| Author |
Message |
|
| Syd |
 Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 12:02 am |
 |
|
Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
|
Whisper of the Heart: Shizuku Tsukishima is a schoolgirl taking the exams to go into high school but she's finding herself compelled to read books of fairy tales. One day she notices that the same person has been checking out the books right before she does, so she becomes curious who it is. It couldn't be the rude boy who's reading the book she forgot on the park bench. One day she sees a cat riding a bus and she follows it to an antique shop where she notices the statue of a cat called the Baron. She and the old shopkeeper get to talking, and she forgets her father's lunch and the rude boy returns it, the cat riding on the back of his bike. Could it be...
This is a story of first loves (more than one) and kids deciding what they want to be. In Shizuku's case it's a writer (she starts off writing crude lyrics to "Take Me Home Country Roads," which she does several times, until by the middle of the movie, her writing's getting quite good. And when she starts writing her novel about the Baron, well...there's a delightful movie called "The Cat Returns"; this is the movie the cat returned from.
Nice, quiet movie, rather slight but nicely observed, and often startlingly beautiful. It gets better as it goes along and is sometimes quite touching. Screenplay by Hiyao Miyazaki from Aoi Hiiragi's comic (Hiragi also wrote "The Cat Returns.") but directed by Yoshifumi Kondô, who died a few years later at the age of 47. This is the only movie he ever directed. |
Last edited by Syd on Sat Oct 28, 2017 10:31 pm; edited 1 time in total
_________________
I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
|
| Back to top |
   
|
| marantzo |
| Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 8:28 am |
|
|
|
Guest
|
It sounds like the kind of movie I'd like a lot, Syd.
I've only seen Mean Streets once and I liked it very much. As much as I was enjoying it, the ending had me liking it even more. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| billyweeds |
| Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 8:33 am |
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
|
| Think I'll see it too. Sounds like something I might love. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| billyweeds |
| Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 9:29 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
|
marantzo wrote: They are definitely flowers.
I liked Super 8 a lot until the ending which was a typical Spielberg ending. His ending in Close Encounters also took the movie down a number of notches. For me an ending is very important and a weak or dumb ending really pisses me off when it is tacked on to a good movie. Alternately, an average movie with a strong ending changes it into a good or very good movie for me.
If I had absolutely loved the rest of Super 8 I could have forgiven that lame ending. But aside from Elle Fanning's performance, nothing about the movie was a real standout, so the finale was worse than bad--it was hard to sit through. Wound up disliking the whole film as a result. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| marantzo |
| Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 9:41 am |
|
|
|
Guest
|
| For me Super 8 started to take a dive when we meet the ET and the last scenes ended that dive with a plunge into schmaltz. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 10:11 am |
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 6916
Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
|
carrobin wrote: I remember being at the screening of "Mean Streets" and people were walking out; I found it pretty dull too, until the final scenes. When some of the class members criticized it in class later, the professor asked "Did you stay till the end?" and they would say no and there would be a class-wide groan. Gotta see the ending to really appreciate that one. (And that was the class with Scorsese sitting next to me and nervously wringing his hands until he was introduced and went up on stage--I thought he was just an anonymous weirdo until that moment.) |
_________________
I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed? |
|
| Back to top |
|
| chillywilly |
| Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 11:41 am |
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 8251
Location: Salt Lake City
|
marantzo wrote: I liked Super 8 a lot until the ending which was a typical Spielberg ending. His ending in Close Encounters also took the movie down a number of notches. For me an ending is very important and a weak or dumb ending really pisses me off when it is tacked on to a good movie. Alternately, an average movie with a strong ending changes it into a good or very good movie for me.
Reflecting on the ending, it did seem a bit drawn out. I get the idea and there was a kind of E.T. feel to it for me, but this one was less tear jerking and less emotional. Almost like a disconnect, although the disconnect started with the kids still in action mode right up to the end. |
_________________
Chilly
"If you should die before me / Ask if you could bring a friend" |
|
| Back to top |
|
| marantzo |
| Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 12:03 pm |
|
|
|
Guest
|
| The ending of E. T. was good. It fit the film. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 1:22 pm |
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
|
| E.T. was the big moment where my taste diverged from the dominant culture. Up to then, just about everything that everyone else liked, I liked too. But from the moment the big Army men came in, and little E.T. almost died, only to revive, was a crock of shit plot development that I could spot a mile away. |
_________________
You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
-Topher |
|
| Back to top |
|
| billyweeds |
| Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 2:30 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
|
Joe Vitus wrote: E.T. was the big moment where my taste diverged from the dominant culture. Up to then, just about everything that everyone else liked, I liked too. But from the moment the big Army men came in, and little E.T. almost died, only to revive, was a crock of shit plot development that I could spot a mile away.
And from there it was only a small step to hating Hitchcock. (Before you answer, I'm kidding.) |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 2:34 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
|
| Stop reading my diary! |
_________________
You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
-Topher |
|
| Back to top |
|
| marantzo |
| Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 2:39 pm |
|
|
|
Guest
|
| Joe, you don't seem to have a whimsical side. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| yambu |
| Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 2:49 pm |
|
|
Joined: 23 May 2004
Posts: 6441
Location: SF Bay Area
|
| Il Postino is a wonderfully bitter-sweet tale about love, love poetry and friendship. The uneducated postman of a small Italian town becomes friends with the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. Each of them has plenty to teach the other. The ending will move you. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 2:53 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
|
That previous response of mine was my whimsical side.
Oh, maybe you're right. I'm not sure, since I love movies like Brewster McCloud and The Boy Friend, which are both at times pretty damn whimsical. But I don't have much tolerance for the precious. (Hated City of Lost Children, and Amelie, which is what Hugo looks like to me.) |
_________________
You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
-Topher |
|
| Back to top |
|
| carrobin |
| Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 3:00 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
|
| "Amelie" was charming but I didn't like it much, for some reason--a bit too much charm for its own good, maybe. "Hugo" is a whole different animal. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
