response 23 of 112:

Jul 15 14:14 UTC 2003

Re #21: I only recently discovered Miyazaki's movies.  The four I've seen so
far were all good:  Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service
and Castle in the Sky.

"My Neighbor Totoro" has a totally off-putting CD box.  Looks like it's going
to be a really cheesily animated stupid kiddy film.  But from the first frame
of the actual movie you know you are in for something quite different.  The
animation is mostly gorgeous.  (Some of Miyazaki's kids have oversized mouths
of a style that always reminds me of "Speed Racer".  Maybe it's a Japanese
style thing, but it always puts me off.)  Story is about two little girls
and their dad who move into a rundown old house to be near the hospital where
their mom is recovering from some illness.  The kids eventually start trading
favors with a forest spirit.  The relationships among the characters are
uniformally realistic and charming.  The supernatural elements are inventive
and just plain cool.  There are no villians.  In fact, everyone is stunningly
nice.  And yet the film has plenty of dramatic tension.  I suspect this was
the breakthrough film for Miyazaki - the Totoro character from it is used
as the logo for his studio.  Many elements from it reappear in "Spirited
Away" - it's in some ways a first glimpse of the same spirit world.

"Kiki's Delivery Service" is almost not a fantasy at all.  There is only one
fantasy element - the heroine is a witch who's only magical ability is to
fly on a broomstick.  She is 13 years old and off on her own for a year to
try to learn the witch business.  She settles in a town where the people
are mostly rather bored by the idea of a witch in their midst.  Since her
only trick is flying her broomstick (which she isn't particularly good at),
she starts a flying delivery service.  It's a story about loneliness, and
finding your own way in the world.  Again, no villians, no scares.  I
thought the ending was flawed - a big action sequence which gives Kiki a
bit too easy an out for resolving her doubts.  Arlo loves this one.

Castle in the Sky was the weakest of the ones I've seen.  It's cool.  The
Disney version has the oddity of Mark Hammill (aka Luke Skywalker) voicing
the villian's part.  This one is full of gun fights and explosions and
killer robots and all that old stuff.  It has a fun pirate queen and a
visually interesting world, but basically it's a pretty standard adventure
flick,  Ok, but not as good as the others.

response 25 of 112:

Jul 16 01:41 UTC 2003

Re Mark Hammill:  I'm told he also voiced The Joker for the animated
Batman.  Apparently he thinks the work is a huge amount of fun.

response 27 of 112:

Jul 16 02:24 UTC 2003

My son and I watched a couple of older movies recently.  The first was 
Mulan.

Mulan is a Disney movie set in medieval China.  I'd never seen it 
before, and was quite surprised.  I liked it.

I liked Mulan, who goes to war in place of her aged father, disquising 
herself as a man and then encountering reasonable difficulties.  I 
liked the way she was clearly a woman, having realistic enough 
problems fitting into a strictly man's army and overcoming them in a 
clever enough way.  

I enjoyed the humor of the situation, and of the movie; the rough 
humor of the songs the soldiers sing and things they do, the obvious 
humor of the captain training his troops (including Mulan) and 
declaring in a song, "I'll make a man out of you", and I liked the 
bath scene, which was well targeted at adults while not much raising 
the notice of a young child.

I liked the basic training section quite a lot.  I liked the setting.  
I don't know anything about China, and don't imagine this was in any 
way accurate, but it was appealing enough.

I often don't like movies (or books) the first time.  I liked this one 
just fine.

response 29 of 112:

Jul 16 07:47 UTC 2003

re#27: oddly enough _Mulan_ probably was in keeping with the chinese
oral traditional history more in the observation than not.  I know many
chinese families that enjoyed it.  The irony in _Mulan_ is that the "bad
guys" in the movie in fact ruled china from about the middle 1600s to
modern times - it is even politically correct in the current PRC (not
that I suggest there will be another - a politically correct statement).
Contrast _Mulan_ with another animated feature, _Pocahontas_ et al where
the events portrayed had little or nothing to do with actual history
other than perhaps some names.  

response 31 of 112:

Jul 16 11:43 UTC 2003

Re #29:  There's a fast-food Chinese restaurant at Briarwood that used to
         be part of a chain called Manchu Wok.  When the guy broke off from
         it, he renamed the place Ming Wok.  Victorious at last!

response 33 of 112:

Jul 17 05:05 UTC 2003

Hua mu-lan doesn't particularly mean anything I think.  Often as not
chinese will name a child with something that does have lucky ot good
meaning.  I know a guy named "good fortune" and a girl named "fertile
field".  I know one guy - son of a 1949 ex-pat who's name is "supple
willow victorious".

It may seem strange to westerners at first who don't realize how many of
their own names have similar derivations although long since forgotten.
Emanuel for example.  Or Elizabeth.

response 35 of 112:

Jul 17 17:17 UTC 2003

Same goes for Indian names, a lot of them are derived from words that 
meant something like "peace" or "humility", and others are still used 
in everyday language, like mine

response 37 of 112:

Jul 17 19:51 UTC 2003

I'm guessing a derivative of the word that means "sky". I could be way 
off on this one.

response 39 of 112:

Jul 18 00:14 UTC 2003

this weeks Saturday midnight movie at the State is Edward Scissorhands.  Come
celebrate surviving another round of Art Fairs!

response 41 of 112:

Jul 18 05:29 UTC 2003

It is of some cultural interest that names "mean" something, but of what
significance is it? Surely you are not a bearer of spears (most of the time?).

response 43 of 112:

Jul 19 03:20 UTC 2003

I am not sure that "bearer of the spear" itself holds deep meaning in 
modern times-- I am sure, however, that it comes from the British 
Isles.  More importantly, it is the name of my father.  "Jonathan," 
however, is very important for many personal reasons.

response 45 of 112:

Jul 21 15:43 UTC 2003

Re. #38:  Nope.  Someone at my workplace.