Berthier - Princess Mononoke

 The film Princess Mononoke is, hands down my favorite anime film we’ve watched so far and might be my favorite anime of all time. The imagery and artwork the director used is unbelievable and I can honestly almost call it mesmerizing. I don’t understand why people compare it to Pochohantis because they are completely different. Pochohantis was extremely American in the sense that it was made my Disney, she was beautiful and everything was pretty perfect in that movie. The first time I saw Princess Mononoke, I didn’t know what was going to happen or how the ending of the film was going to pan out. Even though the film was made in 1999, I felt that the movie was way ahead of it’s time and deserved a lot more credit than the directs major hit film, Spirited Away. Don’t get me wrong, Spirited Away was also amazing and in my mind, the mastermind of all of these films, Hayao Miyazaki, can do no wrong in terms of movies. At the same time, I enjoyed Princess Mononoke so much more than I did Spirited Away and I know a lot of people who feel the same way that I do. I think a lot of the appeal of Spirited Away was that it was very commercially successful and had a lot of things that Americans could relate to. Princess Mononoke was a little bit more out there than Spirited Away and that might just be my personal taste but overall Princess Mononoke was just a better movie in general. My favorite part was when they killed the boar god and the wise woman of the village comes up and honors him and then he decays away. I liked this part especially because it recognized and stayed true to the Japanese religion of Shintoism and the quote was spoken so beautifully from the wise woman. Also that part was very climactic while still being extremely calm at the same time, which I found really astounding because to create that emotion while still keeping true to the storyline was simply remarkable. It was a great film that I can truly call one of my favorites.

Berthier -Ah! My Goddess

            The Japanese anime film Ah! My Goddess was the most true to what I would expect a modern anime to be, as far as films we’ve watched through out the year. When I say this, I’m really focusing on the fact that this, in my mind is the most science fiction or even farfetched anime we’ve watched to date. As far as the manga series goes for Oh, My Goddess, I was not as impressed with it as I was with the film. The supernatural feel of the whole film is awe inspiring and the way they portray women, as dominant characters through out the film is very classic and semi formulaic for most anime films. I mean this in the most positive way. I also mean that I think it’s interesting that in American culture, this type of model is a rarity and at the end of the day, I think we should be more like the Japanese with our cartoons and films because in real life not everything has a happy ending and the Japanese recognize this and make it into a pure art form for everyone to love or hate.

            I like how memory is a factor in this film that some people fail to address. As in other anime we’ve watched such as Cowboy Bebop and Ghost In the Shell, it is shown that the loss of someone’s memory is extremely traumatic because not only do they not know who they are anymore, but they also find it hard to comprehend what’s going on around them. Also, it’s hard to trust people when knowing what is real doesn’t come as easy as it does for others.

I like how we watched A Clockwork Orange in class because it really brought to light a lot of the things that I was missing while watching the movie. Mainly, the aspect of brainwashing throughout the film and how brainwashing people doesn’t actually make people good or happier or whatever the main goal is of the person brainwashing. It essentially just destroys peoples sense of reality to the point where they don’t even make the connection to life that they would normally.

Berthier - Grave of the Fireflies

            The film Grave of the Fireflies was a tear jerking movie about two orphaned children during World War II who try to survive in the confused and panicked society they were brought up in. There are a lot of heart breaking aspects to this masterpiece, but the one that stood out to me the most, and was also an extremely important aspect throughout the whole plot, was the fact that every time they would try to get help adults, who were the only people who could potentially help these kids out, were the ones who shunned them and made them feel like they were worth less than dirt. I liked the article we read prior to watching the film because it shed a light on how accurate the movie actually was, and unfortunately how historically accurate the film is extremely depressing. I could not imagine the struggles those two poor kids had to go through, let alone living the way they did. Another interesting thing that I learned after I watched the film was that Grave of the Fireflies was originally a semi-autographical book. This brings to light a lot of the injustices that are going on in our world today that are extremely disheartening. I know that this takes place in the 1940’s but at the same time, there are still many injustices that our plaguing our modern existence. It is now more focused in Africa which is really sad because it is a lot harder to reach out to those in need over there because some of them don’t want the culture to be harmed by Americans. This is understandable, but sometimes there is a place in trying to help out those in need, no matter what the cost. The film also sort of reminded me of the Harp of Burma movie we watched last week because both main characters in the film end up wandering for most of their lives until the day they die. The only difference is that in Harp of Burma, it was the harpists choice to wander and in Grave of the Fireflies it was not. 

Berthier - Harp of Burma

In the film Harp of Burma, the theme of film lies in the main character’s goal to bury his good friends, and honor their lives as soldiers and commodores. The way the movie was portrayed was very minimalistic in the visual animation and you could tell it was made in the 80’s. This did not take away from the heart wrenching plot line revolving around anti-war and caring for humanity. Some argue that the film is not an anti war film, but rather a film that pleas for peace. I do think it’s an anti war film as well as a plea for peace. It shows evidence of both by the way the setting is portrayed and the way the music is placed in the film. The music in the film reminded me of the stereotypical, happy Japanese programming from the 80’s, which complimented the peaceful theme very nicely.

The conflict in the story is that the main character, Mizushima, is torn between staying with his friends in the service and going back to see his family and friends, and paying homage to his good friends who had passed away during the war by burying all of them and dedicating his life to the people he loved. The choice he made was to try to come to terms with the atrocities that happened to his friends and inadvertently himself as well. My favorite part was when he met up with the little boy who was also playing the harp because it really put into perspective how valuable life is and the importance of relationships with our loved ones around us. When compared to the movie, Letters to Iwo Jima, the movie looks extremely bright because no one killed himself or herself in this movie. Even though that is an important aspect of Japanese culture (dying for honor, not killing your self), examining it reality I think at anytime, committing suicide is never a good thing. Putting your life before someone else’s on the other had is considered selfless in most places. I enjoyed this film a lot and would watch it again.