I already have Totoro on dvd. It's a Fox Films release that I got for $4 at Wal-Mart a few years ago. I love Totoro and Kiki. My favorite so far is Nausicaa. I'm excited for Howl.

It's not about the subtitles being more accurate. It's about hearing the original voice acting and the emotional quality that's inherent to the language.

This happens often in movie making where a film takes place somewhere other than the film maker's place of origin, but the film is in the film maker's language. While an argument can be made (and I might even agree with it) that said practice is kinda lame, once the movie is made, it's my preference to view it (well, hear it) in the language in which it's made. I mean, does the fact that Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and certain parts of A Tale of Two Cities are all written in English throw you off?

Was Miyazaki also 'Princess Mononoke'?

I think it was Miyazaki. It was definitely Ghibli.

Yes, Princess Mononoke is Miyazaki.

Since I'm talking anyway, here is my ranking (how quantitative) of the Miyazaki films I've seen, from best to less best:

Porco Rosso
Spirited Away
Howl's Moving Castle
Princess Mononoke
The Castle of Cagliostro
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Winds
Laputa: Castle in the Sky
Kiki's Delivery Service
My Neighbor Totoro

I loved Porco Rosso too. So funny. I also really loved the movie with the racoons that changed into things. Not sure if it was Ghibli though.

Yeah, it is Ghibli. Pom Poko is from Studio Ghibli's other leader Isao Takahata (and equally deserving of American respect but hasn't quite had it to the degree of Miyazaki).

Pom Poko is a movie that is entertaining for American audiences but you really need a Japanese person by your side explaining the mythology and folklore in the movie. Someone who knows, just upon hearing that it about racoons, that the racoons will be shapeshifters (as well as any foxes that might be in the movie). Lani was invaluable for this; for example, she was able to sing along to the song about their giant golden testicles.

They aren't exactly racoons though are they? The testicles were hilarious. I giggled like an elementary school kid through the whole movie.

No, they're not really raccoons, though that is how the movie translates it since the actual animal is unfamiliar to Americans for the most part.

The actual animal is a tanuki, a canine species that looks like a cross between a badger and a raccoon. They really do have large testicles and the anology with raccoons is pretty good because the tanuki have formed a similar tolerance for surviving in human inhabited areas. Here's a picture (of the animal, not the testicals):



What is funny is that the name of the movie Pom Poko is an onomatopoeia (Japanese is full of them) for the sound of the animals using their testicals (or rotund stomachs in less lowbrow versions) as drums. These are also the statues you see near the door of many Japanese restaurants.

As drums! What kinky beasts! (where can I find me some?)



GD: As far as original or locale-appropriate languages go ... a few odd points:

1) Shakespeare is ok in English no matter where the "film" takes place, because the film cannot escape its source theatricality and, well, it's Shakespeareian uber-alis that trumps all common sense.

2) Accents do wonders. If a movie takes place in Italy, I am fine with the suspension-of-disbelief method of using an Italian accent to speak in English. It's silly, but it works for me. Perhaps I'm wrong, but I don't think Japanese can be spoken in a foreign accent.

3) Through long cinematic custom, French accents are not necessary ... as British accents have come to be synonymous with French. It's a movie weirdity that I love and gleefullly ascribe to. I'm not aware of a similar convention existing for any other two languages. Certainly not Japanese.


I will watch Howl's in both English and the native Japanese. But I'm willing to bet I'll enjoy the English version better. It doen't hurt that they tend to get real actors to dub the Miyazaki films.