With most posts going private, I thought I'd post some movie reviews. What better way to start than with one of my favorite films: Miyazaki's My Neighbor Totoro. Consider a SPOILER warning issued.
Set in the late 1950s rural Japan, at a time when television sets weren’t in every home, Hayao Miyazaki’s 1988 animated feature follows the lives of two sisters and their father as they move into a new home to be closer to their hospitalized mother. Miyazaki’s own mother was ill with tuberculosis when he was a boy, the mother’s disease, though never specified in the film, is what is alluded to.
Beautifully painted watercolor-like backgrounds accompany detailed hand-drawn animation of the characters, noticeably the two young girls Satsuki, 10, and Mei, 4. Drawn in a typical Japanese animation style, for instance, impossibly large mouths when laughing or crying, both sisters behave and play more convincingly than many of their live-action counterparts. Disney this is not. There are no villains, no nonsensical musical numbers, no twists or big revelations and no moralizing at the end. There’s barely much of a plot. A typical movie this is not. And yet, this narrative simplicity chronicles how the young girls deal with the illness of their mother that is remarkably effective. It is a delightful tale with an all-encompassing sense of wonder and imagination.
LEFT: Your friendly neighborhood Totoro
RIGHT: One of the many uses of Mosquito netting
The movie opens with a cheesy upbeat credit sequence clearly stating that it is aimed at young children. Whether its the trepidation in moving into a new home or inability to understand the severity of their mother's disease, older viewers are provided a unique perspective into the world through the two young girls.
Satsuki, Mei and their father move into a dusty, dilapidated and possibly haunted house. The young girls run around and play and soon discover Susuwatari or soot spirits in the darkened corners of the house. Though cautious and apprehensive, they radiate a playful curiosity towards the spirits and the father lightheartedly states how he always wanted to live in a haunted house. He suggests laughter to alleviate their fears during a particularly stormy night and before long the soot spirits leave the house.
One morning, Mei, while out exploring the nearby forest, encounters a small white rabbit-like creature which she promptly follows and, reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland, stumbles into a hole and lands on a sleeping large furry raccoon/owl-like creature that she eventually names Totoro. Showing no concern over the creature’s gaping mouth and abundant teeth, Mei falls asleep on the belly of the beast.
Mei soon wakes to find the Totoro gone and drags Satsuki and their father to find him, all the while insisting that its real. What is remarkable about this film is that the adults do not speak down to, distrust or brush-off these fantastic sightings. At the base of a large camphor tree the father offers the explanation that Totoro is the ‘Keeper of the Forest’, a Shinto forest spirit. They all bow and thank the spirit for taking care of Mei. There are also a number of Buddhist iconography scattered throughout the film, a scene in particular has Mei being watched over by a row of Ojizō-sama statues traditionally seen as the guardian of children.
LEFT: An inconspicuous Totoro
RIGHT: Tour Japan within the belly of a cat
In one marvelous scene, Satsuki and Mei wait for their father at the bus stop out in the pouring rain. Cold, tired and alone after Mei falls asleep, Satsuki, who has acted as a surrogate mother throughout the movie, finally meets the Totoro, towering over them as a guardian and protector. She offers Totoro their father’s umbrella who then proceeds to enjoy the sound of large droplets falling onto it. Before their father’s bus arrives, Totoro’s own transport appears in the form of a Catbus, similar to the Cheshire Cat or a cat in Japanese folklore, that reaches old age obtains supernatural powers.
A theme common in many of Miyazaki’s works, as in this film, is that of nature and the preservation of the environment. There is a scene where Satsuki and Mei plant some seeds given to them by Totoro and proceed to dance and will it to grow, that then sprouts and grows to the massive tree that it will eventually become.
The final third of the film deals with Mei’s lone attempt to trek to the hospital to give her mother an ear of corn that she had picked. Their mother had become further ill unable to leave the hospital for the weekend. Satsuki attempts to find her with the help of Totoro and Catbus. At the end as the Catbus departs it fades away. Miyazaki has said that Satsuki and Mei never see Totoro and Catbus again. The credit sequence shows them playing with other children and their mother having returned home, without Totoro within the same shot, but knowing that he’s always watching over them.
What is interesting is that whether Totoro is real or imaginary is left ambiguous, opening it to different interpretations. Irregardless, Totoro is real to the children.
Deserving of mention is Joe Hisaishi’s wonderfully buoyant musical score, who has worked with Miyazaki since Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, that evokes much of his later works.
RATING
Highly Recommended
