From Up on Poppy Hill (2011)

From Up on Poppy Hill (2011)

Director: Goro Miyazaki

Writer: Hayao Miyazaki

Hayao Miyazaki will always be a legend in the world of animation; he helped establish Studio Ghibli, one of the best animation studios in the world and is responsible for directing and animating many of their wonderful films. Some of my favorites are Spirited Away (2001), Nausicaa of theValley of the Wind (1984) and Ponyo (2008), but it’s unfair to name only three of his films, because he’s made so many good ones! I’d say that they are all my favorites. Sadly Hayao Miyazaki is working less and less these days, probably due to his old age. His last directorial effort was The Wind Rises (2013). The good thing about Miyazaki is that he is one of those directors who keeps making excellent films no matter his age, unlike some directors who kind of  “lose it” in their last days. But it looks like he’s working less and less all the time. Thankfully, his son Goro Miyazaki has taken the reins of studio Ghibli and has already produced two animated features: Tales from Earth Sea (2006) and the film I’ll be reviewing today From Up on Poppy Hill (2011). Does Goro Miyazaki have the same ability as his father to create worlds of wonderment and endearing tales that touch the heart?

From Up on Poppy Hill is a story that takes place within a school in Yokohama, Japan. On one side of the school it’s the girls and on the other side, the boys. On the boys’ side, the school is threatening to close down a building which serves as a club house for the boys. This building means a lot to the students because it’s like a mini university within the school; it’s their own private little world. It’s where all the little geniuses get together to explore their favorite school courses. Even the school newspaper is written and printed there. This desire to save the club house brings the school together; boys and girls join forces in order to save this ancient building. In the midst of all this, we have a romance brewing between a boy and a girl who come together in an effort to discover their roots and uncover who they really are.

There are certain elements that distinguish Miyazaki’s films from all others; one of them is the importance that he gives to the environments. The setting and the world in which the story unfolds is as important as everything else. Miyazaki creates worlds that I want to live in. For example in Ponyo (2008) the main characters live on this cozy little house, on top of a hill, right next to the ocean. The home looks so warm and inviting that it’ll make you want to be there, feeling that cool ocean breeze right next to Sosuke and his mom. Goro Miyazaki creates something similar for From Up On Poppy Hill, a story that unfolds in a cute little town in Yokohama Japan, during the 60’s. This little town will make you want to pack your bags, travel back in time and walk in the streets of that cozy little town, buying a warm dumpling from a street vendor and eating it as the rain falls. So Goro Miyazaki’s films share that importance to ambiance and atmosphere that his father gave to his own films. These are not the only similarities between Goro and Hayao Miyazaki’s films.

Hayao Miyazaki’s films are always about endearing, immediately likable characters and warm hearted situations. They are an explosion of happiness and a celebration of life and how beautiful it can be. Most of the time there’s no place for sadness on Miyazaki’s films. Some might argue that this happy go lucky nature of Miyazaki’s films makes them unrealistic, or difficult to identify with, but I beg to differ because characters in Miyazaki’s films do go through transformations and their journeys, which are filled with challenges and difficulties, but they go through them with a positive attitude and a good heart, which sometimes makes all the difference in the world. Goro Miyazaki’s From Up on Poppy Hill offers us these positive vibes as well. Same as in his father’s films, characters in Goro Miyazaki’s films do good things for each other simply because. The main character in the film, a fatherless high school girl, wakes up early in the morning to make breakfast for her entire family. The film is filled with good natured scenes like this one, like the scene in which the girls help the boys clean and fix their clubhouse. Boys and girls working together to change their world; instead of propagating that old stereotype of boys and girls hating each other all the time. It’s a beautiful scene. It’ll make you wish you were 12 again, playing in a clubhouse like that one with your friends.

But I guess what makes this film so ‘Miyazaki’ is that Hayao Miyazaki wrote it, and Goro Miyazaki directed it, so we get a double dose of Miyazaki on this one, father and son working together to give us an extra Miyazaki film! Even though the Miyazaki’s make films with a happy nature about them, within the context of the film, they also tackle serious issues. Spirited Away (2001) is all about a little girl learning to accept her responsibilities in life and pulling her own weight in the world. From Up on Poppy Hill also stars a little girl (another Miyazaki staple) who misses her father, a sailor who drifted away into sea one day and never returned. Is he still out there? Will he ever return? She handles all these issues while also falling in love with one of the boys in her school. There’s this beautiful scene where they are both riding a bike together through town during a cold, rainy evening, I loved it. I don’t know what it is about the Miyazaki’s, but they know what warms our hearts, and they put that into their movies. I think what attracts me the most to their films is that warmth. Simply seeing people being good to each other as opposed to the harshness we sometimes confront in our daily, real world lives. But then again, I think the real world can be the way it’s represented in these films even if they might be a bit idealistic at times. So what, I’m with the Miyazaki’s, I say let’s dream big about what humanity is capable of becoming. Go out there today and be randomly good to someone, simply because.

Rating: 5 out of 5

   

Behind the Scenes Awesomeness: Dune (1984)

David Lynch's Dune (1984) is a film that in my book, gets unwarranted bad wrap all around. First of all, producers took this film away from David Lynch and edited it in their own way and as a result, Lynch himself disowns it. True, this was unfortunate, but you know what? In my book, this film still rocks and it rocks hard! First off, as an adaptation of the book, it's actually a decent adaptation. True, it feels like a fast forward version of the book and it does leave some stuff out, but then again, doesn't every single book to film adaptation do that? Yes they do. So anyways, I admire this movie because of the incredible artistry involved in making it, and plus, even though the producers took the film away from Lynch, it's still very much a Lynch film if you ask me. This was before the days of computer generated images, so it was made old school, with matte paintings, miniatures and actual sets. When you look at this behind the scenes pictures and see the work and artistry involved for one single shot that lasts a few seconds...well, it just blows me away and makes me love the film that much more. What's that you say? You've yet to see David Lynch's Dune? Well, you're only missing out on one of the biggest science fiction films ever made that's all. I say give it a chance, I doubt you'll be dissapointed! So anyway, here I offer you guys more than 40 behind the scenes pics of this science fiction masterpiece, enjoy! 

David Lynch next to Frank Herbert the author and creator of Dune 

Las Brujas de Zugarramurdi (2013)

Las Brujas de Zugarramurdi (2013)

Director: Alex de la Iglesia

Cast: Hugo Silva, Mario Casas, Carolina Bang, Macarena Gomez, Javier Botet, Enrique Villen, Santiago Segura, Terele Pavez, Gabriel Angel Delgado, Pepon Nieto

Las Brujas de Zugarramurdi is a film made by Spanish director Alex de la Iglesia, a director well known in his country for making crazy, kinetic, politically incorrect comedies that feel like a nonstop rollercoaster ride of madness, but in the best way. If you haven’t had the pleasure of seeing an Alex de la Iglesia film, I recommend checking out The Day of the Beast (1995), Perdita Durango (1997) or The Last Circus (2010). As a film connoisseur, I regularly enjoy films from all over the world and comedies from Spain always have a special kind of ‘je ne sais quoi’ about them, they always make me crack up. I think it’s the way they use the Spanish language, the curse words sound funnier somehow, stronger. That’s one thing about Alex de la Iglesia movies; they are the furthest thing from politically correct. Nothing is sacred in them and profanity is used amply; which is kind of refreshing and one of the reasons it shocks me all the more. American films concern themselves with being so politically correct all the time that films with intensity filled dialogue like Las Brujas de Zugarramurdi can feel like a bucket of ice thrown down your spine, like the first time you saw a Tarantino film and went “goddamn!” Some jokes will undoubtedly lose their spice in the translation, so be aware that if you know Spanish, you will enjoy this film that much more. But for those of you who don’t know Spanish, and are still adventurous enough to look outside of American cinema, well, you’ll find that Las Brujas de Zugarramurdi is a real treat for both horror and comedy fans.

Only in an Alex de la Iglesia movie will Jesus Christ pull off a heist! 

The premise is a simple one, four thieves have just robbed a pawn shop and stolen all their gold jewelry.  While on the run from the law, they make a pit stop at the titular town of Zugarramurdi, somewhere in northern Spain. The town is sleepy, eerie and mist filled, like something straight out of an H.P. Lovecraft story or a Hammer film. Some of the thieves in the gang are afraid of the town because of its reputation. It is said that this is one of the birthplaces of witchcraft, and the thieves are all spooked about having to stay at a hotel in this spooky old town. One thing leads to another and soon they discover that leaving the town of Zugarramurdi isn’t as easy as they thought! All the women in the town are witches and tonight, unbeknownst to them is a special night for the coven!

I went into this film expecting an okay film that would make me laugh, but I left the theater all pumped and happy that I dragged my ass out to see it, it totally blew me away with how funny, entertaining and fun it was. Las Brujas de Zugarramurdi is a treat for horror fans because it’s a mash up of some of the best horror films ever made. It’s like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) because the witch’s that run the local hotel are part of a crazy ass family, complete with weird looking handicapped family members that will freak you the hell out, all of which show up at this memorable insanity infused dinner  scene. It’s also like Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead (1981), paying its respects to said film by way of a couple of visual homage’s to it, if you’re a horror buff, you’ll know the scenes I’m talking about when you see them. And speaking of visual homages, de la Iglesia does one shot for shot homage to The Goonies (1985), any true film connoisseur's should recognize it. Finally, it’s like The Wicker Man (1973) because it’s all about a town who is in on the whole joke. They know someone is going to get sacrificed, they know what’s really going down while the protagonists of the film are completely unaware of what is in store for them. It’s also about a crazy religious cult, and has to do with everything you’d expect from a film about witches: human sacrifices, a burning hatred for men, rituals and prophecies.

In terms of themes, the film is all about men vs. women and about how much marriage sucks! In fact, the whole movie revolves around the importance of the negative energies held within a bunch of gold wedding rings that these four guys stole! So behind all the craziness and the heists and the curse words, what we have is a movie that criticizes the institution of marriage. It’s also about men complaining about women and about women who despise men for all the oppression they’ve gotten throughout the ages. The witches are all extreme feminists! They are all about how God is a woman, and about how women want to take revenge upon men, basically intense hatred for anything with a penis. In contrast to all that, one of the witches falls for one of the guys, which hints at a love conquers all sort of message squeezed in there, unfortunately, said love comes from Eva, a witch who is a recollection of that psycho girlfriend all guys have had at some point in their lives. The kind that says things like “you prefer to go out with your friends than to be with me?!” Eva is the psycho girlfriend from hell! Not only is  she a complete psycho; she’s also a witch with magical seductive powers and she smoking hot as hell! Actress Carolina Bang, I salute you! You get an award for being one of the hottest actresses to grace the silver screen this year! And there, I’ve said my sexist comment of the day, which somehow seems inappropriate in a review about a mostly feminist film. But then again, the feminists are the villains of the film, so maybe the film is depicting extreme feminists as being evil? I’ll leave the interpretations up to you my dear readers; point is, this is one of those movies were both sexes are always bitching and moaning about each other when in the end, they both need and want each other; at least from a sexual perspective.

Finally, I didn’t expect the film to be so epic. The final sequence seems to come straight out of your worst cult religion nightmare! Take Silent Hill (2006), The Wickerman (1973), Children of the Corn (1984) and especially Dagon (2001), mash ‘em up and you’ll get an idea of what to expect, only funny! This movie also brought to mind Dario Argento’s Suspiria (1977) because of the whole witch coven thing, so as you can see, this film is a real love letter to horror cinema. The Weinsteins are distributing this one in America under the god awful title Witching and Bitching (2013). Okay, I know the word ‘Zugarramurdi’ isn’t exactly well known, but come on, Witching and Bitching? What’s wrong with calling it The Witches of Zugarramurdi? Witching and Bitching is the worst sounding English title you could have chosen! It makes the film sound like a low budget, straight to video piece of shit, when in fact it’s a very well made horror/comedy. Final word on ‘Las Brujas the Zugarramurdi’ is that it’s an entertaining as hell horror film from Alex de la Iglesia. Now I’m a fan of de la Iglesias films (The Day of the Beast is still my favorite) but this one ranks somewhere amongst his best. It’s not a horror spoof because it doesn’t make fun of the horror genre, actually it reveres it and has fun with it without forgetting that it’s a horror film. Thankfully, ‘Las Brujas de Zugarramurdi’ isn’t afraid to sink its metal fangs on your skin to remind you it isn’t some shitty ass PG-13 ‘horror’ movie! Man, what a relief!

Rating: 5 out of 5