The Trouble With Harry

We were finally able to watch the latest manifestation of Rowling's tale of the wizard boy Harry Potter - HP and the Goblet of Fire. The movie ran for around two hours and thirty minutes, forewarned is forearmed. And to give credit where credit is due the two hours seem to go past with relative ease, more or less.

I am not really a fan Harry Potter, call me old-fashioned but I still prefer reading the books of JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis. Its my only vice.

Those familiar with the quest of Harry Potter and friends will need no introduction to the story and plot. Suffice to say the Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher is achieving the same level of notoriety as the Enterprise Crew members who go down a planet with Spock, McCoy and Kirk. There are a series of puzzles or mystery to solve. And there is always something wicked coming this way.

The first two thirds of the movie seems to be a long walk and final look at the first two movies of HP. We are now entering the days of darkness and juvenile angst. Again to the credit of the director and writer the process is actually bearable. The reward and introduction into the darker saga of the series is the arrival of truly someone wicked. Gone are days of the wars with pawns and substitutes. This movie ushers us into a more sadder and darker tale of Harry Potter.

I am sure the cinemas are making a killing at the ticket counter with this movie. The cinemaplex we went to had more than half of its screening rooms for the movie, yet still there were long queues.

After the movie I asked my nephew what he remembered of the movie; I asked him to retell me the movie. He remembered one wizard being trapped in the box. At least he was not bored.

The first batch of readers of JK Rowling's has grown up. And it seems the tale has too. Childhood ends and a new darker chapter begin. And this might not be bad thing.

I am looking forward to the Chronicles of Narnia. My nephews seem too.

Creature from the Black Lagoon

I do not know if you noticed but there seems to be great deluge of classic movies in VCD format and prices have plunged. One can get a lot of these vintage movies for only ninety-nine pesos, all original.

There is large pool of VCDs to choose from Casablanca, Bride of Frankenstein, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and a lot others. Available also are a lot of 1950s monster and science fiction classics.

Several nights ago we sat down to watch the creature from the Black Lagoon. The film still has its moment of interest; it keeps you glued to the screen. Makes you wonder how the filmmakers did it; while the rest of the actors had aqualungs the gill man did not even had bubbles coming out of it suit often. I guess it’s the illusion of film. The story was also interesting in that most of the facts about fish and rotenone were correct. And it was amazing to see a black and white film with actual fish in it. Being enthralled in fish myself I enjoyed checking what type of fish there were in the film, both saltwater and freshwater.

Its not scary but it still is interesting and a bit creepy.

Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
Directed by Jack Arnold. Written by Harry Essex(Screenplay), Arthur A. Ross, and Maurice Zimm. Cast: Richard Carlson, Julie Adams, Richard Denning, Antonio Moreno Nestor Paiva, Whit Bissell, Bernie Gozier, Henry A. Escalante, Ricou Browning, Ben Chapman, Perry Lopez, Sydney Mason and Rodd Redwing

Warui yatsu hodo yoku nemuru (1960)

I first saw this Kurosawa movie on cable. This is not your normal Kurosawa film no ronins, samurais, bandits or courtesans. There are heroes, anti-heroes and villains. In my opinion, it is as powerful as his other well-known films - Rashomon, Yojimbo, Sanjuro, Hidden Fortress, Kagemusha, Ran and the Throne of Blood.

The story is set in Post World War II Japan. A Wedding Ceremony ushers us into a story of corporate corruption, revenge and love in corporate Japan. The film stars Toshiro Mifune as the film's hero who is out to avenge and bring justice to those who have done him ill. Like all Kuroswa films it makes effective use of the musical score to highlight the scene and provide a subtle form of irony when needed.

The film also provides the viewer an insight into what was Japan like during the 1950s and the 1960s. It also showed the timeless nature of corruption. Despite the lack of feuding warlords or master less samurais, willing to take on the corrupt, the story proves that whatever time or epoch the bad do sleep well.

Warui yatsu hodo yoku nemuru (1960)
English title:
The Bad Sleep Well
The Rose in the Mud
The Worse You Are, the Better You Sleep
Directed by Akira Kurosawa. Writing credits:
Shinobu Hashimoto, Eijirô Hisaita, Mike Y. Inoue, Ryuzo Kikushima, Akira Kurosawa and Hideo Oguni.
Cast: Toshirô Mifune, Masayuki Mori, Kyôko Kagawa et al.

Mimi Wo Sumaseba

During the weekend I was able to get hold of a copy of another movie from Ghibli Studios. The animation movies from Hayao Miyazaki's studio are always worth watching, visually they are stunning and their stories interesting - it effectively leads the viewer to unconventional and pleasantly surprising twist and turn.

The latest Ghibli movie I was able to watch was Mimi Wo Sumaseba (1995) or Whisper of the Heart (1995). Its not the latest Ghibli movie but it is refreshing. This particular Ghibli tale was adapted from a shojo manga by Aoi Hiragi, it was adapted for anime by Hayao Miyazaki (who wrote the screenplay) and directed by Yoshifumi Kondo.

The tale centres on the young girl, who goes by the name of Shizuku (Tsukishima Shizuku). At the onset of the story Shizuku is in the middle of taking a series of entrance exams for high school (?). However, unlike her friends, who are busy cramming, Shizuku is occupying her time reading as much books as possible and translating a popular country song. Roads for a school presentation. The bookworm Shizuku notices that the books she has borrowed from the local library has also been borrowed by someone named Seiji (Amasawa Seiji). This realization and subsequent serendipitous events propels Shizuku into an adventure of self-discovery and love.

Fans of Shojo manga would be familiar with the plot. And it seems somewhat predictable, but its not. The developments of the characters are interesting and will hold one tantalized to story, begging the question what next?

The film shows that Ghibli can produce an anime based in the reality of Japanese life and at the same time maintain the dulcet tone of its stories. Not to mention it was effective in co-opting a popular song and make it one in spirit with the anime.

For Ghibli fans look out for oblique references to other Ghibli animes. Clue: the town itself points to another Ghibli movie, look at the landscape.

For an anime ninety-nine percent devoid of fantastic creatures this is an interesting and touching tale. Not a tearjerker, not even a feel good anime but it is guaranteed to make you sigh and remember the journey of self-discovery, self-realization and love we all went through.

Mimi wo sumaseba (Whisper of the Heart)1995
Directed by Yoshifumi Kondo; Based on the shojo manga of Aoi Hiragi; Screenplay written by Hayao Miyazaki. Cast: Youko Honna, Kazuo Takahashi et al

Mazin Go!

Last Wednesday I spent the day with my nephews. My sister had to work and their yaya had the day off. So I volunteered my services, I had around eight days of vacation leaves left and decided to use one for that day.

The morning activity was easily done a quick trip to the grocery to buy the day’s repast. A couple of pizza bread, tomato sauce and quick melt cheese and we were in business.

After lunch, the three of us settled down to watch a few of the episodes of Mazinger Z. This was the first time I was able to watch Mazinger Z after Marcos banned it along with the other Japanese robot shows, like Voltes V and Daimos. The animation was a little bit outdated (It is an old cartoon) and the dubbing seemed less than perfect. Yet, the cartoon was still entertaining. The opening theme song is still nice to the ear. It is the type of song that enters your head and despite understanding only five percent of the words it gets imprinted in your memory. I think its one of those mecha stories that had a good opening and ending theme.

What surprised me is that nephews loved it. Why do the kids like it? Is it because the story line is more linear than your usual robo anime? No twists and no family entanglements present in Voltes V. Is it because of the fight between Manzinger Z and the robots of Dr Hell? (I pity the Japanese city where the fight occurs, after the 3rd episode it should be reduced to rubbles) Is it because they can identify with the brashness of the hero Koji Kabuto? Is there anything as cool as being Koji Kabuto, a Mazinger pilot. Or can they sense similarities of the characters with those surrounding them – I hope I am not identified as Baron Ashler or Baron Ashura. Maybe it’s the peppering of quirky characters around the series.

Whatever it is they like the show. Maybe for the same reasons I always liked the show. Voltes V was great but there were times when it was a little bit overdramatic and let us no go Daimos, which suffered from an overdose of sentimentality. Mazinger Z had its moments but everything was fluid on more than one occasion there were really funny moments. The series was not above ridiculing its heroes, heroines and villains.

A quick check on the web showed the popularity of Mazinger Z and a quick browse through Wikepedia showed the influence of Mazinger Z in the present day set of mecha heroes. It would seem that Mazinger Z provided the template for most of the mecha stories we are seeing today – Mecha created to protect mankind: an orphaned hero; a superpowerful robot empowered with advance technology or enhanced with a secret element created by a father or a father figure who disappears at the beginningof the series; the evil mad scientist aiming to rule the world with his army of mechas; his equally evil yet bumbling assistant; and a cast of comical and noble characters supporting the hero.

This is one of Go Nagai’s greatest works. Mazin Go!