Mini Review: Whisper of the Heart

This is a Japanese Anime Movie directed by Yoshifumi Kondo, and produced by Studio Ghibli. The original story is based on a manga by Aoi Hiragi but screenplay was written by my favorite animator Hayao Miyazaki. It isn’t new by the way.

The story begins when a junior high school girl Shizuku notices a name she keeps seeing in a library check out card. She is intrigued and amazed by this Seiji Amasawa person who has read so many books before her.

The next day she is on a train with lunch for her father and she sees a fat cat and wonders why he is by himself. At her stop, the cat also gets off, so she decides to follow it. The cat brings her to an antique shop , where she sees a beautiful statue called The Baron by the shop owner.

Shizuku and the Cat on the Train

The Baron

After some time, Shizuku discovers that the shop owner’s grandson is non other than the Seiji Amasawa who has read so many books in the library. She  dislikes this at first because she thinks of him as a jerk. However, the two become friends and Shizuku learns that he dreams of becoming a violin maker and is planning on going to Italy to become an apprentice. This inspires Shizuku to find her own dream and work hard in order to achieve it.

I’ve watched most of what studio Ghibli has released, and they haven’t failed to please me. Everytime I start watching something that Miyazaki “touched”, I always seem to want more. I get drawn in immediately. His stories don’t have gunfights, swordfights, intense action scenes, fighting robots or anything that one would think as an anime staple. Instead, his style is more relaxed, nature-centric, and always has just the right amount of cuteness and fantasy and it always teaches you something. I am always amazed by how he gets his ideas. The only annoying thing I can say about Whisper of the Heart is the song “Country Road Take me home” by John Denver.

But even so, I certainly loved this anime film and I give it 5 popcorns, in spite of the bad song choice.

I also think it’s cute that The Baron made another appearance in another Miyazaki film called The Cat Returns. I watched it sometime ago and loved it too.

Here’s the trailer:

Mini Review: A Place Promised in our early days

This anime was created and directed by Makoto Shinkai, the same person who did 5 Cm per Second (which I reviewed yesterday).

The story takes place in Japan, but in an alternate timeline. I don’t quite understand it from the movie, but I read online that Japan is supposed to be separated by North and South after World War II, the South being occupied by the United States and the Northern being occupied by the Soviet union.

Summary:

Hiroki and Takuya are best friends focused on their dream of building an airplane and flying it to the almost infinite tower near the borders. They befriend a classmate, Sayuri, and lets her in on the secret. The three of them vow to fly to the tower when the work is done. But somehow, Sayuri disappears and the boys don’t hear from her for three years. Hiroki is  now in high school while Takuya works in a research facility for parallel universe study. Somehow they discover that Sayuri , who has been in a coma for the past three years, the Tower and the parallel universes are all connected.

Thoughts:

I would’ve liked to know more about how Sayuri’s dreams affected the world as they know it and how did she become responsible for all those parallel worlds? What is her connection to the Tower and why did they mention that it was her grandfather who built it in the past? What is the tower for anyway? And how will the destruction of the Tower affect the world? Why did the war continue even after the destruction?

Other than these burning questions, I think the movie was beautiful. A little lacking in character development and had a slow pacing,  but beautiful nonetheless. Especially the first part where their lives seemed more carefree.

I was anticipating a sad ending like in 5Cm. but fortunately this didn’t have one. I would’ve liked the story to push further on the sci-fi aspect rather than just skim around it. I was really interested in Sayuri’s dream state and the connection she had with Hiroki through those dreams. The scene in the hospital room where they somehow sense each other was really wonderful, in my opinion. I wanted to see more of that tone in the movie rather than having everything tie up nicely in the end. Even the plan to bomb the tower went without a hitch even if there was an ongoing war. It’s just too neat and without much weirdness (which I somehow like).

I’m giving this 3.5 popcorns.

Mini Review: 5 cm. per Second

Distance is the theme of this movie and that’s  just something I know a lot about so I wanted to see this for the longest time. Finally the time is today!

The movie’s melancholic and bittersweet, but very well done. It  has different “Chapters” like a short story and I will give a summary for each.

Chapter 1, Cherry Blossoms:

Tono Takaki and Shinohara Akari has been best friends since elementary school. They seemed like kindred spirits and was often even teased by their classmates to be a couple. Unfortunately, they couldn’t spend their whole school life together as both needed to move to different places because of their parents’ jobs. The two keep in contact by writing letters, but despite the feelings that exist between them, they inevitably begin to drift apart. When Takaki becomes aware that his family will be moving even farther away, he decides to go see Akari since they will be too far apart to visit each other at all after he moves. He also prepares a letter for Akari, revealing his true feelings. However, there is a severe snowstorm that causes several hours’ delay in his trip and somehow he even loses the letter he wrote. Eventually the two finally meet and share their first kiss but Takaki realizes that that moment is the last time they will ever be together again.

Chapter 2, Cosmonauts:

Takaki is now a senior in High School in a place where the Japanese space center is located. A classmate of his falls in love with him, but hesitates to reveal her true feelings because she knows that Takaki is in love with someone else. They have always been friends and never once did Takaki give an inkling that he liked her as more than a friend. One day they see a rocket ship launch and although they are marveling at the same thing,Kanae knows that he is looking for something far greater than anything she could offer.

Chapter 3, 5 cm per second:

Fast forward into the future where Takaki is  a salaryman and Akari is getting married. Takaki never had any closure with Akari and has somehow messed up his life. One day while walking down a familiar looking road, they pass by each other at a train crossing. They  pause and begin to look back, but a passing train quickly cut off their view. He waits but sees that the woman is already gone. He sees a cherry blossom tree and  remembers the girl he once loved and smiles as he remembers she once told him the speed at which a sakura petal falls is Five Centimeters per Second.

End of summary.

What really hit me about this movie is how very often in life people meet, then forget each other (even without meaning to) because of distance and a certain thing called life. Friends come and go, people you love move away, even lovers have to part.

Life happens anywhere you are. You can’t stop it and you just have to ride with it.

Sometimes there are people like Takaki who couldn’t get over a heartbreak, couldn’t find a way to move on and there are people like Akari who has easily accepted that they had something special but is practical enough to know that she can’t just wait for him forever.

Although it’s quite silly that they haven’t kept in touch even with all the technology available (and couldn’t say what they really feel) and they didn’t even visit each other  as adults when they obviously had the means to. They didn’t have to be romantically involved anymore, but wouldn’t it be nice just to SEE each other after all those angsty years? They were incredibly close as children.

Personally, I saw a childhood friend of mine IN PERSON after more than two decades! And that was really nice.

I give this movie 3.75 popcorns because it has a good theme but really SLOW pacing.

Mini Review: The Girl Who Leapt Thru Time (Toki wo Takeru Shouju)

This anime is based on the novel by the award winning Japanese writer Yasutaka Tsutsui. He’s the same one who wrote the novel Paprika–which was made into an anime film in 2006. (Note: Paprika the book, has been translated last year by Andrew Driver and was published by Alma Books.) Needless to say, I loved that movie. It’s sci-fi and a bit weird but I like that. *lol*

The story focuses on a 17 year old named Makoto Konno and her two male friends Chiaki and Kousuke. They are just ordinary students going thru typical teenage life until one day Makoto discovers she could leap thru time (literally) and change events. Although she was initially skeptical about her new found power, she eventually accepts it and uses it to her own advantage like getting to school on time, getting perfect scores in tests, avoiding embarrassing situations, etc. It’s all fun at first until something terrible happens and she uncovers a secret that changes everything. (It’s not as predictable as it sounds!)

I would love to give this movie 5 popcorns (I seldom rate that high) if it wasn’t for the ending!!

MAJOR SPOILER ALERT!!!

MAJOR SPOILER ALERT!!!

MAJOR SPOILER ALERT!!!

When Chiaki said “I’ll be waiting for you (in the future)” what the hell did he mean by that?! They can never meet because Makoto will be long gone by then! I think something got lost in translation!! I’ve been studying Japanese, but my knowledge  is only at the most basic level so imagine my frustration!!! And how was he able to come back that quickly when he already left?? And why didn’t he just KISS HER RIGHT THEN instead of saying that and waiting for the FUTURE?? Hasn’t the recurring line “Time waits for no one” mean anything to them? From what I understand it was CHIAKI who wrote that on the board , right?? So why didn’t he just seize the opportunity? Dang, that’s just so frustrating!! Everything would’ve been perfect if it wasn’t for that stupid ending!

Somebody tell me what I missed! And is there a part two I don’t know about??

Ikuta Toma stars in No Longer Human

The screen adaptation of Osamu Dazai‘s quasi- autobiographical novel, No Longer Human will be released next year.

Toma is the lead actor in this movie!

You can watch the trailer at this website.

Photo Credit: Nipponcinema

Totoro and Howl

I’ve finished watching Howl’s moving castle and My Neighbor Totoro. I love both movies! I love you Hayao Miyazaki! He is such a talented artist and director!

Howl’s Moving Castle was adapted to english by Neil Gaiman (another one of my faves!) from Dianna Wynne Jones’ book. It’s about a very insecure girl named Sophie who is transformed into an old woman by the Witch of the Waste. To break the spell, she searches for Howl, a famous wizard. Along the way she meets several interesting characters such as Turnip Head the walking scarecrow; Mokle ( Michael?!), an orphan and howl’s apprentice; Suliman, another wizard; Heem , Suliman’s dog that looks like a rag and Calcifer, the talking flame etc.

My Neighbor Totoro is about sisters Satsuki and Mei. They move out to the country and discover that their house is haunted. The children meet Totoro, the spirit who guards the forest. They tell their father but he doesn’t see anything. Undeterred, they continue searching for the friendly spirit.

In the english version, Lea Salonga lent her voice as the children’s mother while Dakota Fanning was the voice for Satsuki.

But aside from the movie itself, I really love the closing song! which you can view on youtube.  Totoro is just the cutest! (O-totoro, Chu – totoro and chibi-totoro which means big, medium and mini totoro. hehehe), especially loved the scene in the movie  where he waits at the bus stop with just a tree leaf on his head. hehehe. Then after wards he gets attached to an umbrella because he finds the raindrop sound so amusing! He reminds me of Mary Poppins , but instead of a person, he a furry tree animal spirit! hahaha! And of course the CATBUS!!!! hahaha! So cute!

Here’s the Japanese lyrics in case you want to sing along:

Tonari no Totoro

(closing theme)

Totoro, Totoro
Totoro, Totoro

Dareka ga kossori
Komichi ni konomi uzmete
Chissana me haetara
Himitsu no angou
Mori e no pasupooto
Suteki-na
Bouken hajimaru

Tonari no
Totoro, Totoro
Totoro, Totoro
Mori no naka ni
Mukashi kara sunderu
Tonari no
Totoro, Totoro
Totoro, Totoro
Kodomo no toki ni dake
Anata ni otozureru
Fushigi-na deai

Ame furi basu tei
Zubunure obake ga itara
Anata no amagasa
Sashite agemasho
Mori e no pasupooto
Mahou no tobira akimasu

Tonari no
Totoro, Totoro
Totoro, Totoro
Tsukiyo no ban ni okarina
Fuiteru
Tonari no
Totoro, Totoro
Totoro, Totoro
Moshi mo aeta nara
Suteki-na shiawase ga
Anata ni kuru wa

Tonari no
Totoro, Totoro
Totoro, Totoro
Mori no naka ni
Mukashi kara sunderu
Tonari no
Totoro, Totoro
Totoro, Totoro
Kodomo no toki ni dake
Anata ni otozureru
Fushigi-na deai

Totoro, Totoro
Totoro, Totoro
Totoro, Totoro
Totoro, Totoro

Meron namang english version:

Totoro, Totoro
Totoro, Totoro

Someone stealthily
Buries nuts in the path
When a tiny sprout grows
[You'll find] a secret password -
The passport to the forest
A wonderful
Adventure begins

My neighbor
Totoro, Totoro
Totoro, Totoro
Has lived in the forest
Since ancient times
My neighbor
Totoro, Totoro
Totoro, Totoro
Can only visit you
When you’re a child
A wondrous meeting

The rain falls at the bustop
If there’s a drenched creature
Open your
Umbrella for it
The passport to the forest –
The magic door opens

My neighbor
Totoro, Totoro
Totoro, Totoro
Plays an ocarina
on moonlight nights
My neighbor
Totoro, Totoro
Totoro, Totoro
If you ever meet
Wonderful fortune
Will come to you

My neighbor
Totoro, Totoro
Totoro, Totoro
Has lived in the forest
Since ancient times
My neighbor
Totoro, Totoro
Totoro, Totoro
Can only visit you
When you’re a child
A wondrous meeting

Totoro, Totoro
Totoro, Totoro
Totoro, Totoro
Totoro, Totoro