#04 – IF YOU LIKED SPIRITED AWAY, YOU’LL LOVE…

Posted on by mustardonmovies

This episode is all about the movie Spirited away, that classic Studio Ghibli masterpiece!
also, we will discuss Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratts new movie Passengers and as always, loads of other movie news and reviews.

7 thoughts on “#04 – IF YOU LIKED SPIRITED AWAY, YOU’LL LOVE…”

  2. haha, every time you guys sais in the podd, why aren’t anyone leaving a comment? I think that I should, but I’m alwasy out running while listening, so I forget when I get back. But here I am now writing. First of all, I think you missed a great movie on the suggestion of the name “away”. Castaway on the moon is like the greatest korean movie ever, maybe the greates movie ever, I love it. The amount of asian and korean movies you seems to watch I’m suprised if you havn’t seen it?

    I would so like it if you made an: favorite french movies, and a favorite korean movies.

    I do enjoy your podcast a lot, but one do miss the jingels. It would be intresting to see a yt video on how you make them, edit and upload.

    hugs, Jack

    Like

    Reply

  3. Oh my god, I was wondering if you were into Yasujiro Ozu, I have my answer! I find the lack of Hollywood-style narrative amazingly refreshing. I’ve seen the Noriko Trilogy (so Late Spring, Early Summer and Tokyo Story), I love that it’s just a family facing the dilemmas of life with grace and dignity, there doesn’t have to be, like, a character arc with peripetia and a dénouement so even though Noriko’s clearly quite emotional sometimes I’m not afraid there’s going to be like “plot twist! she throws herself off a pagoda in Kyoto! haha, fooled you!” or that Ozu is going to pull an M. Night Shyamalan towards the end.

    Another thing I like is how he uses the same actors in his movies, but in slightly different roles. It’s Setsuko Hara and Noriko in each movie, but a slightly different Noriko. There isn’t really consistency. So you’re basically free to enjoy the movies without worrying about consistency, plotholes and so on.

    That’s where I also get frustrated with all the discussions about representations of women in movies, as well, because I definitely know some people who I’m afraid to bring these movies up to, because they’ll be like, it’s a woman and she’s worrying about whether to get married or take care of her father, her life is centred around men. Like, I read that some cinemas in Sweden apply the Bechdel test: I’m not sure they’d be able to show some of these movies following that rule. But it’s a very sympathetic portrayal of the situation of women in post-war Japan, which for me is a lot more feminist than if she was a sassy astronaut or something.

    With Ghibli movies I think I have a slight preference for Takahata’s ones, Only Yesterday, Grave of the Fireflies and Pom Poko. Though Porco Rosso’s also a big favourite. Do you think there’s an Ozu influence on Ghibli? Or does it just look that way from the west because of the cultural similarities?

    Like

    Reply

    1. Hi Jen,

      thank you for your comment. The Swedish cinemas that appliead the bechdel test still showed movies that didn’t pass, but they marked them as not passing. Because unfortunately they wouldn’t have made any money if they just showed movies that did pass since there aren’t that many 😦

      Thank you so much for your thoughts on Ozu 🙂

      Like

      Reply

      1. My problem with the Bechdel test, I guess, is that I’ve seen movies that have what I would consider a feminist message (I’m thinking of certain Japanese period dramas that specifically focus on how women were an object of exchange in medieval Japan), but they don’t pass, because they show a situation where women are isolated from each other and dependent on men.

        The test has several clauses, so it’s supposing the movie has named characters who talk to each other, and follows certain narrative conventions: Hollywood ones, mainly.

        I also don’t think a primary purpose for a piece of fiction is to be edifying, or to portray the world as it should ideally be. I don’t want Alfred Hitchcock (or his ghost or head in a jar or whatever) to be appointed Minister for Women (I thought of Rebecca, because it’s based on a novel by a woman, the protagonist isn’t ever named other than “the second Mrs De Winter” and, creepily, she’s in all the shots that are from her point of view, although she and Mrs Danvers talk about Rebecca so it passes the test on that point). But I think there should be room in cinemas for both Hitchcock and Lizzie Borden.

        Like

Leave a comment