Oh, hey there.
Sorry, I'll be right there. Just need to take a moment to finish eating this crow after the comments I made about the change in the weather in that last entry.
In hindsight, I should have known that would lead to snow. Not that it stuck around, but still a 'What are the odds?' moment to be sure.
Anyway, welcome back to 52 Pick-Up, the year long dig into my movie-going to do list. As the old saying goes 'You'll never watch/read them all', but damned if I'm not gonna try.
Going from last week to this week is making for an interesting contrast for me. Last week marked by second look into the works of director Jafar Panahi – and I'm fast becoming a fan – and conversely, this week I'm going into a director whose filmography I have already seen most of.
In hindsight, it's actually surprising I still had any gaps for Hayao Miyazaki, but here we are. On the plus side, that can also be read as saying 'Hey, I have a chance to see a Miyazaki movie for the first time' and those opportunities are rare for me now.
Which was the upside to the fact I'm only now getting to watching Ponyo (or Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea for the purists.)
Going into this, I only knew in the very general sense that this was Miyazaki doing his own variation on the story of The Little Mermaid. There is an element of that at play here – the underwater dwelling young girl meets a boy on the surface and decides she wants to see more of life above the water line. Past that, however, Miyazaki puts his own spins on it – rather than being a traditional mermaid, Ponyo starts as a fish-like being that ultimately turns herself more human as her desire to see this new world, and her human friend Sosuke, grow stronger. Her father, meanwhile, is against the idea both for the general reasons of not wanting to lose his child to the surface and also for the fact his daughter's newfound use of magic may be throwing the world into chaos. As Ponyo spends more time on the surface and the seas go more unchecked, the situation becomes clear that a choice will have to be made, in order to decide both the fate of the world and our titular heroine.
In terms of comparisons to last week, this is another movie where there's a strength in how it balances its elements, perhaps best exemplified in the depiction of Ponyo's father, Fujimoto. Presented as distrustful of humans and the surface world, there are moments where it would be very easy for a less deft hand to try and cast him as an out and out villainous figure, particularly as this take on the story does not present any sort of witch figure as the cause of Ponyo's change. What stakes there are come more in the form of the tsunami that dominates the second half of the movie, explained as a result of Ponyo's use of magic. Part of what makes that balance interesting is, while the storm is present and not simply brushed aside, the emotional heft remains more on Fujimoto's fear of letting go. When he tells Ponyo's mother that the universe is out of balance, it can just as easily be in reference to how he's feeling in the moment as it is to the genuine consequences of what is happening. In keeping with that personal focus, the resolution is not a grand, sweeping gesture, but more an emotional moment of choice and acceptance that, true to Miyazaki's form, feels very adult even as he keeps much of the rest of this movie in a lighter, more child-friendly tone.
Less so the religious part, more Ponyo's enthusiasm for ham.
That tone, to be clear, isn't a criticism. In fact, it's another of the movie's real charms in this case. Visually, this has a bit of a different style to it compared to some other Ghibli movies – besides a bright color palette, there's some clearer, crisper line work (this being inspired by the animation director's earlier short film) that, rather than looking cheaper, actually pops more for certain scenes, such as Ponyo's first times coming to the surface. That look also feels fitting given how many scenes are buoyed by her childlike sense of wonder at this new world she is discovering and all the people within it. Going back to that earlier point, it speaks to how well the movie can balance this with the emotional heft of Fujimoto's scenes, both for tone and art style without the movie feeling like it's suffering any sort of whiplash for it.
I have to admit, going into this, I was initially having that thought of 'what to say here?'. Not because there aren't good things to say, I've already said some, after all, but also just because with the combined pedigrees of Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki, singing the praises of their work almost feels like a, if you'll pardon the term here, 'water is wet' moment. At the same time, that was part of what led to those topics above. Miyazaki does consistently good work, but that where he excels can vary from movie to movie,. There is something to the balancing act at work in Ponyo that feels rather unique to it, even if it's with elements that Miyazaki has touched on in his other movies.
No real joke here, but I do also really enjoy the fact
the opening sequence of this movie is entirely dialogue free.
Even as any sort of criticism goes, it feels strange that the most I can think to say here is 'it's good, but he's done better.' That's not even anything to the fault of Ponyo, but simply to the strength of other Miyazaki movies. Just taken on its own, this has a lot to recommend in it – it's a very funny, charming, brisk movie that brings a lot of the Ghibli spirit to a classic story and turning it into their own spin.
If, like me, you have somehow gone through a good number of Ghibli's movies and missed this, I would recommend giving this one your time. That said, I am also going to break from my usual format here to also say I would recommend watching this paired with another acclaimed Japanese director's take on the Little Mermaid story – Masaki Yuasa's Lu Over the Wall. While there are elements of similarity, it is also genuinely fun to watch how these two filmmakers each take this same core idea and both take it in very different (but both enjoyable) directions.
Okay, points to the randomizer. After how this month has been so far, I think I needed this refreshing watch.
But, April keeps rolling and it's time to wrap up here and start gearing up for next time.
The fantastical will be continuing, though in a bit of a different tone next week. Next week marks the first foray into Czech film with the dark fantasy, Valerie and Her Week of Wonders.
Until then.
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