Porco Rosso - Miyazaki

1992. Kurenai no Buta a.k.a. Porco Rosso - 093 minute


The wife of Sir Miyazaki has to be a very happy woman.

I do not think it is a coincidence, but in his movies constantly appears the idea that the women makes the world go round.

Although the plot of the movie takes place in a men’s world, of flying devices, air pilots and so on, the appearance of the female figure is always saving the day, starting from the very begging while the air pirates kidnapped the girls swimming team.

The main contribution is brought by Miss Fio Piccolo a young lady of 17 years old, who is the person behind the revival of Porco Rosso’s plane, making it alive again like Phoenix from the flames.
A whole bunch of other women (of all the ages) also help with everything they can starting with tinsmithing, painting, repairing and finishing with cooking, arranging the table, administrative issues and even spying … while the male (the pork) character who gives the title of the movie watches the rush sitting and swinging a pink baby cot, where eventually it sleeps a baby girl.

Gina is the light and somehow omnipresent female behind the scene who fills with even more feminist feeling the movie. Everybody loves her and she spreads love everywhere.

How and where is for you to discover!

Spirited Away - Miyazaki

2001. Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi a.k.a. Spirited Away - 124 minutes

First movie of Sir Miyazaki I ever watched and the cause of my addiction to the gender … despite the fact that not being used with the style it seemed to me a little bit too frightening and crowded in weird characters for a cartoon.
But this is not a cartoon we are talking about here. It’s an anime movie, a real, classical anime. And as far as I am concerned: a great one.
It reminds me somehow of the plot from another classic: Alice in Wonderland.

A standard Japanese teenager (Ten-Ager) Chihiro, who has the standard feeling that she does not belong, or that she does not fit in, due to some irrelevant turn of events gets to be lured in a totally non-standard, magical, mystical world of the spirits, and after spending an unknown period of time in there as Sen … will get out mature, grateful and in love.
She passes throw a transformation … from a caterpillar into a lovely butterfly.

Who is the White Rabbit that guides and protects her? Remember that we are not in the old good England …
A White Dragon! Who else?

Haku does not reveal to us as a dragon from the beginning, but as a candid, lovely boy who even now (after I’ve watched the whole list of Sir Miyazaki’s movies and tons of others anime) is still in top five of my favorite anime male characters.
He is not just cute, but also hard working, serious, fearless, and he will do everything it takes to help his friend taking her name back and lifting the spell put upon her parents in order to go back to the real world.
The parallelism with Alice’s story might continue with other characters as well: the two witches sisters resemble with the two Queens and No Face with The Grinning Cheshire Cat.

Yubaba, the main antagonist, is definitely similar with The Red Queen (The Queen of Hearts) having the same XXL head and type of behavior.

If the Red Queen favorite phrase was “Off with his/her Head” we meet here a kind of “Off with his/her Name” or “Off with his/her Kanji”, our lady preferring to cut off a Kanji character from the victims’ name in order to change it and to cancel their past. This was helping her to control them and use them in her service. More pragmatic then the English version (Alice) I would say and a very intelligent move also.

If somebody has no past, unless he isn’t an above average type of person, it will be very difficult for him to have a future, being blocked in an undefined present.
Smart psychological move Yubaba!

Zeniba, Yubaba’s sister, might be considered The White Queen (The Queen of Chess), helping eventually our main teenagers to make it out.

The movie is yours to enjoy offering something interesting for any type of viewer: drama, adventure, mystery, panoply of Nippon mythology, delicate problems of the contemporary world such as consumerism, over-eating or environment protection.
The message that is send out there is complex and the work of the team who produced this movie must have been huge.

But despite all above mentioned issues what remained in my heart was the genuine love between Sen & Haku, although they came from different worlds.

Love really conquers all, isn’t it?

Why I don’t have a car? Inside City

Why I don’t have a car? - Inside of the City

or … why do I love the public transportation system …

Quite often in the last period I am constantly asked why I am not buying a car…The answer is so simple: because I do not want to! It is not related with money, it is also related with other costs, with my freedom, my comfort, privacy and egocentrism. Not having my own car still allows me to get wherever I want, not quite in the same time but with the lowest cost, without leaving traces and in a complete anonymity.

Buses:
The R.A.T.B. lines in Bucharest are covered 98% by the latest Mercedes-Benz Diesel buses with air-conditioner, LCD screens which are enchanting your eyes with images screen-saver type and various infos, and hypnotic music is played all the time for relaxing the passengers.
The frequency is pretty decent.

The subways:
The subway has a direct link between the only two high-ways Romania has (A2 Constanta and A1Pitesti) and practically is crossing the city from the east side to the west side in just 25 minutes; and this is not all.

There is always plenty of space and enough spare seats. It is time for lecture, reading and meditating in the “Bombardier” which has the nick-name “silver bullet”. All the stations have suspended LSDs with funny & interesting news or just short information about what’s up in the city. They are also providing 2 free newspapers in case somebody is forgetting the current on-going book to be read. The subway underground world is a different world: with its own TV channel, typical commercial, its own newspapers, small shops: from pharmacy, cosmetics, flowers shops to bags, fashion boutiques, books and food.
There is actually a McDonalds’ in the underground! At Unirea 2!
Here, under, you can see the latest models of All Star or Converse shoes close to Sarah Karen or Zia Pia high heels shoes, the city office prêt-a-porte sitting next to the street fashion.

Bags, dresses, tights, colors, ear-rings, watches, shoes, mobile phones, books, make-ups, accessories, hair styles … you name it.
All in the same place.
All free of charge.
It is like window shopping with the difference that you do not move … the models are …
And all together moving with high speed inside of the same figurative bullet.

Seating next to each other on similar blue chairs.
You can seat and look at them discreetly without even knowing them.

Without hellos and without good-byes.
You just travel together with them and they are travelling together with you.
Everybody with their own life, their own mobile phone, texting their own messages’, having their own ways, their own styles, books and targets … sharing a piece of this with you inside of the same space for a couple of minutes while slicing the city in two.
Some of them are laughing, talking, some smiling, listening to music at iPod, some are faceless, void, some preoccupied and sometimes some have tears in their eyes … It happened to me also, but u can easily hide it out or u realize that it does not matter anyhow … they will never ask u why …(…)

Moral of the story:

I would not like to miss all of this in exchange of driving a car alone for half an hour or more.

The moments while driving a car long distance should be shared.
I prefer to “share” this time with unknown persons instead of not sharing them at all.
And for short distance there are always plenty of alternatives.

It is like with the relationships. If you are ok on your own why would you get involved in a long term relationship just because everybody else is? It is not logic. And it is not logic for me to be like everybody else …