An Introduction to Manga
Mushishi
I absolutely
loved Mushishi, it was like no story I’ve ever experienced before. It’s so hard
for me to explain the creatures, the Mushi. Some people have said that the
Mushi are similar to the western myth of demons. There are all kind of demons
water demons, mountain demons, and sound demons, etc. And there are many types
of Mushi but the Mushi are inherently neither good nor evil. They are also
natural, not wicked, they are older than most organisms. There really is no
western equivalent to the mushi. The composition of panels really added to the
story telling. I reminded me of shots from a film. I think my favorite moment
was in the Mushishi’s first encounter when we learned about the how the
grandmother lost half of herself. That shot when she’s just standing, then she
walks away but her mushi half stays in place watching her other half walk off
was beautiful! Another strong moment for me was the man who thought his dreams
were visions of the future. In reality his dreams were merely dreams but the
mushi made his dreams become reality. I didn’t see that twist.
This
manga had me at the edge of my seat with my nose between the pages. It wasn’t
and action manga, there were no fights but it was just so interesting and I was
completely wrapped in the mystery of the mushi.
Millennium Actress
I watched this movie without
looking at a review or a trailer so it was something entirely new and I didn’t
know what to expect. When the film genre first changed and the time period
jumped between the 1940s back 800 years I was genuinely surprised.
It is a beautiful movie and a
strong homage to film. I really love that the director and the cameraman were
Physically drawn into Chiyoko’s story. The shots and editing was fantastic. The
montage where she’s running through all the films to the painting of the moon
shows just how good the editing was. One other thing I love was the repetition
of the actors (such as her older co-star.) The policeman was very interesting
to me. The moment when he returned to apologize to Chiyoko as an old man was
very strong. We learn that he killed the painter with torture. Chiyoko didn’t
hear this though, she’s been chasing after a dead man for most of her life. And
she’s cursed to chase after him for 1000 years. At the end of the film when Chiyoko
was dying/leaving in a spaceship I couldn’t help but hope we’d see a scene of
her finally reunited with the painter in the afterlife. But the movie just
ended instead and it made me cry.
No comments:
Post a Comment