That's what happened to me. First time watching I was too caught off guard by the ending to really let it sink in. Second time I spent the rest of the evening in a near breakdown.
Discuss and Rate the Last Film You Watched
- Thread starter Th3Ch33s3Cak3
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I watched Princess Kaguya once 10 years ago and I'm as heartbroken about it today as I was walking out of the theater.
Grave of the Fireflies is the famous one but I thought that movie was more miserable than heartbreaking, somehow.
Pom Poko is another one where the downer ending almost feels like a betrayal of the preceding silliness and exhilaration. Only Yesterday is cute but too melancholy for me.
Whatever you think of Miyazaki, I can't think of a single movie of his I wouldn't (or haven't) rewatched. My Neighbors the Yamadas is the only movie by Takahata I would rewatch.
Grave of the Fireflies is the famous one but I thought that movie was more miserable than heartbreaking, somehow.
Pom Poko is another one where the downer ending almost feels like a betrayal of the preceding silliness and exhilaration. Only Yesterday is cute but too melancholy for me.
Whatever you think of Miyazaki, I can't think of a single movie of his I wouldn't (or haven't) rewatched. My Neighbors the Yamadas is the only movie by Takahata I would rewatch.
The Wind Rises.
Apart from not finding it too interesting anyway, I couldn't bear to listen Hideaki Anno's performance again. Seriously Miyazaki, I know the guy's your friend and all, but what the fuck was that!?
Oh, yeah, that was weird. Anno was too old for the part. Apparently it's Joseph Gordon Levitt in the English dub, which sounds like the one American dub I might agree with for once.
I have rewatched it though. I like how the movie frames a lot of its shots like impressionistic paintings, the dream sequences, the meet cute and that interlude at the hotel. Also the way Miyazaki handles death at the end.
I think it's a case of "biopic about a dude whose work was far more interesting than himself, but let's not focus that much on his work anyway".
I've watched Kaguya twice, and it's so much more devastating the second time round. When you know what's coming, it feels like you're watching a video reel of a young child who you know died at 14. All the cuteness, all the exhilaration, all the growth, all of it replaced with an irrevocable emptiness. Merely thinking of the music that starts to play when then moon people arrive is getting me worked up. Kaguya tends to fly under the radar a lot, but it's in like the top 3 of every Ghibli movie ranking for a reason.
I also saw Star Wars: A New Hope for the first time in like 17 years today, and in theaters too. It's kinda hard to try to assess this movie in any kind of objective manner because it's so foundational, so I don't really have a choice but to put it at 10/10.
It holds up, and always will. It's one of the most quintessential hero's journeys in all of fiction. It's simple, but not basic. The characterization is extremely strong, as is the chemistry between the actors. You believe every word that comes out of their mouths. This time I really took notice of just how iconic and well done the visual design of everything is. Every place, character and location is extremely distinct, and the world has the perfect amount of detail and wear that it feels genuinely lived in. The pacing is about perfect. The score moves mountains. The effects are perfect sans the stupid CG additions the special edition did, which now just look distractingly bad in pristine 4k. So yeah, even with the oppressive Star Wars glut that's been going on for almost 10 years, it hasn't dimmed the original one bit, and actually makes it shine all the brighter. There's a sense of purity and sincerity to it that's been long absent from anything Star Wars (except maybe Andor, but I haven't seen that).
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