Transcript of 70mm’s Princess Mononoke (1997) Episode.
SLIM Hey, it’s your old pal Slim and this is 70mm, a podcast for film lovers just like you. Every Monday, I chat about recently watched movies with my close friend and artist, Danny Haas.
DANNY When he re-strings his bow, like I get so excited about him restringing a bow and I don’t know why, but it looks awesome, like he’s ready for battle.
SLIM And our spiritual advisor and movie insider, Protolexus.
PROTO I’ve said it before and I’ll just say it again, when I am President, every American child will receive the Ghibli box-set at birth. That is my promise to this nation.
SLIM Our featured discussion later in this episode for the Animated Summer is Proto’s pick from Studio Ghibli, Princess Mononoke. Feel free to use the chapters in your podcast app to skip ahead to that discussion. Is this the ideal movie to teach your kids about suffering? Does it have the most complex characters in the history of animation? Let’s find out together.
[70mm theme song ramps up, plays alone, fades out]
SLIM Hayao Miyazaki. Ever heard of them? Princess Mononoke is our featured the presentation later in the show. I just want to call out real quick — there are still limited quantities of the Hayao pin in the Village storefront VHSvillage.com.
PROTO Hayao!
SLIM Limited quantities available. So I’m just throwing that out there. Supporters get a discount on all the merch that’s on there. A word to the wise. Later in the show if you’re disgusted by our Mononoke conversation there’s another podcast out there that you can try. Our friends at The Movie Mixtape podcast covered it this exact week As of recording and our close personal friend Mikey, Pete did the art for that episode, daddy, we should think about that art that he dropped?
DANNY You know, I felt I felt scared for what I had to accomplish this week after seeing the art that he dropped. Almost had to just you know, copy paste and take his art for the show
SLIM I have seen your art hasn’t been posted As of recording in chat, but I had seen the art and you went horde?
DANNY Yeah. Mikey forced my hand this week. So
PROTO Yeah, this week, it’s pretty incredible. Everyone’s staring at it right now in their feed, they probably aren’t even registering what we’re saying because they’re just consumed by this art. [Danny laughs]
SLIM They’re going to the office and Monday morning and they’re looking at the art on their little telephone. There is something that I do want us to immediately get into. Oh God and that is the Joker two announcement. Proto, you’ve seen the news on social media. The sequel starring Lady Gaga. How do you feel about this new?
PROTO Didn’t this happen a couple of weeks ago? Why are we talking about it now?
SLIM I think they gave the title officially, today.
PROTO Oh it’s like —
SLIM It’s in French.
PROTO Joker: Cirque du Soleil or something, right? [Danny & Slim laugh]
SLIM That’s pretty close. I’m not going to even bother to pronounce it because already closed the tab that had the title in it. Thank you. Are you ready for a joker SQL musical with Joaquin and Lady Gaga?
PROTO Well, I I had a great time with the first one. I remember when I watched that. I think I fired it up the next day. I liked it so much. It’s such a great time watching that. I didn’t finish it the second time around. Yeah, I mean Joaquin is is he at the Is he is he the height of acting. Right now. Is he the Todd it’s the question, dawg.
DANNY That’s the question, that’s the question.
SLIM Well, you’re the Movie Insider, I feel like you should be telling us, really…
PROTO Well this is not how you grow! I… I know the answer. I asked the question, and then you search within to find it. [Slim laughs]
SLIM Joker fully edia is the full title October I’m sorry the year 2024 Who gives a crap 2024 It’s so far away two and a half years all dead
PROTO by then.
SLIM If this podcast is still running And we haven’t self destructed into almost two and a half years. Will we cover Joker to Danny? Will that be a feature presentation episode?
DANNY No. Wow. No way. Are you serious? Wow. Maybe our first musical month we’ll throw it on
SLIM HBO max will be rebranded for the third time by the time this movie comes out on digital services probably
PROTO will do lala land. Poker too.
Oh my god.
DANNY I’m definitely not gonna be on the show by then.
SLIM Even stepping in for all four episodes that month with Dale. Yes guessing. Let’s say hello to some patrons that joined this week Jasmine and Alex all joined our Patreon they get access to our VHSL vault which now includes their last pilot season episode for the TV show last night that we have a bit where we’re doing a last episode. And just a reminder, we have our first ever meet up in the greater Philadelphia area. At the end of August just for patrons. They get they’re getting the secret details. They’re getting the address. They’re getting the info on special merch, only available to people that show up for this meetup. So hopefully they will ask RSVP if you know RSVP, we’re turning your way at the door. You’re not allowed in proto not allowed.
PROTO Yeah, that’s fair. Not only is Mikey peon artists, but he also is a bouncer. So he’ll be at the door throwing people on their high knees. If they don’t have the correct credentials,
SLIM karate kicking people with his Nike mids. Right, though, that what that was called, there’s a called Nike mine tops. I
PROTO think Nike made high
SLIM top colorway. Let’s move on. Sorry. Didn’t you watch the movies this week?
DANNY You know, I did watch. Watch the animated film this week called Pocahontas. My daughter chose it. I didn’t log it. Honestly, because I forgot to log it. But what I want to talk about is I binged the six plus our Disney special Light And Magic. And when I say that this is the best thing on Disney Plus, I’m being serious. I couldn’t get enough of the show. It basically is. It’s the it’s the creation and forming of ilm, the, you know, George Lucas’s baby. And it goes from and I think I dragged my feet a little bit on it, because I didn’t want another Star Wars documentary to watch. And it does, obviously, it has to start talking about Star Wars, but it really is about the men and women of Ilm. And it’s the beginnings of their journey to where they are now. And it really is magical. It really is something that is inspiring to watch as an artist, as someone who likes movies, who likes to see how movies are made, to see everything that they did in these beginning times. It’s It’s pretty incredible. And what also I found incredible was that I know sounds kind of morbid, but these people are still alive. That you know, John Dykstra, and Dennis mirror and Joe Johnson, I mean, they’re old now. But they’re all these are all new interviews with them new interviews with George Spielberg, James Cameron. I mean, it’s like, it’s an impressive documentary. And it says season one, and I don’t know what they would do for a season two. But it’s perfect. It really is perfect. And I loved every second of it.
PROTO Is there a lot of like footage from yours, Paris, or what’s the consist of?
DANNY So I, I would say that I’ve seen most of the Star Wars behind the scenes stuff. There’s so much in this I have not seen so much. And what was amazing about it was it seemed like a lot of home footage. But they had the VHS upscaled it somehow it looked the quality of these, the some of the stuff that they have is incredible. And it’s them building the ships and working on you know, all the things and it goes hard into their process of going from practical to digital as well. And what the toll that took on people. You watched Joe Johnston like quitting ILM and him talking about it. And George like trying to stop them and they’re paying for his college and back. Please don’t make fun of Georgia in front of me. But anyway, it’s incredible. It’s an incredible documentary and I recommend it to anyone who’s listening and likes movie
SLIM maybe they called up peter jackson get his little secrets for that eight millimeter footage or a 16 millimeter Beatles doc that he cleaned the season two, or you were in terms of the upscaling the
DANNY old Yeah, I mean Some of the old footage, it looks incredible and it’s it’s impressive what they’re doing this documentary
SLIM the one the one only thing I haven’t watched it, but the only thing I know about as I follow that Star Wars, Twitter account that original trilogy fan, Twitter account. And allegedly the the some of the footage from the original trilogy in the ILM TV show is like clean for skate for K transfers of shots that have never been released on Blu ray or 4k. So honestly, meaning that light has to be there is official, this is like the first official confirmation that there is a clean, 4k transfer of the original trilogy out there, which I guess has been assumed and that like Disney just has not ever said so or released that so maybe there’s hope that they’ll eventually release it at some point.
DANNY Yeah, and it’s it’s definitely worth your time. It’s long every episodes in our all at our plus. And then what’s great about it as it’s not really focusing. It’s I mean, George has ended a lot. Obviously he’s talking about the time but it’s not focusing on the actors. Harrison’s not a part. It’s not talking about, you know, carry or mark and all the beginnings of it’s really focusing on the men and women who worked at ILM and it’s it’s fascinating. Okay.
SLIM Just just reminder, Princess Mononoke. You can use the chapters to skip ahead right to that section or just skip right to my pick, which I’ll be revealing later in the show. But do we want to talk about the andorre trailer? The Star Wars and or trailer that dropped? Proto you tell me Oh, yeah. I want to hear you.
SLIM So the Andor — you know, I’m on the record of saying Rogue One is an okay film, you know, it’s okay. It looked great, though.
PROTO Said it twice on the show. [Danny & Slim laugh]
SLIM So good we had to do two episodes on the movie. So this Andor thing. I think they released a teaser maybe last year, year before I hand brushed it aside. hand brushed it. I got a movie coming up. I don’t care about andorre Oh, but we’re not going to bring up you know, the we’re not going to go deep on Kenobi. But when I saw this andorre chiller. I was like, I’m back. I’m back in live action. And I just could not believe how different the entire presentation is. This looks like a feature film. Filmed on expensive sets. While Kenobi looks like a fan film diorama, filmed on a shoestring budget, and I don’t get it. So I’m very excited about Andor, Proto?
PROTO Yeah, I’m excited to Yeah, I think if if this was if they took that trailer and maybe cut out 30 seconds of it. You could convince me that this was a Yeah, like a feature film that’s going to be released in theaters. It looks Yeah, it looks really great. And yeah, I mean, we’ve heard that it’s, you know, it’s was done differently than the other shows no dome, we’re done. Dome freezone. So I’m excited. And this is this is what this is, is I think the September 21 was at the end of September, right around the corner.
SLIM Danny, you have to be jazzed for this. You’ve loved Rogue One.
DANNY I’m more than jazzed. I mean, this Yeah, rug one is still easily the best thing that Disney has produced with the Star Wars license. And I am very excited. I love Kassian. We know how his story ends. So I want to see what made him the rebel that he was in Rogue One. I think we’ll get that.
SLIM Are there any movies you want to chat about this week?
PROTO You know what I did want to just say I got caught up in a couple documentaries over the past few weeks that I just wanted to run through just just for the record. I mentioned one of them to you guys. I think last week so there’s a few David Attenborough shows that kind of for me, at least flew under the radar on Netflix. I think I feel like planet Earth was kind of an event for people. When that was coming out. It was like oh my god, planet Earth two is gonna be amazing. Now there’s like a bunch of like two or three episode shots of like these different shows. And one of them on Netflix is called a life in color. So I pop I pop this on a couple of days ago with my kids and I was blown away by what I was seeing in this. There were multiple times where I thought like this has to be fake. This cannot be real footage of these animals. Oh, it was it might be the best 4k anything that I’ve seen, I was little I was aghast at the the quality of this and just the footage of these animals and what they captured was amazing. And they they, what this series is doing is they they have found way they they have technology to kind of see and prove that animals have like the different colors they see, and how they use that to communicate with each other and communicate with different species. So it’s kind of showing us things that we didn’t know was there before, but it also just looks incredible. So I have a
SLIM real steal that Sandra’s posted in chat that looks like BCG, that’s, that’s Pixar.
PROTO I don’t know what that is. Is that from Joker to what is.
So I watched that. And then,
PROTO um, I also I was on I was browsing Reddit. And every once in a while, you know, a documentary like pops up in there. I don’t know where they come from, I don’t know if it’s like a suggested post or whatever. But I usually just like read the title and then like move on. But this one, for whatever reason caught my eye it was called the century of self. And this came out in 2002. So it’s older, and it’s somebody a guy named Adam Curtis. And it’s a four parter. And it’s about how, Sigmund Freud’s work. And the whole cycle analysis. Like research that sprung up in the 19th and 20th century, how that was used to kind of fuel propaganda and the whole advertising industry. And it gives like this really broad overview of all this stuff, it is extremely fascinating. Right, like, I think, if you like if you like, like I think the closest thing I could relate it to is maybe like Ken Burns, whereas Ken Burns is more history. This was more of like, Hey, this is how we got here in terms of just the the, the relationship between consumers and businesses and governments. So really fascinating. Really cool, Doc, I had never heard of it and it just kind of popped up and I was glad I watched it again.
SLIM Jeff read it you know, it’s there for if it if anyone has the time, could we get perhaps a Photoshop of Eminem? With his beard? That’s fake beard, and Ken burns his hair on m&s. Oh my god, or vice versa. They want to have the time to work. Listen, I have it’s great hair, great hair, great facial hair. You do what you can.
PROTO The last thing I’ll say is I did get to see Nope. The new Jordan Peele movie. Oh, oh, yeah, I saw I saw Nope. I got into the theater. Oh, it was away with my family. Were up visiting my sister in law. And I went to the AMC 16 marquee in my Trumbull, Connecticut. So they had to actually I really wanted to go they had this. So you walk into the theater. And on one side. They have like 10 screens on the other side, they have the bow tie experience that he acts it takes up the whole one side of the building.
SLIM Is VTX a real thing or do you just make that? No, that’s
PROTO what they call it. It’s called VTX Bow Tie your tie bow tie? Yeah, like you’re wearing a bow tie. You’re going to our formal event, what it had, like it was like a 300 seat theater or something in there. But unfortunately, the showing was at 10 o’clock, and my brother in law said I’m gonna fall asleep if we go at 10 o’clock. So in the night, yeah, so we oh, so we went to the eight o’clock showing in a 30 seat screen. Oh. All that build up. I want to get back there, though, and experienced the bow tie
DANNY a bow tie.
PROTO But yeah, I mean, I had a good time with this Jordan Peele movie. I had some issues with it. I think like the latter half and I was kind of poking around. I think some other people had issues with it, as well. But, you know, a great theater experience. I think, Jordan Peele, I think he’s one of those directors where, for the foreseeable future, I think I just You gotta go to the theater, like you just, you know, you’re gonna get something good and compelling from him. So I’m on board with all Jordan peels, movies going forward in the theater, but I’m really curious for Danny to see us I can’t wait to hear what what you think
DANNY Saturday night baby Saturday night eight nine.
SLIM Is the movie insider ready to proclaim Jordan Peele, the master of horror?
PROTO I think I think he could he’s he could be on his way. I’ll give him a junior master at this point. He’s a junior master Master in training. And I think his magnum opus is right around the corner. We could just be years away.
SLIM My I know we’re rapidly running out of tape, please. We have Matt Mononoke who have a ton of emails to get to but I did want to circle back to Danny watching Pocahontas. Are you going to give that a log in a rating on Pocahontas?
DANNY Um, how about a live vlog live vlog four stars with a heart. I know it’s very problematic when it comes to the telling of Pocahontas the story and the depiction of Native Americans and indigenous people. But it is gorgeous.
SLIM Great music to write.
DANNY Good and yeah, just around the Riverbend color of the wind a lot of songs slap. There’s it’s it’s really a beautiful animated film.
SLIM There you go. Thanks for that. You’re welcome. Before we get into modern Okay, give well first of all giveaway for your letterbox Pro. Disclaimer. I’m letterbox boy. He shared the show on social media. You get entered into a digital raffle to win that year of letterbox pro get no more ads. And you get a host of stats and have your stats you can check out you can sort by your favorite streaming services where your movies available. Midnight maze wins a free year of letterbox pro senatore This is the 70mm episode that hooked me when slim said he was levitating in his seat during the Batman I knew these were my people. Yes, what an app. Gods are most popular episode The Batman episode. I’m constantly feeling right now. It blew away Dune,Dune is now in the dust. Dunes finished. It’s out.
DANNY It’s in the dust the one
SLIM who they’ll say I watched prey. The Predator.
DANNY Oh yes.
SLIM That is will will now officially be on Hulu as of this episode’s release. Oh god, we’re back to predator is back. Danny Trachtenberg did it. He did the impossible. He made a good Predator movie. In modern times. I didn’t think it was possible. But I had an amazing time. My son also had an amazing time I gave it five stars. It’s a big part of predator fan hives, five stars from James go. Yeah, he’s not effing around right now. Now with this rating, okay,
DANNY I believe was Danny also in the original predator that I didn’t know about? Danny like Shane?
SLIM Oh. No, I don’t believe so. Every infant in the jungle kidnaps Eve. All right, let’s get into our feature presentation. Princess Mononoke in 1997. The big one with a script. Listen, I didn’t know this. May we’ll get into this. Neil Gaiman wrote the English language script. Excuse me. Ciao. You believe this? Do you believe right now the Sandman fan Frodo, what’s this movie about?
PROTO Ashley taka, a mushy Prince defends his village from a corrupted God. As she taka kills the God but is cursed to die and must leave his home in search of a cure in the West. There he encounters Lady Eboshi warden of iron town Aashi. Taka learns that the corrupted God was Nago, a bore who was shot and poisoned by an iron ball. furious with iron town and Lady Eboshi the wolf goddess Morrow and her human daughter song seek to kill her and read the forest of the humans. A boshi. Wanting to stake her claim to the land also seeks to kill the great force spirit as the creatures of the forest clash with the people of iron town Ashitaka must risk his life to find peace. Princess Mononoke Okay. In Studio Ghibli.
SLIM Danny, you have a storied history with these movies, right? Isn’t are these formative films? Is this the most formative out of
DANNY all of them? No, no, no, no, no. I don’t I don’t, I don’t think I saw Todaro young, but I don’t remember how young but it wasn’t until adult age that I really dug into Kimberly. And monokey, I believe was probably the first one that I like, jumped into for sure. She, the character of Sonic is so prevalent in pop culture, at least in the convention scene. Her character, I feel like it’s cost played quite a bit. So when I was doing art convention or comic conventions in artists alley, I saw Saan a lot. So I think that’s what kind of drove me to dig into, you know, all of the Studio Ghibli ease. But yeah, Mononoke I think was definitely first one for me.
SLIM And this is protos pick to begin the healing from the events of July 19. On our Patreon, what’s what’s your what’s your backstory with the Jubilee in this movie, or just the entire catalog?
PROTO Yeah, I didn’t, I didn’t watch these. I didn’t have a history of watching these growing up. So there’s more in the past few years that I’ve worked my way through the entire library. I don’t even remember what the first one. I think My Neighbor Totoro was like the first one I saw a couple of years ago. And then I watched this for the first time in the end of 2018. Right before we started doing the show. And yeah, I loved it. I was blown away by this movie. And then after that, it was kind of like, Yeah, let’s work through all of them. I think. And I think at this point, I’ve seen all the Ghibellines I might have completed the catalog. Nice. So that’s where I’m at slum. Have you seen this one before? This is your first view
SLIM I have I think I logged it last year, the year before there was some Mononoke a talk in our Discord. Maybe around the time when we did Todaro. So we do have an episode on Totoro. It’s super early on. And then I think in the discord event that I made our last 2d animated episode or numbered episode, like a main feed episode was Iron Giant. I was like episode 60 or slash so almost 100 episodes ago. It’s just pretty wild. It’s
DANNY incredible. To think
SLIM about. I think Spirited Away was my first one. It’ll be funny if like anyone goes back to listen to the Totoro we probably had this exact conversation and I have zero what I had said during that episode, so I’ll try it again and say I think Spirited Away was one of my earliest memories. I remember being weirded out by the movie. Like I didn’t get it. I was like This is weird. It’s kind of scary. And I was like a teenager probably saying that. So and then you know we did Totoro which I think I gave three and a half stars during that episode and villas vilified by the GE blue jeans ring them up. They wanted that they wanted to string me up. So, but I will say that Nasik is, is it’s not probably I think Nausicaa is my favorite Ghiibli I think I gave that five stars. I would do anything see five stars. I would do anything for her in that movie. So that’s a great experience watching that.
PROTO Well yeah, I think I have the issue with Ghibli movies the way I have with like Beatles albums. It’s like whichever one you listen to last or whichever movie you watch last is my favorite. It’s kind of you know, this is very easy to just be like oh you know what, this one’s my favorite. Yeah.
SLIM And now your hosts for the evening the Rolling Stones.
DANNY Oh God but uh
SLIM you chose this movie. Why don’t you go first we go roundtable each host picks three things that we want to discuss and then we’ll give her final letterboxed rating for what’s your number one?
PROTO My number one at my favorite part of this movie really is the the conflicts within this and I don’t know how to really describe it maybe I thought of like maybe like the this this, how it feels like shapeless bit of the conflicts, whether the really doesn’t feel like there’s good or bad. There’s really more just personal interests that clash. And then you have Ashitaka in the middle, who’s trying to you know, navigate and like bring peace to these different relationships. And I found this really fascinating as a rewatch it especially even at the beginning, because I, I’m pretty sure when I first watched this, just that scene with the bore, you know he’s been possessed or become a demon or whatever. You know, my just like gut reaction and we’re not even really thinking about it it just like I just assume, alright, this is this guy, this boar is evil, this is bad, you know it’s happening. But watching it a second time like now knowing the story, it’s like, oh, well, he’s not really bad. He’s just, you know, he’s been affected by these other events that have like, brought him here. And that the whole movie is like that really, where I feel like having having the whole backstory and the relationship of all the characters, and then watching it again. You just have an appreciation for the way the story is formed. And the conflicts and how there really is doesn’t feel you know, there’s no clear cut good or bad or right or wrong.
SLIM Yeah, I was thinking that as well. When I was trying to piece together my thoughts on Lady Eboshi about like, Why is she so hell bent on destroying the forest because and I think I was conflicted because she’s not outright evil. Because she is bringing in the outcasts into iron town like the lepers and the former sex workers, and giving them jobs and caring for them pretty well. Like it’s, it’s not like she’s deceiving anyone. It’s just that her intentions are a little clouded as as to her desire as to why to like, try to kill the forest spirits. And like, as the viewer I was like, come on, like, you just don’t do it, like, talk her out of it. And I think most of those characters are the same way. It’s like the, like shades of gray is a little bit cliched, but more human. You know, it’s not like most people are generally all one side there are different shades of that person. And I feel like it is no more evident than in like the entire cast of this movie.
DANNY And that’s what Myazaki does well is he he tells stories from even if these are fantastical stories everyone feels human and making human decisions and Lady Eboshi I feel like is the the best you know character to talk about because she’s so she’s set up to be the villain we’re supposed to like fight for Princess Mononoke Ersan and an Aussie taka but she’s she’s put like presented to us as the villain when in fact, she is not she not at all and she’s just you know gets kind of blinded by needing to I don’t know to destroy the forest spirits so that the gods stop attacking her but she’s really defending her village she’s creating her own economy in my you know, mining or iron and in giving these people jobs in a stable place to live and she’s really just protecting that from the other samurai that have been attacking her that are trying like the we see in the beginning when Archie Taka is first traveling from his village and he sees the samurai attacking the other village like they’re just out there taking over and that’s what Lady Eboshi is protecting iron town from and she’s it’s it’s fascinating how she’s written.
SLIM Lady Eboshi is the Sam’s Club protecting the cheap prices of the hotdogs for her people.
DANNY Right, we gotta keep the gas prices low.
PROTO It’s a perfect analogy.
SLIM That’s my essay on Princess Mononoke. Okay, Danny, what’s your number one for this movie?
DANNY Number one for this movie is the animation. i There’s there’s so much talk about the animation that is that Ghibli and Miyazaki and crew create one thing not talked about a lot for monokey is how much CG is in this movie? Because it’s it’s very understated. And when I say that, they there was talks in the beginning when Miyazaki was creating this that he wanted to integrate some CG aspects of this, but when you do a CG movie, they look like you know, Toy Story and stuff. So what had to happen was, he reached out and they reached out to like Microsoft, and other Silicon Valley companies to create programs for animation that would integrate Cgn images into cel animation organically. And so scenes like in the beginning where she talk has been attacked by the the first bore that whole bore is CG animation like it’s not hand drawn. And but what they what they did was they blended it naturally. And so the programs create these lines to look like hand drawn cells and it’s it’s throughout the entire film. And it’s so perfectly done that no one really realizes how much computer generated scenes are in this film. It just kind of blows my mind. Like when the when the grass at the end or the flowers bloom once the forest god dies out of the rocks and trunks, that’s all CG. So many of the landscapes are CG when the when the board dies in the beginning and it like mesh it like morphs from bore to skeleton that’s all CG animation. Like it’s it’s fascinating what they did. And it really make gives this movie like an amazing amount of depth, but also an amazing animated film.
SLIM Kenobi could learn a thing or two from Microsoft 1997.
PROTO That really is incredible because having I think I knew that before but watching this I don’t even realize it.
DANNY It never do. Yeah, it’s amazing. It’s It’s amazing. And I just it just like it reminds me of ILM and George Making Star Wars like the technology wasn’t there. And so Miyazaki and all of them had to have these programs created for them to pull off the look that they’re trying to do and it’s it’s fascinating.
SLIM The the animation is nuts. Just the animation of a human being running is like always insane in these movies. The demon animation start off the movie is wild. I think my favorite shot in the whole movie is her standing on the rooftop at that first time where she enters the town. Like she’s got the mask on and like her whole outfit is like a little breezy action going on. And it just like stays on her holy cow. What
DANNY a shot. I don’t feel like in any other Ghibli film, that that fight scene is topped between her and Eboshi and when Archie taka stepped in, I feel like the choreography of that entire scene is is top notch when it comes to Ghibli action. Yeah when I mean this is a PG 13 film so it’s like the only one where it’s like this kind of insane action when
SLIM he tells that one bodyguard to step aside and he bends the sword like this was wasn’t any my top three but there’s I didn’t I don’t think I didn’t make the connection until this viewing how many or how like the OMA there’s an homage an Adventure Time to Ashitaka real Finn loses his arm at some point in the show. And eventually he has like this spoilers as this like, let’s not let us flare but he also has this thing that kind of like grows out of his hand. At a certain point, though, he has like this leaf sword but it’s also could I guess you could consider that an Akira homage to but it like starts to take over. It helps him become more powerful. He can use it as a sword and then eventually he loses that arm. So there’s just some kind of like minor stuff and Adventure Time. It’s pretty fun. My my number one I call it out as like a gag review on letterbox about the life is sufferings, quote,
suffering, that is hard. The world is cursed, but still find reasons to keep living. I’m sorry, making no sense.
SLIM And how like this can be considered therapy for young children all across the country countries. And it’s like it’s a positive and a negative in this viewing of the movie. So like full disclosure, I get kind of like snoozy towards the final act for whatever reason. If there’s anyone that drags long, if there’s anything that drag it’s it’s kind of like towards the end, and that’s when I start to start watching my eyes start like checking my phone a little bit. That’s where I can kind of like lose focus, but so like the plot of her trying to kill the Fire Spirit, you know, they’re working so hard to prevent this from happening the entire movie. And it eventually does happen like she decapitates it and you’re kind of like, I’m like, oh my god, two hours and it’s still happened. So in this particular viewing and, and like I don’t know, there’s like major, you know, consumerism, you know, natural resource themes like all up and downs movie, but at least in this particular viewing, I viewed like the real struggle of life. Life and I know it’s kind of over in a lot of senses in the movie, but like life is suffering. What’s the point? So I like literally had that moment in the movie like, Oh, what the hell was the point of all this? And then I was like, well, dum dum, like that’s the question so many people ask in their own life. And like, why bother? Like, what, what’s the point of all this, I did all I could, and I’m still suffering. And I thought about two books that I had read Man’s Search for Meaning and this book on meditation, Vipassana meditation, so comes back to like this, these Buddhist teaching, I feel like I’m some learned person, I just read these two books a while ago. But it’s about like, Man’s Search, and I’m capital M man, everyone, Blake, the struggle through life and suffering. And working hard and like stuff, suffering will just always happen to a person. So in this particular watch of this movie, I just really connected with like that meaning, especially when they they decapitated the forest out, it’s like, this is just another part of your life that’s going to involve heavy suffering. And you still have to like rise to meet it, there’s, I think there was that quote, you can’t change your fate, but you can ride to meet it if you choose. And that’s like your decision whether or not to continue. And then so I was kind of, like, stoked about that part of the movie. But eventually, they do return the head to the forest guide. So I was kind of like, it almost kind of like removed some of my thinking, like, yes, they’re suffering, they just have to deal with it, they still ended up getting their way at the end, which kind of his goes against my comments. But that was just my main thought, for this viewing is the suffering and not the kind of like, natural resource themes. But I really loved it this time around, and I, whatever, whatever reason, I didn’t really connect with it. On my last viewing in that way.
PROTO Yeah, I love all those messages in this movie as well. And well, I don’t think those things I don’t think it’s, it’s like the ending changes that because the fact is like, the the the great for Spirit does die, and things are changed forever. And it’s like, whatever level of magic, or whatever it is that’s going on in this forest, it’ll, it’ll never be the same way it was before. So there’s some irrevocable change of something that we’ll never get back. And maybe from like, a human perspective, it’s like, oh, well, you know, things are gonna grow back and be okay. And we can rebuild iron town. But for the inhabitants of the forest, like, there is no going back. Like, the suffering for them will be forever. Or it’ll, you know, in the next few generations, after this, it’ll be forgotten, but it won’t be what it was before. And I like that, too, that it’s not like the suffering isn’t just confined to like the human experience. But it’s, it’s, you know, all organisms all the life even like those the little tree spirits in the forest, who seem to like die, but then maybe they’re coming back, I don’t really understand. I don’t know, the law of those. But then even like, yeah, just like, just the environment itself has changed.
SLIM There was the one other part that I really liked is when he gets healed, where it from, he has like that gunshot wound that he hails from, and he wakes up and like, you know, the the virus that he quote, unquote, hatred that’s like fueling through him, like the mark is still there. I really like that scene where he just kind of like wakes up and thinks he’s better. But he’s like, ah, the mark is still there. I just thought that meant so many levels of meaning. And this particular viewing proto Number Two.
PROTO Speaking of books, I’m, I’m also reading a book right now I’m almost through it, and it’s called the hidden life of trees. Jenner got this book from the library. And it’s like one of the most fascinating books I’ve ever read this, it’s about this guy who studied treated most of his life. He’s like, worked in force in Germany, and just studied, just how they relate to one another to their environment. Just the different personalities of trees, like do trees have memory? How do they how do they manage resources? How do they grow? What are their strategies for surviving, like all this kind of stuff? It’s just really fascinating. And I can’t help now like when I go outside, I just went for a walk in the woods in Connecticut and I was just like, oh my god these trees to do with the guy said in the book, look at this children under this tree.
PROTO It was it was crazy. But I’m just like, I’m like seeing trees in a whole different light and watching this movie. It’s kind of like the dream, the dream of being in an old forest. Where there are where there’s been like enough piece and like, time to go on for trees and plants to do whatever they want. Like this is it like it looks so cool in this movie. I think if magic is real feel in any sense in our world it has to be inside trees that’s just that’s just my theory. But that scene I just love that scene so much when they get when. When Psalm brings Ashitaka to put him in that lake and to go to that island oh my god That scene is just amazing. How’s the
SLIM How good does that water look?
PROTO The water!
SLIM Right? The depth of the water animation is maybe the best water animation in history.
DANNY It’s insane.
SLIM I thought you were about to say, Proto, like, “I had long had a dream to be a tree.” [Proto & Danny laugh]
PROTO he did mention that in this book. One of the things one of the services they do if you want to you can be buried beneath like a sapling tree so that the tree will I guess consume you over time so there’s there’s a champion
SLIM did you get Jana to agree to do that when it’s time
PROTO she’s gone from before me so
SLIM so we had to trust Alban to do what’s right with your with your with your ashes, charge,
DANNY I was placing a TV on your gravestone
SLIM burying your urn out the window somewhere.
DANNY The if you put a few Google Miyazaki took Studio Ghibli to an island off of Japan, I forget the name of it, but it looks exactly like this film. Like, the way you’re talking about trees and you have to figure out how to get to this island. It looks just I mean, it’s it’s almost picture perfect of this film and it looks absolutely incredible.
Gotta go, Dan,
SLIM what’s your number two,
DANNY number two, for for nasaka being my favorite Ghibli of all time. I still come back to Ashitaka probably being my favorite character in Ghibli films. And I I find the writing of this character be quite compelling. And I and I love I love his intro, just him in the cool, you know, defeating the demon but also having his moments where he’s sitting with his tribe. And you know, having to be banished for being tainted now by the demon and watching the people around him like actually be upset about losing him as a person.
The infection will spread throughout your whole body bone and flesh or like it will cause your great pain then kill you.
Is there no way we can stop it a prince got that wound by defending our village and saving our lives. Do we just sit here and watch him die?
You cannot alter your fate my prince. However, you can rise to meet it if you choose.
DANNY He just kind of does it like he cuts off his top knot. He goes on his mission to do all the things he does in this film but on top of him like the way he’s written I love how he’s animated as well. There’s there’s moments where he’s there’s a lot of long quiet moments with him and your cool either the countryside or when they get to the the lake there’s there’s like little things that Miyazaki does with animating these films that we call like, I think we talked about it in toto called MA and all that stuff. But there’s like Asha, Taka dipping his bowl in the water to drink it, but he washes it out first. Like, there’s no reason to do that in the animation except just to add more humanity to these characters. Like when he feeds your cool, he feeds Jaco first and then eats whatever’s rest like it. It’s just really the subtle things when he restring says bow, like I get so excited about him restringing a bow and I don’t know why but it looks awesome. Like he’s ready for battle. And then the scenes when he texts to this the first samurai crew that decapitations of the head and arms like are out of nowhere, but the sound of the arrow flying the animation of him on Yeah, cool. I mean, there’s so much about Ashitaka in this film that I just I think he’s probably my favorite character in any of these movies. And I just, he’s just, he’s great. He’s, he’s fantastic.
SLIM Yeah, I was gonna mention, I love that the onset where he’s like, trying to reason with the demon. And like the onset of the movie, he was just kind of like, trying to plead like, please stop. Like, we’ll figure this out. Yeah. And then there are other scenes as well, where he’s leaving the iron town. Like when he’s carrying her on his shoulder, and the townspeople have already made a brief connection with him. And then please, like, don’t go any further like stet like, Don’t Don’t do this. You’ll you’ll be killed. And they like barely You have known him for that long where they’ve already made that personal connection with him. I love that.
DANNY So good.
PROTO Yeah, he has so many moments of self sacrifice and just have willing to, to die for what he thinks is right or for his like pursuit of peace at like all costs. You know, because yeah, like even the scene, the beginning with the bore, it’s like, violence is the last option for him. And, like, I all this, there’s so many scenes of him yelling to people and like, giving them instructions for like, surviving, it’s like,
Don’t Stop shooting me stop fighting, you’re all gonna die. You just need to leave now. And they’re like, still showing.
PROTO Like this, like the, you know, he does kill the samurai at the beginning, but I love that scene where he’s trying to get to iron town and the samurai cm. And they turn to him and then he just leaps over all of them into the water. And then they’re shooting him and he’s just like, cutting the arrows with his blade. Yeah, that was cool. He is kind of I think like him and it’s her name. naskah Is that is that her name in that movie? I can’t remember now. The princess
DANNY norceca Yeah, is that her? Isn’t
SLIM she naskah
PROTO Okay. I feel like they are like a pair like they’re the you know, they are so similar to each other.
SLIM out if what if what?
PROTO A universe
SLIM I haven’t heard the term ship in a long time. But I ship the both of them no cap. If James is listening to this episode, he just I rolled into a coma. Sorry, James.
PROTO Oh, another thing about that, you know what is so fascinating though about also that relationship? Or, or Ashley takut the way that it isn’t romantic between him and sawn? I find also so fascinating. Like you mentioned it like Disney making a movie where like, there’s these two characters and the not being in love. At the end of it.
DANNY They would never do it. Well, it’s it’s, I think also in the English translation of this. It’s lost the fact that the girl that runs up to him when he’s leaving his village is actually his Botros. Like, wife to be. She calls him brother, but that was like to how it was translated for us. So he’s already I mean, he’s never allowed he’s kind of banished from that village. But yeah, that hits so him and songs relationship really is more how no defending each other or helping each other than it is romantic. Even though there are moments where it seems like it could cross that line, but it really kind of never does.
SLIM I was watching a random monokey video on YouTube and they were showing clips of like the American premiere. And he’s there and then like Neil Gaiman was there and this was before I was on Wikipedia. I was like, why is Neil Gaiman a big fan? So weird? I was like, what year is this? Why is he there?
DANNY One of my favorite premieres was I think at TIFF. I watched it in interview or watched Miyazaki announced Mononoke. And he goes, he says something like, Thank you for sitting through this really long movie or something you’d like. I know it’s long, but thank you for watching.
SLIM The last thing I’ll say I should talk it was mainly probably my number two, but I will say I watched the English language version and I like Billy Crudup. I like the way his I like his cadence of speaking I felt like it was perfect for for this character.
DANNY Yeah, all the all the American voices in this are kind of top notch too. I mean, this is a I mean, most of the Ghibli American dubs are very well done. But this one Billy’s amazing Huzzah shittaka For sure.
SLIM Pardo number three?
PROTO Yeah, I guess in terms of like something. I love the I love the I want to say costumes but it’s kind of funny saying that in an animated movie, but just like the the look of them like we talked about some but all she talks about like when he’s traveling, and he’s got that like that grass cape with the hat, riding the elk. And what a great, looks great. He looks
SLIM are you gonna come out and eat up? We’re gonna rent to a horse to arrive to the theater.
DANNY Like it started their scene where he’s yelling to Song across the water and his cape like swells up with the air blowing against them. It means like he does that a lot where things kind of like flare up a bit but that shot of him is great.
PROTO Also when he when he goes into the furnace room to help the girls you’re stressed out what is what is that Jenna came in at that point she was like what is happening
SLIM Danny number three
DANNY number three We got to talk about Joe his, Ah, she’s score for this film. I mean, for his scores for all of the Ghibli is but for this one, especially for a movie that is about war, and I’m not really about war, but there’s a lot of war happening and fighting and you know, trying to understand each other the piano score and this is one of the bests that he’s created. It’s, it’s, it’s really beautiful and it’s really well done and plays throughout this sort of movie. And we’d be remiss not to talk about it for sure
SLIM very good. I was listening to some hour long version of modern okay. Oh, S T ON YOUTUBE earlier, while I was getting our emails ready to go. Gorgeous. I think I you know, I was about to say this my favorite jibley score. I remember naskah Now, like, like pearls comment earlier about like the most recent one you watch. Yeah, he kind of is your favorite, but I feel like I need to go back and watch Nausicaa to
DANNY Sam, correct. mansha it’s Joe. He sighs she Thank you, Sam. Thank you, Sam.
SLIM Um, we’ve pretty much gone through every topic that would have been in my top three. So proto honorable mentions and final rating for Princess mountain. Okay.
PROTO Honorable mentions, let’s see. Is there anything else I wanted to talk about? Yeah, yes on Sonnen Aashi. Taka not romantic but that scene of her chewing the beef forum in his mouth. That’s a moment
SLIM some man has said turned to me and said No, I’m not doing that.
DANNY Sheep baby burning.
SLIM Love the tear. The tear scene is a lie. I mean, that’s a meme in and of itself, right?
DANNY I mean, you’ve named it and I have several locations. I haven’t been that proud of you.
PROTO Other things I like I was reading about just the description of when this is supposed to take place. And I guess they said like the admission people was like, I think like 14th or 15th century. But the idea was that it wouldn’t be any actual time period but would be they refer to it as a symbolic never win. And I really I really liked better when I never Wow. Yeah, I love that description. And then also just another quote that I saw from Minnie Driver who I think she goes voiced logotipo she Yeah. She she said that. He Miyazaki shows that good and evil, violence and peace exist in us all. It’s all about how you harmonize it all. And I thought I thought that was great. I feel like that’s what this movie kind of does. You know like most Ghibli movies this movie just like puts me in a good like headspace it like, it gives me the experience of almost meditating. It like just brings peace even if like you know, whatever conflict or action is going on in the movie. It’s still just like this, this this great ride in terms of just the score, the story, the characters, and I love Ghibli for that and watching this a second time. I’m just really an all at the storytelling. I think it’s I think it’s brilliant. The themes that it covers there’s there’s so much more to like, even unpack that we didn’t really you know, get to but this is a five star.
DANNY Wow, gosh, wow. Thank you.
SLIM Oh my god. Marcy called up Minnie Driver in chat. Listen, I just want to apologize again, for conflating Fran Drescher for many driver last week and starring in the nanny that was an honest mistake.
PROTO Could have been any one of us Danny
DANNY Let me see. I love the fire Lance’s the guns that you first see a bow she’s tribe us. Those are rad one, Japan’s best picture that year not just animated one best picture. And it was the highest grossing until Titanic and Japan. Miyazaki redrew at redrew or touched up 80,000 cells, my god of the 144,000 cells this movie I’m up for a two hour movie. I love every second of it. There’s when I watch a Ghibli film, I just want to live in it for as long as I can. And this one is no exception. It’s a five star movie. It’s a five star, top tier animated film of all time, and I honestly like it more than Spirited Away. So this is up there for me. It’s one of my favorites. Easily. Love it.
SLIM Boy, I don’t even have any more honorable mentions to go through to be honest. I think we hit everything. proud of us. Part of you guys to this wedding in chat waiting for my writing. Yeah, this is great animation. The story is very fun. I do get bogged down a little bit in the time, the length of the movie specifically that final act and it’s just a me thing I do get tied up in the, in the resolution. You know, like I’m really struggling with the life is suffering and then, you know, it’s just, it’s just just it’s a me thing. It’s not a youth thing. So I’m going to four stars for Princess Mononoke. A Gnostic is still in the lead for me, personally, personally. I’ll give me the best sad Ben Affleck rating Paul. Check your own rating on letterbox right now. I’m pretty sure you have that four stars. Friend.
PROTO Check yourself friend.
SLIM Check yourself before you wreck yourself. So that is Princess Mononoke a great pic for the animated summer pic. We have a lot of emails to get to
DANNY start. Let’s just go right on. Please.
SLIM 1234560 My gosh. Seven sorry, some of those word last week’s 1010 Oh, apologies was not written again. But I do want to point out too that I deliberately skipped over listening to the roundtable of monokey on the mixtape I don’t want to be clouded by anyone else’s opinions. Oh, crowded. Emails. You can read us. You can write us a letter at 7am pod@gmail.com Hello 70 mn podcast. Thank you for the amazing podcast recently I’ve been struggling with depression listening to you guys. Not on about great movies has been amazing. 1010 have always been very near to my heart and a Steven Spielberg movie was fantastic but totally agree that forcing an alcohol to drink is really weird. And something that’s not done in the books. Thanks for a great podcast and when are you going to do Big Trouble in Little China?
DANNY Oh gosh.
SLIM Oh Kurt Russell month maybe he’s got so many bangers thanks from Sweden. That’s from Sam. When are we doing Kurt Russell month Berto.
PROTO That’s a good idea.
DANNY It’s a great idea. Kurt Russell month? We’ve been throwing around after months too recently.
SLIM Mm hmm. Was the art dropped. I see the art channels lit up. Let me see. Oh, god that All right, let me mouse back over live chat. Okay. Connor, first time email Princess Mononoke. A movie connects with a lot of people. Hello, Danny purlins slam. This is my first time sending in an email to the podcast. I would have sent a voicemail but I have little faith in my ability to keep it under 90 seconds. Thank you. I appreciate that. I started listening to 70 mm a few months ago while going on walks for whatever reason it took me at least 10 episodes before I could tell Danny and Pardo’s voice apart. inside baseball that’s usually why I mentioned their name when I asked him a question. Anyways, I am mildly embarrassed to admit that not once have I watched a movie in anticipation for a new episode. Yes, aside from the films I’ve already seen, I listened to you three talk about a movie and pieced together in inevitably incorrect take in my head. That all changes this week with protos pick Princess Mononoke. A while back I was gifted a giant Jubilee DVD boxset and I’ve hardly made a dent in washing all the films. Kiki’s Delivery Service is my favorite thus far. So I’m finally taking it off the shelf again and watching Modern okay on my PlayStation two DVD player, the way Miyazaki and thank you for such an amazing podcast look forward to every week also unrelated but Danny, please consider changing your rating on lala land.
DANNY Not happening. Connor, that would require me to watch it again. That’s never happened. Yeah, great. Great email. Thank you.
PROTO I’ve said it before and I’ll just say it again. When I am present Then, every American child will receive the Ghibli box set at birth. That is my promise to this nation
DANNY Jash in chat real quick, does anyone know why the film was called Princess mountain? Okay. I thought it was like a sarcastic
SLIM name.
DANNY So in Japanese, modern okay, hey, M H I M E, I believe. And so it translates really to Prentice of the spirit of vengeance. So that’s really what the title would be called. I also read
PROTO that they were between the title Princess Mononoke. Eight and the legend of Ashitaka.
SLIM That sounds like a video,
PROTO
which was interesting.
SLIM There was a lot of the link Zelda comments in chat tonight. About Ashtanga do we want to listen to a voicemail from KK
DANNY always?
SLIM Let’s play right now.
Hey, well, it’s KK. I have been frantically parsing through my knowledge of every movie directed by me as Aki, and I’ve come back with a question for some filmmakers. The motifs and themes of their works are so ever present, that their exclusion, I feel is a question to be answered. So my question is, why do you think out of every Miyazaki directed movie absolutely every Miyazaki directed movie, Princess Mononoke is the only one that has absolutely no flight in it. Every other one of his directed movies has flight, if not as a theme as a present motif Castle in the Sky Kiki’s toto name ogre Rosso Spirited Away house Moving Castle, the wind rises, they all have flight. That’s all I got. Obviously, building blocks for that could be flight is seen as freedom and with freedom being antithetical to the idea of a curse than maybe that might be I don’t know, I’m just intrigued. It’s, it seems to me a question that should be answered by a question that should be asked by
SLIM asking his own question the voicemail and then answering it. In the voicemail. He doesn’t even do that for us
DANNY via what he said is
PROTO what I was gonna say. So thanks. No, that’s that’s a great call out because I haven’t watched that if you’ve watched those Miyazaki Doc’s but right, Danny, and I know they’ve talked like he’s huge into flight. And just like airplanes. It’s all over his work. So
DANNY maybe with the nature themes, he wanted to just keep us grounded in this film.
SLIM Breaking news. I don’t have any thoughts on that VM. And I haven’t seen that Shipley’s. But that’s not the breaking news. Breaking news. I just got to listen. There’s a new episode of Fun sexy Bible time podcast that just came out Casey’s pod. Oh, cry for love celebs meet catty Roger Ebert. Casey says don’t listen. I can edit this out. All right, let’s see who’s next. Oh, boy, we might we might have a long email here. Let me just take a take a swig cheers from Berlin. Oh, hi, guys. My name is Steph. And I’m running from Berlin, Germany. I wanted to share with you that I really like your podcast, and then I’m very grateful for all the work you do. I started the podcast at the faithful dune episode, which we don’t need to re litigate. And afterwards I went and listened to the Batman episode, which is the one that got me hooked. You know you’re a true fan when you still keep listening after that. I do want to just pause how great was that Batman episode?
DANNY Should we do it again?
SLIM Actually, for whatever reason, I thought Seth was talking about the original Batman one when Pluto went off on Michael Keaton to hairline still to this day is the clip in the trailer that I refuse to remove. I am also a movie lover and I wanted to share with you a crazy anecdote about a time I went to a double feature of inside out and Mad Max Fury Road. Both movies I hadn’t seen at the time. I left inside out with my faith renewed and humanity wanted to hug everybody call my mom and tell her that I loved her and basically hearing birds singing as I left the theater. Immediately after I saw that there was a screening of Mad Max. And since I hadn’t seen it decided to go in. I left that screening wanting war, death and destruction by my hand. I also decided to write because I love anything Studio Ghibli does and I know the next movie is modern Okay. As it happens today I was listening to the backlog of past episodes and ended my streak on the one about My Neighbor Totoro. Much like in the double feature I went to see I left the episode full of love and happy with glee listening to the kids on the voicemails. However, or immediately after I started listening to the cat’s episode, and much like on that day, Ben was left with a death wish for all humanity. Full disclosure, I had to stop the podcast because tears of laughter were streaming down my face as I was listening to slim be outraged about the phrase Jellicle cats. That might have been our first bonus episode. By the time as I was listening to you guys on Twitter, I was thinking about the very interesting pace that Ghibli movies have. There’s no rush for the action to take place. And I don’t think there’s something common in animated movies or movies quote for kids. My first entry into these movies was spirited away, which I remember seeing in the theater in an International Film Festival at home in Venezuela. And I remember thinking I had never seen a movie like that truly magical. The only other time as an adult that I remember feeling that way about an animator these is the spider verse, which is a perfect film 15 banger? Yes, speaking of animation, Danny I’m an illustrator. And I have to say your art is incredibly beautiful. And I’m always looking forward to see what you come up with. Thank you for the incredible podcast. It is truly a staple of my listening catalogue and I can’t wait to hear your thoughts on modern okay. Are you coming to Berlin for a meetup at the Berlin nailed? I asked you lots of love from Berlin stuff.
DANNY Gosh Steph, thank you. Yes, we’re coming to Berlin
SLIM announced just announcing next and beat up is in Berlin.
DANNY She guessed it we had to
SLIM crepes
PROTO you know bring bringing up cats made me just realize we actually have like a long running history now of doing really terrible movies at different points. We’ve done cans. We’ve done the Star Wars Holiday Special. We do whatever that true Barrymore piano disaster was was oh baby is the time
DANNY or another one another the
SLIM road. Those are some of my favorite episodes and I’m glad we spaced them out. Because it gives us like the energy to be disgusted by a bad thing.
DANNY Try next
SLIM comes from Alex in chat right now. What’s up 70 mm first time longtime I just had right into participate in the incredible summer run you guys are on. today. We are grateful for protos benevolence with this pick. Princess Mononoke A is a longtime favorite of mine that perfectly showcases that patented Miyazaki blend of nature and magic. I was thinking about this latest rewatch that more than anything else, I need to shout out Joe. Sorry, I don’t remember the pronunciation. So Joe Hisashi score. As always, he delivers the kind of pitch perfect accompaniment that’s so integral to the full experience of any Misaki film. But this one for me is maybe the most moving of anything that came out of their collaborations together. That moment when Ashley taki rides away from his village, and the main theme fully opens up gives me full body chills every time. I can’t wait to hear slim working into the final edit of the show. I’ve always loved the partnership between me Izaki and he but just recently, I realized he also did a bunch of Takeshi Kitano films, including the acoustic classics, sun, a teen and honey bee. That was really making me work in this email. This is amazing to me. Imagine John Williams taking a break from Spielberg and Lucas to score means streets, please. Speaking of appreciating the collaborations of creative masters at the peak of their powers, let me just close with my thanks for what a great ride the last few months have been listening to the pod and watching some of my favorite movies with this community. Can’t wait to see everyone at the meetup and keep the fun rollin into the fall, Alex? Gosh. Huh, kidding me with that email. Thank you. Pretty you kid me.
PROTO It’s amazing. Sonatine this movies on my watch list? Oh, why? Wait for that. The hit streaming baby.
SLIM Is this meetup going to be the greatest night of our lives?
We’re so close at the undisclosed
SLIM location. The supporters know where it is. You’re listening. You’re now on Patreon. You don’t know where this if I see you try to crash this party. I’m gonna lose it. If you’re not a patron.
DANNY Wait till they find out the movie. Just wait.
PROTO We’re giving Mikey P. Lethal authority.
License to Kill?
SLIM When do we find out? Oh, we haven’t said where it is. Sorry. The details I think will be forthcoming very soon.
DANNY No, we have to. We can’t tell them what movie it is until they get there so they don’t cancel.
SLIM Oh, yeah. All right. I think that’s all of our letters. It’s time. And now it’s time for my pick. For next week I’m very hands.
DANNY I’m excited what is going to be?
SLIM Oh, boy, it was close. I almost had a movie jump in the last minute. And it’s the plan B pick speaks to something that I’ve made a decision about for the rest of the year for my pets, but I won’t reveal what that is necessarily. Maybe you’ll maybe you’ll see a trend or the next few months excluding any kind of like Avatar vs that we’re going to do later this year. I almost chose Princess and the Frog. Oh, I have not really I don’t think I’ve seen that. And I still really want to see it. But it did not make the final cut. But the great healing must continue from the events of July 19. The healing will continue until morale improves my pick for annum August. It should be academic right now. It is Akira from Katsuhiro Otomo dreaming on to be any you can get a shiny 4k disc we need to right some wrongs
DANNY oh my gosh
yes
SLIM I did buy the four cat put it on while I was working. So I didn’t I don’t think I gave it a rating. I’ve seen this movie a bunch. I’m excited to sit down and devote my full attention a little In fact, for some deep, deep divers paper keg covered the entire manga of Akira years ago me Jonesy, former guests in the Indiana Jones episodes and Dale produce producer emeritus. This is a this is like a rookie mistake. We covered the whole manga in one episode. That’s insane 6000 pages are doing and I think we also did an episode on Akira so I might listen back to that just to see how my opinion has changed over time. So part of what you think Akira?
PROTO Oh man I am so pumped. I am Wow. Wow, this is this is weird. What we’re doing this month are doing it. People are gonna be talking about this for a long time.
SLIM I can see tears welling up in photos
DANNY she DACA laying in the grass you pumped to watch you care you’re now forcing my hand you know that’s right. You are forcing my hand and so my picks I have my big spin lock before the vote why and now I feel like I have to pivot oh I need to pray about this. I knew I need to sit in prayer and meditation to figure out what I’m going to do
SLIM a cure art from Danny to people to realize this okay woke up
DANNY Alvin just three feet
SLIM anyway, the hits keep calm and proto any closing thoughts for this week as we enter further into the animated summer?
PROTO Ah, you know what I what I left this movie thinking is what we were talking about how, you know, the different characters, they are kind of just like doing their own thing and they don’t see themselves necessarily as the villains, you know, and boshi she’s she’s doing what she thinks is right, but she’s hurting other people and she’s villain. You know, she’s the villain to Sana I think you know, in our own lives, like we’re, you know, we’re always our main characters. But in someone else’s story. You know, there’s different points where we’re going to be somebody’s villain. I think that’s just the way life is but we do have the choice we can choose. We can choose peace, even in this moment. So can I try to choose peace more and more often in my own life?
SLIM We’ll see everybody next week for Akira and World War 3.
[70mm theme song ramps up, plays alone, fades out]
