By Satyam Ghimire | Date: 2024 September 29
Also available as a YouTube video.Date: 2025 June 28
Date: 2025 June 11
Date: 2023 July 17
By Satyam Ghimire || Date: 2024 September 17
Also available as a YouTube video.
When some great artists approach the end of their life, they entertain the idea of a successor, though they know deep down that no one can truly take their place. In his latest film, The Boy and The Heron, Hayao Miyazaki has told a story of one such creator. Though on the surface the film is about a young boy Mahito overcoming grief of his mother's death, and like other Miyazaki's films, follows a journey through a fantasy land filled with colorful characters. But of course, this perspective has not much to do with the question which almost was the title of the movie, “how do you live”? Mahito’s great-grand uncle created a world parallel to ours, a world with its own small set of creatures and magic.
This old man is looking, waiting, for someone to take over his work. To wash it pure and bring once again the balance and harmony among the creatures upon whom he had sprinkled life. To continue his legacy, to build a better paradise. Of course Mahito rejects the old man’s offer. He says he has malice and greed and he would corrupt everything. He would rather choose the real world, with all its shortcomings, and be an ordinary man. The old man, as if he already expected this answer, isn't sad or angry at getting a “No!", even though he had high hopes for Mahito. Of course Miyazaki looked out for potential candidates, to pass his torch hand to hand, but no one was good enough for him. Perhaps his judgment was right, perhaps it wasn’t and he was too hard on others. It doesn’t matter now. The end is almost here. He is 83 years old. ...continue reading...
By Satyam Ghimire || Date: 2024 April 30
You may have read and seen several pieces about the train scene from Spirited Away. It's a great scene, and there are several other scenes throughout Studio Ghibli that are equally beautiful but sadly not getting enough attention. Today, I am talking about the “one last illusion” scene from Pom Poko, directed by Isao Takahata. The scene in question comes towards the end of the film.
The shape-shifting creatures called ‘Tanuki’ find their attempts to protect their home fruitless. They couldn’t stop the human’s industrial rampage and destruction of forest. It's time to accept fate and accept the fact that no crying will make it alright. They tried hard but they have failed. One last time, though it will bring nothing, they decide to stage a grand illusion to remind everyone of what has been lost. As all transforming Tanuki come together and hold hands to magnify their power, the scenery around them changes into what it used to be. Humans see their city turn back into the green village. The lifeless roads they have concreted turn into pleasant smelling mud-way, and by the roads run rivers with blue and pure water. ...continue reading...
By Satyam Ghimire | Date: 2024 April 28
Also available as a YouTube video.
By Satyam Ghimire | Date: 2025 May 23
Date: 2024 January 27
Date: 2023 July 17
Date: 2023 July 17
By Satyam Ghimire | Date: 2024 April 4
Also available as a YouTube video.
By Satyam Ghimire | Date: 2024 April 4
Also available as a YouTube video.By Satyam Ghimire || Date: 2024 April 3
Also available as a YouTube video.
The Shawshank Redemption is certainly one of the best stories to implement this old and simple storytelling formula. A hopeful hero is faced with obstacles. He meets other characters who are hopeless. He tries to inspire them but they find it hard to share his optimism. They have their own reasons. Andy was the hero with thrust heroic qualities. Brooks was the doomed side character. And Red was somewhere in between. It is Red’s transformation that we saw in the film, from his refusal of hope throughout the film to finally embracing it at the end. Andy was a talented banker on the outside, and that helps him on the inside. In several scenes throughout the film. Remember the scene on the roof which ends with the crew drinking icy-old, Bohemia-style beer, and the colossal prick even managed to sound magnanimous. Hell, they could have been tarring the roof of their own houses.
On the other hand, Brooks was doomed from the start. He came to Shawshank in 1905. And when he was released in 1955, a total stranger to the ways of the outside world. He saw an automobile once when he was a kid and when he got out, they were everywhere. Red was pretty much on the same track as Brooks, unless it was for Andy. Now, did Red save himself? No, luckily, he got a friend. And it didn’t even happen easily. Andy tried many times to install hope in Red, but failed. And when hope wasn’t installed in Red, Andy gave him a purpose. What if Brooks had a friend like Andy in his time? Yes, that would have been awesome and he might have been saved. But not everyone gets a friend. Most of the time we are totally alone. Andy saved himself without anyone’s help. So, what might Brooks have lacked? A banking degree to help prison officers do tax-returns, and gain their trust? A prison cell at the end of the lane that luckily connects to the waste pipeline, rather than another cell with another prisoner? I sometimes think even if fate hadn’t allowed Andy to escape, even if he had to spend all the years he was sentenced, i.e. ...continue reading...