GAKE NO UE NO PONYO

Run time: 103 min

I have to admit, I am not a big fan of Japanese animation movie. Until I heard about this so called Ponyo that makes some buzz. If you mention the name Ponyo to anyone in Bandung, people will think that it is a Sundanese restaurant chain, well that is not wrong, Ponyo is one of sundanese restaurant chain in Bandung. The name similarity with a Sundanese restaurant chain spark my interest. I know it is a weird thing to be interested in a film because its title just like the name of a restaurant, but since the food in that restaurant is good, I hope the film is good too.

Watching this film brings back the good childhood memory (you know, the time where we didn't have to lie to the cops for speeding on a freeway) where everything was so simple and easy to understand.

Even the animation feels like it has sprung up from children drawing book. The story revolves around the friendship between a magical goldfish, Ponyo (Yuria Nara) and the five year old human child, Sosuke (Doi Hiroki). Sosuke lives in a small house on a cliff where he lives, Lisa (Yamaguchi Tomoko). I suspect Lisa is not Sosuke's mother, but his step mother since Ponyo refers Lisa by name, no by calling her 'mom'. Sosuke's father, Koichi (Kazushige Nagashima), is a ship captain rarely seen at home since he is away in the sea.

Ponyo and Sosuke met by chance, Ponyo escaped her father and Sosuke loves Ponyo at the first glance. Sosuke himself gave the name Ponyo to the goldfish. Ponyo soon begins to adapt and take on human aspects since she lick Sosuke's blood. Both have a strong bond and Ponyo has strong desire to become a human. A desire, Fujimoto (Tokoro Joji), Ponyo's father, cannot contain anymore. Fujimoto himself is a former human who has magical powers and obsessed of cleaning the sea. Notice how Miyazaki slowly put an ecological and environmental message in this film.

What will happen to Ponyo and Sosuke as their mutual affection grows significantly? As you can expect the line between the real and spiritual world is being blurred in an enchanting way.

The animation was wonderful, Miyazaki didn't only drew characters but he made the characters act, anyone would fall in love with the cuteness of doe-eyed Sosuke and Ponyo and Miyazaki did a convincing job on how the animated character authentically mimic a body movement of a 5 year old human. The 2 D animation was splendid and imaginative, I even liked the pastel colored background, it gives me the classic feeling of animation.

What I watched is the original Japanese version, but I am interested to watch it in English language version since it is said that Matt Damon, Cate Blanchett and Liam Neeson doing voices for Ponyo's US version. A lot of people say that this film is for children (I even like the childish Japanese theme song), but as for me I think it speaks for all of us since this film reminded us on how beautiful life is when we were young.

DISTRICT 9

MPAA Rating: R for bloody violence and pervasive language.


This film was made, perhaps, by the budget of Optimus Prime's foot but manage to be much better than two Transformers movie. District 9 is a fine example on how budget limitations doesn't limit your creativity.

Peter Jackson and first time South African writer-director Neill Blomkamp, have made a sci-fi thriller that is original and mesmerizing. It is a new breed of sci-fi with racism and xenophobia themes.

Using mockumentary style, with hand-held cameras, the horror and reality seem real. A spaceship out of nowhere hovers over Johannesburg, South Africa. There are no clues why the aliens chose Johannesburg instead of other cities. The prawn/grasshopper like alien arrived on earth as refugees. First they were feared and incite violence in the city, thus the government, with the aid of MNU, a private interest organization, localize the aliens in a slum like place called District 9. In that lawless slum the aliens live poorly and gangs rule the streets. Humans doesn't seem to care about them, there seem to be a silent hatred upon those alien refugees since their appearance is quite scary.

The MNU which had secret plans to acquire aliens weaponry technology will relocate the aliens who had lived in District 9 for 20 years to District 10, a new place which looks like a concentration camp.

Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copely) is the MNU agent in charge of the relocation to District 10. At first he doesn't look like capable of handling such a big project. Things changes as Wikus is infected with some alien liquid, his hands started to change into prawn like (Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis anyone?) thus his body undergo a slow but sure process from human into alien.

The second act deals about how Wikus is escaping MNU's facility (they wanted to make him a guinea pig since he is the first successfull human-prawn combination) and his 'partnership' with Christopher Johnson, an alien who had a plan to escape from earth.

Sadly the last third felt like Hollywood type of ending where the main antagonist was kept alive until the end where he is 'butchered' viciously after some fascinating shootout (you just can't believe that such scene can be made with such low budget by Hollywood standard). However the whole film is fascinating, the acting was great and you got the sense that sci-fi genre in the future will not be ended in G.I. Joe's way of visual effect and sugary cinematography. Forget special effects, this movie is about human fear and discrimination.

South African settings brings back old memories of Apartheid, one can draw parallel between District 9 and South African Apartheid policies in the past.

I do wish that Michael Bay could learn something from Neill Blomkamp, that having mega budget doesn't necessarily makes your movie good.