Poster Talk: Summer Wars preview

Already I am excited. Summer Wars puts itself on my must watch list by default that it is helmed by Mamoru Hosoda, whose last directorial effort was the excellent The Girl who Leapt Through Time. They are clearly gunning for the winning formula again, since the writer-director-studio team is the same as observed from various sources.

The last time they came together, The Girl who Leapt Through Time trumped Studio Ghibli's Tales from Earthsea in terms of both public and critical reception (that is how good this film is). This was an amazing feat, because Mamoru Hosoda is a virtual unknown next to Ghibli and Miyazaki. In fact, the irony is that Hosoda had been attached to direct Howl's Moving Castle but stepped down. And, up till now, I have not stopped wondering what the alternative would have been like.

I love Studio Ghibli. But I am also completely interested to see what Hosoda, Satoko Okudera (the writer) and Madhouse (the studio) will give us this time. For one thing, they clearly got a budget raise. The poster is amazingly stylish. There is something futuristic in the chunky font, but the silhouette of a girl clutching a traditional banner/flag seems to point to a less space-age look. It'll probably be something like The Girl who Leapt Through Time which has sci-fi elements but is set in modern Japan.

As for the story, depending on who you ask, it could either be about a young girl who drags her family through a bunch of adventures, or a family on an adventure with an old woman. Sketchy, I know. Nevertheless, I am already suspecting lots of green scenery - like set somewhere with lots of trees. With blue skies. That last one is a cliche for adventure type plots as it is. Basically at least enough bushes to conduct woodland wars in. It is summer after all...

Sources: Twitch, Yokaze, Anime News Network

Students' Nightmare

The Three States of Increasing Depression.

The image speaks for itself.

The Film that Might Have Been

And so, in an alternate dimension, an altenate me might have been watching the Mamoru Hosoda version of Howl's Moving Castle had he stayed on with Ghibli for the length of the project. It looks to me like it would have been a more faithful adaptation of the book and looking at the storyboards, I can't help but wish that he had completed the project.

The picture above is actually a scene that existed in the book, though of course there are slight differences. The one below that shows the Witch of the Waste is also closer to the way her physical appearance appeared in the book. The man (I suspect he's Gaston) obviously can't be Howl. If you've watched the Miyazaki version or read the book you'll know what I mean.

What do you all think?

credits for images: http://www.pelleas.net/aniBBS/viewtopic.php?t=400&sid=0b4150aa477a9687252ab4d3e0f2369f

Your 'if' is the only peacemaker, much virtue in 'if'. - As You Like It

Now that my arduous three weeks of revision and exams are over, I am so looking to using my brain for happier things. Cheers for the holidays!

Time Travelling

So.... guess what this slacker was doing today....

-- Went back in time of course... you know, by leaping off staircases and diving boards...

The Girl who Leapt Through Time (aka Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo) is an animated feature film directed by Mamoru Hosoda. Right now, it is only released in Cathay cinemas, so forget that Lido or Vivo screen... Unfortunately, it isn't showing at the AMK Hub cinema either. A pity, since a grand total of 3 cineplexes in Singapore screen this film.

Anyway, it's one of those films where, well, mercifully, there isn't any guns or some guy getting beaten up or, for that matter, beating someone up. That doesn't mean it isn't funny or exciting though, because it is. The main character is utterly selfish, meddlesome, and totally amusing in her attempts to matchmake her friends, eat pudding and pass her tests with flying colours by turning back time. Still, you've got to give it to her, she does succeed... at all three.

There is something about this kind of film that works so well. I laughed at it of course.. but then, I suppose it's safe to say that the whole audience laughed with it. Perhaps there is something naive in the way the film portrays youth, but then, it is that, that best captures that innocence that the young supposedly are endowed with... Whatever.. huh.

I'm scaring myself talking like that. Let's just say a little innocent fun and nostalgia wouldn't kill us... it's nice to see a film that doesn't try to be arty, but somehow manages to be arty, and successfully, if you ask me. It's a sentimental film, utterly sweet and slapsticky, which is something I suppose only the Japanese are capable of producing... All the same, great film.