Tonari no Totoro

"Here is a children's film made for the world we should live in, rather than the one we occupy" said, Roger Ebert,a top film Critic of Chicago Sun times and I totally agree with him.He was commenting about an Asian animated movie that was released in 80's.

I have been watching a lot of animated movies for children lately. Most of those movies were of Disney's from Bambi to Tangled.It almost had become a routine to sit with my four year old daughter and watch each one of them. Some were good, some were bad, some where boring, some were thrilling, some were cute, some  were funny but none of them was as good as 'My neighbor totoro' that we watched today.

 Its a 1988 animated movie directed by one of the prominent Japanese animators 'Hayao Miyazaki'. Movie talks about  two little girls who moves into a haunted house in a strange village on the country side with their father, their encounters with some 'forest spirits' that live close by, and an interesting  adventure where their ailing mother is involved. But heart of the movie is the element of 'nature' and the way those children bond with it. Tiny creatures those live in their neighborhood or the spirit those hover around, no matter what, those smart girls are up to it. Nothing scares them and they scare nothing. Its the absolute harmony as enchanting as an ecological poem, that only few of us can connect with but all of us would love to live in.

 Miyazaki's animation is truly class. He creates movements those are hyper-natural yet extremely captivating. Look at the way the four year old Mei is portrayed. Each of her moves is hilarious and original.He adapted original hand drawn animation ,used water color and took to computers only when it was needed.if Lush green backgrounds of the movie was truly  phenomenal, the 'sound' is one extra bonus that we get.Who can forget the scene where Totoro and children waiting for their dad's bus when it rains?.It was one true beauty. No wonder that, ever since this movie, 'Totoro' became a nationwide cult and even an asteroid was named after him.

Ploy!!

'Ploy', a 2007 movie from Thailand directed by Pen-Ek Ratanaruang is beautiful, intense, dramatic, almost silent; yet cinematic with it's calm intriguing way of story telling. Movie is revolved around reality and dreams and some times, the layer between these two seems to be so thin that you get confused about the whole thing. May be this element is what giving the movie a surrealistic charm. You are already through a good sequence of detailed visuals only to realise that the entire sequence was a dream that one of those characters had. It reminded me of  Luis Bunuel's 'The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie' . Wiki article on the movie has a detailed plot which I think is not accurate; Plot cannot be explained in a direct manner with a so called 'spiler alert'  as the director wants you to choose a certain event as real or unreal at times. I think this flexibility in interpreting the movie opens a great window for a fresh cinematic experience every time you watch it. Ploy is a teen aged girl who happens to cross her path with a couple Wit and Dang who seems to be going through a seventh year itch. The entire movie is about one night in their life in a hotel room in Bangkok where Ploy joins them; Movie unfolds through the suspicions, and restlessness her visit creates among the couple, and also through the dreams and nightmares each one of them get. There are three to four other characters which thickens the plot in an indirect manner. Ploy cannot be explained, it has to be felt.