Japanese Film Hall of Fame

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And fortunately most legal systems don't work like that (which is why I've always considered courtroom drama a US specialty).
Yeah, it's not the same type of courtroom drama that you'd expect from North America, but it's a drama that does deal with court and the legal system, so it was the best description I could think of. It sounded better than my second choice, "legal drama".



Yeah, it's not the same type of courtroom drama that you'd expect from North America, but it's a drama that does deal with court and the legal system, so it was the best description I could think of. It sounded better than my second choice, "legal drama".
It's a Kore-eda film.

It's going to be good.



Hana-bi (1997)
aka Fireworks


Hana-bi is a tale of a cop who's trying to cope with tragedies of his life. It's about loss and guilt, and how they can change a person. It's sad and melancholic story but it's never really depressing. Kitano's history as a comedian shows in his ability to use humor in a minimalistic drama. He doesn't make you laugh out loud but he makes you smile; it kinda reminds me of Chaplin.

Just like everything else in the film acting is minimalistic but brilliant. Kitano himself speaks little and for the most of the film he wears the same expression but still it's really hard to imagine anyone else doing his role. His ill wife is equally (or even more) quiet but her smile speaks more than words. A great example of less is more done right.

I didn't like how the start of the film jumps so much ahead in time without telling. Eventually some flashbacks are shown and the passing of time comes more clear but that kinda messy first act is for me the biggest flaw in the film. Other than that Hana-bi is great mixture of melancholy, fleeting moments of happiness and occasional brutality.
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Won't post ratings on my reviews before the end to make it little less obvious how I'll vote

Also will look one of the films today (not sure which yet but I have Harakiri, High and Low and Nausicaa available now).



It's a Kore-eda film.

It's going to be good.
Kore-eda has quickly become one of my favourite living directors. Definitely looking forward to your nomination, and when I finish this HoF I'll probably track down the rest of his filmography haha.

(not sure which yet but I have Harakiri, High and Low and Nausicaa available now).
I have no idea where to start, but I might go with Nausicaä, partly out of convenience as well, since there's a copy out in the living room. My room mates love Miyazaki so we have every one of his films on either DVD or BluRay, with a couple also on VHS.



Kore-eda has quickly become one of my favourite living directors. Definitely looking forward to your nomination, and when I finish this HoF I'll probably track down the rest of his filmography haha.


I.
I'm slowly going through them. I've seen about 60% of his films. Thankfully he's relatively young so will have loads more films in him.



I'll be watching A Hen in the Wind first, it'll be my first Ozu so I'm excited.
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Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984)

This was my second Miyazaki after seeing Spirited Away years ago on TV. My memories of that are quite positive and because of that Naivety Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind is a disappointment. There's no huge stylistic difference between the two and both surely have their share of naivety but unlike Spirited Away that style doesn't fit the story here.


I guess I'm bit of a cynic and the stories where love and pacifism triumph in battle always irritate me. It doesn't help when the necessary kills are written in a way that preserves the halo of our protagonist. It always feels like these values and philosophies dictate the story too much and force the writers to bad decisions. Water World tells almost the same story far better.

Speaking of values and philosophies the ecological message is way too preachy here. I just kept waiting for Nausicaä to yell "How dare you?"

Technically the film great. I like its artistic style, voice acting in anime is almost always excellent and there are some really nice set designs. Nausicaä is likable enough character but perhaps little too perfect (and too much child's faith triumphing in a film that doesn't feel strictly children's movie).

Not bad but pretty far from being good as well. The contrast between preachy naivety and harsh setting just didn't work for me.



Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984)

This was my second Miyazaki after seeing Spirited Away years ago on TV. My memories of that are quite positive and because of that Naivety Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind is a disappointment. There's no huge stylistic difference between the two and both surely have their share of naivety but unlike Spirited Away that style doesn't fit the story here.


I guess I'm bit of a cynic and the stories where love and pacifism triumph in battle always irritate me. It doesn't help when the necessary kills are written in a way that preserves the halo of our protagonist. It always feels like these values and philosophies dictate the story too much and force the writers to bad decisions. Water World tells almost the same story far better.

Speaking of values and philosophies the ecological message is way too preachy here. I just kept waiting for Nausicaä to yell "How dare you?"

Technically the film great. I like its artistic style, voice acting in anime is almost always excellent and there are some really nice set designs. Nausicaä is likable enough character but perhaps little too perfect (and too much child's faith triumphing in a film that doesn't feel strictly children's movie).

Not bad but pretty far from being good as well. The contrast between preachy naivety and harsh setting just didn't work for me.
Those are fair criticisms, I guess. I like at least 4 Miyazaki movies more than it, including Spirited Away. But that's not saying much, I love basically everything Miyazaki has done.



Nauiscaa of the Valley of the Wind

What a truly beautiful film. And it's become cliche now almost to call a Miyazaki "beautiful" and "visually stunning." But it's so true of every film he did. There's so much art, craft, and care that goes into his work. The result is magnificent. This is a great movie just to look at. But it doesn't stop there. Miyazaki ties complex themes in with a fantastic story and one of his best characters - Nausicaa. We get powerful imagery and thematic material, all packed into a PG "kids" movie.

This is not Miyazaki's best work by any means. Spirited Away is paced better, Princess Mononoke - which is essentially a remake of this movie - is somehow better looking and has more believable characters. That's hardly a criticsm though. Hayao Miyazaki is an animation legend and in my top ten directors of all time. Nausicaa I'm sure was a special film for both him and for Studio Ghibli. It's not a Studio Ghibli, but you get the sense this is the movie that Takahata and Miayzaki looked at and said - "this kind of stuff needs a studio." And then they made history.

Anyways, Nausicaa is such a fun watch. It's not perfect by any means, and the ending is indeed rushed, which annoyed me. But the opening hour is probably perfect, and the rest is great if not spectacular.




I didn't feel the message to be preachy at all really
It wasn't preachy, but it was obvious. Which of course isn't a bad thing. Princess Mononoke is even more obvious and it's my second favorite Miyazaki.



Women will be your undoing, Pépé
Fantastic start of reviews with some interesting takes on these films.

I honestly have NO IDEA which film to start with; I will be waiting a bit to write about mine (Harakiri) because it's impossible not to tread spoiler ground when writing about it. So I'll wait for a few others to see it first.
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I honestly have NO IDEA which film to start with; I will be waiting a bit to write about mine (Harakiri) because it's impossible not to tread spoiler ground when writing about it. So I'll wait for a few others to see it first.

Runtime order for me...


A Hen in the wind 1h 24m
Kamazi girls 1h 42m
Fireworks 1h 43m
Nausicaa of the valley of the wind 1h 57m
Afterlife 2hrs
The Third Murder 2hr 5m
Harakiri 2hr 13 minutes
High and Low 2h 23m



I watched half of Nausicaä this afternoon, but my "short break" turned into a really long one, and now I don't have enough time to finish it this evening haha. The opening was new to me, but I've definitely seen the following scenes before, at least up until I turned it off. I must have caught part of it on tv years ago and forgotten.

I'm glad I haven't had a tv service in...about 12 years now, because the amount of films I only partially saw (or watched really close together to similar films and now I can't distinguish them any more) is ridiculous. Since then, if I only catch part of a movie, it's because I hated it and abandoned ship, not because I was late tuning in, or couldn't stay up to see its conclusion.



Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind

When I first watched Nausicaa in 2011 I did not have very high expectations. While I have been well aware that there is a lot of anime that enjoys an adult fanbase since the 1990s I actually was not aware of Miyazaki's masterpieces until I decided to check them out based on the IMDB top 250. Nausicaa, in particular, is a special case since it remains the gold standard in terms of epic science fiction anime. When I first watched it I expected it to be a science fiction anime genre representative on the top 250 list but my expectations were completely blown away. I became a hardcore anime fan essentially because of Nausicaa.

Combining a marvelously epic atmosphere with fantastic direction, and effectively integrated new-age/neoclassical soundtrack, and Miyazaki's eye for direction and detail, Nausicaa is still without the shadow of a doubt the masterpiece in terms of science fiction anime, the ultimate yardstick of the genre. It also features one of the greatest and most memorable fictional characters in Nausicaa. She is the quintessential Miyazki heroine but also a larger than life character kinda like Jesus from the New Testament, her dignity and morality is situated well above those around her.

What impressed me the most about the movie was how silly it was. Yes, silly: Nausicaa is completely and uncompromisingly sappy and the seriousness in which the movie takes its fantastical setting by itself is indeed impressive. Western genre movies are not so uncompromising, this dramatic intensity is a feature of Japanese culture, here applied to an absurd fantasy setting. Miyazaki is said to often cry when he is working on his movies as he gets very emotional and his passion certainly has reached my heart. I consider Nausicaa a strong contender for my favorite movie of all time (the other contenders are also other Miyazaki's movies, Spirited Away and Totoro), so it certainly is among my top 3 favorites.

Of course, this movie is a movie that appeals to specific audiences: it is Miyazaki's most otaku-aimed movie in the sense that it appeals mainly to an audience of young straight Japanese nerdy males with Nausicaa as an obviously Japanese-nerd sex symbol (kinda like Mila Jovovich's characters in western sci-fi movies), while other Miyazaki's movies have a broader appeal. Kinda like the eastern equivalent to D&D. In a way, it is Miyazaki's most Miyazaki movie since all his obsessions (environmentalism, flying, innocent and pure girls*, military equipment, nerdy steampunk-like technology) is on full and uncompromising display here.

Still, the movie has some flaws but these flaws add to the charm: the relatively poor animation quality as well as the lower level of detail of the background paintings (if compared to later Miyazaki movies). But these details are a perfect fit for such a post-apocalyptic desolate world.

I don't need to say how I rate it.

*Innocent and pure characters as opposed to nihilistic and dishonest characters. Girls seem a natural fit for this kind of character archetype, at least in Miyazaki's conception.



Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind

When I first watched Nausicaa in 2011 I did not have very high expectations. While I have been well aware that there is a lot of anime that enjoys an adult fanbase since the 1990s I actually was not aware of Miyazaki's masterpieces until I decided to check them out based on the IMDB top 250. Nausicaa, in particular, is a special case since it remains the gold standard in terms of epic science fiction anime. When I first watched it I expected it to be a science fiction anime genre representative on the top 250 list but my expectations were completely blown away. I became a hardcore anime fan essentially because of Nausicaa.

Combining a marvelously epic atmosphere with fantastic direction, and effectively integrated new-age/neoclassical soundtrack, and Miyazaki's eye for direction and detail, Nausicaa is still without the shadow of a doubt the masterpiece in terms of science fiction anime, the ultimate yardstick of the genre. It also features one of the greatest and most memorable fictional characters in Nausicaa. She is the quintessential Miyazki heroine but also a larger than life character kinda like Jesus from the New Testament, her dignity and morality is situated well above those around her.

What impressed me the most about the movie was how silly it was. Yes, silly: Nausicaa is completely and uncompromisingly sappy and the seriousness in which the movie takes its fantastical setting by itself is indeed impressive. Western genre movies are not so uncompromising, this dramatic intensity is a feature of Japanese culture, here applied to an absurd fantasy setting. Miyazaki is said to often cry when he is working on his movies as he gets very emotional and his passion certainly has reached my heart. I consider Nausicaa a strong contender for my favorite movie of all time (the other contenders are also other Miyazaki's movies, Spirited Away and Totoro), so it certainly is among my top 3 favorites.

Of course, this movie is a movie that appeals to specific audiences: it is Miyazaki's most otaku-aimed movie in the sense that it appeals mainly to an audience of young straight Japanese nerdy males, while other Miyazaki's movies have a broader appeal. Kinda like the eastern equivalent to D&D. In a way, it is Miyazaki's most Miyazaki movie since all his obsessions (environmentalism, flying, innocent and pure girls*, military equipment, nerdy steampunk-like technology) is on full and uncompromising display here.

Still, the movie has some flaws but these flaws add to the charm: the relatively poor animation quality as well as the lower level of detail of the background paintings (if compared to later Miyazaki movies). But these details are a perfect fit for such a post-apocalyptic desolate world.

I don't need to say how I rate it.

*Innocent and pure characters as opposed to nihilistic and dishonest characters. Girls seem a natural fit for this kind of character archetype.
Great review!



Women will be your undoing, Pépé
I second that.
I remember reading your old reviews and the details and knowledge I garnered regarding Anime was a joy to meander through and this is a shining example of it.



Women will be your undoing, Pépé
Runtime order for me...


A Hen in the wind 1h 24m
Kamazi girls 1h 42m
Fireworks 1h 43m
Nausicaa of the valley of the wind 1h 57m
Afterlife 2hrs
The Third Murder 2hr 5m
Harakiri 2hr 13 minutes
High and Low 2h 23m
very nice! THANK YOU!



I guess I have to emphasize that I'm not really into anime in general. I've watched only three or four series and up to a dozen films. There are things I appreciate in them but unfortunately even after so small sample they seem to be at least as cliched as Hollywood movies (cliches are little different though so at least the first series I watched, Zettai Karen Children, felt fresh).

I plan to watch more anime at some point but it's pretty hard to figure what. At the moment the only two on my watchlist are Urotsukidōji: Legend of the Overfiend (which I already have) and Elfen Lied (which I need to find somewhere).