Derganz Baker-- I REMEMBER

The movie Spirited Away was an amazing movie of love and growth. The movie is centered on a 10 year old girl named Chihiro who is stuck in the spirit world. Chihiro is trapped in the spirit world because of her parent’s gluttony and greed. Her parents ate all the food that was meant for the spirits; because they did this they were turned into pigs.  Greed is an element that shows itself a few times in this movie. One of the greediest people in the movie was Yubaba, the witch who was in charge of the spirit bath house. Several times we see her counting money or looking at jewelry. No-Face, a client that causes lots of trouble, keeps passing out little gold nuggets. Everyone in the bath house tends to his needs so they could get more money. In the end all the nuggets turn to dirt. To me it shows money cannot buy happiness.

While working in the bath house one of Chihro’s first jobs was to take care of a sludge monster that was large and smelly. Chihiro was the only one who noticed something was wrong with him. She pulled on a handle and all this garbage came out. Turns out that he was a polluted river spirit. To thank her, the river spirit gave Chihiro some kind of healing ball which she later used to heal Haku.

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Another element that Chihiro has to deal with is tradition and religion. The movie is about how humans should behave when entering the spirit world. They have to show respect or there will be consequences. Another example of religion and tradition in the movie is the bridge that Chihiro has to cross with Haku. Because Chihiro is a human she must hold her breath to cross.  There is also a lot of water in this movie which goes along with Shinto religion. Water can mean birth, and Chihiro is not the same girl that was at the beginning of the film. Chihiro went from being a little girl who with no self-confidence to a strong independent girl. She didn’t just help save her parents; Chihiro helped Haku remember his name, found a place for No-Face, and showed Yubaba that she shouldn’t underestimate people.

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Derganz Baker-Blinded by Rage

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The movie Nausicca was by far one of my favorite animes of the class. It’s a movie about a courageous young princess who risks her own life to save her people. Nausicca had a gift; she had the ability to calm giant insects from the toxic jungle. We first see this at the beginning of the film when Nausicca saves Lord Yupa from an Ohum. She calms the beast and sends it back to the jungle. Even at young age Nausicca had this gift, she once tried to hide a baby Ohum from the village. Her father took it away from her and told her that insects and humans can’t get along. She begs them not to kill it then falls to the ground crying. In her heart she feels that someway both insects and humans can get along.

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Nausicca was a true heroine. She was loved by everyone in the valley. She put herself in front of an angry herd of Ohum. In the end she was mowed over and thrown into the air. She lands on the ground dead. At first we think that she is really dead, but what kind of movie would that be. The Ohum realize that she means them no harm and bring her back to life. She turns out be the prophesy; she is the one in blue that will bring harmony.  Nausicca didn’t like all the killing that was going on. Throughout the film she tells people to stop. After she found her father dead she attacked the soliders killing many of them, after all that bloodshed she broke down in tears.  

Princess Nausicca is kind of like another princess that we encountered earlier in the year in the movie Princess Mononoke.  San is another great example of a true heroine. She too put her life on the line to try and protect her forest and the creatures in it. She tries to kill her biggest enemy who was destroying her forest. She also goes to battle with the leader of the boar clan because he was blind…and a bit stubborn. She knew that she could not let him fight without her.

Both women make great role models. They weren’t the typical princesses who sat in a tower waiting for their prince to come. Every girl should learn how to be just like Nausicca and San.

Derganz Baker- Love, Hate and War

The movie Princess Mononoke is a movie evil and hatred. It is also full of love and goodness. The two characters that I felt truly embodied good and evil were Lady Eboshi and San. Lady Eboshi was the leader of Iron Town. She took women out of brothels and gave them real jobs and taught them to use guns to take care of themselves.  Lady Eboshi also took care of a group of lepers. She cleaned their rotting flesh and gave them jobs making light weight guns for the women in the town. Even though Lady Eboshi had all these good qualities, she did have her evil moments. Lady Eboshi was the one who shot the boar who came to Ashitaka’s village. The mining of Iron Town destroyed the forest. Lady Eboshi also had the job of cutting off the head of the forest god. Doing that could change the forest forever.

San is the princess of the forest. Her mother is the wolf god, leader of the wolf clan. San truly loves the forest and she loves the inhabitants of the forest. She goes to war alongside the boar clan because their leader is blind. She knows that this could mean certain death, but she doesn’t care. She knew she had to help protect the forest. But she too had an evil side. Her main goal in life is to kill Lady Eboshi. She had this deep hatred inside of her heart that completely blinded her.

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In my heart I truly believe that there is good in everyone, you just have to look deep enough. That statement is evident in this movie. With the help of Ashitaka both Lady Eboshi and San realize that they are full of hatred, and in the end they turn it around. After the forest god destroys Iron Town Lady Eboshi says that she will start over. What that means, no one really knows. We hope it means that she will rebuild the town but this time in harmony with the forest. San realizes that she no long hates Lady Eboshi, though she still doesn’t like humans, she hates them a little less.

Derganz Baker- Love is BLIND

The movie Ah! My Goddess is about a human being falling in love with a goddess. At first that sounds pretty amazing, but it’s not exactly perfect. Goddesses are sent from heaven to grant a deserving human one wish. The goddess Belldandy was sent to grant Keiichi a wish. What that wish was, we do not know, but over time the two fall in love. After Belldandy doesn’t return to heaven her sisters Urd and Skuld come looking for her. For a while things seem great, the four of them live together on earth. Things changed one night when a mysterious man came to earth in search of Belldandy.

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Belldandy runs to the man, she is so excited to see him she beings to cry. She explains to Keiichi that it is Celestine her old teacher. Celestine leans in and kisses Belldandy which causes her to lose consciousness. When Urd, Skuld and Keiichi get Belldandy back to the house they realize that her memory of Keiichi has been erased. Celestine and Morgan, a fairy princess, needed Belldandy’s help. Celestine wanted to rid the earth of all suffering. He felt that the gods weren’t doing their job. Celestine felt that the gods were discriminating other races and allowing them to suffer. Celestine brings Belldandy to the Judgment Gate, the gate mixed species couples must pass through to prove their love. He explains that no couple has successfully made it through the gate then he destroys it.

Celestine’s idea was a good one, but he tried to achieve his goal in the wrong way. Wanted to get rid of human suffering doesn’t make him a bad guy, what makes him a bad guy is interfering with Belldany’s life and almost destroying the earth. It must have been extremely hard for Belldany to choose what side she wanted to be on. Being a goddess she didn’t have much free will. She could not decide which human she got assigned too and higher powers could control her; Celestine was able to erase her memory and if he wasn’t stopped the higher gods were willing to vaccinate Belldandy. In the end she had to decide who she loved more; Celestine or Keiichi. In the end she chose Keiichi and to live on earth forever despite all the suffering and death. Belldandy and Keiichi go down in history as the first couple to make it through the Judgment Gate.

Why do fireflies have to die so soon?- Derganz Baker

The Grave of the Fireflies was an extremely emotional movie.  Even though I didn’t cry I do admit the movie did pull at my heart strings. The brother sister connection was extremely strong between the two main characters. The first glimpse of their connection is at the beginning of the film when the air raid alarms go off. The brother ties his sister to his back and is about to run out of the house and his little sister freaks out because she doesn’t want to leave without her doll. Most brothers would tell their sisters to forget about the doll and tell them they need to get to safety. Seita was different, he runs back and grabs the doll and runs out the door.

Something else I noticed was that whenever Setsuko cried Seita did everything he could to comfort her. Once he gave her candy, which isn’t exactly the best thing to do, but it was nice.  He never seems to get upset or frustrated with her. Everything he did was for her. He didn’t want to tell her about their mother’s death because he knew it would crush her. And when she was sick he took her to the doctor and got really upset when he didn’t help her.

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Society isn’t very kind of children in this movie. The first sigh of this is when the children go to live with their aunt after their town is destroyed. At first the aunt seemed decent; she shorted all the food that the children brought with them. But later on she trades their mother’s clothes for rice and only gives them half of the food. They should have said something right there instead of being happy with half. The next thing she did to them was tell them they didn’t dissever the same kind of food that her husband and daughter got because they didn’t do anything to help their country. The second adult that the children had direct contact with that was cruel was the farmer. The farmer is also mean to the children for turning in the brother for stealing. Society didn’t care about people who weren’t part of their family. They would see children almost dead in the street and just keep walking.

I like the way the movie connected the children with fireflies. Fireflies don’t live long, but while alive they are full of life and beautiful just like children. They are the perfect example that beauty doesn’t last. We need to live life to the fullest because life can be cut short at any time.  The article that we read that went along with the movie was good. It was more interesting than I thought it was going to be.

There is no place like HOME- Derganz Baker

The Harp of Burma is a movie about a Japanese platoon fighting in Burma. To help with the horrors of war and the homesickness the men in the platoon form a choir. There was one soldier named Mizushima who didn’t sing, he played the Burmese Harp. Mizushima never played the harp before the war, but it turned out that he was a natural. A few minutes into the film the war ends and the soldiers are sent to a POW camp, except for Mizushima. He was sent to go Triangle Mountain to tell a platoon that the war was over. After a long period of time Mizushima didn’t rejoin his comrades at the camp. One day while walking across a bridge they saw a Buddhist Priest walk by who looked exactly like their lost friend.

From that moment on they did everything in their power to get in connect with the Buddhist Priest. If it really was their friend Mizushima they wanted him to go back to Japan with them. One day the priest comes to see them men, he doesn’t say a thing he just played his harp and leaves. On the ship back to Japan the men are read a letter from the priest, who turned out to be Mizushima. The letter talked about how much Mizushima missed his friends and his homeland but could not leave Burma. He had found his calling; it was to bury his dead comrades. He couldn’t go home while all those dead Japanese soldiers’ bodies were left to the elements.

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We did some reading this week on death and suicide. In Japanese culture death and suicide are treated differently than in America. In anime death happens to everyone; good, bad, young and old. They feel that death is a fact of life and shouldn’t be sugar coated. In America some religions believe in heaven and hell, and that the soul will go to a better place. But in Japan death is seen as a gross and dark thing. Suicide is also treated differently. In Japan suicide is seen as an honorable thing, unless it’s done because of academics or something pointless like that. In America suicide is seen as wrong, in some religions it’s a sin.

In the movie Letters from Iwo Jima the soldiers are told from the superior to kill themselves. Instead of being captured by the enemy they were to do the honorable thing and committed suicide. The man had to decide; do they fight for their country or listen to their superior and die with honor. 

Derganz Baker- Who am I

Losing your identity must be extremely discouraging. There are three people who went through this traumatic experience.  Tetsuo is the main character of the movie Akira. Tetsuo lost his identity because of science. Scientist did experiments on children to enhance their supernormal powers.

After hitting one of the children who had been experimented on Tetsuo wakes up in a strange hospital. His body had been changed forever. Tetsuo’s body is now surging with a new power. Slowly he lets his powers take over, and he likes the feeling of control. Towards the of the movie his power completely engulfs him and he turns into this large unidentifiable body. He is no longer the little boy in the biker gang, and he is no longer the boy who showed that he wasn’t a weak kid. He can no longer control is powers because they have become too strong.

The next person to lose sight of who they are was a girl named Mima from the movie Perfect Blue. Mima went from being a pop star to an actress. Mima’s identity is lost through the media. Mima is doing a movie and after a while it is hard for her and the audience to tell which is reality and which is the movie. Through the film Mima is objectified by men. Her audience is pronominally men. The director and the writer have Mima do a smutty rape scene. Mima also is being haunted by her former pop star self. With the movie filming and the figure following her Mima doesn’t know who she is anymore.

The last character was a woman named Motoko from the movie Ghost in the Shell.  If someone where to look at Motoko they would assume that she was human. They would be partially correct. Motoko used to be fully human, but now she is only 5%. The rest of her body is cyborg. Motoko has a hard time understanding who she is. Motoko goes swimming even though cyborgs aren’t supposed to get wet. She does it show she can feel fear, and her slow floatation to the surface is like her birth. In her ghost, a cyborg’s soul, Motoko knows she is different in some way; as if she is capable of more.

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