Kiki!

[ffutures]

My charity shop bargains last week were the DVDs of Kiki's Delivery Service, Kill Bill Vol 2, and Vanilla Sky, for a grand total of £8. I've seen Kill Bill before but it's nice to have a copy that by default has English subtitles for the training scenes etc.; my previous copy is R3 and I kept forgetting to switch it from Indonesian to English subtitles.

Haven't watched Vanilla Sky yet, but Kiki's Delivery Service is great - on the strength of it I've ordered a copy of Howl's Moving Castle, which comes out this week. I'll post more on this once I've seen it.

Comments

Hayao Miyazaki films and more

[murphys-lawyer.livejournal.com]

I'd agree that Howl's Moving Castle is not as good a film as Spirited Away, but when you're discussing Miyazaki-sensei's work, I think that's differentiating between very good and mind-blowingly excellent.

The Japanese language version has the better sound, but not everyone around here knows that much Japanese or can read subtitles that fast.

The five films from this man's work I recommend anyone watch are:

1. Castle of Cagliostro - imagine Alfred Hitchcock directs the Marx Brothers in a 60s caper
2. Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind - the full-length ecological fable, not the stripped down 80s US release known as Warriors of the Wind
3. Laputa (aka Castle in the Sky) - I agree this would be right up your street, and you'll see where he recycled the airships in Howl's Moving Castle from
4. My Neighbour Totoro - a film about childhood, not a film for children. It's a subtle difference.
5. Spirited Away - I love fairy tales when they're done right, and in this one everything just clicks together.

Also from the studio, but not directed by Miyazaki:

1. Grave of the Fireflies - how two orphans of the Tokyo firebombing in 1945 don't survive. IMHO, ranks with All Quiet on the Western Front as one of the strongest anti-war films ever made.
2. Pom Poko (the Raccoon Wars). Another ecological tale, with shape-shifting raccoons, talking foxes, and unfeasibly large testicles.

Re: Hayao Miyazaki films and more

[pauldrye.livejournal.com]

Totoro is a wonder, as is Spirited Away. My own contrarian opinion is that Porco Rosso is better still, visually stunning like not even those other two and a somewhat deeper story than the others.

It's a bit like choosing between getting a million dollars in gold, gems, or blue chip stock certificates, though.