Friday, July 25, 2008

I watched the new Miyazaki movie! (ポーニョ)


This week marked the end of the rainy season and today was the day that Japanese people traditionally have eel (unagi/うなぎ). The company cafeteria acted accordingly and offered eel over a (albeit soggy) bed of rice. The highlight though came at night - I got to watch an early screening of the new Miyazaki movie - 崖の上のポーニョ or literally "Ponyo on a Cliff" at Roppongi Hills. I thoroughly recommend it to anyone who enjoyed Miyazaki's earlier work like Spirited Away or Howl's Moving Castle. It is hard to say where this would rank compared to the other two I mentioned but it definitely had the distinctive "Miyazaki feel" to it and offered an enjoyable two hours. The story is creative as ever and while my Japanese is far from perfect I was able to keep up with the story without subtitles which goes to show you how adept Miyazaki is at keeping the visual flow very detailed and smooth. I will definitely consider buying the DVD when it comes out.


On an unrelated note - Roppongi is indeed very different late at night. It was almost 50% Japanese, 50% Foreigners tonight...

No comments: