| 1. | (10 posts) | Home Theater vs. Real Theater |
| 2. | (5 posts) | Cagliostro R2 DVD Comments |
| 3. | (17 posts) | Ashitaka/San/Kaya Love Triangle |
| 4. | (3 posts) | Possible Miyakazi Interview? |
We looked at 89 posts by 43 different contributors.
Finally! An on-time issue.
An technical offshoot thread started when MrSpiffy wrote, "But even theaters are beginning to bug me, as there are always little scratches and tiny black marks present on the film when they play it. I find in somewhat annoying."
Hanno Mueller replied, "I have the Mononoke DVD, and before I saw the movie in a cinema with 35 mm projection, I already knew the movie from seing it at least half a dozen times. I also once watched the DVD with a video projector on a huge screen. . . I was blown away by the level of additional detail that the 35 mm version gave me. There are a lot of things, subtle movements, colours I had not even noticed on the DVD."
Mark Yates commented, "at the ICA (a small cinema that to its credit shows many non mainstream films and recently had a Japan themed few weeks - sorry my details on this are sketchy) in London they showed Ghost in the Shell. The print must have been an original, there were scratches, flicks, dots on every frame, gate weave (shaking), and a loud hiss on the audio track. Also it appeared to be at best a very narrow stereo field. I've never seen a film in as close to that poor condition before."
Charlie Tangora pulled out some film details, "Anyone know what filmstock PM was shot on? My wild guess is Kodak EXR 5245, which has the best detail resolution of Kodak's stocks... Okay, 5245 can resolve a maximum of 100 lines per millimeter. The standard (Academy) 35mm film frame is 21.9 mm x 16 mm, which gives you 2190 lines x 1600 lines - and remember that's *resolving power* not resolution, and the pixel resolution required to get the same resolving power would be 4380x3200. DVD resolution is 720x480. VHS has about 200 lines of horizontal resolution. So, it's not too surprising that we'd see more in 35mm, is it?"
Suprisingly (or maybe not) Ryoko Toyama posted, "PM was shot on Kodak 48 (EXR100T 5248). Fuji was too strong on blue and Kodak was too strong on red. They were still a little bit unhappy about red on Kodak, according to the production diary.
Just amazing how much info we have at our hands, er? :)
Derek Tolley liked the DVD better, "The same print was used for all Orlando showings of MH. The print was scratched, had a weird hissing sound on the soundtrack (really bad during the silent scenes, at the Enzian showing), and there was discoloration down the side of the screen during parts of the movie. In my personal experience, the DVD was a much higher quality presentation."
Andrew Simmons added, "When I worked in the traditional film department here in Orlando, we used the same film stock. . . that was back during Aladdin, Trail Mix-Up (a Roger Rabbit Short) and the Lion King. . . That is the problem with film, it never seems to translate the painted colors exactly and you get a film that is slightly different than what the director intended. You end up having to paint to the film stock and trying to predict what the colors will do on film, instead of getting exactly what you painted. . . I am looking forward to the day when I can see the director's vision on the big screen just the way they wanted it, without any adjustments, and that goes double for Miyazaki's work."
Lee Johnson picked up the newly released R2 DVD of "Castle of Cagliostro" and posted a quick review, "Picture and sound quality greatly improved. Some very interesting features. . . Biggest beef: The English sub is a 100% dubtitle, HOWEVER: The English dub is different to the one contained on the R1 Manga release (a quick listen to this English dub impressed me)."
Not to be outdone Mike Arnold wrote up a huge review:
there is a Japanese stereo track but I liked the sound of the original mono better. I watched most of the movie with Japanese subtitles and loved it. Japan doesn't really have a big closed caption thing like the U.S. does, so even on Japanese DVDs of Japanese films it's
rare to find Japanese subtitles. . . The opening theme song was also subbed. Great.
The English subs, on the other hand, were useless. I checked in a few parts and they did match up with the English dub dialogue, but they didn't match the Japanese at all. I don't know if this is the same or different from the recent US DVD release, but on this version watching the English subs with the Japanese dialogue was a joke. . . All sorts of details that make the characters and story so interesting were just wiped out. It was like watching half a movie. . . It frustrates me that people who rely on the English are going to lose so much of the story... but as a Japanese region 2 release, I doubt the company really had English-speaking customers in mind.
[...]
I usually think twice before buying a DVD like this but this one was worth it. The (widescreen) picture and sound are great, I like the trailers and I really appreciate the Japanese subs.
Lee commented about Mike's subtitle complaint, "What confused me the most was the fact that BV have said they are including English subtitles for those who are learning english and want to improve it. How it can help when the Dub script and hence subtitles are completely different to the original script is beyond me."
Tobias Reich replied, "The included english dub is the old Karl Macek dub which was probably done sometime in the 80's for festival screening. . . The corresponding dub titles were probably taken from the japanese english version LD Boxset of Cagliostro. It was made for japanese people to learn english. The LD had the english dub and a soundtrack only dub without any voices. Included in the boxset was a script-book containing the exact dubtitle track which is now to be found on the DVD. . . you have to keep in mind that japanese children are meant to use the ENGLISH track in addition to the dubtitles to improve their english. Don't ask me how this can work, but that's how it was meant to be."
Hanno Mueller started the Thread of the Week® with, "I took a friend to Mononoke with me today. She did not know *anything* about the movie. . . After the movie, she was really quite angry that Ashitaka would forget so soon about Kaja and just give away her dagger that he first promised to keep as a symbol of her love. "That's so typical of guys", my friend joked. I must admit that I also think this is a plot hole in the movie for me. With the English dubbed "sister", I did not object as much as I do now that the German dub makes Kaja his fiancee."
Chris Kuan commented, "Ashitaka was "dead" to his home clan. So there never would be a chance to re-unite with Kaya (what if she went out in search of him? But I suspect that would not be the done thing)."
The thread really got rolling when Julio Gea-Banacloche posted, "San "kisses" Ashitaka, and he weeps. Why? It seems pretty clear to me that he's crying for Kaya. He finds himself irresistibly drawn to this other girl, he already knew anyway that his chances of ever reuniting with Kaya were almost nil, and he is, of course, happy, in some way, to be physically so close to San--but at the same time he must feel that he's betraying Kaya, by falling in love with this other girl. . . When, later, he gives San the dagger, he is making it official--that, for better or worse, his future now is with her--but the tears he shed earlier mean that it was at least as painful as it may have been a happy realization for him..."
Michael Kerpan wrote, "The fact that Ashitaka and Kaya use the terms brother and sister for each other would (in a real endogenous clan) typically mean that they are strictly "off limits" to each other for sexual purposes (violations being punishable by death, quite possibly). This does not mean they couldn't be "in love". Perhaps, Ashitaka's willingness to cut himself off from his clan is due to the fact that he desperately needs to escape from a situation where he can not possibly make a right choice."
Iron Mouse added, "when I first watched it I never realised that they weren't real siblings (cultural nuance I just didn't get). As a result, I didn't think that Ashitaka was weeping in that scene because of Kaya. I thought he was weeping because he was happy to be alive (considering he'd just come back from the dead). And also because San is no longer filled with hatred like she was back in Tatara-Ba, and willing to help him (rather than kill him) - meaning that she at least was willing to listen to him. May I also add that the scene of him crying was what clinched his position as number 2 on my list of "Best Anime Guys of All Time". ^_^"
Michael Wojcik wrote, "While I find Julio and Michael's speculations about Ashitaka's feelings for Kaya and how they play into his relationship with San interesting, I think the evidence for them in the film is a bit slim. I don't know that anything in MH contradicts them, either, but it seems to me equally possible to argue that Ashitaka may have assumed before the attack that he would marry Kaya eventually but wasn't particularly committed to the idea, and once he had to leave the Emishi gave it up with perhaps some regret but not anguish. The dagger then becomes a symbol of remembering someone you never expect to see again, and his passing it on to San is to my mind perfectly acceptable."
Julio replied, "To me, Kaya calling Ashitaka "elder brother" suggests merely that they are childhood friends, not necessarily relatives, and he is maybe a couple of years older that her. . . Miyazaki himself has said that it makes things more "interesting" that Kaya is not Ashitaka's sister, but someone who would want to marry Ashitaka. But why more "interesting", if nothing is ever made of it? My response to this is that Miyazaki does want the viewer to remember Kaya and Ashitaka's parting, as an emotionally powerful moment, and if he wants the viewer to remember it that way, I think that he also would want Ashitaka to remember it that way.
I will agree that I see no evidence that Kaya and Ashitaka are "engaged" in any sense of the word. But their parting is a powerful moment. Ashitaka knows that she will be hoping against hope that he will return; he accepts her present; and he tells her that he, too, will always be thinking of her. Under those conditions, giving the dagger to San cannot be viewed as a casual gesture, nor something he would do lightly or without at least some amount of inner conflict...
David Mankins pointed out, "At the point at which Ashitaka gives the crystal dagger to San, he has been banished from the forest by Moro. He is returning to Iron Town. . . he does know that Ottokunishi-gami has brought the boars to the forest to do battle with the humans. Probably he is certain that San will soon be riding into battle with the boars. Further, he knows that he will probably be on the side of the humans when that battle comes (though maybe ambivalently so). He thinks he is unlikely to see San again. Just as Kaya did to him, he is saying farewell to her."
Andrew Osmond chipped in, "I think another crucial point is that, at that point in the film, he's resigned himself to dying very soon. (Remember, Shishi-Gami didn't cure his curse, effectively ending the 'quest' that had taken him from his village.) Kaya gave him the dagger to protect him... well, soon he won't need it any more. It makes sense to me that he'd pass it on to someone else who, as David says, probably needs all the protection she can get."
Ryoko Toyama cleared up some of the background, "Kaya calls Ashitaka "Ani-Sama" (not Ane-Sama, which means older sister). According to Miyazaki-San, she calls him so because that is how Emishi girls address older males of their clan. (Emishi here means the Emishi in PM's world, not the real Emishi.)
As Michael mentioned, it is very common for Japanese to address older people as "Aunt" "Uncle" "Brother" "Sister" even if there is no blood relation.
As for the knife that Kaya gave Ashitaka, it was a custom of the village that a girl gave it to her husband when she got married. Hence, both Kaya and Ashitaka knew how important the knife meant to her.
After the not-so-definite answers of the last thread, Hanno Mueller wrote, "with so many interesting theories about such topics (and I mean interesting! it's fun!), why don't we someday ask the filmmakers themselves about it? Is there any chance for nausicaa.net to conduct some sort of interview with Myazaki and his staff about some of the more interesting fan questions and discussions? I guess there are a number of open questions that only the authors can give definitive answers to and I'd love to hear theirs.
(And I think that the questions or interpretations raised so far are much more interesting than the typical fan-boy questions during a convention panel* - I guess the moviemakers wouldn't mind to answer such questions.)
Ryoko Toyama cautioned, "For such questions as "what does that scene mean?", he would answer, "Just see the film and think for yourself." I don't think that he would give you the "right" answer. Well, sometimes he does, but he usually does not give you a straight answer.
When I had an honor of interviewing him, he said he did not talk about Mononoke since he had not sorted out his thoughts yet. Apparently, it was a very different film for him than his other films.
Maybe he'll feel differently when he finish making "Sen." He often said that he had a complicated feeling toward "Porco Rosso" since there was too much him in it, but he told me that he could forgive himself for making "Porco" since he had made stranger film than "Porco" (Mononoke).
Hanno replied, "I don't know. The answers about the crystal dagger I have seen so far were rather undetailed.
We are now sitting here and are constructing wild guesses about the possible social structure of the Emishi clan, but nobody of us knows for sure.
Of course there is never a "right" answer to such questions, but still, they must have put a lot of thought into the story of their films and when there are scenes that allow *so many* interpretations, I'm just much too curious which interpretation is theirs.
Marc Hairston announced the availability of Susan Napier's new anime book. The VHS tape of "Totoro" is on-sale at Amazon.com . Help complete the Anime Primer. Why fact checking is important. When you discover all your work is irrevelant.
That's it, see you next week!