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- Created By red:leaf
Research
I've steadily been making my way through Miyazaki's movies for my thesis this past week. It's resulted in some late nights. One of my housemates, who has previously been unexposed to such wonderful films, always wants to watch them with me and he gets home late. I enjoy his company but sometimes it's like watching a movie with a five year old. In the first minute, he's already asking questions.
HIM: Is that Ponyo? [refering to one of those little jellyfish.]
ME: No, Ponyo's a fish.
[Ponyo appears on screen leaving the porthole.]
HIM: Ponyo! Hey, she doesn't look like a fish. What is that?
ME: She's a fish...princess...thing--I don't know! Like "The Little Mermaid." Don't worry about it. Just watch the movie!
That kid asks too many questions. But anyway, I've still got to get my hands on a few last movies, like Pom Poko and such. Then it will be time for narrowing my topic! I'm struggling with just how to do that exactly, but I'll figure it out.
When you're actually analyzing Miyazaki films, you pick up a lot more. Like water is always used as a healing aspect. There's always someone who is turning into an animal or vise versa. Nausicaa is probably the heaviest of all of his movies (war, genocide, environmental destruction, sacrifice...need I go on?). All of the movies that have titles that come from characters are always named after secondary main characters. For example, Princess Mononoke refers to San when the plot line follows Ashitaka, mostly. Really interesting stuff.
(I just thought of this, randomly, but why are there so many stories about royalty? Like, almost all of Miyazaki's heroines are princesses in some form or another. Maybe it's a feminism thing, or maybe just a celebrity thing? Who knows.)
Otherwise, things are going smoothly enough. Working hard to get back into the swing of things and keep track of the many assignments I've got coming up. Hope you all are well and had a nice Valentine's Day. Until next time.
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