I was talking with my friend and we came to a startling discovery… neither of us can actually remember the plots of most of the Studio Ghibli movies. I’ve seen Mononoke about five times (I didn’t go out of my way, it just happened to be on TV or such most of those times). I… couldn’t tell you what happened. There was a boar… and some guy’s arm gets infected. There were wolves, and I think a giant deer god thing. I recall a vague nature vs technology theme but… that’s about it.
Totoro? I remember several good moments (e.g. Catbus!) from the movie, but other than their mom having an illness (TB?) I don’t really recall. Howl’s Moving Castle is infamous for having the ability to make me lose track of the plot while I’m in the middle of the movie. I mean, I can generally recognize most of the plot threads individually (Calcifer = Demon-comet-thing + Howl’s heart etc), but I often get confused as to how they all tie together.
Ponyo, Spirited Away, and Arrietty are better. I could probably give at the very least a bare summary of them, but it’s hard to tell if that’s just because I’ve (re)watched them more recently. Grave of the Fireflies I could probably give you a very good description of, but that’s not really a “typical” Ghibli movie.
Somehow this doesn’t damage my opinion of the movies. Whenever I watch a Ghibli movie I look forward to “this scene” or “that scene”, and it’s the little quirks, characters, and moments that really sell it, the story is almost superfluous. When I watch Spirited Away it’s always “yay, No-Face!” “It’s the giant Daikon Radish spirit!” or “I love the train scene” or “I like the way they showed her putting on her shoes in the boiler room” and very much not “gee I really am rooting for Chihiro to get her parents back.” I think this is also the appeal The Big Lebowski has to a lot of people – it’s really a shaggy dog story, the point wasn’t what happened in a grand sense, but the little things that happened on the way.
Or maybe my friend and I are just unusually unskilled at remembering the plots of adorable family movies. Does anybody else have the same problem?
While Ebert clearly knows the plot and mentions it frequently in his review, his closing note on his review of Totoro gives me some hope that at least somebody understands where I’m coming from:
I understand where you’re coming from, I just wouldn’t want to be without understanding the plot as well as experiencing the wonder of the universe/setting the movie creates…
Well, with the exception of Howl’s Moving Castle I usually understand the plot while I’m watching the movie just fine. I just can’t seem to remember it for more than a month.
I can’t remember more than the vaguest idea of any of those plots (which I understood just fine at the time), but I’m not really great at remembering the plots to old movies I’ve only seen once. I agree that it’s probably worse for some of Miyazaki’s movies where there’s not necessarily a lot of conflict.
Both Totoro and Spirited Away have a dreamlike quality that (IMHO successfully) nails a child’s view of the world; the plots aren’t complex, but thematically they’re rich.
Laputa has a fairly standard lost-city story that includes at least three separate factions fighting each other in their attempt to find the ancient fortress. Porco Rosso isn’t as tightly scripted - more of a character study - but there’s still a story that the film takes us through. Mononoke’s ambition almost overwhelms its ability to deliver an entertaining film - almost. Ponyo’s plot is simple but well-told.
I can’t tell you what Howl’s Moving Castle was about, though. There’s a castle that either howls or moves, that’s all I got.
The OP didn’t say anything about not understanding the plots.
I don’t remember the plots all that clearly. But that’s not a Ghibli thing, I have a bad memory for movie plots in general (and yet, I did understand them, go figure).
Yes, a lot of Ghibli movies almost disappear from my memory after I watch them. Mononoke, Nausicaa, and Howl’s Moving Castle are three examples. Also one about robbers… or something?
Arrietty is easy to remember because it follows, more or less, a story I already knew. And Ponyo and Totoro… well… they’re my two-year-old’s two favorite movies. Not a single second of those that I couldn’t recount to you, heh.
I think I remember them about as well as I remember the plots of movies I saw under similar circumstances. Princess Mononoke is fuzzy, but I only saw it once in the theater when it was released in the US, so that was nearly 15 years ago.
Most of the Ghibli movies I’ve seen were not particularly plot-driven, though. There’s not a lot of character has goal X and must do A, B, and C to progress towards that goal. In My Neighbor Totoro the plot is basically just that the mother is sick, then she gets worse, the girls fight, the younger daughter runs away to find her mother at the hospital and everyone is worried, but the older sister finds her and everything is okay. Otherwise it’s the girls exploring their new home in the country and having various encounters with Totoro and other magical creatures.
imho, Kiki’s Delivery Service is a good example of a Ghibli movie: a simple plot about the everyday life of our antagonist in her envioronment. no fireballs, no laser light show, no fanfare, yet somehow more magical than most overt CGI offerings.
I saw The Avengers, ummm. Get them together even though they don’t really want to be together, then bad things from outerspace come and they fight together.
Then they have schwarma.
Is that enough?
I really do remember the plot to Spirited Away and Princess M.
Mononoke is difficult because many of the characters in it are neither good nor bad. For example, the gun-woman who runs Iron Town is in many ways a wholly admirable character - she is just too ambitious. Similarly, Princess Mononoke herself is in many ways admirable, but she’s a fanatic who denies her own humanity.
Nuanced characters are harder to describe simply than characters who are obvious good or bad guys.
I have trouble remembering any actual plot in the one about the fish girl, but that’s also the only one I’ve seen. Ghibli does what everyone does these days–too many pointless camera movements that make me dizzy.
Ghibli or Hayayo Miyazaki basically has two types of stories that they favor alot
Action/Adventure Nature vs. Technology:
In Nausicca, Laputa aka Castle in the Sky, and Princess Mono (sic)).
Plot:
The prognosists are ususally two people, a girl (usually) who comes from or favors a civilization that based on harmony with nature while the boy (usually) comes from a civilization that is similar to harmony with nature civilziation expect they may be more focused on technology to better their lives. The two heroes face a evil empire or army that is based heavily on technological use to gain ULIMATE POWER!!!:D. But the evil empire plans backfires when they can’t control their own technology or go against nature. The heroes…basically have to fix the problems and restore peace again in a overused cliche plot we seen a million times.
Slice of Life
In Howl’s Moving Castle, Kiki’s, Spirited Away,
Plot: Girl moves to a strange place. She usually has some type of magicial power or is in a magic world. Sometimes she has to stop or fight some magic powered person. Along her journey, she learns or the people around her learn the true meaning of life, or something positive. Girl’s life gets better. and life is all unicorns and rainbows.