whisper of the heart / mimi o sumaseba (1995)

This movie is a treasure! The premise: A middle school girl named Shizuku who likes to read and write lives a regular life with friends and a semi-chaotic family life, when one day she takes a liking to a fluffy grey cat who joins her on the train on her way to the library. She follows the cat to a small shop full of antique objects, including a romantically designed grandfather clock and a figurine of a cat dressed in a baron's clothing. There, she befriends the owner, an elderly man who tells her stories and encourages her to write her own, and Seiji, a boy in her grade who wants to be a professional violin maker. From there, she becomes more inspired to pursue her own dreams of becoming a better writer.

finding a bit of confidence in her own voice with the help of a friend

Glad to see an anime with characters that build believable friendships and romances, especially after being disillusioned by Kimi no na wa. At the beginning of the story Shizuku finds herself being constantly berated by her older sister for not helping out around the house, as her mother is busy working on her master's degree and her father is, well, a man. She has friends at school who admire her writing, aka her translation of the song Country Road that they plan to perform, but she feels stuck, perhaps weighed down by her responsibilities at home and the pressure of having to get ready to take high school entrance exams. She ultimately finds inspiration in seeing Seji work so hard to achieve his dreams, and reassurance from the elderly man that perfection takes time and effort, that every gemstone starts out rough and unpolished and embedded in plain rock.

skipping dinner to work on her story

I thought the fact that she and Seiji agreed to marry each other in the future was so adorable and worked really well, as it is understood that they are children who may not understand the weight of their promise to each other, yet feel above all a kinship for one another and a desire to see each other succeed. Their love for one another is entirely unselfish, communicated to one another by the small ways in which they look out for each other (Shizuku hopping off the bike and helping push Seiji up the hill even though he had wanted to take her up the entire way, him catching an earlier plane back from his apprenticeship to see her, their feeling of being able to anticipate the other's presence suggesting they share the same desires to see each other). Shizuku does not devolve into a Female Love Interest in front of Seiji, and Seiji is not patronizing nor macho in front of her. Such a joy to see this kind of portrayal of a female character and romance in a film made in 1995, for although Shizuku does live in a man's world (the inspiring figures in the movie are all men), she remains an individual with curiosities and dreams.

In terms of how this film relates to its sequel, The Cat Returns, I wonder if it acts as a sort of big sister. It sets up a world in which characters dare to dream bigger, who encounter bits of the magic that is further unveiled in The Cat Returns, where The Baron takes a younger girl on an adventure and similarly shows her what she might be missing out on and inspires her to think bigger.

terrace house: boys x girls in the city (2015)

TERRACE HOUSE!!!!! This show is highly addictive most likely because it is so satisfying for me to watch Asian people in media. Most Americans are familiar with reality TV as a place where idiots gather to get famous by having their worst moments captured and provide the audience with a stronger sense of self-satisfaction. Terrace House, however, is a different story. Not only is the show set in Japan, but it does not seem to have the agenda of fanning the flames of drama. Instead, the show portrays the everyday lives of young people who are polite, kind, and funny, who have goals and careers they get to showcase on the show, who solve dilemmas by having mature conversations. Moreover, cast members are free to leave the show if they choose, making the format seem less coercive than most other reality shows (though we don't know the extent to which producers are involved in that decision).

my OG girlz

An additional layer of the show involves six commentators who convene to watch the show every week and discuss it. Their banter is generally amusing when you try to ignore the very obvious fact that the discussion is dominated by the two men, with the women left mostly agreeing with or adding to the men's comments while occasionally putting a short thought or two out there themselves. This dynamic we see in American culture as well and is obviously nothing new, but the degree of gender (especially feminine) performance is very visible. In general, however, their commentary is funny and a nice format to channel any joys or frustrations you have as a viewer into, as I found they generally said things that I was thinking about already.

the above-mentioned commentators

The biggest disappointment of the show is that it does focus heavily on romance in a very heteronormative and sexist way - there are always 3 girls and 3 guys living in the house at once, and it can feel extremely lame to watch the men (esp the three in the beginining) talking about the girls' boobs, to have people criticized for not being "manly" or "feminine" enough to date or be respectable, to have multiple shots of girls in bikinis with their heads cropped out whenever the cast goes to the beach. To see a nineteen year old girl crying after doing a photoshoot in a bikini was heartbreaking, and have the moment be pretty much glossed over by the commentators was highly disappointing. We do see interesting manifestations of gender roles in less inflammatory settings - the women are generally the ones who do the cooking, for example, which really had me thanking the gods that I am not in their position!

can we not

i feel ya gurl

It is refreshing, however, to watch generally attractive Japanese people interact with one another in mundane ways. They're just like us! And perhaps a bit better at communicating than some of us! There is something really pleasant about witnessing these mundane conversations that seem truly unscripted (unlike the dialogue in American reality shows), to watch the complexity of human interaction unfold in an unchaotic setting as the cast continue about their daily work lives. Perhaps the show says something about how one's life can change solely based on the people one gets to know, about how meaningful friendships blossom from stranger-hood, how one can become so attached to people and places simply by spending time with them and being in their presence. Terrace House accomplishes what the Bachelor/ette fails to do - capture convincing romances and even more convincing friendships.

FAVORITE CHARACTERS LIST: Minori, Mizuki, Arisa, Arman, Hikaru, and Martha. Arman x Martha are the dream ship and the ship has sailed and they are still together based on their instagrams and all is right in the world.

Not sure if I will watch the other versions of the show: the original and Aloha State. At the very least it is nice to know that they are there for me when I need them. :) 

the beguiled (2017)

This film captures a very visceral and melancholic sense of place. In the opening scene we see a young girl walking along a dirt path surrounded by a spread of giant trees, branches curving in to create a canopy of dulled green over the path. After she rescues Colin Farrel, we get to see the magnificent house that these women live in, with its entrance lined with yellowed ionic columns, situated within a dense surrounding of overgrown trees with weeping branches of green on the brink of greying. These trees and their weeping branches are present in all shots of the house so that we never get a sense of the true shape or size of the house as it is always shrouded by nature gone wild, In this setting we get a creeping sense of the outside infiltrating the inside which we see again and again with Colin not only bringing the presence of maleness into the household, but also the presence of war, of division, of the threat of destabilizing the hierarchy and order of Miss Martha's school.

welcome to nicole kidman's crib

The fluctuation and transfer of power throughout the story was really interesting to follow. The moment the Corporal enters the house, Miss Martha sense that her power may be threatened, as most of the women and girls take a liking to (or at very least a fascination with) him. Despite him flirting with Edwina and Alicia, he is still weak due to his injured leg and Miss Martha finds comfort for herself in taking care of him, finding him attractive, and confessing that it can be exhausting to be a constant source of strength for her girls. Despite allowing herself to be vulnerable around him, she can at least rest assured while he is hurt that she and her girls are safe. After he recovers and begins to help around the garden, he begins to build power for himself by tending to the garden and flirting with the women in the house. Perhaps Miss Martha sense that and fears it, so she says he will be well enough to leave by the end of the week. Perhaps in response to this, the Corporal tells Edwina that he loves her, perhaps taking advantage of her loneliness and desire to leave this place, and that she should come away with him to Richmond. He then proceeds to make a ~power move~ by sleeping with Alicia instead of Edwina, and Edwina, in a fit of betrayal, pushes him down the stairs and breaks his leg. Miss Martha removes his leg, thus returning him to his crippled state and restoring her own power as the most influential of the house and locks him in his room to keep him away from the girls. At this point, with his leg cut off, symbolic of being castrated, the Corporal is consumed by understandable rage and uses physical violence to assert his dominance in the household. At this point, there is nothing the women can do but to kill him. The story seems to suggest that a man's death may be the only way keep women safe - a strong message of the strength of female community and the costs of maintaining it.

all eyes

At times I did feel like Colin Farrell was too assertive in his flirtations in his weakened state and I didn't find it believable, I guess meaning I didn't find myself attracted to him like the other women did, but like I guess people are unique and have their unique preferences and who am I to judge their poor taste idk?? Perhaps he was channeling a sort of practiced charm as a means of self protection, as if he knew exactly what words to use to win the women over.

Overall a beautiful and succinct portrayal of the destabilization of a community by an outsider, and a sort of ominous yet uplifting portrayal of women keeping each other safe despite, or in the context of, their own desires. I enjoyed that each of the women and girls was unique in their own standing and relationship with one another, like you could draw a web out of all the unique connection. Sofia Coppola does a great job of creating an atmosphere of quiet drama and sexual tension like she did in Lost in Translation, with the eye following the female gaze when filming Colin Farrell, meaning it had to be more subtle and repressive in its appreciation of him than it would a female body in order to capture the female characters' gaze and fascination. This provided a form of silent storytelling and character development that worked quiet well.

#bathtime

It's important to acknowledge that the film has been white-washed with the removal of a black slave character and a character of mixed ethnicity. As much as the aesthetic of beautiful blonde repressed white women appeals to me and white America, it's a real shame to see stories erase the presence of people of color, especially in an otherwise fantastic movie. I read that Coppola had her reasons (she said she didn't want young audiences to see a black character being portrayed in the way that she is in the book), which makes sense but is also an excuse not to do better. Being scared you're going to be racist is no excuse to sidestep someone's existence - it should be motivator to do more research and educate yourself.