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Post by spackle on Feb 28, 2010 16:02:17 GMT -5
"Sakuya" is a sort of Japanese "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" but less humorous. There's just a small scene with kappa there, but they're quite nasty. I found some clips of Sakuya on Youtube, it looks fun. I liked the musical scene with a bunch of dancing yokai, I thought I was suddenly watching Mighty Boosh. And the two-tailed cat demon... KITTY! I'll have to hunt it down. Thanks!
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Post by angilasman on Feb 28, 2010 16:07:58 GMT -5
^I haven't seen Sakuya, but I heard that the scene where all the yokai appear is an in-joke: they're the yokai from the classic '60s films (which were remade by Miike).
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Post by spackle on Mar 4, 2010 10:09:34 GMT -5
"Sakuya" is a sort of Japanese "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" but less humorous. There's just a small scene with kappa there, but they're quite nasty. I watched Sakuya, and there's actually a kappa all the way through! The nasty kappa at the beginning who kills Sakuya's father has an infant kappa son, who Sakuya adopts as her baby brother. That's why her brother has a green tonsure. Took me a while to figure that one out. I enjoyed it, thanks for the recommendation.
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Post by spackle on Mar 4, 2010 10:18:31 GMT -5
I also want to give some love for Ponyo, one of the most grossly under-rated films of the year. I loved it. I just saw Ponyo, and I loved it, too. It's more trippy than other Miyazaki films. I was chuckling all the way through, the way Ponyo has such joi de vivre- she puts all her energy into what she's doing, then just drops dead asleep. And the artwork is incredible. I loved the sea during the storm.
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Post by Mighty Jack on Mar 5, 2010 7:15:50 GMT -5
I'm lost, what is a Kappa anyway?
And since I don't own any of these I might buy the updated discs. I wonder why they aren't doing more blu-ray with his material?
I just received Nausicca, I have to leave so I've still got about 45 minutes to go but I love it so far.
Also, has anyone seen the stuff he wrote or storyboarded but didn't direct. I've read good reviews for Whisper of the Heart. Has anyone seen it, have any thoughts on it or others?
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Post by spackle on Mar 5, 2010 9:59:41 GMT -5
I'm lost, what is a Kappa anyway? And since I don't own any of these I might buy the updated discs. I wonder why they aren't doing more blu-ray with his material? I just received Nausicca, I have to leave so I've still got about 45 minutes to go but I love it so far. Also, has anyone seen the stuff he wrote or storyboarded but didn't direct. I've read good reviews for Whisper of the Heart. Has anyone seen it, have any thoughts on it or others? I should probably let someone who knows more about Japanese mythology explain kappa... but I'll take a crack at it. They're sort of turtle-y, with a shell and a beak, only they're not completely enclosed in a shell, I think it's only on their backs. The ones I've seen in movies lately are anything from cute and sweet to bellicose and dangerous. It's just a cool folklore character. Like Aesop used talking animals to tell stories. Only kappa are not exactly found in nature. That's my take on it anyway. I liked Whisper of the Heart, Pom Poko (the raccoon one), and Cat Returns. I think those are the only ones I've seen that Miyazaki didn't direct. Whisper of the Heart is a sweet story about a girl who tracks down someone who has checked out all the same library books as her, who turns out to be a boy from an unusual family- they have an antique shop or violin shop or something. It's about them all getting to know each other (that's the simplistic answer anyway). Pom Poko is based in mythology and is a lot of fun, if you like shape-shifting raccoons. The Cat Returns is a fantasy, where a girl goes to cat land, sort of, and meets a cat prince, kinda. Another simplistic explanation. They dont' seem as grand and beautiful as the ones Miyazaki directs. I already have DVDs of Nausicaa, Howl, Mononoke, and Spirited Away. With these new releases, I don't know if I'm going to get Totoro, Ponyo, Kiki, or Castle in the Sky. I'd like to have all of them!
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Post by angilasman on Mar 5, 2010 10:55:48 GMT -5
Kappa are these turtle-like goblins that have a bowl or plate on their heads. They live in water. They eat people and are vary dangerous, but they are also very polite: if you see a Kappa you should bow and they will bow in turn. This is good because the bowl on their head always has to have some water in it and if they bow the water will pour out and they loose their power.
If you know a Kappa lives in a nearby body of water and you want your loved ones to be safe you should regularly carve the names of all your loved ones on cucumbers and throw them into water. Kappa love cucumbers even more than people and will leave those people alone for a while in gratitude.
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Post by caucasoididiot on Mar 5, 2010 12:08:03 GMT -5
If you're into these movies you might also like the Onmyouji films. They're based on a semi-historical character called Abe no Seimei, a sort of Japanese Merlin. They aren't Kwaidan by any means, but star Nomura Mansai has a simply incredible face (he's actually a kyougen actor, a sort of comic form of noh). I also like that they're set in Heian Japan, a much more elegant time than the Sengoku era most movies are set in. Hmm, maybe I'll pop one in tonight.
This YouTube looks like it was shot through Joel's glaucoma-scope, but it gives you some idea:
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Post by spackle on Mar 5, 2010 19:25:08 GMT -5
Kappa are these turtle-like goblins that have a bowl or plate on their heads. They live in water. They eat people and are vary dangerous, but they are also very polite: if you see a Kappa you should bow and they will bow in turn. This is good because the bowl on their head always has to have some water in it and if they bow the water will pour out and they loose their power. If you know a Kappa lives in a nearby body of water and you want your loved ones to be safe you should regularly carve the names of all your loved ones on cucumbers and throw them into water. Kappa love cucumbers even more than people and will leave those people alone for a while in gratitude. Wow! Is that the kind of info you can get from that Lafcadio Hearn book, or can you recommend other sources? I'd love to read more. If you're into these movies you might also like the Onmyouji films. I'll give them a try, thanks!
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Post by angilasman on Mar 5, 2010 19:56:28 GMT -5
Kappa are these turtle-like goblins that have a bowl or plate on their heads. They live in water. They eat people and are vary dangerous, but they are also very polite: if you see a Kappa you should bow and they will bow in turn. This is good because the bowl on their head always has to have some water in it and if they bow the water will pour out and they loose their power. If you know a Kappa lives in a nearby body of water and you want your loved ones to be safe you should regularly carve the names of all your loved ones on cucumbers and throw them into water. Kappa love cucumbers even more than people and will leave those people alone for a while in gratitude. Wow! Is that the kind of info you can get from that Lafcadio Hearn book, or can you recommend other sources? I'd love to read more. Actually, most of that info I learned from Stan Sakai's epilogue in Usagi Yojimbo Book 18. Let me dig out my copy - Stan Sakai says the info was found in Juliet Piggott's Japanese Mythology. Further info: kappa can heal broken bones and teach this knowledge to humans and when you render a kappa powerless by getting him to bow you can extract a promise of safety or knowledge which the creature is honor-bound to keep. The kappa is only name dropped in Book 16. In Book 2 there is a short story that revovles around kappa. Last year I did a miniature report on the kappa for my Japanese class. It didn't have to have much infr, it just had to be written in Japanese! - btw, Japanese is an extremely difficult language and after two semesters I didn't really memorize much beside a few common greetings, exclamations, and most of the hirgana (main phonetic language for Japan) and katakana (phonetic language for foreign words and onomatopeia) and precious little kanji (the Chinese alphabet with thousands of characters which can mean multiple phonetic sounds depending on meaning and context). In the animated Hellboy movie Hellboy: Sword of Storms there is a wonderful sequence where Hellboy encounters a kappa and ends up defeating him in a uniquely Hellboy kind of way. It's not a great film, but that's the best segment in it. Oh, and spackle: do you know that the "hunchback fairy" on your avatar from Jack Frost is really the famous Russian witch The Baba Yaga? In the Hellboy comics (which has as much European folklore as Usagi Yojimbo comic has Japanese) The Baba Yaga is a main character. Got my copy of Ponyo and will try to watch the Japanese version this weekend, some nice special features. It's always great to hear from Miyazaki himself about his process even if it's only for a few minutes.
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Post by Mighty Jack on Mar 6, 2010 0:13:22 GMT -5
Yeah I was just thinking of Hellboy when y'all described that (I loved that movie, it was my favorite of the animated flick, probably because I like mythology and folklore and of course, it being Japanese centered was a plus). Okay, now I know, thanks.
Finished Naussicaa and enjoyed it. He seems to have drawn ideas and images from it in later films. Unfortunately Shia LaBeouf (sp?) was in it and his voice just bugs me (though he was young and wasn't into that stuttering crap he does these days - so it wasn't as painful).
I didn't notice it on this disc, but do the newer DVD release include dubs and subs?
I'm going to get the Ponyo this weekend.
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Post by afriendlychicken on Mar 6, 2010 1:13:58 GMT -5
I didn't notice it on this disc, but do the newer DVD release include dubs and subs? The DVD you were watching didn't have the original Japanese track? I have the Disney 2005 release and it has both dubbed and Japanese with subtitles. I believe the re-releases, which came out the same day as Ponyo, should have both.
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Post by Mighty Jack on Mar 6, 2010 1:23:30 GMT -5
It came from Netflix and I didn't notice that option... But I wasn't digging too deep through the menu either (and I've already sent it back). But if they have the subs then I'll look for Mononoke and Totoro when I buy Ponyo.
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Post by angilasman on Mar 6, 2010 14:20:02 GMT -5
Every Miyazaki DVD currently avaliable in the US has both English and Japanese language tracks - and Porco Rosso has a third French track.
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Post by spackle on Mar 6, 2010 16:43:59 GMT -5
Oh, and spackle: do you know that the "hunchback fairy" on your avatar from Jack Frost is really the famous Russian witch The Baba Yaga? In the Hellboy comics (which has as much European folklore as Usagi Yojimbo comic has Japanese) The Baba Yaga is a main character. Yup! I read about Baba Yaga a while ago. I think I like her because I'd like to have a house with chicken legs. I even used to have an album of Eastern European folk songs with something about Baba Yaga. When I first saw Spirited Away, I wondered if the name Yubaba was a reference to Baba Yaga. I'm still wondering, in fact. Any thoughts? I didn't know Hellboy comics have European folklore in them. My only experience of Hellboy is the 2004 Guillermo del Toro movie. Thanks for digging up the reference to the Juliet Piggott Japanese Mythology book. I can see I'm going to have to order some books (Usagi Yojimbo and Kwaidan, too).
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