Princess Mononoke

This is probably my favorite movie out of all the other movies that were created by Hayao Miyazaki and Ghibli Studios. This movie had everything, action, suspense, romance, and even his trademark concern for nature. The film is about a boy that had been living peacefully in his village when a demon boar attacks. In order to save his village, the boy becomes infected with what drove the boar to become a demon (pollution). He is told to leave his village, and he begins his journey. He meets a family of wolves and a human girl (Princess Mononoke) that lives with them, but they are hostile towards the boy. He also discovers that there is an iron mining village that is polluting the environment, but befriends the people that live there. He must then choose who to side with, the iron town or Princess Mononoke, industrialization or the environment. The main reason why I liked this movie so much was because, it felt like Miyazaki wanted to really just tell people that we should be concerned about the environment instead of just hiding it in the background of most of his other movies. He basically comes out and says that the environment is dying due to our pollution and irresponsibility.

The fight between industrialization and the environment is very much real, both in the film and in the real world. Miyazaki just shows us how he sees how industrialization and the environment are interacting with each other in this film. He seems to believe that the environment will strike back if industrialization goes too far and pollutes too much. We can see the results of green house gases and global warming today. Miyazaki shows that humans can not abuse the environment as much as they want without consequences and that humans must respect the environment if they plan to take things from it.

Once again I was amazed at the detail of the animation and the wonderful music made specifically for this film. Then there are things that surprised me when I first say the movie, so much violence and gore from Miyazaki. The film has a lot of violence and gore. For example, the boy accidentally shoots off a samurai's arms with an arrow. I thought that was pretty entertaining, but I believe many people were like me and suspected a more tame movie. I feel bad for those parents that brought their children to watch this movie and finding out that it was nothing like Totoro. It was unexpected, but I think the violence and gore was a nice change by Miyazaki. Any fan of Miyazaki should really watch this film if they haven't already done so.

Director Blog 1: My Neighbor Totoro

I have watched this movie multiple times over the years, but it never gets old. I enjoy how innocent the movie is. Theres a big giant fluffy bear/squirrel thing that has magical powers as one of the main characters, what more would someone want? He even comes with a smile that takes up 2/3 of his face(Freaky the first time I saw it)! Then there was the cat that was also a bus, I thought that was very creative and original. The film was trying to show the importance of nature while also showing how powerful the imagination of a child can be. The film switched back and forth between reality and fantasy, mixing them together slowly until the end where people could no longer tell them apart. My favorite scene would probably have to be when the kids and Totoro were waiting together for a bus and Totoro kept jumping in order hear more rain drops hit the umbrella. It reminded me of when a child figures out that one thing causes another and thinks that it is interesting, so the child keeps doing it. But the one thing that Miyazaki does not want the people that watch his movies to forget is the importance of nature, that is why it is present in almost all of his films. Such as in this film where Totoro and the children planted seeds and made them grow spontaneously into gigantic trees.

One of the main reasons why I liked this movie was how well the music and video worked with each other. Both the animation and the music must have taken a lot of effort. The music just fit into the movie so well, and it wasn't like anything I had heard before when I first saw the film. This film was way ahead of it's time, I don't remember seeing any other animated films with fully original music and an entire orchestra to back it up. The music is very soothing to listen to and I liked how much effort was put into it. (I also already wrote a blog about this film in Art of Film 1 (Tonari no Totoro, in 2007), so I would just be repeating myself if I wrote more.)

Do The Right Thing!

I found this film strangely entertaining. I think it was because the style of the film reminded me of the television show Fresh Prince with Will Smith. I thought it was well made, I liked the cinematography, it showed many different angles and shots of the neighborhood. The entire setting of this place had nothing real about it, the people didn't really act like that, it was a creation of Spike Lee. They had to clear out that neighborhood, cleaning out all the drug addicts in order to shoot the film. Overall I thought the film was pretty fun to watch. I feel like I should mention the death of Radio Raheem, It is a tragedy when a young person dies for such a small issue. Spike Lee then tries to hide it by not making it a big deal, making the destruction of Sal's Famous Pizzaria more important. I thought he was trying to show that people considered Sal's Famous Pizzaria was more important than the life of an adolescent African American boy. Then the movie critics basically did what he said they were going to do and didn't even mention Radio Raheem. It seemed sort of like a trap, seeing who caught it and who didn't, and those who didn't would be prosecuted by Spike Lee himself in his interview about he film. Overall I thought this was a very entertaining film and would recommend it.

The Battle of Algiers!

NPR: Movie Review 'The Battle of Algiers' by Kenneth Turan - Morning Edition
http://www.npr.org/templates/dmg/dmg.php?prgCode=ME&showDate=09-Jan-2004&segNum=14&NPRMediaPref=WM

My classmates might have found this movie to be quite annoying, mostly because they didn't like the subtitles, but I actually liked the movie. I liked the effort in trying to make the film unbiased, to show both sides of the conflict. I also liked how they tried to make it as realistic as possible, with scenes that looked like they were from a documentary. They were even able to get an operational tank for one scene. This film was made only a couple years after this actually happened which is surprising to hear. I really liked this film overall and would recommend it to someone if they are researching the battle of Algiers, or they just want to see an old war film. This film is still even relevant today as the review says, even though this review was made years ago, our present day situation in Iraq can be compared and similarities arise. The gorilla warfare in the city look very familiar. The way the film was shot made it look realistic and basically stated, "This is happening now!" to the audience.

China Town!

I liked this film, I thought it was probably the best film noir out of the the three films that we had watched in class. The fact that this film was more recent than the other two probably had a lot to do with my choice. I didn't really like the character the main character, J.J "Jake" Giddies played by Jack Nicholson. Especially in at the beginning of the film, he just seemed like he was profiting off of other people's problems. But as the film went on, I think he was starting to show a more human and compassionate side of him. By the end of the film, he failed but tried the best he could to do the right thing and that is what counts. The type of ending of the film was definitely not the typical happy ending. It was a dark ending that actually reminded me of some of the foreign films I have watched in the past. It leaves a bit of mystery unsolved, what is going to happen after this? Will the water tycoon problem be solved? It just doesn't give a definite answer, and leaves people wondering. Overall I thought this was a good film, and would definitely recommend it.

Kiss Me Deadly...

I thought this was pretty bland as well, though it was funny watching the main character slap people for information. The whole mysterious detective that the story follows in film noirs are getting annoying. Every single one has pretty much the same characteristics except a different background story and mystery to solve. There is a question that I wanted answers to, why didn't he go and close the box? I mean if it was going to cause the end of the world, he could have just closed it, he even opened and closed it earlier in the movie. The sound made by the box was pretty annoying, why did they have to make things sound like that in the old movies? It apparently it gets louder when there is a person screaming or a sound effect. This was a "B" movie, so I guess I shouldn't be too surprised. Overall I thought the movie was alright, it would have said I didn't like the film if the main character didn't go around slapping people though.

Out of the Past...

I didn't really like this movie, this style of film isn't very interesting to me. I didn't even finish part of the movie because I was gone on Friday, oops. But from what I have seen, there isn't very much to it. It was probably very original when it was first created, dark and mysterious, but now it just seems used up now. All the detectives in these films seem pretty much the same, always smooth with the ladies, and is invincible throughout the movie, until the end. Overall I just didn't really like the style of the film, the whole film noir style is not very appealing to me. The mystery in these films aren't really that mysterious, there is no excitement, no suspense. The withheld information just annoys me, there is no point when the information is revealed, it just fills in the holes of the plot that they withheld from the viewers in the beginning. It is supposed to surprise the viewers when it is finally revealed, but the plots of these films really wasn't too exciting to me. The films are not bad, but they are just not my cup of tea, they are just dull in my opinion.