Film rewriting: Maboroshi

Mari Okada can pull some heartstrings. The last film I watched of hers (Maquia: When the Promised Flower blooms) is a feast for the eyes and had me bawling them out half of the time. I think its sadness is up there with Grave of the Fireflies and that episode of Violet Evergarden. Regardless, she tends to have an interesting and quite unique way of viewing things and putting it together so I was quite excited to watch this one of hers.

The synopsis of the film on imdb is:

“Following an explosion at a factory that mysteriously freezes a town in time, two students encounter a mysterious feral child, spurring an impulse of love fueled by the frustration of their daily lives that begins to upend their world.”

I also read another review that was quite positive about it, and although I like the concept and ideas, parts of the execution fell flat for me. I think the despair and dread of being frozen in a particular moment and how different people react to it is depicted well. I also think she shows interesting choices some characters make to change the present based on how they think there will or will not be an ‘actual’ future to look forward to. And upping the stakes by creating a way for characters to disappear is always a surefire way to create some intense moments. But there are some other things I think could have been left out or executed differently.

I feel the orignal mystery about the factory causing the town to freeze in time could be explored further. As it stands now, this is just a fact and everyone accepts it, although clearly some characters have more whacky ideas about why it happened than others. Besides discovering the ‘feral child’ at the factory, the characters do not spend a lot of time uncovering anything about the explosion, where the smoke comes from, why it happened to them. Even if this was just a fully random thing happening to them, that would be interesting to explore and see if it throws some characters further into despair. As it is, the visuals are very striking but I am left wanting more information.
The romance seems to not get enough room to be fully fleshed out. It is a very interesting concept to know that somewhere else you are leading your own future life but you will never get to experience it in your own reality. However, I felt the connection between the two main characters was disturbed in an unfulfilling manner because they get shoehorned in a weird love triangle. One that also has a bit too much of an incestual tone for my taste.
We do not see a lot of the side characters except for short bursts that show pivotal moments but because they are not shown in many other situations, it is not as meaningful as it could have been. If we would see more glimpses of these characters’ past, hopes and dreams then it would hit a lot harder to see some of the arbitrary decisions being made or sympathize more with their feelings

All in all, the film did hit quite some spots but it was not as gut-wrenching as I expected it to be. The concepts and perspectives that were shown are still quite powerful, but the execution left a bit to be desired.

Film rewriting: The Boy and the Heron

Ghibli films are among my favorites. I think that tends to be quite the favorable opinion, but I remember when I watched Spirited Away at 16 being utterly amazed at the perfect combination of story, folklore, visuals and atmosphere. And finding out afterwards that this was not just contained in a single film, but ranged further across their productions was marvelous. It was like all of my enthusiasm that I never really had for the Disney classics (I refused watching Lion King more than once since I found it too scarring) suddenly came out at a belated moment for the Ghibli universe.

With animation being less and less put in the children’s corner, it seems that almost everyone was excited for this new Ghibli release by master Hayao Miyazaki. Hardly any news emerged before its actual realization although it seemed to combine many familiar elements often founded in Ghibli and Miyazaki films. A headstrong main character that is slightly egocentric but earnest, peculiar magical creatures that seem to be as helpful as they are antagonistic, competent and capable side characters that teach the main character important lessons. And most importantly, beautiful visuals and fantastical landscapes.

On imdb the synopsis of the film is:

“A young boy named Mahito yearning for his mother ventures into a world shared by the living and the dead. There, death comes to an end, and life finds a new beginning.”

I was quite excited to go into the film since it should be a wonderful time. But I came out of the theater feeling a little bit empty. It was not entirely up to the standards that I felt they set before. Especially for a Miyazaki. And of course all the reviews I scrolled pas were jubilant about the film. I did still really enjoy it, but I also saw some missed opportunities.

I found the family dynamic somewhat lacking. Although I think all characters were well-defined in their own rights, I feel there was not enough attention paid to them through the main arc. The father starts as a very direct personality who is very jovial but also slightly manipulative. I thought there would be a moment where he realized how his behavior influences his son, especially at such a vulnerable moment after losing his mother and moving to a new place, but it seems like he is not going through any kind of realization even when his son and second wife fully disappear.

Mahito’s ‘new’ mother also does not really have any development to her story. Although she is in a way the catalyst for everything that happens, she is oddly passive in the whole process and does not seem to have changed at any moment. When we first see her, she is very actively trying to show Mahito, the main guy, that she will be a good mother to him. Her depression is also not unimaginable since she is pregnant and turns out to not be able to prevent Mahito from getting hurt. But after he finds her in the dream world, there does not seem to be a clear reason for her to suddenly want to return.

Lastly, the main character Mahito’s conflict is also not resolved very satisfyingly. His reasoning is not made very clear, why does he suddenly think of his father’s new wife as his mother? Why does meeting his mother in the dream world not shake him more or implore him to further explore his relationship with her? How does he decide to make connections with his environment and what influence does moving away again at the end have on his mental well-being? There are just a lot of aspects that go a little bit too unexplored for my taste.
Why do the important side characters not get further fleshed out? There are a few important side characters that all suddenly appear and then disappear again. First, there is of course the Heron. The visual is very striking, especially at the beginning where the man in the costume is not fully revealing himself yet. But it remained unclear to me exactly what role he played and what his motivations were. He seems to be in the service of the tower master, but at the same time he makes his own decisions throughout the film. He is a magical creature, but does not lose his magic in the real world. He accompanies Mahito on part of the way, but it seems unclear why he is not there for the full way.

Then there is Etsuko, the old maiden whose younger self Mahito meets in the dream world. She is such an interesting character that seems very underused. At the beginning, the maidens are not very explicitly introduced which is not that problematic, but would have given them some more weight instead of just seeming comic relief. Etsuko does get some extra screentime to showcase her warm grumpiness and bartering personality. In the dream world she is a strong and independent woman, taking care of others, but she does not really seem to teach Mahito any lessons, except for letting him do some harder labor. It would have been nice to also see some more interactions between Etsuko and the other creatures or Himi who she seems to revere. It is fine to not know her full backstory, but her actions do not show us much beyond her capabilities and generally there tends to be more of an emotional aspect to interactions with these characters.

Himi also seems surprisingly twodimensional as Mahito’s younger mother. It is especially a missed opportunity to not have her reminisce about her younger sister, Mahito’s new mother, with her suddenly being in the world and what it means. When she sends Mahito off to actually meet his new mother in the world, her saying she cannot go in seems more than a copout than an actual inability. And even if she seems to know the future and says she does not mind dying because she will be so happy with Mahito, there is not a lot of showing of this love she has for him. Her role as a bargaining chip also feels a bit flat since this conflict is not very well fleshed out.

The tower master is a confusing figure since he seems to be a typical antagonistic character, but then remains invisible for most of the film. Judging by the fact that he is in a sense at the core of everything, I would have expected to see more of his behavior, musing about the tower and power, plotting more to get Mahito to certain places or do specific things. His quest for a heir seems to come out of nowhere, as does his fight with another group of creatures. His whole purpose and background is just very vague, which makes it difficult to feel anything but confusion when he is on the screen.
Although it is beautifully rendered, the dream world made me very confused. I get the idea that it is supposed to be an in-between realm merging the living and the dead, but there are basically no rules set at all which makes it difficult to get a grasp on things. New creatures with their own motivations and settings appear all the time, but they seem to be separate vignettes instead of forming a coherent backdrop for the story. Since the storyline is also not very linear, this makes it seem gamelike in a certain way where you are just shown a different world and discussing it, all the while wondering how you will accomplish your quest.

Although there are a lot of points mentioned above that I found unsatisfying, that is not to say I did not like it. Ghibli is still one of the best if it is about immersion. The characters, even if they may fall flat sometimes, still captivate your attention and I did not feel a second of boredom. However, I came out feeling more confused than expected and surprised that my expectations were not fully met. And that is just a shame, but I will still be looking forward to the next Ghibli film, and otherwise there is enough in their backcatalog to not make me complain.

Film rewriting: Little Women

Things are opening up again, including movie theaters. And one thing I did miss in China, were the smaller places we have here where you can find the non-blockbusters. It is a bit ironic then that the first movie I watched here, was one of the more mainstream ones.

Hearing the title Little Women, it kind of reminded me of A Little Life by Hanya Yanigahara. I have not read both books, but they must be quite different after watching the first one’s adaptation. Little Women is a romantic setting, à la Pride and Prejudice or Wuthering Heights. A Little Life is more of a biopic including many different characters and their struggles, a focus on the realistic instead of the romantic.

So Little Women, then, has the following synopsis on imdb:

“Jo March reflects back and forth on her life, telling the beloved story of the March sisters – four young women, each determined to live life on her own terms.”

It feels similar to Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility in the setup with multiple sisters who all have quite different personalities. Although I pretty much bawled my eyes out during the second half and liked the movie in general, there were a few things I would have done differently.

I expected to see a bit more evenly divided screen time. Of course it became clear early on that we would just be in Jo March’s head, and Amy March as a good second, but I hoped to learn a bit more about the other 2 sisters’ perspectives as well. Especially Meg March, who is shown having some grudges about the life she chose, but there is no real catharsis from the one argument she has with her husband, to her frolicking in the garden with her kids at the end. Let alone talking about the sickly sister Beth March, who mostly serves just to be taken care of instead of being a fully formed character.
How did they manage to make this main love interest guy look so much like he does not belong in this era? He is cute, but his body language reminded me of a cool guy who just put on these clothes because someone told him too. Also, he is not even fleshed out that much. We see him bantering with his teacher, who marries Meg March, and hear through other characters that he does not have a very good relationship with his father, but none of it is really shown. This makes it even more difficult to look beyond his modern demeanor and see him as an actual Victorian gentleman.
Jo March is played very well by Saoirse Ronan, but her arc is kind of… anti-climactic. Especially since during the movie’s title sequence, a statement is shown saying something like “my life has been tough enough, so I only wrote about frivolous things.” And I am not one to say that it is ‘not tough enough’ if you have to scrape by or lose a family member, but the problem is that you do not see a lot of moments of real despair, besides the main ‘climax’. Even though everyone is not thriving at the beginning, neither of them really have failed. Add to that the fact that you mainly see flashbacks of happy family moments, and all the tension created for the final romance, sort of feels undeserved.

This is not to say that I do not like the movie, I just think it is a bit too sweet for my taste. I really love Pride and Prejudice and liked Sense and Sensibility as well, so I certainly have a soft spot this genre. It just nagged me a bit while watching the movie that I was waiting for a punch, but only got soft pats.

N.B. I did not take into account the original novel (which I have not read) for these critique points.