Chris's Funtime Film Blog

I love this movie so much. It’s the first Studio Ghibli film I’ve ever watched, and it had haunted me until I rewatched it in high school (Yubaba is a scary lady for a three-year-old, don’t judge me).

I think it wasn’t until rewatching it a few more times and hearing snippets of Miyazaki talking about this film that I truly understood the importance of this story. Now, as an adult, I think I understand why it resonates with so many people and has such a strong nostalgia for many. It really is a coming-of-age story, focusing on a girl who—at the beginning—is shy and nervous and not very sure of herself. She is somewhat forcefully pushed to face demanding tasks head on, which in itself is tough for a young kid to do all on their own. But on top of that, she has to hold onto her name (Chihiro) and her yet-to-be-established identity in order to return to her real life. Her character development into a strong individual who still remains her childish self is awesome and I think very effectively pulls you into the story.

An interesting thing about this movie is how the characters (mainly Chihiro and her family) are motivated. In the “real world,” the character’s motivation stems from very mundane reasons, and those reasons are easily identifiable. The family moves to a new place and the parents are eager to explore and learn about the surrounding area, as many parents tend to do. Chihiro herself is apprehensive of new things and unfamiliar places in a way that is very common for children.

But once they enter the train station/clock tower and exit through the other side (a very obvious liminal space) the parents are motivated by some obsessive or unhealthy desire to explore. Their dismissal of social etiquette when they arrive at the only open restaurant is greedy and obnoxious. Meanwhile Chihiro feels uncomfortable by her parents’ behavior and has a strong urge to leave.

I think there are many ways to interpret this situation, but one I like is that children are still transitioning from relying mainly on instinct or vague ideas to making decisions based on what is considered appropriate or logical, a skill often learned from one’s parents. Therefore, in this situation where her parents are acting our of pure gluttony and greed, she feels this strong cognitive dissonance and confusion. I mean in the beginning, we see her mom scolding her for small things constantly, so she knows her mom to be a strict person with clear ideas of appropriateness. She clearly did not think eating food that they hadn’t had permission to eat was a smart decision, so it must have been shocking to see her mom abandon those ideas and pig out.

I have no idea what to even say about this film. It was definitely a wild ride. Dr. Smith, why? Why did you pick this movie? 

Having read the Tale of Heike, I see the connections back to the war tragedy. The use of red and white leading back to this tale was a successful costume design choice. While all of the color symbolism is slammed in your face to where it is impossible not to notice, it did create a cohesive effect to the film and helped viewers keep track of who is who in the mess of a film.

As someone who hasn’t watched westerns, this film was just very absurd and bizarre and from what I’ve gathered from the class - even if you have watched westerns it still doesn’t make any sense. 

I’m already running out of things to say about this film… It honestly just seems like a drunk or high idea by both Tarantino and Miike. The choice to make the film in English almost made it more absurd. It definitely fits Tarantino’s genre, though I can say I am not as fond of this film as I am other films of his such as Pulp Fiction. 

Ben Ten was a fun little twist, though I do think it odd that if she was this powerful, why didn’t she do anything to save her daughter-in-law as she was dying for 30 minutes. Overall, I felt this film handled women terribly. While Ben Ten is shown to be a “cool heroine,” it only seems to appear that way so that Tarantino can get a few more scenes and so that everyone can end up dead. I felt like all the women shown in the film came from some old man’s sexist pipedream. It was weird and honestly kind of demeaning - definitely a film that makes me hate depictions of women written by men in media even more. 

One thing that I like to use to decide whether something is putting female character’s in is the “Hawkeye Initiative,” that came to use in comics for showing when art of female characters were overly sexualized. Essentially, artists replace the female character with Hawkeye and see the pose, clothes, and connotations of the final image are being used to over sexualize women. Here’s an example with Mary Jane: 

In regards to Sukiyaki Western Django, I’d like everyone to imagine all of the character’s genders as swapped. Now reconsider all the scenes of violence and rape against the women in the film and all the ways that the portrayal of the female characters as passive beings going along with such violence ultimately hurts women. I think if all these scenes were done to men that the audience would react even more grossed out, which is a shame that these gendered differences still exist in film media portrayals. However, I was quite happy that it seemed those who watched the film in class with everyone also found these scenes terrible and audibly reacted as such, which gives me hope that these issues will be solved in the future.

Initial Reaction

I have got to say that watching a relatively slow-paced film that’s both heart-warming and heart-wrenching was a good change of pace from the horror and avant-garde films we’ve been watching recently. Prior to watching this film, Sweet Bean (あん), I was completely unaware of how those with leprosy were and still are facing discrimination in Japan and in the rest of the world. While this social issue is the focus of the film, I think Kawase did a spectacular job of incorporating different generations and bringing them (young, middle-aged, and elderly) all together with one commonality they shared: dorayaki.  

*Going off on a tangent: This film reminded me of the YouTube channel “Grandma’s Recipes” that features Japanese grandmas’ recipes and their life stories. If you haven’t watched it before, here’s a link to the most popular video (ENG SUB) on their channel with 8.5 million views: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGqFFcAaTn8.

Social Commentary

Leprosy and How It’s Misunderstood

Before I delve into my analysis of leprosy and this film, I will briefly talk about the misconceptions that people hold around those with leprosy. To begin with, leprosy is a chronic but curable, infectious disease that is caused by a slow-growing bacteria which can affect the nerve, skin, eyes, and lining of the nose (CDC, 2017).

To bust some myths surrounding leprosy:

You cannot get leprosy from a casual contact like:

- Shaking hands or hugging

- Sitting next to each other on the bus

- Sitting together at a meal

Also, leprosy is NOT passed on from a mother to her unborn baby during pregnancy and is also not spread through sexual contact.

In most cases, prolonged contact with someone with untreated leprosy over many months is needed to contract the disease. Doctors think that contraction occurs through airborne droplets (coughing, sneezing) in which someone with active leprosy passes it on to a healthy person who breathes it in, but the cause is not clear yet. Even then, contracting leprosy is HIGHLY UNLIKELY, because MORE THAN 95% OF ALL PEOPLE HAVE A NATURAL IMMUNITY.

Now, taking all this into consideration and assuming that the film is set in 2015, we can better understand Tokue’s pain of being labeled an “untouchable” by Japanese society in which an overwhelming majority have an unwarranted fear of those with leprosy.  

From the start of the film, it is obvious that Tokue desires to be part of larger society – not an outsider. Such can be seen from her not caring about Doraharu, the dorayaki shop’s, low wage. Rather than being hung up on the salary which matters most to many when taking a job, she cares more about being able to interact with people and being viewed as “normal” for once. The difference in what she places importance on and what people that are part of larger society place importance on show how many of us take what we view as “normal” for granted.

It’s interesting to see that the other main characters, Sentaro and Wakana, are also social misfits. Though, they are to a lesser degree than Tokue. We learn that Sentaro started working at Doraharu (dorayaki + haru), because he was indebted to the shop’s owner after having gone to prison for trying to stop a brawl in a pub and having disabled the person fighting. Similarly, Wakana comes to Doraharu out of necessity to escape her family situation in which her single mother is never there for her. The interweaving of these three stories – Tokue, Sentaro, Wakana – is captivating, because it shows how three different generations overcome their given circumstance through interacting with each other. Specifically, Tokue represents the wisdom that comes with old age as she believes that everything in life has meaning; Sentaro represents how those in their middle-age have had to come to terms with reality and lost their naiveness and optimism of when they were young; Wakana represents the youthfulness of not yet being able to see the dark aspects of society and being able to try anything head-on. Their generational gap along with their different stories makes this film relatable to anyone watching, regardless of their nationality and ethnicity.    

That being said, this film also shows how the collectivist mindset, most often associated with Eastern cultures, can be damaging. This can be observed in a number of scenes when we see how Japanese society fears people with leprosy, even though there is little reason to do so. Such scenes that immediately come to mind are: 1.) Sentaro’s manager sanitizing her hands after coming to talk to him about removing Tokue due to her history of leprosy, 2.) No one coming to buy dorayaki from the shop when rumors go around that Tokue has leprosy, and 3.) People with leprosy having to live in a secluded area on the outskirts of society. Another scene that was shown a lot throughout the course of the film was Tokue listening to the voices of the inanimate (azuki beans, trees, etc.) and animals. All of these scenes show the danger in taking things at face-value and not questioning society’s (unspoken) rules for the “greater good.” Tokue is the antagonist to such customs since she tunes in to those that do not have voices. The final scene also reinforces this value of withholding judgement and listening to all perspectives with Sentaro and Wakana being able to forge a happier life, after finding what makes them happy - not what society deems necessary to be happy. Fortunately, in doing so, their “spring” (haru) finally comes.

Bonus:

If you want to see real dorayaki craftsmanship, watch the linked YouTube video from timestamp 6:25-8:00: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wljx_KuN8u0.

I had a decent awareness of the disease before watching, so seeing Tokue get shunned away the way she did was pretty irritating, but I'm glad Sentaro was primarily concerned with her old age and didn't care about her condition, and held out as long as he could before ultimately feeling forced to let her go from the shop. It was a tough move to see him make, but along with Wakana, they all managed to find each other one last time before she passed on. Bittersweet but shows the good that exists in people despite the resentment of others around them.

Colors & The Garden

The movie relied heavily on it’s selective use of colors to allow the audience to learn more details about what was occurring with each individual in the film, which later becomes apparent as an even larger symbol having to deal with plant life. 

First the movie starts off in a garden, as the protagonists are surrounded by green. In this color they are healthy and undisturbed. However, when the first victim disappears we see a shift in all of the character’s clothing to yellow. Each person has at least some form of a yellow garment or accent that they wear showing that something isn’t quite right - no one is as healthy as they were before and they are showing warning signs of distress much like plants do. After the second victims death, the character’s accent colors shift to orange showing that they are moving forward on the process of becoming dead (much like fall leaves). Anytime a character is on the last scene or day before they go to the forbidden room or they have an experience with the ghosts, they will have red accents. When the lead female protagonist discovers the red taped room but does not enter, she is seen as having red shoes. Meanwhile, her friend who busts in there sports an entire red dress. 

Once a character has gotten to this point, there are a few possible ways they could go, depending on how they handle their interaction with the supernatural. In the case of the male botanist, he becomes instantly possessed and only wears dark grey and black until he eventually fades out of existence. Whenever a character is possessed by a spirit in this film they wear dark colors or all black. Yet in the case of the female friend, she goes through a state of panicked behavior which has her dressed in white as if she were an empty shell of herself - the transition from the empty white to the possessed black shows that the spirit has filled her empty shell. 

Kawashima is an interesting character for these color analysis points since he at one point wears green on yellow on red to show that he is rapidly changing between phases. Likewise, the computer research lady also shows early hints at being connected to the supernatural through her black and white dotted dress - a direct reference to the dot screensaver shown in the film that also ties to her feelings of emptiness that she believes can only be filled by the supernatural.

Metaphors

Well… that was scary. I thought it would be worse but it was still quite scary…

I don’t really want to look up photos of this movie and accidentally run into frightening screencaps, so no pictures in this blog post. However, because I wasn’t looking at the scary things, I was instead focusing on the use of numbers in the film which ended up being quite interesting. 

Numbers:

B4

Let’s start off with the first number in the film: B4. Honestly, this number has two interpretations - one in English and one in Japanese. In English, the hidden meaning is quite clear: B4 = Before. Yet, it isn’t until the end of the movie that the viewer realizes that this is a hint into where the body is since it is found under the building labeled B4. The Japanese meaning takes a bit of thought but, I believe it could be a play on the number “24″. In Japan 24, is considered an unlucky number because it sounds like “two deaths” (ni-shi). 4 will come up a lot in this film since it is the most unlucky number since it sounds like “death.”

54-4226

Breaking the numbers into parts, 54 is the first combo in this sequence. While this is technically a stretch, this could be a multilingual joke on “go die” with 5 = go and 4 = shi. 

42 is actually a restricted number in japan since it sounds like “to die” and is never used as the last numbers on a license plate (note that these numbers appear in the middle to make it plausible)

26 is an interesting last number combo to appear since 26 in numerology is typically associated with doomsday. This is because 2+6=8 and 8 is thought to be the number of disaster. 

7:01 (some time after seven)

The main protagonist’s time of watching the film and predicted time of death is tied to the number 7 for the number days of the week, which are also the days she has left.

77-3265

This film was certainly a 2 and a half hour rollercoaster ride. I was very impressed by the usage of 3 languages within the same film, I felt that this element added a lot to the discussion of nationality and origin within Japan, as well as addressing groups of chosen belonging. All in all, I rather liked this chaotic film. I doubt it will be one of my favorites but it was certainly entertaining. 

I liked the use of color in this film. Though it did not seem as orchestrated as some of the previous films we watched, it was still used for some of the more major characters and scenes throughout the film. One example is Glico’s red dress. While in theater, primary colors are often used to denote main characters - in this film they are used to show ties to either prostitution or gangs. 

I loved seeing the one druggie prostitute lady who would randomly appear and change the entire course of the film through her tiny actions. *cough* *cough* could it be the BUTTERFLY EFFECT?! Yes, more than likely, I think this woman’s whole purpose in the plot. 

I enjoyed the use of color correction on this film. The over-correction, leading to over saturation in many instances gave the film a vibrant touch that added to the aesthetics of the culture the people of Yentown had created for themselves. 

That was amazing. Like I have no words to fully describe how awesome that movie was.

Just kidding, I have some words (… that was cringey, I’m aware). But in all seriousness this movie is so well done. I really love Nishi as a character and I love Beat Takeshi’s acting and direction. He regularly employs silence but not as a means to create mystery or suspense. I felt that regardless of whether Nishi was speaking or just sitting in silence with a colleague or his wife, I knew exactly what he was thinking or what he would be saying due to his actions or the way in which other characters would respond or react. He was not a mystery the audience had to figure out but instead a person with motivations that are tragically relatable. For me, the selectiveness of his speech also did not give importance to the words he did speak. If he said something out loud, it was often a simple “Who (are you getting married) to?” or maybe reading out which card his wife was holding up. He was simply a quiet man whose greatest loyalty was to his wife.

I also think the way in which information was revealed was a little confusing but overall had a very powerful effect. At first, I could not tell who was killed after the stakeout, or even if anyone had died. Soon after he was shot, we see Horibe in a wheelchair talking with Nishi. It’s likely that some time has passed, but there is still a lot of missing information about what the entirety of the outcome was. Little by little—either through Nishi visiting people with some relation to the stakeout or his flashbacks—more information is revealed to the audience. I feel that this is done in this way to emphasize the traumatic nature of the event and how it’s not something these men can just talk about or remember. Horibe and Nishi no longer work as investigators either, so they are not just dealing with the event itself, but also are grappling with their new lives and situations.

Lastly, it’s seems important to talk about Horibe and his artwork. I love that he was actually creating these works, and I think the “amateur” nature of them makes them feel more expressive. Almost like his desperation to find a purpose now that he is disabled and out of work is more aptly shown through child-like paintings. The substitution of faces, heads, and fur with flowers maybe represents his isolation from others (they are beautiful flowers often found in groups, whereas his wife and child have left him and he must continue on alone). His later artworks where he draws his family more plainly show his desire to have his family back, maybe representing his acceptance of his circumstances. The snowy scene where he writes 自決 (which not only means suicide, but self-determination) could be him accepting his isolation more and getting out his frustration or sadness with having to suffer in a way that does not bring physical harm to himself. I do not know if this progression is good or bad for his mental health, but I like to hope that he is benefitting from expressing himself without restriction through art...

This was definitely the most enjoyable movie we have watched thus far in class. I loved the film. I felt very invested in Sugihara’s development throughout the film and was genuinely excited to see what would happen next. 10/10 going to be one of my favorite films from this course. 

The Cult of Catcher in the Rye

The novel, Catcher in the Rye was not only a huge success in America but became hugely popular in Japan as well as a classic novel for high school education. While Sugihara isn’t actually reading the novel during the film, the mention of it does hint towards the final resolution of the plot. In the novel, the general arc of the plot revolves around the protagonist realizing that he has to let go of his childhood and move on into adulthood. Just like in the novel, Sugihara comes to the realization that he has to make a decision about his future and chooses to study and go to college.

Lighting in Confrontations

During the scene where Sugihara tells Tsubaki his real nationality and name, Sugihara is seen casting a dark shadow over most of Tsubaki’s face as he becomes a dark silhouette against the light from the window. Once he tells Tsubaki this, Sugihara faces the light since he no longer has anything to hide. The dramatic lighting in this scene not only heightens the emotion of the climax, but also lets the viewer see visually the feeling of coming into the light after hiding.

Crossing Boarders

Tampopo was a fun watch for me, but I’m glad we did not have to watch it with the rest of the class because there were some saucy bits in there I would not feel comfortable watching with a group of 20+ people. Tampopo is a comedy movie about a struggling widow trying to perfect the perfect ramen recipe in order to build a successful shop, and with how boring that plot sounds, it was crazy to see what Itami Juzo did to keep us on our seats.

Initial Reactions

For starters, it was interesting to see a young Ken Watanabe playing the role of Gun in the movie. It seems that in American cinema, there isn’t a large number of Japanese/Japanese-American superstars in the acting field, and so seeing Ken Watanabe made me feel glad that someone was able to break through that mold.

I also liked the irony in the beginning of the movie, where the “Man in the Suit” (for lack of a better term) chastises others for eating loud foods during a movie, despite the fact that the movie we’re about to watch is about ramen, a notoriously slurpy food. This character also has some of the best and strangest scenes, although I do hold some reservations about his morality, as the weird oyster scene with the young girl seems like he’s grooming her, which was kind of disgusting.

An interesting part of the movie that hopefully we might see in subsequent films is the inspiration it took from other films we have already seen. This is most notable in the formation of a ragtag ensemble of ramen experts being Seven Samurai-esque, and the whole film having a Western feel to it, with Goro’s cowboy outfit being the focal point of this. This really reinforces the impact of the old films we watched, and I much enjoyed it.

Themes/Analysis

To be completely honest, I couldn’t really pinpoint any themes that I felt were worth writing about. The determination of Tampopo to be the very best ramen cook (that no one ever was) might be the clearest theme to look at, but I feel as if analysis about that has been written into the ground already, as that’s a central plotline in so many movies. However, I feel something that might be worth writing about for this movie might be the that we don’t need themes to enjoy films, especially comedies. I didn’t go watch Ghostbustersto learn a deep lesson, and I don’t think Tampopo needs this level of analysis either; it’s just a fun movie with unique shots and stories that make it enjoyable to watch.

Final Thoughts