http://filmjournal.net/mike/2007/02/01/ghibli-of-the-week-porco-rosso/ Thu, 20 Nov 2008 08:16:51 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=wordpress-mu-1.0 http://filmjournal.net/mike/2007/02/01/ghibli-of-the-week-porco-rosso/#comment-17206 Sat, 26 Apr 2008 09:15:02 +0000 http://filmjournal.net/mike/2007/02/01/ghibli-of-the-week-porco-rosso/#comment-17206 [...] Giving this film any sense of weight is hard. Put it next to Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke and Porco Rosso, and it’s a featherweight, puny when compared with plot-heavy movies that have something substantial to say. And yet I think that’s partly the point. My Neighbour Totoro is supposed to be light, elemental and partly forgettable. It’s meant to be like the era it captures - a summer where nothing much happens - and it does so perfectly. Not many movies would even attempt to capture its sense of lightness. Fewer would dare to give it such a lack of plot, a vacuum in terms of tension, and yet get away with it. The film is nothing more or less than just under ninety minutes of joy, of showing what it’s like to be a kid, with all the marvel, awe and easy morals that childhood covers. It made me miss that time. [...] […] Giving this film any sense of weight is hard. Put it next to Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke and Porco Rosso, and it’s a featherweight, puny when compared with plot-heavy movies that have something substantial to say. And yet I think that’s partly the point. My Neighbour Totoro is supposed to be light, elemental and partly forgettable. It’s meant to be like the era it captures - a summer where nothing much happens - and it does so perfectly. Not many movies would even attempt to capture its sense of lightness. Fewer would dare to give it such a lack of plot, a vacuum in terms of tension, and yet get away with it. The film is nothing more or less than just under ninety minutes of joy, of showing what it’s like to be a kid, with all the marvel, awe and easy morals that childhood covers. It made me miss that time. […]

]]> http://filmjournal.net/mike/2007/02/01/ghibli-of-the-week-porco-rosso/#comment-7410 Tue, 04 Sep 2007 01:05:36 +0000 http://filmjournal.net/mike/2007/02/01/ghibli-of-the-week-porco-rosso/#comment-7410 [...] Giving this film any sense of weight is hard. Put it next to Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke and Porco Rosso, and it’s a featherweight, puny when compared with plot-heavy movies that have something substantial to say. And yet I think that’s partly the point. My Neighbour Totoro is supposed to be light, elemental and partly forgettable. It’s meant to be like the era it captures - a summer where nothing much happens - and it does so perfectly. Not many movies would even attempt to capture its sense of lightness. Fewer would dare to give it such a lack of plot, a vacuum in terms of tension, and yet get away with it. The film is nothing more or less than just under ninety minutes of joy, of showing what it’s like to be a kid, with all the marvel, awe and easy morals that childhood covers. It made me miss that time. [...] […] Giving this film any sense of weight is hard. Put it next to Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke and Porco Rosso, and it’s a featherweight, puny when compared with plot-heavy movies that have something substantial to say. And yet I think that’s partly the point. My Neighbour Totoro is supposed to be light, elemental and partly forgettable. It’s meant to be like the era it captures - a summer where nothing much happens - and it does so perfectly. Not many movies would even attempt to capture its sense of lightness. Fewer would dare to give it such a lack of plot, a vacuum in terms of tension, and yet get away with it. The film is nothing more or less than just under ninety minutes of joy, of showing what it’s like to be a kid, with all the marvel, awe and easy morals that childhood covers. It made me miss that time. […]

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