株式会社スタジオジブリ

Hi!

I was thinking. Sometimes, when you distill the big decisions or themes in your life down to their very very beginnings, they can seem quite ridiculously trivial. I thought I'd share today the specific circumstances that actually started me out on my fascination with Japan...

A good few years ago, me and Louise had just started getting into martial arts films after watching a few good ones (House Of Flying Daggers, Crouching Tiger, Hero). When we came across an Amazon voucher, we thought we'd use it on another, similar DVD.

My job involves making TV listings magazines and film guides, so I tend to be fairly clued-up on movies, and one which I'd heard about and was hoping to see soon was Ong-Bak - the Thai film starring Tony Jaa. For some bizarre reason, instead we elected to go for an animation called Spirited Away - something we'd both only vaguely heard about but heard it was kinda quirky and very good. A quick *click* and it's ours - I remember hoping I don't regret it...

It arrived on a Friday, and we watched it that night. It was nothing like anything either of us had - ever - seen before. It's sheer unaldulturated genius. I got in touch with our (work's) film critic and asked him for similar titles, and he informed me that Spirited Away was made by a company called Studio Ghibli, and he provided me with a list of some of their other highlights. Christmas came, and I tracked some of them down for Louise's stocking. By the next Christmas, I think we'd got just about all of them! We're complete addicts.

Funnily enough, Studio Ghibli, through its fantastical, magical worlds, actually gave us a reason to delve further into the very real aspects of Japan and other Japanese films, cartoons, manga, culture, food, etc.

We joked about going to the Ghibli Museum. We didn't know that just a short while later, we'd actually be going...


It's interesting to consider that if we had gone for Ong-Bak instead (I subsequently saw it: it was ok; good, not great) I may not have ever gone to Tokyo or eaten ramen or listened to Macdonald Duck Eclair or read GTO or anything fun like that!

Comments (3)

On 14 November 2010 at 18:22 , Anonymous said...

I enjoyed your diary.
千と千尋の神隠し“spirited away”is one of the great work I think.It`s our proud.

but in japan,animetar is works under the low wages,that`s a problem.....

by the way, I like brit culture.
Pink Froyd.beatles.Kula shaker.sex pistols.

I love blit.you love japan.it`s wonderful aren`t you?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjDhBGw4nOU

 
On 15 November 2010 at 14:52 , Rob said...

Thanks!

Pink Floyd are brilliant - you can be proud of Spirited Away, and I am proud of Pink Floyd!

Have you heard of Hawkwind? They're similar to Pink Floyd, I think you might like them: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tu7Qqmqp3dg

 
On 15 November 2010 at 17:33 , Anonymous said...

thanx for link.

I like it!
likea mixed pistols and U2!
It`s made me swing my head!

ありがとう!