Sunday Roundup – 11/14/10
Sorry for the delay. I slept in until 12pm, then until 4pm because I wasn’t feeling well (plus I wanted to use the term “lazy sunday” for describe a day). I received some great feedback this week, as well as some great reading links:
• The Insanity Virus – there’s recent evidence that diseases like schizophrenia and multiple sclerosis are not caused by bad genes, but by viruses!
• How to watch Fantomas, by David Bordwell
• Winnie the Pooh trailer – to be released in July 2011
• RJDJ music application – extraordinary music application, link courtesy /Film
• This is how Michael Caine speaks – preview for the BBC comedy “The Trip”
• Why Eden of the East is not for you – an excellent review of a anime series that effectively defies conventions and demonstrates by Kenji Kamiyama is perhaps one of my favorite director/writers in the anime industry.
Now, Q&A!
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Subject: The Cat Returns
From what I have gleaned from the interweb during my fanatic search of information on Ghibli, some fans think that The Cat Returns is a dud that pales in comparison to Whisper of the Heart of which it is a spiritual sequel or shares the same character. I checked my notes on the film and I wrote that The Cat Returns is one of the few fairy tales that the lady in distress did not get the prince but was happy about it.
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and a nice link on Eden of the East, http://chaostangent.com/2010/11/why-eden-of-the-east-isnt-for-you-part-1/
I still yet to watch that series, I did not know that Production IG is still yet to recoup the production cost of SAC
– Allan Estrella
I watched The Cat Returns before Whisper of the Heart, which perhaps gave me a different viewing experience than moviegoers who saw them in chronological order respectively. However, I disagree with the attitude that The Cat Returns is a dud compared to Whisper of the Heart, simply because they are two very, very different films. Whisper of the Heart is about the young girl Shizuku’s emotional transcendence and maturity as she dedicates her entire life to creating her first story, and nearly crumbles apart when she receives her first feedback because it wasn’t “perfect”; The Cat Returns, conversely, easily fits the very fantastical elements of the story Shizuku writes in Whisper of the Heart while also burrowing heavily into the realm of magical realism. In addition, both the production history and styles of Whisper of the Heart and The Cat Returns are very, very different: Whisper of the Heart was spearhead by Yoshifumi Kondou, Miyazaki’s protege, and was his only film as he died from an aneurysm afterwards; the aesthetic of Kondou’s film falls very easily into Miyazaki’s directing style, which is one of quietness and wonder (we could even infer Shizuku’s intensity and dedication to her work is possibly a bit of Kondou projecting of his own dedication in real-life, perhaps). The Cat Returns, on the other hand, was initially a short-film, but after Miyazaki saw director Hiroyuki Morita’s storyboarding he greenlit the project into a theatrical release; the story, while without the distinguishing emotional pull of Whisper of the Heart, seems very plausibly the kind of story Shizuku would write at her age in Whisper of the Heart, the sort of fantastical innocence only a young, beginning writer could conjure up. Baron and Muta appear in both films, their (inferred) personalities unchanged, so we can assume they are the constant in linking Whisper of the Heart and The Cat Returns; but beyond that both films drastically differ, and I feel that it’s unfair to compare one to the other.
The link you sent me on Eden of the East was some of the best writing I’ve read in a long, long time. I remember watching the series and thinking to myself that there was something rather unusual and uncanny about the story. Admittedly, it took me awhile to really get started in the series because the tone of the first episode surprised me as cliched on the surface, but hinted at something more just enough to tempt me to subsequent viewings. I’m not entirely surprised Production I.G. is still recovering from the SAC budgets; having just finished re-watching season 1, I’m still amazed by the amount of work that went into each episode.
