Six on the beach

For no other reason besides the fact I can, I’ve complied a list of my top six favourite directors. If I provided explanations behind my choices this post would probably end up three times the size of `The Power of Levitt-ation’ and nobody wants to go through that. The following are in no particularly order and I’ve also included a few notable mentions of directors I love but not as much as those featured in the top six. Some, like Ben Affleck and Rian Johnson still have to prove themselves but from their debut directorial offerings I’m a fan.

Movie Mazzupial’s Top Six Favourite Directors

Robert Rodriguez

Tim Burton
Hayao Miyazaki Terrence Malick Quentin Tarantino
Ang Lee

Honourable mentions: Guillermo del Toro, Clint Eastwood, Brad Bird, Wes Craven, Chris Nolan, Alfred Hitchcock, Peter Jackson, Rian Johnson, Tim Robbins and Ben Affleck.

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Hayao's in da house!

Well, this is awkward. Rewind to last week and I was all “blah blah blah go watch Laputa: Castle in the Sky on SBS as part of their Hayao Miyazaki tribute it should be great blah blah blah I’m so excited”. For those wishing to imitate me in the future that is exactly how I speak. Exactly. Cut a long story short I was not a fan of good ol’ Laputa and (just quietly) it barley holds a candle, let alone a flame, to its awesome predecessor Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. The problem is it crossed the fine line between mind blowing fantasy and ridiculous nonsense. And what was with the sexual subtext? The two lead characters are, like, 8-years old! A friend happened to point out various parts of the dialogue which are unintentional hilarious due to the said subtext.. In its defense, the animation was still incredible and repeatedly took my breath away to the point where a ventil puffer was my companion on the couch. James Van Der Beek did a sturdy job vocally in his role as the male lead BUT who would Anna Paquin still can’t act, even when she’s not on the screen! So, after enduring two hours of Laputa action I wondered . . . can I ever trust Miyazaki again?
HELL YES! The next night I rented Howl’s Moving Castle and fell in love with the beautiful plot, animation and characters.

I thought Howl’s brilliance even exceeded Nausicaa which is saying a lot because I’m a big, big fan of that film. Tonight SBS are again screening the next Miyazaki film called Kiki’s Delivery Service which I’m very curious about. Released in 1989 it’s a coming of age story about 13-year-old witch-in-training Kiki (FYI that’s cutting a long story short but I’m trying to keep this semi-brief). Miyazaki’s films seem to centre around a teenage female heroine and he handles this character type extremley well. You could say it’s what he’s at home doing, like Scorcese and bio-pics or Michael Bay and shit-house films.Anyway, I’m interested to see what Kiki is like and am keen to hear your thoughts. It’s on tonight, SBS, 10.05pm.

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Nausicaa of the valley of the wind

Last Wednesday night I happened to be feeling a bit under the weather around approximately 10pm and was having a good old flick through the stations. I happened to come across an anime movie on SBS. So I started watching and within five minutes I was blown away by the sheer creativity, scope and quality of animation. Not to mention the absolutely brilliant concept and environmental message. When the credits came on it turned out Uma Thurman. Mark Hamill and Spielberg whore Shia LeBouef had voiced the main characters. Needless to say my interest was well and truly sparked by this gem of a film and the next day I sought out to discover what it was called. The movie was called Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind or Kaze no tani no Naushika in Japanese which is the language it first appeared in 1984. WTF? 1984! It’s been a week since then and I still can’t believe a film of this standard was made in the early eighties. It is brilliant, brilliant, brilliant!

Nausicaa was made by a lad called Hayao Miyazaki a Japanese director, screenwriter, character designer and legend. The story is too complex to explain but in a nutshell (help, I’m a giant nutshell) it’s about pacifist, warrior princess Nausicaa who leaves in the post apocalyptic Valley of the Wind. The rest of the world has sort of been taken over by giant insects and a toxic jungle with only a handful of human colonies surving. Obviously the film has strong environmentalist undertones which, considering its release date, are well before its time. As it turns out SBS are screening Hayao Miyazaki’s films every Wednesday night at 10.05pm. If you’re a night owl then I suggest you tune in to these because they are fan-freaking-tastic. Tonight his 1986 creation Laputa: Castle in the Sky is on. Anna Paquin and James Van Der Beek (aka Dawson) voice the two main characters. If you want to know more about the plot before you commit yourself to viewing read up on it here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_in_the_Sky
Be sure to check out these movies. Personally, I found them so incredible my tiny brain nearly imploded. Alas, I survived and am now preaching to you. Go young grass hoppers, worship at the altar of Miyazaki.

FYI this fella is also behind the more well known creations Howl’s Moving Castle, Porco Rosso and the Academy Award winning Spirited Away.

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