About Chocolate Parfaits

On Your Mark

It was a merely coincidence. As you probably now, I watched “Whisper of the Heart” yesterday and “On Your Mark” actually came out at the same time. But I actually didn’t know that I had it at all! I just saw it by chance on my DVD of Ocean Waves *lucky!*

Daft Punk and Leiji Matsumoto ahoi? Hrrr… Like the title suggests, this music video is extremely beautiful and it reminds me a lot of it. Not only a slightly science-fiction-looking world (with especially designed airplanes and stuff), but it’s also a story about rescueing a girl. (Well, okay, in the other case, it’s rescueing the whole band.) The atmosphere is totally different and more down-to-earth, of course, but not less impressive. I’m so glad to have been able to watch it! *_*

The song itself is the most awful one I have ever heard… it also destroys the whole atmosphere of the video *snifsnif*

By the way, there was also a little animation at the end… It looked like a children’s picture and is about a house that starts extremely small but then grows bigger and bigger… pretty cute O.o Ah, I found it. It was this and this.

Now that I have watched so much Ghibli stuff, I wonder if I should try to be a completist and also watch “The Ghiblies” and the like… basically the few things I don’t have yet *hrr*

Mimi wa Sumaseba (Whisper of the Heart)

Okay, my japanese is crap, I know. I hope that this title is still okay *hrr* It does make sense for me though. This movie is centered around the lovely Shizuku (which is a totally different Shizuku than the one from Hunter x Hunter), just like Fushigi no Umi no Nadia is totally focused on Nadia and Kaze no Tani no Nausicaä focused on Nausicaä. Besides Shizuku, Ghibli’s movies are not only about atmosphere… they create a complete ‘world’ in their movies. *____* Somehow I also think that those “…no…no…” titles are cool *hrr* I also love the name “Shizuku” (I bet this is because I like HxH’s Shizuku so much *g*) Sorry for this ranting, I hope it makes sense.

I like this movie, obviously, since it’s a Ghibli. Well, in fact, it didn’t exceed my expectations, but I was far from being deceived by it :] This movie has so incredibly beautiful colours and sceneries *___* Just like you’d expect from a rather recent Ghibli.

I also like the fact that this movie was not directed by Miyazawa. It’s still Ghibli style though.

It’s so cute to see that the house in Whisper of the Heart looks exactly like the one in Neko no Ongaeshi (The Cat Returns) *__* And it’s so great to see the cats again as well *arr*

I have always hated “Country Road”. There were too many bad covers of the song, I couldn’t stand it. But that’s not only it… I just disliked it. But Whisper of the Heart made it possible that I’ve come to like it O_o It’s so beautiful in this movie *hrr*

The imaginary Ghibli world is even more beautiful than in Neko no Ongaeshi, I think *___* (Of course the latter is better animated, but this one conveys a more beautiful atmosphere despite the shortness of the scenes, I think.) Actually the only Ghibli movie I really like that does not feature these fantastic pictures is “Porco Rosso” – which is because of its gorgeous story. Either it’s gorgeous characters (Nausicaä, Porco, Chihiro) and/or the beautiful imaginary scenery (Mimi wa Sumaseba, Howl, Chihiro, Neko no Ongaeshi) that makes Ghibli movies so great and special.

Shiho’s annoying in this movie. There was no such person in the manga where everybody was pretty nice. The father is cool though, luckily, while Shiho’s just the best example of an horribly bad education. “She won’t listen to me!” So what? When a child is as old as Shizuku, it’s not about “listening” anymore.

I should be talking about the realistic problems and Ghibli’s character’s barely nonexistant fear of future… but that doesn’t bother me that much actually. For some reaosn, I like the characters, and I like that they kind of have their own head and put “important” stuff like school aside.

But oh my, the end of the story was pretty weird. Honestly. Somehow the atmosphere of the anime totally changed to me. But the credits, where they showed Harada and “what was his name again?” was so cute! I wanted them to get together…

PS. I have so many movies I want to watch now… Billy Wilder’s 100th birthday will be soon so that there are lots of his movies in the TV that I haven’t watched yet. If I really manage to watch them, I’ll blog about them, of course :] (I think the only movie I didn’t write about in this blog while it existed is “One, Two, Three”. I actually didn’t finish watching it *hrrr*)

Oh my, now that I have watched the movie, I even know how to spell the name! *hrrr* Uh, just like I thought already, this movie is so trashy and cult at the same time, it’s unbelievable. It’s horribly dumb, but because of that, horribly funny XD

There isn’t really much to say about the movie… except that I am theoretically willing to watch it again *g* And I really think it has to be watched in german, because, well, in japanese, one might get the idea that the movie can be taken seriously *ggg*

PS. Me is annoyed that Haruhi takes so long to download…

I guess not… at least not when it comes to the definition of fangirl in this gorgeous blog entry. I’m more than glad that I do not have to deal that much with this kind of people… but I do enough to know that they exist. Oh my gosh! Fette verschwitzte Cosplaykiddies… aaaah! (I hope there really will be a second part of this like the title suggests *hrr*)

I was looking through the Ghibli movies I have at home and saw that there are 6 of them which I still have to watch. There is only “Go! Panda, go!” which I have but doesn’t sound that interesting. It’s not a “real” Ghibli anyways. And there is “Like the Clouds, Like the Wind” which I don’t have but want to watch either (of course it was not in the Ghibli collection box I bought, because this is not a real Ghibli movie either *snif*) Which means that there are a lot of them that I watched already O.o In fact, it was so difficult to rank them O.o Especially Totoro/Porco Rosso and Spirited Away/Nausicaä/Howl’s Moving Castle were difficult…
1. Totoro – I think the beginning is rather slow and boring… but the rest totally makes up for it (otherwise it wouldn’t be no.1 *g*)
2. Porco Rosso – Apparently nobody talks about this movie when it comes to Ghibli. But I totally love it… it just has everything: comedy, pilots and a witty story
3. Spirited Away – This was a “love on the second sight” movie… I first disliked it a bit for its weirdness and chaotic structure – but still… it’s so full of good ideas *_*
4. Nausicaä – This is my very first Ghibli that I watched when I was 8 years old… so it means a lot to me *g* Not to mention how good the movie is anyways…
5. Howl’s Moving Castle – Before Mononoke? Well yes, I kind of dislike the storyline of Howl… but I still enjoyed watching the movie a lot, and I love every single little detail in it while Mononoke just isn’t… beautiful at all (in fact, the movie scared me back then when I watched it *haha*).
6. Princess Mononoke – If I had to do a hitlist only considering the storyline, this would be no.1 or no.2 after Porco Rosso, I’m not sure. In fact, the message of this anime had a great impact on me back then when I watched it
7. Mimi wa Sumaseba – A cute story, absolutely lovely characters and great atmosphere. The only thing that is slightly lacking is the story, imho.
8. Grave of the Fireflies – Of course this movie made me cry, just like it makes everybody cry. I also remember this movie quite well (a lot better than Mononoke), because it did touch me. But this is a movie I do not want to see ever again.
9. Neko no Ongaeshi – The story isn’t that interesting, but the movie itself is cute nevertheless. *_* A little bit like Howl, just that Howl looks a lot better.
10. Laputa, Castle in the Sky – It’s last place, but still a gorgeous movie, no doubt about it. I enjoyed watching it, I just don’t have any emotional affiliation to this movie whatsoever (unlike no.1-7) *hrr* It was also interesting to compare this movie to Nadia ^^
11. The Ocean Waves – Will most likely stay my least favourite Ghibli movie *hrr* Even stuff like Pom Poko might be cute, but this story just turned me off actually ^^;;;
The first 4 movies are the ones I have watched more than 1 time already (Totoro and Spirited Away 3 times, the others 2 times), and in fact, I would watch the first 6 movies another time if somebody would want to *___*

So what are your favourite Ghibli movies? I bet you have watched them all *g*

For some reason I have always hated musical movies… Moulin Rouge, My Fair Lady, 8 Women – all the movies were nice, only the songs were annoying. But recently, I get to discover that there really are nice musical movies. The first one I saw was Chicago, I think. And this one really is nice as well, but in a totally other way, of course. Singin’ in the Rain really is a classic *_____* I’m so glad I didn’t let my prejudices against musical movies prevail *g*

I’m watching the performance of Cosmo (Donald O’Connor) right now – it’s really cool and funny. *g* I guess this my favourite character XD Maybe I can enjoy these scenes this much because I don’t see many old movies – and when I see some, they all feel refreshing to me. It really helps that I like the actors a lot. Somebody I know used to say that there are no good actors nowadays compared to that time… when I see movies like this, I begin to believe him.

Aaah, fangirling! In minute 33, there is a scene with dancing girls wearing white dresses with music score patterns… arrr, they are gorgeous! It’s interesting to see how many elements in older fashion are timeless… In fact, there are lots! If I were a designer, there would be one single rule I would never abide: accentuation on the waist. Low and empire waisted clothes are interesting both in style and ‘message’ of course (low waist meant to rebel against traditional beauty in the 20s – and empire waist has a long cultural tradition – not only at Napoleon’s time, but in medieval Korea as well for example). But in my personal opinion, the waist of a woman is too beautiful to catch it away… which reminds me that I am thinking of making/buying myself a real corset *hrrr*

It’s the 23! XXD What a good number *g* The trivia on Wikipedia are interesting to see *hehe* For instance, Jean Hagen seems to be a lot better actress than Debbie Reynolds, and Gene Kelly a tyran – which doesn’t surprise me *g*

Manderlay

I want to see the last part of the trilogy!!!1!!11eleventwelve
Okay, the last movie you should fangirl about is Manderlay – but I have to admit that the movie had a great impact on me. I hated Grace during the whole movie (which was rather bad) because she was so blatantly naive and stupid to me. I think that’s mainly because the american “missionary work” is one of the most highly debated subjects nowadays… so it’s way too easy to see the parallels between the movie and, for instance, what happens in Iraq.
On the other hand, the movie had its great moments: How many funny scenes there were (unlike Dogville which actually wasn’t funny at all), how exactly everything fit together at the end… And especially Grace’s father is cool.

Notice the ending. There’s a lot to discover. 2 points precisely *g*

Broken Flowers

I think I would have liked “Dead Flowers”. In fact I remember first hearing about this movie under the name “Dead Flowers” and I liked it. But actually there’s no big difference.
There were funny scenes, but unfortunately the movie started off very well and became worse. The only later scene I liked was the one with the flower shop girl and how he sit besides his ex-girlfriend’s gravestone. It reminded me a lot of Horváth’s “Don Juan kommt aus dem Krieg”. The premise of the story sounds gorgeous: An old Don Juan, an absolutely likeable and hilarious friend, a great Sharon Stone (not to talk about her daughter called “Lolita” *hrr*). But the rest was blah and the movie was slightly boring. That’s why I feel like sleeping *uh oh*

Soundtrack-wise: God-like. I love the ethiopian music and I especially love “There is an end”.

Lost Highway

Uh-huh. How many people will kill me now if I say that I actually found this particular movie extremely boring? It’s easier to talk about what I liked about the movie:
1. Everything that was similar to Mulholland Drive. (Which means the parallels between part 1 and part 2.)
2. The soundtrack. Although I usually dislike Rammstein, it just fitted and sounded extremely well.
Considering these 2 points, I’m glad to have watched the movie nevertheless. ^^

Next movies I want to see: the malicious J-pop movie (aka Shimotsuma monogatari), No Man’s Land and Los lunes al sol.