Ham!

District 9 was exciting and oddly moving (and I hate bugs!) and a triumph over botched format (there is usually no excuse for something so lazy as switching from faux-documentary style filmmaking to an omniscient POV and back several times...except when the movie that does it is this engrossing). I loved it, I did, but it wasn't my favorite movie that I saw this weekend. Instead, it was Hayao Miyazaki's Ponyo, a delirious Little Mermaid reimagining whose plot hinges on a goldfish with a human face who wants everything about her to be human, but whose love with a 5-year-old must be real in order for that to stick. It's like what would happen if acid were blotted on a Love Is... comic. And I know "X on acid," is such a cliched way of endorsing something critically, but I've never seen a film where it's more apt. You don't have to be on anything to get your head blown out by this shit -- it hallucinates for you. (Like those fish in the gif above that lap like waves and crash against dry land, but reemerge as fish...and something for Ponyo to run on.)

And speaking of medium, Miyazaki his married to his, and it's such a loving union to behold. His imagination is so boundless, his associations so bizarre, his imagery so colorful that it could only be accurately translated via animation. He strikes me as equally concerned (if not more so) with composition than action, and so his old-fashioned 2-D style feels particularly appropriate for him. He likes to fill the screen like it's a painting, spoiling us with details like spider-crabs crawling in a corner or children's art that adorns multiple walls or dish detergent sitting by the sink as a mother prepares dinner or a rundown of prehistoric fish that pop up for no specified reason. Sometimes the most breath-taking thing about it is how intricate it all is. (And because of the detail, this really is something to see on the big screen. You could easily grab a bootleg, but you're seriously only robbing yourself.)

Ponyo is the type of image smorgasbord you might suspect that you could watch without sound. It's true that it isn't as complicated as other Miyazaki fare like Princess Mononoke or even Spirited Away (which wasn't very complicated in the first place), but what I loved just as much as the visuals was that crazy shit these characters said to each other. A sampling of my favorite quotes:

- Sosuke (the 5-year-old who rescues Ponyo and falls in love with her, I guess?): "Her name's Ponyo! She likes to eat ham! And she's magic!"

- Sosuke: "Ponyo was a fish. Water doesn't make her wet."

- Sosuke: "Look at her feet, they're just like hands!"

- Sosuke: "All she thinks about is ham, Mom."

- Sosuke's mother (upon leaving her child home alone): "You're only 5, but you're very smart. Sometimes we have to take a leap. Be brave."

- Sosuke: "Don't turn into a fish again. I'd miss you."

- Sosuke (shouting to father whose barge is passing by his house): "I'm taking care of everyone, Dad!"
Ponyo (also shouting): "Ham!"

Sometimes, it seems like there's a translation thing going on (I couldn't figure out why the fuck everyone kept saying what a beautiful name "Ponyo" is), but I really think that Miyazaki and his team are just that bonkers. It's all so surreal. One character describes some situation as a hole that's been ripped in the fabric of reality. Yeah, I know the feeling.

Comments

[steele]

I saw both of those movies over the weekend as well! I knew you'd like District 9. Ponyo was awesome. :3

[Bobby]

I think you're robbing yourself by watching the dubbed version. American voice acting ruins these movies.

[Jay]

But the bad dub makes it that much weirder

[Swingebreech]

Reminds me of when Brak fed the fish a "three ham omelet" Ham on, ham eater!!!

[Wookie]

Did Disney really have to hire a Cyrus sister and a Jonas brother to do the voices?!? Oh well, the movie was still pretty spectacular. And I've been screaming "HAM!" ever since I saw it.

[Nicoe]

Ohmygoodness, I saw Ponyo and it was amazing. Another great line(when Sosuke was attempting to hide Ponyo from his school friends, "You're not busy, you're five!"

[Trang]

I was lucky enough to watch the original last year. AMAZING. But I watched it again, and though a lot of the dialogue has been changed to help the Western audience understand it better, it was very awkward but didn't take away from the spirit of the movie.

The only thing I hated was the remake of the Ponyo song. They made it "techno." THEY MADE THE PONYO SONG TECHNO. I was speechless, it wasn't cute at all like the original.

[Trang]

Oh yeah, and the Fourth Jonas that voiced Sosuke said he has his own band. D:

[duane]

HAM! I loved Ponyo. I feel like I need to see it again to truly appreciate it, though, because so much was going on.

[Danielle]

Now I feel like I need to go see Ponyo ASAP...which is after I finish eating this delicious ham sandwich.

[Kate]

On the beauty of Ponyo's name, from Yahoo Answers:

"It's the Japanese onomatopoeic sound (what they hear) when you something that's soft and jiggly.

Kinda like "boing" in English.

♫♪Ponyo, ponyo, ponyo, sakana no ko♪♫"

Miyazaki's answer is something about the sound of a "soft, squishy softness."

[Driver B]

I too saw the original version very early this year, and I ADORED it. I went home singing that song about a billion times. I'm so sad to hear that they changed it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K287ArocBaY

I'll probably still see this a few times in the theater, even though I prefer the subtitled version. Yay Ponyo!

[Rachel]

Glad to know you liked District 9. I loved it too and I'm excited to see Ponyo now.

[Erin]

As soon as I saw the title, I knew what it was going to be about and I was so excited!! I'm glad I'm not the only one that saw this movie this weekend, I loved it so much and I've been telling everyone I know to go and see it. It definitely wasn't one of his best films, but it reminded me of My Neighbor Totoro in the way that it's very childlike and imaginative, and a lot of things don't really make sense but they don't need to. I'll probably go and see it again, I couldn't stop smiling while I was watching it.

[Erin]

Also, I thought the dub was fine, I think the actors did good jobs. The translation was a little off based on the bootleg I watched, but it wasn't for the worse.

[Chris]

I agree with you in regards to the unbelievable amount of detail Miyazaki puts into the margins. My favorite is the scene where Sosuke and Ponyo are getting into the (recently enlarged) toy boat to find mom, and, just in the corner of the frame, we see a little octopus, slowly squooshing its way into the house behind them. One of those things that's placed just for the entertainment of kids watching. "Oooh, look, the octopus is going into the house!" It's one of a million little things that shows Miyazaki's commitment to making a movie that kids will actually enjoy and interact with, rather than the Disney-style "baffle 'em with flashing lights and crane shots!" school of thought. I still like "Spirited Away" a half-inch better, but this was really wonderful too.

[dodger]

please see WALTZ WITH BASHIR

[Laura @ Hungry and Frozen]

Was disappointed to have missed this in the local film festival but have a feeling it will end up getting general release. I loved Spirited Away so have high hopes for this one. Anything with "ham" as a focal point of the dialogue has to be good.

[RP]

"Don't turn into a fish again. I'd miss you."

Awwww!

Is the end of this going to leave me feeling slightly sad?

[Kris]

it is certainly one of the most kid friendly releases Miyazaki has done since Totaro & I was completley iin love with it. The octopus in the house was one of my favorites! We will certainly wait for the dvd relase to watch the original w/o the dubbing, but I thought the actors did a decent job. Just a perfectly trippy & adorable movie! And I miss the hand drawn arts, so Miyazaki is one of my favorites (and a master!) Seriously if you have not seen his work, go get them all!

[Kim]

NPR had a really interesting commentary from a guy who saw Ponyo with his autistic daughter.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111960817

He brings up something cool ideas and points with it.

[pete]

a new Miyazaki is always an event. i'm always torn between dubs or subtitles. i think Spirited Away got released in theaters both ways, at least near me. Disney has gotten much better with casting the voice acting since the abysmal performances in Princess Mononoke(most notably Gillian Anderson and Billy Bob Thornton) but your review of Ponyo makes me sure i'll want to see this one more than once, thanks Rich. xo

[Kate]

"I'd let a fish lick me if it would get me out of this wheelchair."

...oh? really.

and:

"My dad really hates humans and kept me in a giant bubble!"
"...what about your mom, then?"

[Selah]

I'd love to see this :D

[Miss Lisa]

Just putting in the kid perspective here. Just saw it with my seven-year-old who thought Sosuke was very brave. He also smiled the entire time Ponyo was on the screen which was for most of the film. He practicallly only eats ham himself. She's a delightful character.

I still like "Howl's Moving Castle," "Spirited Away" and "Totoro" the best but this one is high up on the list, if only because of the running-on-the-fish sequence and incredibly dream-like ocean scenes. Exuberant!