level to his other collaborations with Miyazaki despite not being as anthemic
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Watched The Boy and the Heron today, and… yeah, much like The Wind Rises, this ain’t it chief (though for different reasons). For positives though: gorgeous visuals and animation here of course, as to be expected of Studio Ghibli. I love 2D animation. The backgrounds were especially pretty, and I really liked the fire scenes at the beginning (more stylized animation there). Also, the heron was incredibly grotesque and absolutely disgusting—and I gotta respect their commitment to that lol.
But the story of this film just did not click for me at all, which is really saying something because I’m a sucker for stories about grief, and imaginative dream-like settings. None of the (too many) characters intrigued me, and the plot felt all over the place. Scenes drag on and on, at times nothing of significance happens for long stretches of time (especially in the first act), characters blurt out random things that mean nothing to me, what feels like the emotional climax happens at like the halfway point, A leads to B but rarely with any explanation why (be it a realistic one or not—I don’t ask for much tbh), the protagonist gets dragged about from place to place and in most cases I can only shrug my shoulders for what the point of going there was. A lot of scenes also made me think “oh, this reminds me a lot of a past Ghibli film… but it was done a lot better in that film.” Very clip show of the classic hits vibes at times.
I’ll continue looking forward to Ghibli films, but I’ve mellowed over the years in regard to the Miyazaki entries. My favorites from him are definitely the ones that don’t really aim to have that big of a plot and just let me vibe, like Totoro, Kiki, and Ponyo.
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Personally, I think the film is less focused on narrative causality and eschews some of the conventions of the classical filmic narrative in an effort to use abstraction and a surrealist approach to convey central themes and impart a specific affective response. To this end I find the film very successful, because I found it deeply moving. It utilizes space, geography and architecture to create a multitude of symbolic layers, representing a layering of trauma and grief that exists both at the personal and national level. It renders trauma as spaces, people and things and uses repetition of layers through abstraction to discuss that trauma and its thematic linkages. I think people looking for something that deals in the concrete and adheres to a classical story structure may not enjoy this as much as I did, but I walked away feeling like Miazaki worked within a visual and narrative structure that spoke to me on a personal, affective level. I deeply enjoy a great many of his films, but I suspect this one will remain with me for a long time due to that impact. It felt personal, and self reflexive and I enjoyed experiencing something that I think was a significant transformation for Miazaki.
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I think that’s a decent reading, although I’ll submit that Miazaki left Mahito and out, so he doesn’t fully forget that world. I think there’s a message about the importance of healing through trauma, but never fully letting go of the worlds we construct as a means of either escape, or negotiation, or possibly both.
I read the tower as allegory for the A-bomb. It dropped with a giant explosion forever changing the landscape. A building is built around it to contain it, symbolizing everything from reconstruction, literally the building or re-building of a new Japan, to an attempt to contain that trauma within narrative traditions and storytelling given the structure is shaped like a castle from a fairytale. It functions as signifier of tales, stories, etc.. I feel like this is especially apt given the bomb was a foreign influence and both the Meji and Showa eras are deeply marked by the influence of the west. The castle serves as signifier of multiple things within the film as a result. But if the stone is the A-bomb representing national trauma then the building is signifier of the stories the Japanese have relied on to negotiate and renegotiate that national trauma of the war. And that operates in parallel to the idea of a world designed to contain the trauma and keep Mahito and all the other characters safe, but also what Mahito, and ultimately the Japanese audiences wrestling with narrative negotiations of trauma, have to face.
I enjoyed the score of the film but I haven’t really given it much thought outside of the context of the film. Although I do occasionally listen to soundtracks, I tend to enjoy the way music is utilized to convey meaning or generate affect within a film. I’d probably need to rewatch the film to develop a more significant perspective than that.
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Last House on the Left (Original). Prett rubbish, honestly. And what the hell is with the music?
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I saw that long ago. You’re right on it being trash but I think that was the point. It was never made to be a world class feature, but more in the grindhouse, sexploitation avenue. If you want a decent revenge film in the same genre, I Spit on your Grave from 1978 fits the bill, though I would hesitate to watch it again. Not a fan of rape as a plot device, and the revenge aspect of it makes this more palatable than the rape happening and that is it, though still a horrible aspect of the plot nonetheless.
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As 2023 is ending, I am trying to compile a list of films I want to close out the year with as I’ll be off from the 22nd until the 1st. So far, and this is a work in progress, my list consist of:
*Killers of the Flower Moon - 2023
Sherpa - 2015
The Bridge - 2006
A Haunting in Venice - 2023
Tetris - 2023
The French Dispatch - 2021
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It’s a bit rough because it’s Wes Craven’s first horror. But the microwave scene is iconic and influential, at the very least. The film is also exploitation, and it was a significant enough film within the genre, garnering Craven attention, and making that sort of exploitation horror more visible to audiences beyond exploitation fans proper.
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I’ve seen the remake of I Spit on Your Grave. I agree with the rape thing, but the rest I enjoyed, particulalrly the bath.
But the microwave scene is iconic and influential, at the very least
Can’t even remember what that was. Must have zoned out due to bordom.
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I watched Ghost World on DVD last night. The graphic novel is better but the movie is still pretty good and doesn’t seem dated.
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I thought it was a fairly good adaptation as far as adaptations go. At least it stuck to the story for the most part and didn’t just take the title and ditch everything else (coughI,Zombie,cough)
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Something that’s debated about this story which has not been coroborated by the writer/creator: Do you think Enid commits suicide at the end? Daniel Clowes did not have that opinion about the ending and it was not what he wrote, but I can see why people think that. The old dude at the bus stop for a bus that has been out of service. Maybe the bus is the vehicle to move to the after life?
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The new show for all mankind is great and nothing beats classic csi
Watched Batman Returns for Christmas ! It had been a while
Batman was in it. I like Catwoman. It’s sort of like a romantic comedy, with them [Batman and Catwoman] not realizing the other’s identity for a while
Sort of a different take on the Penguin than usual, you could say. I wonder if you could actually use trained animals in gorilla warfare like that. Maybe a swarm of bees
We had Batman Returns on NES back in the day, and now I have the SNES version too. I played it for the retro game challenge
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Dude, spoilers!
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What is it about Christmas that makes me want to watch horror movie all day? I gotta find some “Violent Night,” “Krampus”, and other Christmas themed horror movies.
My beautiful wife bought me 100 horror themed stickers off Amazon and I love them. What are the odds the Chinese company that makes the stickers has rights to use the IP lol? Don’t answer it…China is the king of piracy and I love them for that!
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Also going to start watching Lawman Bass Reeves and thanks for mentioning some of those chrismtas horror films. I will put them on my to watch list.
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