MY NEIGHBOUR TOTORO (TONARI NO TOTORO) (JAPANESE) (1988)

My Neighbour Totoro, celebrating silver jubilee of its original release this year, is an animated classic directed Hayao Miyazaki. Popularly considered that the best Japanese animated film, it has found global acclaim over the years and remains one of the best animated family entertainers ever made.

The story begins with Tatsuo Kusakabe, a university Professor shifting into a rickety rural house with his two daughters - Satsuki & Mei - such that they could stay close to the nursing home where their mother is recovering from an illness. Upon settling into their new home, Mei & Satsuki notice some strange happenings, but are not too perturbed and merely approach them with an innocent curiosity of a child. One fine day, little Mei while playing near the home, comes upon an oversized bunny like creature under a giant camphor tree. She finds the cuddly creature to be a friendly spirit refers to it as Totoro. Eventually, Satsuki also meets the creature after her initial skepticism in what turns out to be a wonderful scene when she waits with an umbrella for her dad to return home from work on a rainy night at a bus stop. The rest of the story follows the encounters between Totoro and the two girls set against the imminent arrival of their mother from the nursing home after her treatment.

For most of us who have grown upon a staple of modern digital animated movies churned out by famous Hollywood studios like Pixar or Disney, this is a welcome throwback to those wonderful years of our childhood when we used to be enthralled by animated movies/series such as the Jungle Book, Spiderman, He-Man, etc. Made in the classic style, the colourful creatures and the lush landscapes which are brought to life with great detail and richness in each frame of this movie are an ode to the tireless efforts of the animators who have hand-drawn each frame with oodles of vivid imagination and great passion. 

This movie treads a path that is markedly different from the several norms of the contemporary animated movies from Hollywood which rarely explore outside a set three act mould of story-telling. There are no superheroes, no fearsome creatures, no bad characters, no life-altering choices or challenges and definitely, no underdog aspiring to ace the masters. This movie, despite having creatures/spirits based on fantasy, portrays a natural flow of life  which is close to reality that is unadulterated by the compulsions of creating any onscreen drama. 

Miyazaki keeps the story line childishly simple and does not bother a great deal on the construction of a plot. Nevertheless, he fleshes out his characters with enough personality to engage the viewer - be it a father who is sensitive, patient, tactful and sensible; or the daughters who are caring, understanding, helpful and responsible; or the mother who is warm and confident despite her ailment. Even the minor characters like the granny and her grandson make an impact on the viewer.

The genius of Miyazaki is in the way he seamlessly synthesises the realms of reality with magical charm to present a movie that transports us back to an idyllic world of a joyful childhood filled with innocence, fantasy, mirth and fearless fascination for the unknown. That, in no small measure, explains the overwhelming global success of My Neighbour Totoro which remains an enduring and endearing classic for the whole family to cherish even after two decades of its original release.

A CLASSIC ! A MUST WATCH !!

CONFESSIONS (JAPANESE)

On the last day of the school term, a teacher at the Junior High School tells her apparently disinterested class about the value of life. Gradually, she draws the attention of her class when she declares that she is resigning the same day and further confesses that her 3 year old daughter who died, a few months ago, by drowning in the school swimming pool did not die by accident. The class is stunned by the time she declares that she now knows that two of the students in the class (referred by her as A & B) were indeed responsible for the death. She also expresses her anguish that she cannot register a complaint with the authorities because the law does not hold anyone below 14 as responsible for their actions and accordingly, cannot be punished for whatever they do. However, she states that, irrespective of the law, she is determined to punish the culprits.


Thus begins this psycho thriller wherein the teacher adopts a twisted way to avenge her daughter. The events surrounding the death and the teacher's punishment unfold through a series of confessions of the students who recount the happenings. The narrative style may remind us of Rashomon which also used multiple accounts to reconstruct a set of events. However, unlike Rashomon where each account narrated a different version of the events, here it is a singular version which is narrated from the perspectives of the individual confessor.


Although the movie succeeds as an effective thriller, one does not particularly feel much for any of the characters. The characters appear to be emotionally bereft and also guilty of harbouring dark motives (not that dark/grey characters can never evoke feelings). This movie was Japan's entry for 2010 Academy Awards and was also shortlisted a final nominee. The entire movie is picturised in a sombre tone though a scene towards the end where an explosion is captured in reverse slo-mo stood out for its magnificence.



A VERY GOOD WATCH !!