Where Children Sleep

Howl

 

With this being the second Hayao Miyazaki film I have seen (Spirited Away being the first), I can safely say that he is brilliant. Having always been a tad skeptic about anime films and television shows, I was certainly apprehensive to give this genre a chance. What made me watch Sprited Away however, was my Film Studies class. We watched a 15 minute clip and I was left wanting more, wanting to see what happened next. This reaction surprised me but nonetheless, I was left downloading the film that night.  

At the time I was introduced to Spirited Away, I had already been quite interested in Japanese culture. For my sophomore year literature circle book, I read the novel Battle Royale and just had to watch the film version after.  This could not have been a better decision, as I just about fell in love with the movie. I suddenly became fascinated with the Japanese language. Unfortunately, this fascination faded until senior year, actually until pretty recently, when I watched Lost In Translation. This film portrays a more modern version of Japan, in the capital Tokyo to be  exact. Anyways, the point is this: one should not form an opinion of something without first doing some research.

Miyazaki's animation is just so incredibly crisp, bright, and simply beautiful. I get lost in his films and my jaw constantly drops open. One can only dream of having an imagination as vivid as any of his films. 

I must say though, that one of my mistakes may be that I watched both of these in English, for the sole purpose of not reading subtitles. Any film critic I'm sure would argue that it takes away from the film-not watching in the intended language. However, I disagree. What a viewer makes of a film is created by them, independent of any other factors (language, whether watched on a big screen or small, etc.)

Now, all I can hope for is to watch all of his animated films. I am almost certain that I will not regret a single moment.

Nearside of the Moon

Source

Source

 

e. e. cummings

stand with your lover on the ending earth-

and while a(huge which by which huger than
huge)whoing sea leaps to greenly hurl snow  

suppose we could not love,dear;imagine

ourselves like living neither nor dead these
(or many thousand hearts which don't and dream
or many million minds which sleep and move)
blind sands,at pitiless the mercy of

time time time time time

-how fortunate are you and i,whose home
is timelessness:we who have wandered down
from fragrant mountains of eternal now  

to frolic in such mysteries as birth 
and death a day(or maybe even less)

“All time is all time. It does not change. It does not lend itself to warnings or explanations. It simply is. Take it moment by moment, and you will find that we are all, as I’ve said before, bugs in amber.”

—	Kurt Vonnegut (Slaughterhouse V)