|
My Neighbour Totoro (Hayao Miyazaki)
adamthewordking
August 11th, 19:16 The main thing that struck me about this movie was the lack of what I would call a conventional narrative. I havent seen enough of Anime, or enough of Miyazaki's work to know if it is typical, to tell if this a trait of this genre - but it was a positive to me. The story certainy has a beginning. Two children (the spirited Satsuki and her younger sister Mei) move to the country with their father. The house is slightly spooky and strange, but the children seem delighted with this rather than upset. Both children are spirited, obedient, and bright.... and we soon learn that their mother is currently confined to a nearby hospital with an unknown condition. And the story develops on, the Totoro (a kind of elemental or spirit which seems to both be bound to and to embody the local forest) are introduced, a triplet of varying sizes - a baby, a child, and the giant - who seems to spend much of his time asleep and can only communicate by his smile, or his huge roar which summons the forest wind. A crisis point, of sorts, is reached, and then resolved - but at no point does the story feel dynamic or forced along a path - we merely follow a string of related scenes telling the story of the summer.
The animation is tidy, and at times beautiful. The Totoro character is cute, and the girls story - their struggle to come to terms with their mothers illness and their contrasting wonder at the magical world of the Totoro - is engaging. Only one scene did I find both disturbing and out of place. Perhaps it says something about cultural differences - but near the start of th movie we see (although self consciously not explicitly) the girls (aged 4 and about 11) bathing naked with their absent minded professor father. Perhaps the director means to say something about innocence, about childhood - but it struck me as wierd, unsettling and gratutitous. Certainly no Western cartoon would feature such a scene - maybe the Director would say that this says more about the West and our manical fear of paedophilia or its signs: but all the same this part of the movie both said nothing to me and seemed to exist solely for the sake of showing the children almost naked.
It seemed totally out of place with the magical, charming, tone of the film... it didnt spoil the movie for me - but as I said I found it out of place.
All in all, this was a well made animation, and I would check out more of this director's work.
3/5 !!!
__________________
"Do not tell lies, and do not do what you hate,
for all things are plain in the sight of Heaven. For nothing
hidden will not become manifest, and nothing covered will remain
without being uncovered."
The Gospel of Thomas
|