Isao Takahata's 1991 Studio Ghibl masterwork Omohide Poro Poro remains my all-time favorite animated feature film. This is a movie that I have championed for many years and remains, for me, the gold standard for the untapped potential for dramatic, naturalist animation, one inspired by Ozu and Fellini and Bergman and Renoir.
Miraculously, this movie is now available on Blu-Ray format in the States, thanks to the efforts of GKIDS, the American film distributor that has become a champion for global animation.
These screenshots were taken from the Japanese DVD, which I purchased way back in 2005, along with a stack of other Ghibli films. This was at a time when hardly anybody knew these gems existed, and it felt like a true treasure, a true secret left untold. I feel much happier today that this secret can now be shared with everyone.
For me, the genius of Omohide Poro Poro is its ability to weave multiple narratives between past and present, detailing key events in the childhood of a quiet office worker who yearns for direction and purpose. It is a commentary on (then) contemporary Japan, whose "bubble economy" created in pursuit of Western materialism had burst, offering the opportunity to reconnect with a Japan of the past. It is a film about those post-war generations, raised on television and movies, versed in the language of American Pop, learning to rediscover the cultural language of their homeland.
No comments:
Post a Comment