Club Ghibli #15 - Ponyo (2008)

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Diddy

愛してるって 言わなきゃ殺す
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And now for something completely different. It's dealer's choice this week, as we try to compose ourselves after "Grave of the Fireflies", I thought we deserved a palate cleanser, and a reminder that some kids are alright.

"Ponyo", or "Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea" ("Gake no Ue no Ponyo") is the eighth of ten Miyazaki-directed works to date. While it was tempting to give you Totoro instead, completing the double-feature it shared with "Grave of the Fireflies", I thought its spiritual successor might be a nice twist - let's see how long before the usual suspects barge in to say how much they hated it when they watched in 14 years ago.

The film follows the intertwining stories of 5-year-old boy Sosuke, and the titular baby goldfish. Ponyo escapes from her... sea wizard(?) father and is rescued by Sosuke. A new friendship is born, but could events spiral out of control from there? You know, they just might.

The film was a huge smash in Japan, becoming the 5th biggest grossing movie of all time (now settling for 7th), and currently the 5th biggest grossing Japanese-made movie worldwide, boosted by Ghibli's then-biggest cinema launch in the US. So it is one of the last high watermarks for the studio, for now. It certainly got a big push Stateside, with a voice cast including Tina Fey, Cate Blanchett, Matt Damon, Liam Neeson, Betty White, Lily Tomlin and Cloris Leachman. That said, I found the American child voice actors (Noah Cyrus! Also the lost Jonas brother) incredibly shrill and annoying, song included. Subbed all the way please!



HOW THIS WORKS

In a semi book club format, the films will be announced, and over the course of about 2 weeks we can watch it and let everyone know what we thought. I'll nominate someone to pick the next film each time, but maybe let's try not to blow all the famous ones first!

I was thinking 2 weeks should be enough time for most people to fit in a viewing at some point, but it's not strict so please come back when you have a chance, no pressure!
@Christian @Gangsta Nancy Lam @jivafox @COB @Haiku @ZenGiraffe @Lucille @KindaCool @Eyes @Queen of the Bay @RaspberrySwirl @RJN @Beverley @big ron @ButterTart @Mats (let me know if you don't want to be tagged any more)
 
let's see how long before the usual suspects barge in to say how much they hated it when they watched in 14 years ago.
:(

I like this one. It takes a few unexpected turns which took some getting used to, but that's true with the best of the Ghibli's. I find the first half is much more fun than the second as the "villain" is a bit of a non-event. The racing along the coast with the waves going NUTS is always thrilling :disco:
 
:(

I like this one. It takes a few unexpected turns which took some getting used to, but that's true with the best of the Ghibli's. I find the first half is much more fun than the second as the "villain" is a bit of a non-event. The racing along the coast with the waves going NUTS is always thrilling :disco:

What’s up honey bee? I didn’t mean you!

Actually I didn’t mean anyone who usually posts in here. For some other people Ponyo is triggering because they got annoyed once
 
Hillary Clinton Debate GIF by The Daily Dot
 
How are we getting on with this?

Well if you're going to SNIPE about my method of REVIEWING FROM MEMORY you have to be prepared to SPEAK TO THE WALLS!

For the record, I ONLY saw this maybe EIGHT years ago and I really enjoyed it, but it's a MINOR OUVRE in my opinion, albeit technically impressive.

But WHAT DO I KNOW EH.
 
I really liked Ponyo. Not sure if there's a deeper meaning to it but it's good regardless. I'd ike to think most of the plot comes from folk tales, traditions and superstition. It's extremely appealing visually and it kept my interest high. Lovely and cute.
 
Well if you're going to SNIPE about my method of REVIEWING FROM MEMORY you have to be prepared to SPEAK TO THE WALLS!

For the record, I ONLY saw this maybe EIGHT years ago and I really enjoyed it, but it's a MINOR OUVRE in my opinion, albeit technically impressive.

But WHAT DO I KNOW EH.

:D hand on my heart I didn’t mean any of the present day Ghiblettes, I appreciate you and love you.

This was a film that actually had threads on moopy already so I was nosing around - and well, you know there are those among us who love nothing better to make a bee-line for threads just to put some yuk in someone’s yum. I was just trying to preempt that, but ended up annoying our current clientele :(
 
I really liked Ponyo. Not sure if there's a deeper meaning to it but it's good regardless. I'd ike to think most of the plot comes from folk tales, traditions and superstition. It's extremely appealing visually and it kept my interest high. Lovely and cute.

This made me :D for some reason. Very polite! But I guess you’re right, it’s one of the Ghibli films that isn’t really ABOUT much, it’s just fun for fun’s sake, and much more aimed at kids than other movies.

That doesn’t have to be a bad thing, I mean Only Yesterday wasn’t really about much, but I loved that. But I guess Ponyo had the trappings of an adventure movie, which usually means there’s a point.

I need to watch it still, I wonder how it compares to the last time
 
Btw CLUB ANNOUNCEMENT
We are in the last third of the movies now, does anyone mind if I seize control of the running order?

Mostly I have just been asking the same 6 people - 3 or 4 of which don’t do anything in these threads, including the ones they picked :D

Just to curate the last stretch - we have a few big titles still left in the bag, aaaand… some others :eyes:
 
It was cute! I hadn't seen it before. Really nice sense of positivity and a nice small collection of characters with a cute lead, I was prepared for Ponyo to get annoying but she was lovely to watch. Loved the mum too, a great character throughout the film.

I liked how blasé nearly everyone in the movie was about encountering supernatural stuff. 'Oh, this is Ponyo, she was a fish but now she's a girl' 'How lovely, dear'. But it was a nice wash of supernatural stuff, coastal Japan is always a great setting and the undersea stuff looked beautiful throughout.

Agree it's not really about much or has much high-stakes stuff going on, but I did get emotionally happy when it finished and I enjoyed it throughout.
 
Omg I forgot to say I went to the place the Ponyo town was based on! Pics when I get back (though it wasn’t really big landmarks, definitely a vibe though)
 
The opening scene and the bit where Ponyo rides on the waves while the car drives over the cliff is BEAUTIFUL.

And the bit about BREASTFEEDING towards the end is A BIT WEIRD but I'm sensing there's something LOST IN TRANSLATION.
 
RIGHT - I loved it :D It has been a while since I've watched it, and I was FAIRLY familiar with it, being one of my obsessions at the time - but I was pleased with how fast the 100 minutes went.

I think something this/Ghibli has over western studios is that the latters' movies might have a lot of things happening, but a lot of it is dropped in so they can be all clever that they foreshadowed something or planted a seed that would pay off later, or just endless Easter eggs (oh hi Pixar). This movie demonstrates the opposite - worldbuilding in the most random sense, just all this stuff that just raises questions that won't get answered.

Like basically everything about Ponyo's dad - he's making elixir to promote sealife, and lowkey the extermination of the human race - what a throwaway line in the first act that never comes up again. I have no idea what he was up to in the last scenes where he was with Sosuke - was he going to kidnap her again until Toki intervened? Why is the all-powerful ocean goddess just fine with all that?

The insane car dash through the storm! I can't remember a western film like that - the girl wants to meet the boy, which ends up more like MY LOVE WILL CRUSH YOU ACCIDENTALLY :D

The colour pallette is so gorgeous too, all those rich blues and reds, but it's not gaudy, no matter how many giant golden fish there are. Those teeny Ponyettes too, so cute.

Weird lines that would definitely get edited out of a western movie (yes I know I'm harping on about it but I've been catching up on Disney+ these days so the differences are STARK). The mum saying "Oh good, the gas is still on", then Sosuke "It's propane!" I mean wtf, and later he's talking about the Devonian era fish, he's 5 years old :D

Sosuke's family relationship is just poked at but never examined - why does he call his parents by their first names? The poor dad is there but not there, there's not reunion, just reassurance he didn't drown.

The old ladies, the repeated brushing off of the human girl at Sosuke's kindergarten, the random boat toy (wtf is that), the titular character FEASTING ON HUMAN BLOOD AND MUTATING

HAM!!!

A triumph
 

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