While Studio Ghibli is most closely associated with Miyazaki, he has only made 7 of the 14 Ghibli films. Of the other seven (which includes a TV film) only Grave of the Fireflies by Isao Takahata appears to be well known (relatively speaking)
So I thought I would start a thread about the other less well known Ghibli films (ie. exluding GOTF and the Miyazaki films).
I have seen only two of them: Only Yesterday: Also by Takahata and a wonderful film. It’s about a woman at age 27 visiting the countryside while various episodes in her childhood at age 10 are told in flashback. These childhood sequences,in particular, are among the most charming I have ever seen in any film. The adult sequences aren’t quite as good but still provide an interesting look at life in the Japanese countryside.
Whisper of the Heart: about a teenage girl and her first romance. I liked the first half of the film which sets up the girl’s life: her family,school and the city where she lives and especially enjoyed the sequence where she follows a cat and discovers an antique shop. The latter part of the film about her search for creative expression and her romance is not as good IMO but not bad either. This film has some truly glorious art-work particularly the various cityscapes and landscapes and the antique shop.
Anyone else seen the less well-known Ghibli films and have any comments?
The other four films incidentally are Pom Poko, My Neighbors the Yamadas,(both by Takahata), The Cat Returns(recently released in Japan) and Ocean Waves(a TV movie).
I’ve mentioned it on here a few times before, but Pom Poko is my favorite Ghibli movie and one of my favorite movies ever.
It’s the most overt in its environmental message, but IMO it’s also the most profound; by the end of the movie you really identify with all the tanuki and it’s made clear how their loss is everyone’s loss. And the environmental message is delivered along with a slightly more subtle message of how we’re not just destroying the planet but losing our souls and our history. It’s just a beautiful, weird movie all around.
Sol Grundy,
Pom Poko is definitely next on my list of Ghibli films to watch.
BTW is Takahata amazing or what? Each of his four Ghibli films is completely different from the other. Though he tends to be overhshadowed by Miyazaki, I think he is his equal as an animator and GOTF is the greatest animation I have every seen and one of the very greatest films of any kind.
As the response to this thread indicates, though, his films other than GOTF are not well-known which is a pity.
Well, I have to admit that the only movies of his that I’ve seen are Grave of the Fireflies and Pom Poko. I have copies of the others, but every time I start to watch I get distracted and watch Pom Poko again! (And I’m never watching GOTF again!)
But if I can make a generalization based on seeing only two movies and the beginning of a third (Only Yesterday), I’d say that Takahata’s are more grounded in reality. Pom Poko isn’t “realistic,” of course, but it is all based on existing Japanese folklore. That’s actually one of the reasons I like it so much. I was completely unfamiliar with the mythology and learning about the history afterwards seemed to give the movie more depth. At first it just seems like a goofy cartoon movie with big-balled racoons and a preachy environmental message, but I was able to appreciate it more once I saw how they’d taken existing folklore and worked it to apply to their message. And it was also interesting to learn that some of the more cartoony depictions of the tanuki were an homage to a classic manga. (I read all this at Nausicaa.net’s FAQ file for the movie).
I’ll check out the others as soon as I get my copies back (I loaned them out to a friend who got tired of listening to me go on about Pom Poko all the time).
Of the non-Miyazaki Ghibli films, I’ve only seen Whispers, Pom Poko and Grave of the Fireflies. They were all excellent. I’m somewhat hesitant about seeing My Neighbors the Yamadas (reminds me of an animated version of the Family Circus for some reason), but some of the others are definitely on my list: namely, The Cat Returns and Only Yesterday.
In fact, I recently acquired a copy of Pom Poko (ah, the joys of broadband) and the only thing holding me back from watching it again is I want to convince enough friends to make it worthwhile that watching an environmental parable about raccoons with enormous testicles is actually fun.
