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Jan 26, 2015
Back in the golden age of Anime, the appeal of this formerly niche Japanese art-style broke down all manner of barriers because it actively incorporated global inspirations. Fast forward to the modern-day and its fan base may be bigger than ever, yet the gap between those that like and those that don’t couldn’t be bigger. This is due to the distancing effect born from the incessancy of creators to adhere to a very strict and singularly ‘anime’ way of presentation alienating anybody unfamiliar in the process. It’s by no means an antidote to this deeply entrenched way of thinking, but Mamoru Hosoda’s Wolf Children works
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as a deceptively mature contrarian – his film functions akin to a Japanese film and not an anime.
The execution and design are great components in achieving this approachability. While undeniably Japanese in its style, all characters have the most basic appearances necessary to effectively emote. The background too, the animators have given the film a detailed painterly aesthetic, alternating between immense natural beauty and the more dreamlike scenarios where imagery is toned down to its sparsest. That Japanese cinematic quality is realised through patience and tradition. Montage is used to stunning effect and non-sequential unrelated imagery is used to frame the drama, this is all cinematic language that the Japanese auteurs champion, it’s invigorating to see animation directors follow suit. For those that enjoy world cinema, there’s nothing that could be lost in translation.
There is all manner of contemporaries that could be cited to express the key the film fits in, the most fitting example would be My Neighbour Totoro. Miyizaki’s masterpiece takes something as universal as grief over family member’s illness and embeds the magical quality of the natural world. In what could be Hosoda’s masterpiece, he takes an even more common life experience in single parenthood and children leaving home and implants that fantastical spin. In what may prove to be an oxymoron, Wolf Children is both restrained and fantastical. There are none of the ludicrous tropes that make anime so hard to penetrate, no superfluous or boisterous anime eccentricities, everything about Wolf Children is 100% committed to the narrative.
In that narrative, Hana is an unassuming student at University whose attention is caught by a mysterious man in her lecture; through studying together the two grow to be friends. That same young man has a secret; he is the last of the Wolf Men. This bizarre revelation brings the two closer than ever as they become lovers and eventually parents. The children they have are the titular Wolf Children, their first being Yuki and their second Ame. Together they are the picture of a happy family. Until tragedy strikes. The father tries to surprise his young family by preparing a special meal, unfortunately he dies in the hunt leaving Hana alone with two children she loves deeply but doesn’t fully understand. In her desperation and paranoia she moves the family to the seclusion of the countryside to give her children the best possible upbringing.
As the family move to the country the complexion of the film changes from perfectly run of the mill romantic drama to something fresher. Hana learns how to live self-sufficiently and keep a degree of privacy and she struggles through the trial and error that comes with children who cannot decide whether they want to be Human or Wolf. In Hana’s learning process, the film waxes lyrical about the value of community. After all the tragic death and complications she has went through it’s heartening to see everything fit into place for Hana. Years pass with each new act, so by the time the third act comes around we are hitting junior school bringing a new series of issues that paint an image of the difficulties of being such an outlandish outsider. That much being said the way the film ends is a little hard-nosed. While it makes perfect sense in the natural world it feels like the humanity of these characters is given too much of a wide birth, like it’s superfluous to the goals of the story meaning that many may leave such a gorgeous film feeling a little cold.
The comparison to My Neighbour Totoro wasn't just a conceptual one. Miyizaki has called time on his career as an animation director on many occasion and if The Wind Rises really is his last, then Wolf Children is the perfect CV. Like Pixar in the West, Studio Ghibli is the animation studio that elevates the form beyond the mass media’s claims that animated media is ‘merely for children’. With Wolf Children, Mamoru Hosoda beautifully tells a beautifully simple story with the same positivity that elevated anime beyond bootlegs and onto the high streets.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Sep 5, 2011
Studio Ghibli has a massive reputation in the world of animation, deservedly sitting at the zenith alongside the equally excellent Pixar. Cars 2 might have been a lull in the otherwise excellent back catalogue; unfortunately it’s been a long time since I could happily call myself a fan of Ghibli. Since the Oscar-winning Spirited Away, the studio has been stuck in a state of ever diminishing returns with the frankly over-rated Howl’s Moving Castle, Ponyo and the low point in Tales of the Earthsea. Ghibli is back in 2011 with the Borrower Arrietty, the immediate question that strikes me as a fan is whether this
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is a return to form or is the rot continuing to eat away at their exemplary reputation?
Even before this film had seen the light of day it was victim to scoffs aplenty thanks to this being a remake of the already well-travelled literary classic The Borrowers by Mary Morton. In case you haven’t encountered this tale before, both it and Arrietty tell the tale of a young sickly boy who discovers that there is a family of incredibly small people living under his house. These small creatures are the Borrowers they get their name from borrowing small items and foodstuffs that won’t be missed. The daughter of the family, the titular Arrietty, has a run in with the sickly Sho and they both end up changing each other’s lives for the better. There might be a lack of conflict but you are smothered with the warmth of it all that you really don’t have the time to stop and take stock.
Arrietty is a simple tale told well. It is also the most straight-faced film from a studio known for all things fantastical. Despite the screenplay being written by Miyizaki this has none of the flights of fancy or ecological themes that he is known for nor does it have the social commentary of an Isao Takahata film. Diehard Ghibli fans might call shenanigans on such a straight film being housed under the iconic banner, others, me included, see this as a simple film free from the complexity of some of its most famous cousins. Additionally this is a perfect entry point into what is something hard to access for the casual and mainstream viewer. As popular as both anime and Ghibli is there are very few occasions where you can say that something which fits under those groups can be watched by anyone, Arrietty is such a film. The only other film which is both a piece of Japanese animation and accessible to a mainstream audience is Porco Rosso, Miyizaki’s Casablanca stylised story of a man turned into a pig for cowardice during the first world war.
It might be the most straight adaptation of a famously concept heavy studio, yet that’s not to say this doesn’t have anything in common with its older cousins. Making such a sweeping statement would mean you have missed many little touches and homage’s. The way in which the film places such value on the everyday and the natural world make it the perfect companion piece to My Neighbour Totoro. In fact these two films would make the loveliest double bill imaginable. Sho is a recycled character model of Pazu, the male lead in Laputa and there is a warrior boy who appears midway through the film, called Spiller, who is remarkably similar to Ashitaka from Princess Mononoke even down to the garb that he wears being the same.
The most prescient thing you will notice when watching Arrietty is the sheer unadulterated beauty conjured up by the skilled hands of the animation team. In this age where near enough all animated films released in the West are computer generated it is so refreshing to see something with the personality of hand drawn animation. There might not be the scope of vision of a traditional Ghibli film but that hasn’t stopped the artists on board with this film from representing the everyday whether it is a simple garden, or the even more mundanely the rooms of a house, with such care and affection. There might not be a great amount happening on-screen and there might not be a great deal of conflict save for the final third of the film but it’s one of those films where the visuals and cinematography is so inch perfect that it becomes a visual spectacle. The only negative I can really think of is the sung soundtrack, instrumentally it fits perfectly. With lyrics like “I am 14 years old, I am pretty”, it really made some songs a bitter pill to swallow.
The Borrower Arrietty, Arrietty or whatever you want to call it might feel more like homage to one of the most beloved film studios in the world and I, for one, do not construe that as a negative. This is a beautiful animated and affectionately told story with a cast of well-rounded characters that pays off in all the right ways. This film by director Hiromasa Yonebayashi is a perfect entry point to anime and all things Ghibli. Give it a watch if you get the chance but make sure it’s either in the original Japanese or the English dub. The cast of the American dub is enough to cause nightmares.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Apr 9, 2011
Based on the manga of the same name and centred on author Keiji Nakazawa’s childhood exploits in post-atomic Hiroshima is Barefoot Gen, the classic anime directed by Mori Masaki. The crux of the story is centred on the suffering caused by the A-bomb dropped on Hiroshima. It expands the story beyond the immediate and devastating effect to show how people were affected by the fall out of one of the most monstrous man-made disasters ever. Issues that affect the survivors are varied from the brutality, bullying and negligence of occupying American forces. But much more seriously it focuses the cameras gaze on the long term
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affects of living in the shadow of such a disaster, the horrid and slow death that Pika brings, a disease which eats away at the body . This all results in children being orphaned and hated by the community for the lows that they have to resort to stay alive. Children are hated because of the death of their parents.
It should come as no surprise that this is an anti-war film. Traditionally as a genre the anti-war film is one that has a tendency to preach. A point may be trying to be made, that can change the film from a story to a rather nauseatingly heavy handed rant at how disgusting the world is. I have seen it enough for me to expect it of every new anti-war film that comes out, whether it is animated or not. This is what makes Barefoot Gen so good, not only does it avoid falling into genre cliché it also tells the story with humanity. What we experience is a story about people who had it harder than we can possibly imagine. This was real, not some hyper real comic book excess. So poignant and beautifully told is the story, I genuinely forgot that I was watching an animated feature. The only other times that has happened was with Princess Mononoke, Akira and the occasional series; it’s a rarity.
Instead of focusing my gaze on one or the other of the two films, I am talking about them both instead. Whether left as sequel and prequel or they are merged into a singular entity they are both emotionally draining experiences. This is at its most powerful in one emotionally crippling scene, the likes of which I hadn’t seen before or since. The scene in question is when Gen goes back to his house after miraculously surviving the explosion. You might be expecting it, you might not, but it doesn’t change the fact that you will cry here. You will cry like a baby.
I won’t spoil that scene any further, but it is needless to say that it is one of the most heart wrenching things I have ever seen in film. Thanks to not shying away from the truth, Barefoot Gen can be used as a proud example to advertise the fact that cartoons aren’t just for kids. Animation can be powerful, beautiful and incredibly poignant. As an art form it can be relevant to the issues in society and present them in a very real way without the need to projecting such issues onto anthropomorphised animals. The animated form can avoid those pitfalls that Disney is so fond of.
The film might represent something that will mean something to all the fans of animation reading this, but there is still an actual film under all this. As much as it is a celebration of the form, it is also a film that couldn’t be done as well in any other cinematic form. This is true for one reason.
The first reason is that it’s too graphic. The animation may be very dated by today’s standards, still the skeletal figures, the melting skin have the power to shock. If somebody was brave enough to make this film in the current age without shying away from the punches I feel it wouldn’t escape without turning the story into an orchestra of gore. If this did happen it would be presented via computer graphics, so not only would it be depicting something gruesome it would also look false. This would make the viewer focus on the spectacle rather than the story which is where the films greatest strength lies. The story would be crushed under tonnes of atom, ash and death.
The film evokes such sadness merely by having the character’s cry, it may be common in anime, but its still effective. Naturally these are sad films. Some scenes will be scarred into your memory, what with the imagery and the emotional intensity. That is to be expected, but at the same time the strength of the human spirit plays a great part too. It would be all too easy for this film to spend all its time being miserable and upsetting (like its brother in arms, Grave of the Fireflies), but it doesn’t. Their city may have been turned to dust, they may have lost many of their loved ones and those who survived may be slowly getting picked off by starvation and ‘Pika’ but the protagonists are always laughing and smiling, not letting their circumstances beat them. It’s these scenes that balance the film and stop it from being unwatchable, the instrinsic optimism makes this a film to watch rather than an experience to be overwhelmed by.
In my opinion it is this balance between the harsh and the beautiful that put this down in the annals of history as one of the greatest anti-war films ever made. Barefoot Gen is a cinematic classic that everybody should see at least once in their lifetime.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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