Movie Review : Tonari no Totoro / My Neighbor Totoro (1988)

My Neighbor Totoro is one of my 3 favourite Hayao Miyazaki films. The other two are Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle.

MNT has the simplest storyline one could ever think of. Yet, the loving treatment of the story and the gentle, unhurried pace of the film make this a wonderful classic. It is timeless and ageless in its appeal while easily transcending barriers of culture and language. It plays with your emotions, having you laughing at one minute, tearing up like a sentimental fool at the other, staring in child-like wonder at the characters’ adventures and generally basking in its warm glow of goodwill towards all.

10 year old Satsuki and 4 year old Mei move into a new house with their father. While cleaning up, they come across ‘soot sprites’ that run away. The granny next-door teases the girls’ imagination by explaining that they mean no harm and once an empty house is occupied and filled with laughter, the soot sprites will leave for good.

The girls discover more wonders around their new house. Wide-eyed, impish Mei finds a rabbit-like creature making off with acorns and chases it into a secret opening in a nearby hedge. As she travels deeper into the woods she stumbles onto a monster, albeit furry and cuddly. She is not intimidated by its size or roars and falls asleep on its belly. Satsuki finds Mei fast asleep on a bed of grass when she runs into the opening in the hedge. When they try to explain this to their father, the opening has disappeared. He clarifies that the giant creature is Totoro – the Guardian Spirit of the Woods.

Totoro has the power to make the woods come alive. He breathes life into seeds. The wind in the countryside is simply the result of his friend – the Catbus – rushing here and there transporting magical creatures. Totoro and his woodland friends are unseen to the adult eye but keep popping up at will to entertain the girls.

Older sister Satsuki is a responsible child. She looks after her sister, handles household chores and cooks for the family early in the morning before leaving for school. The girls’ mother is in a hospital far away, being treated for some unspecified ailment. She is expected to visit them over a weekend but a phone call from the doctor leads the girls to misunderstand that she is dying instead. Satsuki is mighty upset and Mei runs away to meet her mother at the hospital, taking along an ear of corn. Satsuki is beside herself in worry over Mei’s disappearance and desperately appeals to Totoro to help find her sister.

Totoro summons the Catbus and they set off to find Mei. Once they do, they all travel to the hospital and perch up on a tree near the girls’ mother’s room. Their father is soothing her fears that their daughters would be upset at her absence. She feels differently, explaining that little children are vulnerable and easily frightened by the very idea of loss. When he opens up the window to let in some fresh air, he finds the ear of corn outside.

The movie is enveloped by the charm of rural idyll. Houses are large and comfortable. Wide, open fields beckon the children to race around. The nearby woods are full of wondrous flora and fauna. The adults are perfectly content to have the kids run all over the countryside and discover its delights. They are even amused at and accepting of the children’s claims to have frolicked with sprites and fairies.

I firmly believe that unless magic and fantasy are integral to the storyline, animation serves little purpose and doesn't add to the movie experience. For this reason I was underwhelmed by Studio Ghibli’s ‘Whisper of the heart’. Totoro however has truckloads of these ingredients although they are simply accepted by all characters as completely normal occurences and not necessarily threatening or shocking.

While I wouldn’t travel to a theatre to watch it, it’s a wonderful film for a lazy afternoon or a Sunday night and sensibly spaced repeat viewings won’t hurt either.

While we are at it, I want my own life-size Totoro stuffed toy for my repeat viewing.

Highly recommended.

Trolljegeren / The Troll Hunter (2010)

My impression of trolls was they are nasty, nocturnal beings that are semi-humanoid in form and about a foot high. They live underground, attack in packs and especially love to carry away children to presumably eat them.

Trolls in Norway however are monstrous, semi-blind, oafish creatures. They live in groups in the caves in Norway's many inaccessible mountains and scout around for food at night. A few aggressive alpha trolls may even wander around all alone and terrorise the ignorant country people. Trolls are vulnerable to light and on exposure bright flashes will turn into stone. Oh, and they can easily smell the blood of Christians in their vicinity and would dearly love to kill them.

The government of Norway considers the preservation and population and territorial control of Trolls to be a secretive program of national importance. They appoint a couple of 'troll hunters' for this purpose and the Wildlife Board is in cahoots with the troll hunter to cover up evidence of existence and extermination of trolls in the countryside.

Despite the 'hunter' tag, the troll hunter doesn't really hate the trolls. He is more of a scientist-adventurer. He is also not a Christian. Troll hunting is a lonely, smelly and unpleasant job with a lot of travel involved within Norway. The troll hunter is forever smeared with goo from trolls' bodies in order to disguise his 'human' smell so that he can approach the trolls in their natural habitat undetected. Even the inside of his trailer home is a stinky mess. It is a job for life since he needs to be as skilled and knowledgeable as can be about trolls and the only way to learn is on the job.

The secrecy of this operation is threatened when a bunch of students start traveling with Hans, the troll hunter, and filming him on the job. He is surprisingly open to their queries and introduces them to many of the stakeholders in the operation. The photographer is killed by trolls as he is a Christian and another is called in to continue filming. By then the already hostile head of the Wildlife Board has had enough of the students and wants to get them out of the picture.

While the story is outlandish, the treatment makes it surprisingly believable and the movie stays with you for awhile after ending. The special effects complement the movie adequately despite the lost-and-found-documentary format. Otto Jespersen as the world-weary troll hunter turns in a good performance.

I felt sorry for the trolls and bears.

Watch.

Movie Review : Brilliantovaya Ruka/The Diamond Arm (1968)

The Diamond Arm is a mega-hit, cult Russian movie. This classic 1968 comedy was directed by Leonid Gaidai - a very famous Russian director who made a series of classic, popular comedies in the 1960s-70s. The humor is a heady mix of slapstick, witty banter and satire - most of it only understandable by Russian language speakers. This is likely the reason a lot of these movies were not popular outside the erstwhile Soviet Union.

Semyon Semyonovich is on an international holiday cruise by himself. On the ship he meets Gesha a foppish male model. The two men hit it off, however, Semyon is unaware that Gesha works as a courier for a gang of smugglers. He is on his way to Istanbul to pick up a cache of diamonds and smuggle them back. Through a series of blunders, the well meaning Semyon Semyonovich is mistaken for the courier and a bunch of diamonds is sewed up into a cast on his, apparently injured, arm.

Ordinary citizen Semyon is unnerved to find the smuggled jewels, however, he dutifully cooperates with the police as they try to catch the smugglers, who will no doubt want to retrieve the contraband. They set up a series of increasingly risky (for Semyon) meetings, but the bad guys always slip through their fingers. Gesha, on instructions by 'The Boss' to retrieve the diamonds, steps up his efforts to strengthen his friendship with Semyon and make away with the jewels without having to resort to violence. 'The Boss' - the brain behind the smuggling operation - is increasingly frustrated with his inept henchmen and finally, events culminate in a showdown between the gang and the police.

There is a comedy sidetrack with Nonna Mordyukova playing Varvara Pliushch, an officious, nosy apartment block official who is forever interfering with Semyon's life. She is impervious to people's dislike of her, exceedingly bureaucratic and aggressive. While fairly irrelevant to the main story, the character and her performance standout.

Yuri Nikulin, was a well respected comedic actor in his native Russia. He breezes through the role of Semyon Semyonovich with ease.

However, I couldn't take my eyes off Andrei Mironov who plays Gesha. He plays the role of the clumsy dandy to perfection, with his floppy hair and turtlenecks. Most of the slapstick is in his share - his energy and comedic timing are particularly noteworthy. And he makes a fairly convincing babushka towards the end. Sadly, the actor passed away aged only 46. Although well known for his comedic efforts, I am certain that he was excellent in dramatic roles as well.

At only 100 minutes, it is not overlong and rarely drags.

Highly recommended.

Movie Review : Africa United (2010)

 Fresh off Doris Lessing’s short story compilation “This Was the Old Chief's Country”, I was on the lookout for a feel-good movie based in Africa. Yes, I happen to be very specific in my needs.

Africa United felt like a good choice. This 2010 road trip movie is a British production. The premise is – a bunch of scrappy kids travel over 3000 miles to the World Cup ceremony in South Africa, by themselves. Obviously they don’t take a flight and have a heap of adventures along the way, not all very pleasant. Since it was promoted a fun watch for the family, The Mater and I settled down expectantly before the screen.

Fabrice is a 13 year old Rwandan football prodigy who catches the eye of a talent scout. The scout is looking for talented youngsters to participate in a ceremony at the Football World Cup to showcase the spirit of the African youth and he is confident that Fabrice will get through the tryouts. Fabrice’s parents aren’t in the know and would rather have their son focus on his studies. So Fabrice’s friend and self-appointed ‘manager’ Dudu steps in to save the day. Orphaned Dudu is a spunky, confident youngster who has grown up the hard way and lives alone with his little sister Beatrice.

The trio set out for Kigali, for the tryouts, but ends up in the Republic of Congo instead. They miss the tryouts but decide to travel the 3000 miles to Johannesburg for the World Cup ceremony. Along the way they are joined by child soldier George and exploited teenager Celeste.

There is also a weird, animated side track to illustrate the story Dudu is narrating about gathering ingredients to make a football. The Mater found this side track especially annoying.

Clearly the theme is to depict the indomitable spirit of its youth despite the constant struggle they face as they battle the scars left by the continuous exploitation of the continent. On paper it is a great story but as a movie it simply doesn’t work. It is neither funny nor hard-hitting nor a gripping blend of both. The movie may be unsettling for children, of little interest to teenagers and a little too simplistic for adults.

Good performances by the children playing Dudu, George and Fabrice. Production values are sound. 

Watch to get some very broad insights into contemporary Africa.

Movie Review : Burning Bright (2010)

Once in a while, a smaller production comes along that is an exciting, little cracker of a movie. Burning Bright is one such surprise package.

World weary Kelly Taylor wants to move away from her little autistic brother and uncaring stepfather. The stepfather instead siphons off the money meant for her education and begins to set up a zoo near their home. One stormy night, with the house boarded up against an impending hurricane, Kelly and her brother find themselves locked up in the house with a starving tiger.

Quickly running out of places to hide and with only drywall as a barrier, can Kelly survive this without sacrificing her sibling?

The movie has ‘small budget’ stamped all over it but that doesn’t really work against the story as the claustrophobic atmosphere ups the tension factor. Apart from the one instance of special effects that is cringe worthy, the rest of the movie works fairly well in the single location setting.

Briana Evigan was fairly competent in Step up 2. She doesn’t disappoint here either, as a frustrated young woman who is gamely trying to get out of a sticky situation.

The largest expense in this movie was probably the tiger and while not given enough screen time IMHO (budget optimization?), it is a beautiful animal. The scene where it tries to get at Kelly in the pipe is thrilling. As an added treat, the tiger isn’t bumped off at the end. (Yay!)

Recommended.