Gake no ue no Ponyo

Ponyo rantakalliolla / Ponyo på klippan vid havet / Ponyo. JP (c) 2008 Studio Ghibli. Hand-drawn and painted anime D+SC: Hayao Miyazaki. 101 min. Released by Cinema Mondo both in an original version and an edition dubbed into Finnish (Pekka Lehtosaari). Viewed at Tennispalatsi 3, 26 Sep 2009 (dubbed version). - An analogue look. - Hayao Miyazaki belongs also to the film artists whose new film I always look forward to, and Ponyo is no disappointment. - Miyazaki tells now a more simple and elemental fairy-tale, which is also suitable for quite small children. - The elements now include the sea and the wind. - The metamorphosis of the little goldfish Ponyo that turns human upsets the balance of the world. This is the story of the great flood, the tsunami. The little boy Sosuke plays a crucial role in it. - The story seems quite original despite the official inspiration of H.C. Andersen's The Little Mermaid. To a Finnish viewer it also brings to mind Tove Jansson's first Moomin story The Moomins and the Great Flood (1945). - A great fairy-tale, for keeps. - It's a pleasure to see traditional animation in an era of too much digital.

Ninja bugei-cho

Band of Ninja / Ninja [the English title on screen] /[Ninjan sotakirja] / [Ninjas krigsbok]. JP 1967. PC: Sozosha. P: Masayuki Nakajima, Takuji Yamaguchi, Nagisa Oshima. D: Nagisa Oshima. SC: Nagisa Oshima and Mamoru Sasaki – based on the manga by Sanpei Shirato (1957). DP: Akira Takada – b&w - 1,37:1. M: Hikaru Hayashi. Theme song: "Ninga bugei-cho". Singer: Sumito Tachikawa. ED: Keiichi Uraoka. Voices in the Japanese version: Shoichi Ozawa (commentary), Kei Yamamoto (Jutaro Yuki), Akiko Koyama (Akemi), Kei Sato (Shuzen Sakagami), Noriko Matsumoto (Hotarubi), Yoshiyuki Fukuda (Mufu-dojin), Hideo Kanxe (Nobutsuna Kamiizumi), Shigeru Tsuyguchi (Mitsuhide Akechi), Fumio Yatanabe (Nobunaga Oda / Kynnyo), Hikaru Hayashi (Tokichiro Kinoshita), Mutsuhiro Toura (Kagemaru), Hosei Komatsu (Onikichi / Zoruko), Nobuo Tanaka (Munetoshi Yaguy), Juro Hayano (chief of Raiunto). [Japanese version 131 min.] On display was the short English-language version, 100 min. Print: Kawakita Memorial. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 27 Aug 2009. - A decent print of the short version. The film is probably more watchable in the short version. - This is a ninja action manga film. This is not animation (or anime) in the true sense, as the film is photographed from the frames of Sanpei Shirato's manga, and the cinematic impact is based on movement inside and into the manga frames, on montage, and on the soundtrack (music, song, commentary, voices, sound effects). - The birth of the ninjutsu and the ninja in the 16th century. A rebellious jidai-geki based on the manga favoured by the student radicals of the 1960s. - At first the film based on static drawings feels jarring and disappointing. Towards the end it gets more effective. - The story is very cruel and violent, and there are endless battle scenes. - Women have a prominent role as fearless fighters, including a pregnant lady and a nude ninja fighter. - The final message: "keep on fighting until all men can live equally". - The music by Hikaru Hayashi is original and effective. There is a theme song resembling of the western. The singer Sumito Tachikawa has an attractive voice. - Not a profound or sophisticated film, but an interesting experiment, one that one would not wish to be repeated in a feature film. - Antti Suonio remarked that a similar approach is now commonplace in dvd extras.

SATOSHI KON IN HELSINKI

Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 8 Nov 2008. Mr. Satoshi Kon spoke Japanese, expertly translated into Finnish by Mr. Aleksi Järvelä. There were many previously prepared questions from the audience, and a number of questions in the two-hour-plus session, in addition. - Mentioning a film of his (Perfect Blue, Millennium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers, Paprika) for the first time Mr. Kon asked whether anyone from the audience had seen them, and, happily impressed by the good show of hands, stood up and bowed in gratitude. - Summing up Mr. Kon's comments: "I started with manga, but manga did not sell, so I switched to anime, and the transition was easy. The big difference is that there is a large group of people involved in anime. It is dialogue, it is speaking about images, exchanging thoughts. I had never considered myself as a social person, but it turned out to be the other way around. Anime is being closely followed. There is a lot of mediocre anime. The best anime is created when there is a small compact group involved. It pays to focus on quality."
"My first feature Perfect Blue is based on a novel I had not read myself. About the star and the fan who becomes a stalker. We go inside senses, adopting the first person view of the protagonist. - Anime involves a terrifying amount of images. - In Japan, painting is highly appreciated. - One has to fight for one's position."
About fantastic milieux. "Many critics don't understand anything about making movies. - My starting point is to create fantasy out of the ordinary. - A lot of ideas get discarded. - I develop a web and continuum of ideas. - Paprika was a different process. - Imagery and design are on the forefront. - Usually my starting point is quite realistic, but there are hallucinations involved. - In Paprika, hallucinations dominate. - An unusual parade. - Today reality is emphasized more, and less attention is paid to dreams."
"In my movies, I don't use much the computer, maybe one fifth of the film is computer-generated. It is about the budget: the CG effects are more expensive. Drawing by hand is much cheaper. - Then there is the post-production and the subsidiary production. - In animation, there is not one right way to think."
"I have used my good composer consistently."
"The question of fact/fiction is basic but not all-encompassing".
Do you get mail from people who have had similar experiences of blurring reality and fantasy? "Yes, and sometimes the blurring has become a problem. It can be scary. I don't know whether these persons should watch these films."
Is there a message or vision? "I have to explain a lot, as if I were a radio with non-stop talk. There is none. But one can find ideas hidden in different layers, and it is the viewer's task to find them."
Strong female characters such as Paprika. "As in biology, my characters start as females, but they can transform into men. - The biggest battle I had with the strong female character in Millennium Actress. - The most difficult was Perfect Blue, as the budget was minuscule. - Easy have none of them been."

Môsô dairinin 1: Ohayo!

Paranoia Agent 1: Good Morning! TV anime series, first episode of 13. JP 2004. PC: WoWoW. D: Satoshi Kon. Episode 25 min. Dvd projection in Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 8 Nov 2008. Extra screening on the occasion of the visit of Satoshi Kon. - IMDB series summary: "We follow different fates in modern Japan. Each episode ends with an assault by a boy with a golden bat. Throughout the animation series we learn more about the boy." - A fascinating anime with original approaches to the psyche.

Paprika

JP 2006. PC: Madhouse, Paprika Film Partners. D: Satoshi Kon.SC: Seishi Minakami, Satoshi Kon - based on the novel by Yasutaka Tsutsui. M: Susumu Hirasawa. Anime. 2,35:1, colour. 90 min. Blu-Ray projection of the English version with Finnish subtitles in Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 8 Nov 2008. - An extra screening on the occasion of Satoshi Kon's visit. - The Blu-Ray premiere at Orion. There is a depth of image clearly different from dvd. - Plot synopses from IMDB: "When a machine that allows therapists to enter their patient's dreams is stolen, all hell breaks loose. Only a young female therapist can stop it: Paprika." - "Three scientists at the Foundation for Psychiatric Research fail to secure a device they've invented, the D.C. Mini, which allows people to record and watch their dreams. A thief uses the device to enter people's minds, when awake, and distract them with their own dreams and those of others. Chaos ensues. The trio - Chiba, Tokita, and Shima - assisted by a police inspector and by a sprite named Paprika must try to identify the thief as they ward off the thief's attacks on their own psyches. Dreams, reality, and the movies merge, while characters question the limits of science and the wisdom of Big Brother." - "In this Japanese anime epic, humanity's last bastion of privacy has finally been infiltrated by technology, the world of our dreams. The story centers on a new invention called the DC-Mini. With this revolutionary device, psychiatrists are now able to enter a patient's dreams in a therapeutic setting. But when an unknown assailant steals all of the devices, using them to enter peoples minds enacting mind control, chaos ensues as dreams begin to bleed into reality, and the thin line between the conscious and the unconscious begins to blur. Enter a young female researcher named Chiba, who takes it upon herself to delve into the newly anarchic dream world in order to set things straight. In this surreal realm her name is Paprika, and she's out to save the world. Bursting with fantastic imagery and breathtakingly innovative animation." - I could only catch the first 20 minutes of this original and fascinating anime, certainly worth revisiting.

Kaze no tani no Naushika

Tuulen laakson Nausikaa / Nausicaa av vindens dal / Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. JP 1984. PC: Studio Ghibli. P: Isao Takahata. D+SC: Hayao Miyazaki - based on his manga (1982-1994). M: Joe Hisaishi. AN: Kazuo Komatsubara (an d). Voice talent: Sumi Shimamoto (Nausicaä), Mahito Tsujimura (Jihl), Hisako Kyôda (Oh-Baba). 118 min (the long version). Released in Finland (premiere 2008) by Cinema Mondo with Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Janne Mökkönen / Sanna Hulden. Viewed at Kinopalatsi 9, Helsinki, 17 Oct 2008. - A beautiful analogue print. - Miyazaki's second feature film has already his hallmarks: the feeling for the secrets of nature, the concern for ecocatastrophe, the meditative tempo, the young girl as the protagonist, the dream of flying, and the visions of war. - It is a dystopia of the world a thousand years after "the seven days of fire": the nuclear holocaust and the following ecocatastrophe. The visions of the Toxic Jungle and the Giant Ohm creatures and the toxic plants in the Sea of Decay are memorable.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nausica%C3%A4_of_the_Valley_of_the_Wind

Paimen, piika ja emäntä / [Katri, Girl of the Meadows]

Vi kämpa för fädernesgården / [Kleine standhafte Katri] / [Makiba no shouji Katori]. FI 1938. PC: Väinän Filmi. P: Väinö Mäkelä. D+ED: Roland af Hällström. SC: based on the novels by Auni Nuolivaara: Paimen, piika ja emäntä (1936) and Isäntä ja emäntä (1937). DP: Olavi Gunnari. PD: Lasse Elo. M: Alvar Andström. LOC: Orivesi. Starring: Martta Kontula (Ukonniemen Katri), Kaarlo Kytö (Ruuhiniemen Santeri), Kosti Elo (Vaakerlunti), Aili Tikka (Ukonniemen Leena, Katri's sister), Elna Hellman (the old mistress of Ruuhiniemi), Vappu Elo (Veikkolan Annastiina), Eino Haavisto (Rantalan Juuso), Hemmo Airamo (Ruuhiniemen Iivari), Eero Leväluoma (the merchant Ephraim Tervola), Eero Roine (Wahlgren). A low-contrast Betacam SP from worn source material. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 23 Jan 2008. A strong woman's story, which starts in the novel in the year 1852 but in the film in the beginning of the 20th century. The novels (successful also in Germany and Japan) had an important role in the development of the figure of the strong, independent woman in Finnish fiction. They tell the story of the maid of strong character who saves the big house. Martta Kontula carries the role of Ukonniemen Katri well. She belongs to the tradition of Selma Lagerlöf, and, in Finland, also the writer of popular entertainment, Hilja Valtonen. The landscapes of Orivesi are beautiful, the work montage sequences seem authentic. The only film produced by Väinän Filmi. There is a 49-episode anime series based on the novels (1984).
http://koti.phnet.fi/otaku/reviews/katori/katori.htm