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.