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Beastars (2019)
Beastars happens the intense conflict between wild and civilized, natural and social, aggressive and gentle
Beastars, anime serie uploaded in 2020 by Netflix, has a theme that, a few years later, almost was popularizared in Zootopia (2016), by Disney: a society formed by carnivores and herbivores of many differents species in harmony (or not). However, the anime serie producted with digital animation by Orange studio has not a children's target audience like a Disney or Pixar movie: it's a work that has graphic and suggestive violence talking about the fights and conflites between differents groups with personal interests through the "us versus them" speech, and this polarization made negative consequences in carnivores and herbivores: the first group have to fight against the discrimination for always being seen as "naturally aggressive and violent", while the herbivores has a constant feeilings of pain and apreension in front of any carnivore animal. This division creates a segregation system in rooms, clubs and even in friendships. The polarization between carnovires and herbivores are very contradictory in Cherryton school because this conflictes happens in same time the authorities has speench that value ideals as harmony, diplomacy, union, peace, equality and fraternity between species, and all of this is represented in red deer Louis, the main leadership figure of Cherryton college (and the most propince to be the next "beastars". All of the situattion becomes worse with Tem death and the protagonist Legoshi, the gray wolf, need to solucionate the mystery of the murder while control him "wild nature" that can destroy your relationship with Haru, the white rabbit, and the rest of society that have, even implicitly, a speech of criminalization of carnivores and their nature.
Throught Legoshi, we can see the indivue fight against a dark and negative side of him nature to don't kill him friendly and positive side (the personalities searched by the protagonist and by all of the society). However, not only an approach about how we can deal with yourself, Beastars is a work talking about how we can deal with the others or with the "strange" and "different" (even this concepts are more social constructions than nature). The two main relationships between carnivore and herbivore are Riz and Tem and Legoshi e Haru, and both cases has semelhance in the form of how this relations are constructed. There is a mix of carnivore instincts (natural) and feelings of affection (social) as friendship (Riz and Tem) and romance (Legoshi e Haru). Riz and Legoshi "use" their wild instincts to to connect with Tem and Haru, respectively, but the anime makes it obvious that the way the two use these instincts is completely different. While Legoshi constructed the affection to Haru to substitute and soften him wild side, Riz believe the carnivore instinct and the affection to Tem is the same things, arguing that devouring the friend was, in fact, a "proof of friendship" for him.
In contrast to Legoshi and Riz where the manner that both deal with the "other" and the "different" is directly and completely about deal with yourself, this process. In the perspective of a herbivore animal like Louis, is totally diffrent. When Louis becomes the leader of Shishi-Gumi, the red deer, the main symbol of diplomacy, union and respect, loved by everyone, became involved with a group of individuals who represent the complete opposite of these virtues, mainly the aggressiveness, savagery and violence of hungries lions (It can be seen that, in anime society, it is common to link the image of the herbivore with civility and pacifism, and that of the carnivore, with force, violence and barbarity). With the lions of criminal organization, Louis was "forced" to adopt some group customs and behaviors that go against his herbivore instincts, such as digesting meat, for example, to keep him position of respect and leadership in Shishi-Gumi (the public image is very important to the character in both Cherryton Collegon and Shishi-Gumi Organization). In this way, the form who carnovires (Riz and Legoshi) and herbovires (Louis) have to lead not only shows what each one have to abandon to live with someone who is different, but also what is requirement of each in that universe, where the carnivores have to abandon the taste for meat and the strong physique to live with herbivores and where herbivores need to be agressive and violence to live with carnivores (including, Louis killed and do violents actions to reach Shishi-Gumi leadership).
The Beastars society value harmony and union between species in constrast of the "savagery" and "barbarism" of carnivore animals throught the repression of the nature and it substitution to the social, where the individue have to "destroy" all of its instincts to be shaped and subordinated to a social order (and, obviously, the carnivores animals are the msot affected by this). Even the anime serie shows that this obssession to harmony end up affecting, in one way or another, individuals who do not want or do not fit into the pre-established models related to their species, like as Legoshi, that is a wolf, trying to be a friendly person and Haru, that is a rabbit, trying to be a strong person, the works fails when don't apresentate any "institution" or "elite" that have interests (political, social or economic) in that ideology like in real life. In the biggest political regimes of the history (democratics or dictatorial governments), every type of construction of society that has ideals like "beauty", "cult", "stronge" and "pure" as models always have a social control or combat of opposing individuals, groups or ideals as the main objective, that are presented as opposites to these ideals, in the ideia if you are opposing to the a governemnet or regime status quo, you are the opposite of beauty, the intelligence, the nacionalism or the God's will. When Beastars society value this ideals without any elite or spreench that try to reforce the ideology, the work create the ideia this construction can be made and destroyed individually with individual initiatives or merits of the individuals themselves, which is nothing more than a somewhat simplistic view of reality. It's can be seen in Louis trajectory when he becomes Shishi-Gumi leader.
The anime has great merits in many areas, mainly in tecnic creation: the work uses CGI animation (Computer Generated Imagery) made by Orange studio (almost knowed because of this technique) and, in the opposte of anime series like Berserk and Ajin that, even very popular, was extremely criticized because of the low quality of their computer animations, Beastars uses it in a way that brings a new look to this technique from both the public and critics (most likely because Beastars' CGI is mixed with traditional hand-crafted 2D animation, which seems to trick the eyes into confusing what is computer and what is hand drawing). Other great merit of Netflix anime serie is the competent in showing a mature and complex story over time, bringing violence and suggestive sex scenes without the need to "pay as an adult", as some current teen series (including Netflix's) do, which clog the screen of the drug viewer, explicit violence and drugs in an empty way. Beastars' violence isn't simply played out on screen: it occurs progressively as the story progresses, most notably involving the unraveling of Tem's murder. This violence, in pass of time, becomes emocional meaning for some characters, for example Riz arguing that devouring the friend was a "proof of friendship" for him and Legoshi seeing the fight training made with Gohin, the panda, both an opportunity to fight the Tem's murder and protect Haru. In others moments of the anime, the violence, not more graphic, is apresentaded suggestively thought carnivores characters costumes and behaviors, like the game where you compete who has the strongest jaw, proving who is more aggressive or who has more virility. In a fictional work when practically everything is about fights, conflites and indivues being threats against each other, the presence of visual elements as blood, body scratches and carnivorous animals showing teeth and proving their manhood has a big simbolic value in the story, but Beastars don't apresentate this elements like as a empty form or don't let its story be only this.
The violence is too part of the stereotypes and predetermined concepts that one society create about carnivores and herbivores, but Legoshi and Haru are trying to superate this stereotypes. Legoshi, a carnivore animal and a gray wolf, seen as naturally violent, are trying to be friendly while Haru, a herbivore animal and a white rabbit, seen as delicate and helpless, wants to become a stronger and braver person. The union between two oppostes characters both in personality and physical appearance is a strong element in shounens animes used to symbolize friendship and rivalry like Naruto and Sasuke (Naruto e Naruto Shippuden), Goku and Vegeta (Dragon Ball) e Gon e Killua (Hunter x Hunter). However, unlike these characters, the relation between Legoshi and Haru has elements and approaches more deep and even "dark" comparing with this classics characters, even Beastars is a shounen anime too. This is precisely what the work based on the manga by Paru Itagaki, serialized by the Oragne studio and distributed worldwide by Netflix, speaks so much: contrasts and overcoming paradigms, through the intense conflict between wild and civilized, natural and social, aggressive and gentle, as characters they kill, die and wear out, sometimes uselessly, banally and in vain, in this conflict.
The Owl House (2020)
The Owl House is "not-Disney brand" about search of identify and delevopment in a world with a lot of "Imperator Beros"
The Owl House, animated TV serie created by Dana Terrace, is a cartoon that, if can be descrited in one word, relating with its production and reception by public, this word will be "polemic". Some elements presents in story about Luz Noceda and her adventures in Boiling Isles disliked some especificts groups in sociecy (and is not LGBT representative the main reason of this): firts only to talk about themes like withs, demons and magic, displeasing conservative and religious mothers and fathers, after because The Owl House is a TV serie more "dark and mature" (the main priority of Disney about target audience), being cancelled in thirth season because "The Owl House did not fit into the Disney brand". In this sense, the own existence of TV serie is a "resistence" against many complications that limitade its themes and production and, coincidentally or not, The Owl House talk about anti-authoritarianism and personal identify em extremes situations (Luz Noceda, for example, is latin american and the first Disney bissexual protagonist). Themes like personal maturation and representative shows that The Owl House is a search for a place to belong and a objetive to reach.
All the main characters, mainly the youngest like Luz, Willow, Gus e Amity, fight against some type of challenge that impede their liberty and take the own decisions (this is a frequent theme in 2010 cartoons): Edalyn being a free witch in opostion with exigences to Imperator Beros em follow only one especific type of magic, Willow and Gus wanting to learn what they want in oposition to exigences of Hexside, Amity wanting to create friendship with Luz, Willow and Gus, opposite to Imposition of her family are examples when there is a opostion between the individue and some authority or "extern force" imposing rules or orders against their will, should being a "social-politic" authority like Imperator Clan, that control all the magic of Boiling Isles, should being a familiar authority like Hexside of Blight family, and all of this dificulties are facts of real life that only was "traducted" to a magic and fantastic world of witchs and demons, something that Luz Noceda will understand later. The protagonist lived in the human world with the same dificulties, when she was only a tipic girl with a criative and animated personality, but forced to behave like a "normal person" when her mother and the principal of school believe that put her in a camp is the best decision to take. However, when she go to the magic world of Boilling Isles, she undestand that will be necessary find herself in this world maintain basic survival.
The concept of teenager/preteen leaving the normal life and goes to a magic, parallel, mithologic or fantastic universe is not new: other recentes cartoons like Amphibia (Disney, 2019) and Infinity Train (Cartoon Network, 2020), also work with this type of concept. The three works show a protagonist that, for any reason, are insatisfated whit their own life, and during the journey to the fantastic world, they have a big apprenticeship about self acceptance. The fantastic, mithologic or sobrenatural are constructed, obviouly, like opposite to the concept of real and, in this type of work, a metaphor to "beyond of normality", to the transition to a real and material state when individue is stuck to current rules (something without any possibility to change this reality) to a mistic, metaphisic or sobrenatural state, when, even this status quo are presente there (like the Imperator Beros government), the individue has the chance to reflect and fight against this state (or aplicate changes in human world when the protagonist come back to it, a type of narrative called "hero's journey"), even because, in The Owl House universe, the human world and the witch world is divided literally by a door, a direct simbology to the ideia of "transition" or "mudance". In the same way that train wagons in Infinity Train are a simbologies of Tulip riping, the first season protagonist, the magic and witchcraft are themes that representes all of the things that The Owl House wants to show about identify and personal development. The universe of Boiling Islands is all about the practice and aplication of magic in all of activities in their society (in the same form, for example, that Pokemon universe is all about battles and fights or Beyblade universe is all about, obvious, beyblades), and this is the most important expression of liberty and free will of the cartoon. The ideia of "magic" (like "methaphisic") is present in the many societies and civilizations of humanity, but the concept and form how it's aplicate is totally different each other, and this many forms to undestand and express magic was a element work too in mass entertainment. Unlike other themes like pirates, vikings, samurai, ninja or aliens, tipics characters of fantasy and fiction works, themes about magic and witchcraft tend to be less uniform in visual aesthetics and narratives than this others, mainly when we look the form how the magic and witchcraft are atived in the ficcional universe. If in The Owl House the magic is showed with a cicle drawn in the air, in Harry Potter, for example, it's showed with a magic wand, or in anime Fairy Tail, it's showed with the legs up in air. They are ficcional works talking about the same theme that have the same type of action and adventure story, but magic, their main element, is what differentiate each other.
In practically everything, the serie is constructed, besides the search of identity and riping of characters, in the ideia of "extern force" trying to force it ideology against people, and it can be the own mother or a camp trying to put the protagonist personality in a box (like the satiric of the paper in the first episode) or can be a sistematic opression of imperator clã in the witch world. It's already explicate that The Owl House, in it idea and production, iniciate like a "resistance" a many types of "authoritarism", other concept worked that the show work about magic, besides identify. Is Edalyn, the most obvious rebel symbom against institutions and Boiling Isles status quo, that is viewed like a criminous because she don't want to be part a especific clan of type of magic (impostion of Imperator Beros) and be against the ideology that turns magic restricted, in the same form that Luz, in the first day of class in Hexside, because she want to learn about every type of magic and not only one. Don't miss examples how that world is controlled by authoritarians politicals systems, and a detail that show The Owl House critic about this authoritarianismo (besides the obvious assimilation between Imperator Beros government and many other authority in real world like politic and school) is the fact all the existing threats in Boiling Islands are more relacionate with natural world (caves, fire bees, acid rain and fantastics and mithologics monsters) that some threats of wizards or witchs society. The Imperator Beros government don't have any reason to do any thing that does, mainly with paternalist speeches like "wish segurance and people well-being", but only pure egoism. The division between "identify" and "authoritarismo", the main themes worked in The Own House becomes even more tenuous when the especific authority is not more social or political, but intimate and pessoal. For example, the Blight family and it obssessions placed on Amity (the family has more importance in individual construction of a person that many other thing), the way she handles it is also responsible for her change in personality and behavior.
We know The Owl House is a running episodes like as a normal TV serie, unlike the tradicional form of cartoons with shorts episodes and ciclics scripts, without relations with last episodes, its events happening by cronology past-present-future with action-reaction structure. Because of this, it's more visible the riping and evolution of characters transformated by "transitions stages" when, with over the course of the various important events of the work, learns new lessons, and the telespectador can see, even in a little time, that have some changes in characters or story of TV serie. Making comparasions between The Owl House and Infinity Train, of Cartoon Network, both cartoons begins and develop theirs stories through changes and transitions: first, Tulip Olsen was in human world and after is transported to the infinity train from there, it travels interminably through the most diverse types of wagons, in an idea of constant movement of change, in the same way Luz Noceda, that was in human world too, is transported to magic world to explore the (almost) infinity world of Boiling Islands. In both works, the ideas of "change", "transition" and "moviment" are showed in the narrative throught metaphors to self knowledge, search of own identify and development, and, in a age when themes like representativeness of racial, sexual and geographics minors are in constan discussion in culture, entertainment, politic and social sciences, these ideas are linked to this debate. Others cartoons of the new geration are not out of this debate:
the mini-serie stakes, from season 7 of Adventure Time (besides that have running episodes too like other Adventure Time specials, unlike of what it's commun in Cartoon Network's show") talk about Marceline development referring to his vampire powers, solving and answering mysteries about one of the main characters of the cartoon. In the case of The Owl House, the biggest and the main stage of transition it's the final of first season and the beginnig of the second, when, with Eda kidnapping, many things are happing in same time like her lost powers, the revelation of the biggest secrets involving the curse of the owl woman and the close ties between Luz and Amity. The last topic, however, was only possible because of all the things that happened during the show, when one refers to the other.
Bakuman. (2010)
Bakuman born with "mission" of explain manga industry, but the result is the same as a making-off movie: propaganda, marketing and absence of tanking a critical postion of
Bakuman, the manga series written by Tsugumi Ohba and draw by Takeshi Obata, the same creator of Death Note, has the metalanguage as the central idea, in other words, the mangá talking about mangá, the cinema talking about cinema, the language talking about language. The main discussion that can been about this (and the positivest too) is it's not resume only in a autoavaliation like art work, with discussions about composition and narrative like citations in mangá, but a autoavaliation like media product in a big mass cultural industry (japonese editorial market, in this case), that work in a hierarquic and hard system positions and excessive quality control in all work maded. The metalanguage in Bakuman, knowing the anime serie has mangá like main theme and central approach, is caracterizated by the legacy of the biggest classics of Weekly Shounen Jump, magazine where Ohba and Obata work and other famous mangás like Naruto, One Piece and Slum Dunk was published. It's clear the Mashiro love for Ashita no Joe and Takagi for Dragon Ball, that is artistic and personal inspiration for the pair. They, working hard to produze a work that comes to the first places in Shonen Jack classifications, the ficticial magazine of the anime, search inspirations not only in the mangás, but in games, books, movies too, like when Takagi read and watch many thriller movies and books to create "Detective Trap". It's shows japaneses mangás has many influencies in other media products, main american movies of Hollywood and Walt Disney animations, and its metalanguage can be used and interpretate not only in mangas, but in all types of art.
In same time that Bakuman metalanguage shows the influencys both in own work and in characters development, it has many problems in add something to the manga creation process. It, basically, take the same clichês already worked in many classics Jump battle shounen mangás and repete all of this in Bakuman. If in the beginnig of story Ashirogi Muto was creating works like "Money and Inteligence", a which, constantly, were pointed out as differentiators compared to what is normally published in Shounen Jack (something that happen with Death Note in Shounen Jump too), the own mangá, in its development, is transformed less in a "Money and Inteligence" to be more a generic battle shounen that Shounen Jump normally publish, where Mashiro and Takagi has the same posture and behavior of any other shounen protagonist like Naruto, Luffy or Midoroya, with empty and repetitive speeches like meritocracy, "power of friendship", "fight for your dream", individualism, non-sense rivalities, family and romance as motivations, etc. The main problem of this approach in Bakuman is not the fact all of this is cliches and ready-made formulas, but the fact Bakuman was showed as something different of all this, like a work with a mission of "show to readers how is made the stories that everybody loves and what is the process behind this", but Bakuman fail with this "mission".
The story of Ashirogi Muto in mangaka career is a overcoming story with difficulties and changellens, and one of this many changellens don't only frightens PCP and Reversi creators, but editors and other artistas as Fukuda and Hatorri, which is the authoritarianism of magazine superior positions, that follows the instructions of the command of publishing company and keep all the status quo. Bakuman, however, contains a certain fear of making direct and explicit criticisms of the Japanese publishing market, trying to be the most neutral possible about it to don't displease who pain their payment, that is the biggest and most important Japan mangá magazine. It was just this fear to be subversvive that Bakuman didn't make any development to be a different mangá, transforming in a Weekly Shounen Jump generic work. To not be unfair to anime serie and say it didn't any development about it, some episodies and moments shows actors revolting against some actions and decisions of Shounen Jack magazine, like Fukuda and him group with Ashirogi and Nakai to opposite the participation of Koogy in the concourse, like when Niizuma, Fukuda, Nakai, Hiramaru, Aoki and others protest against the interruption of Detective Trap while Mashiro was in hospital, like when Ashirogi want to create a work with their preferences, when Niizuma want to finish Crow and many other examples. But all of this cases all these examples are just brief manifestations with short-term consequences, as this, at no time, changed anything in the structure and organization of the magazine. Niizuma finish Crow, but he must to produce Zombie Gun with the same requirements. Ashirogi Muto created the manga style that want, but must to made stories and characters that editor require. The "Fukuda team" to overcome with its works the mediocre work of Koogy, but nothing prevents the magazine from doing the same thing again in the future with another subcelebrity. All of this are behaviors that showed as "revolucionary" does not affect the status quo of Shounen Jack at all. The mangakas characters, in all anime serie, uttering slogans and cute little speeches such as "change Jack", "make unorthodox fight manga" and "defending the authors' position vis-à-vis the magazine/publisher", attributed to Fukuda, Ashirogi and Hattori, respectively, but which almost cause consequences serious and irreversible to itself, as in the arc where Ashirogi Muto was almost expelled from the magazine.
The scenare and context of mangá takes turn between profissional life of artists in mangaka career and their personal lifes with friends, boy/girlfriends and, mainly, as society members. Bakuman fail in show the anguish and tiredness of artistas in rotine (romantizaded every time), but it's very competent to show their personal lifes as Japaneses young adults. The main motivation of characters in mangaka career is the idead mangás are a way out of the monotonous, depressive, and boring lives imposed by conventional society careers as a lawyer, doctor, teacher, or someone who works daily in an office. Mashiro and Takagi, for example, has in beginning a dream of life besides college study or office work. Kanai-san feels like a failure without social or love life and see mangas like the only end for this. Hiramaruhe bets on mangaka's career as an alternative to his tiring and conventional work, even if his new routine as an artist is not very different from that (this disillusionment of the character is precisely the main comic relief of the work). All this examples has the idea of mangá as hope to a "better life", even the own serie shows mangaka life so stressing than any other job and Japanese editorial market is so perverse and authoritary than any other industry, but it, obvious, can't be showed explicity.
Any critic that Bakuman cound make to Japanese industry mangás (basicly it object of analysis) is totally destructed by ready-made formulas that only likes this industry and stupidies romatizations of any problem (of health, personal, psychologial, etc) of mangakas. One of the main examples of this (and possibly one of the most absurd) is how the obssesion of Niizuma Eiji for mangás is retrated like "genius trait" and, main, self effort, something saw as childish and sickly to any person in real life. Bakuman is a great experience to who wants explore varying a little visual elements and sets already wearily seen in samurai, vampire and demon stories in isekais and shounens, but not also want the approach to be different from what is put in the mainstream. It has a original and excellent idea, but thrown away when it story ins't also good. Bakuman born with "mission" of explain manga industry, but the result is the same as a making-off movie: marketing, propaganda and absence of taking a critical position on the studied object.
The Midnight Gospel (2020)
The limit between reality and ficction is broken every moment in The Midnight Gospel
It's fact that there is a good moment for animations. The popularity of adult cartoons is high and animations for a young audience is taking about themes more matures that is consideraded inapropriate for kids or teenagers. The animation industry is putting faith in animations. The Midnight Gospel, the most recent Pendleton Ward's serie, the creator of Adventure Time, is a retrat of this: a animation produced by the biggest movie and serie streaming of world, Netflix. The animation, now, is consumed like any other arte like cinema, literature or music, with capacity to tell stories and bring ideas and concepts.
The Midnight Gospel is not only possible in XXI century because of the ascention of animation in entretenimaint market, but because of it was produced in a time when the midia formats is intersects, when image and video, audio and draw is mixed, a fenonemo tipic of comunication and information of pos-modernity. In the case of Netflix animation, this intersect happen between image and podcast. In fact, the cartoon was baseaded in Duncan Trussel podcast, humorist that make Clancy voice. The Midnight Gosple is only possible in a frenetic world, when the information is created all the time, when art, culture and entreteniment talking each other thought metalanguage and any references in only episodes. A refletion about the velocity of information, passing in many midia formats like streaming, video, image, news, internet, etc.
In 2010, Pendleton Ward was making his most famous work, Adventure Time, by Cartoon Network, after apresentated a pilot to Nickloadeon. In this time, the cartoon was consideraded frenetic and original because of its fantasy and fiction baseaded in Hayao Miyazaki movies, RPG games and old Cartoon Network works like Flapjack (when Ward already work), besides, obviously, talk about taboos like homossexuality, relationship, death, mental insanity, etc. In exactly after 10 years, in a time interval when news themes are more accept by society and entreteniment industry is growing up with adult cartoons, Ward bring The Midnight Gospel realizing everything that Adventure Time made in 2010 with complex and adult themes.
The Netflix serie talk about this type of themes misturing the Duncan podcast audio and Ward animation, and the transposition of one format in the other is the way like the serie show its has security to talk about this themes in conversations, even knowing the existing risk of, simplicity, mix so different midias, knowing cinema and tv series need a screen with a tecnic prepar and that Duncan show is a talking podcast with espontaneas conversations. This show how the news generations want to brake any taboos; one of them is death, one of the most commented by cartoon, besides, the title of work make references to death. "Midnight" can be interpretated like a simbology to a circle, the end of one thing and the start of other. Even the episodes talk about other themes like drugs, religion, budism, magic and maternity, the death is present parallel with this themes.
The last two episodes of serie (seven and eight), in relation with the constant present of death as discution object of animation, has especial caracterist comparing with other episodes, because of the differente manner to talk, because of approach other theme with it. The episode 7 put Clancy, literally, to have a conversation with death, who are manifested in a physic body, abandoning passivity of old episodes and being a active existence who talk, walk and think like Clancy. The idea is demystify and humanize it, transforming it image in something natural of life and destroy the stereotypes that demonizate it.
The 8th episode is one of the most important to the serie, because, not only Clancy/Duncan talk to him mother, mounths before she die, but is a episode about the life and it challenges, after all the cartoon talk about death. Knowing him mother will die because of her cancer, Duncan Trussel/Clancy experiences on the skin what it is to accept death, after talking about it in 7 episodes.
The Midnight Gospel show that ficction and fantasy can be real, and reality can be imaginous. In the surrealism of the animation, real people bring real ideias and real concepts, including scientist or criminals sentenced to death, and all of surrealism is happen while this people are talking. This constrast between reality and ficction is a union between animation and podcast. The animation transforme the podcast more imaginous while the podcast transforme the animation more real, broking the limits between reality and fantasy, subjectity and objectivy.
The Wrestler (2008)
Randy "The Ram" Is or Not a Simbology?
One of the most important thing in Darren Aronofsky movies, American cineaste known by him polemics woks, is the focus in individual narratives and it perspectives about all the facts in stories. In Black Swan, the next director's work, for example, the viewer sees Nina, a ballet dance pressed by the importance of her next presentation and by her rivalry with Lily. In 2010 movie, it's worked the psychological e sensorial of Nina about the environment when she is, influenced by mental torments, when the frontier between psychological and physical world is over. In The Wrestler, the relation between Randy "The Ram" and the environment is the most possible real, without supernatural or metaphysics elements and influences like in Black Swan, influences that bring this movie to horror/thriller genre.
The Wrestler is a real movie (if I can use this term) that talk about real emotions and stories thought real elements, and this detail is very important to understand the real definition of this movie. The Wrestler is about fragilities. Randy "The Ram" is the typical figure of masculinity that use this to hide him fragile and weak side, contrasting with him Wrestler profession. He is the denial of classic characters of American cinema like Rambo and Rocky who, in last century, were symbols of American force in world, in a context of cold war between American capitalism and soviet communism. In this sense, Randy "The Ram" is the side of the American society doesn't showed to the world, representing the poor and miserable side of the country, something showed by the constants USA flag apparitions in many scenes in rings and in Randy's room.
Aronofsky already work with the "other side" of United States in Requiem For a Dream (2000), talking about how the pharmaceutical industry moves American society, mainly a middle class with the minim of consume power. In this case, the "other side" of American society is Randy Robinson out of rings, is the scene when the protagonist is coughing because of him health problems after an introduction showing him glory moments. Aronofsky is a director who works with an extreme nihilism in him movies, even he produced Noah's biblical story last adaptation to cinema. The Wrestler is one of the most nihilist movies of the director because of the manner that Randy see all the things, problems and solutions and what the relation between this elements with him wrestler career. Randy "The Ram" accept to continue him journey as wrestler even knowing about him health problems in heart, because he doesn't have any more in him life, no family, no daughter and no job.
The nihilism is not anymore something negative similar to a existential crises, a stereotypical perception about this philosophy. Now, is the liberation of individual against fail values like family and job that constructed occidental capitalist and Christian society. The value of job is finish when Randy let him job as attendant in market, while the value of family is finish when the protagonist break ties with him daughter. Then, the Randy decision in final frontier against Ayatollah is a nihilist revolt against these values. The Wrestler nihilism, even been only represented in the end, is an important element in all of movie since the violence of the second fight, before the time when Randy was in hospital, showed harshly and without a fix sense, until the manner that protagonist show him fighting wounds to Cassidy, like as it is a trophy. Both scenes show how violence is present in professional wrestler life and how it is like something to fill the inner void, and because of the form that violence is showed that transform The Wrestler in a nihilist and harsh movie. On the contrary of Trigun, mangá and anime serie, when the body wounds of Vash, The Stampede, are symbols to non-aggression of protagonist, in The Wrestler, the wounds is, justly, the affirmation and glamorization of violence, and who seen the mangá and Madhouse 2008 anime serie and Darren Aronofsky movie in 2008, know the difference between non-violence with love/piece with violence with nihilism and disbelief, when we compare Vash and Randy. There are, basically, two proofs Randy "The Ram" could be a symbology of United States: the first is the fight against the anarchist punk, adversary who symboligies the revolt against order an system, and the second is the fight against Ayatollah, the symbology of Iran, one of the mainly politic enemies of United States. Both adversaries that fight against Randy in movie are symbologies to something in opposite to American influence, the opposition to "order" and system of American neo-conservatism and the defense to a country "minority" in politic and economic of world.
The possibility that Randy "The Ram" is a symbology to United States is broken in the end of movie with the final nihilist decision of protagonist, when he leave any extern symbologies and transform to a human that decisions and opinions is about himself. Them, the final attack against Ayatollah is not a attack from United States to Iran, but the concretization of this final decision about him life, when all politic symbology, present in characters like Rambo and Rocky (who have names starting with "R" too), is leave, and Randy "The Ram" is, now, a new human.
Requiem for a Dream (2000)
In the end, the american dream is only a dream
Darren Aronofsky goes from Pi to Requiem For a Dream with first movie's popularity. In Pi, Aronofsky does a individual analysis about Max Cohen, but, now, we have four characters in a same perspective, all of them showed with a social and critic apresentation, not niilist, abstracte and metaforic like in Mother!, the recently Aronofsky's movie. In 2017 movie, the characters are only metaphors who lives to theirself, like as they aren't a part of a big system, but, in Requiem For a Dream, Harry, Sara, Marion and Tyrone (and their psicological state) is consequence of the world.
Requiem For a Dream is more easy to understand and interprate than others word of the director like Noah and The Fountain because of the many simbologies and metaphors in this movies, that talk about religion and espiritualism, when the poetic linguage that separate telespectator and the real meaning of this elements. In this case, Aronofsky try to transform the interpretation in Requiem For a Dream the most possible simple, not in an obvious form, but thought fear and pertubation, to focus on the importance of the mainly movie theme (drugs) or only to be a opposite to metaforic linguage of the first work.
Darren Aronofsky is knowed by him ambientalist ativism, something not hidden in movies like Noah, biblic story that talk about the relationship between God, human and nature, Mother!, with its simbologies to mother nature, and The Fountain in a analyse sobrenatural about this theme. In this works, there are the preference to open cinematographic plans to show all the nature and its natural elements, in opposition to close plans focused in a small part of human body like pupils of the eyes dilating when using the drug and to show the own substance in body. Only with this comparation, we can see the opposite between natural life, in contact with god, and city urban life with drugs.
The critic of television and pharmaceutical industry are not only the opposite with natural, but like how the generations of Harry and Sara are separate and distants. The generations of parentes and sons, youngs and adults, are distants in modern society. The only thing that unite each other is the consume of drugs and medicines. Harry don't visit him mother (there are a little scenes when the both are in same place), Marion has problems with her parents and Tyrone has erased memories about her mother. In Requiem For a Dream, the young people are not anymore the revolucionary figure of society, who don't like the valuers of their parents, their grampas or the own society, but only a solitary figure with the same problems and same alienation of the olders.
The individue is alone in modern world. This is a fact about 2000 and 2010 years, but this is already reality in Aronofsky film in the start of the millenium, because, in the movie, the psicological pain of the characters is showed individuality. Harry, Sara, Marion and Tyrone are in differents places and differents situations, even the circunstances and motives are the same. The movie the individual pain in a ritmical form that is similiar if it has been show together, while a scary song is played. This effect, if don't has this factories, don't would be the same.
Human and time are parts of a same thing. The transition between summer, autumn and winter "walk" together with decadence of characters, with the idea the humans are vulnerable of external influence and time. The simbology of seasons like the cicle of life (a little semelhance with The Fountain, Aronofsky next movie) is about to hope because, before winter is come the spring, but the objective of movie is finish in winter to follow the dark side of the plot.
The american dream, that promised quality of life, good jobs and health to americans during 20th century, is showed in a niilist perspective of Darren Aronofsky. The promised paradise is now the bad strecture of poovery, like say by Sara when she was delirated with Tappy joking with the bad state of her house. The excellet health is now the consume of drugs to treat diseases like depression and anxiety, that are more commun very day. In the end, the american dream is only a dream.
Kuzu no honkai (2017)
Sexuality and relationship in a contemporany obsessive world
In 2017, the year when Kuzu No Honkai was relanced, I watched this anime in first time and, now, in 2020, I watched in second time. Now, I can see qualities and deffects of the work because of personal maturity that I don't had in past. I can define what is real and irreal in Kuzu no Honkai.
The anime is a critic about the contemporanies relationships, with all its rot and its emotionla emptiness, in the manner that the viewer see the imorality and egoist of the characters, and in the middle of that, the mainly anime theme is sexuality, relationships and love. All the pervesion that Hanabi lives increases your doubts about such fears. Characters like Akane, who uses the interesting of Hanabi by Kanai to inflate her ego and her psicotapy, and Mugi, who uses a virgin and inexperient girl to conquer his objective, even Hanabi do the same, but it's not in same proportion because Mugi hava emotional maturity for possible consequences, something who Hanabi, probably, doesn't have, and this agreement is worse when it banalize the sex and human relationships.
Hanabi is the character who most hurt her self in the story. She has questions and aswers about sexuality and relationships in a toxic and immoral social environment. It's not meanig Hanabi it's a holy and pure person in a bad and evil world, because this is a puritany opinion, but it's clean the moral difference between her and Mugi when both is loved by Sanae and Akane, in this order. While Hanabi accepted rejection, Mugi surrenders to Akane even though he knows her bad personality. One detail about how is hard to Hanabi address these issues is the ausence of adult figures like parents/family in anime. The teenager is anole is this issues. The ausence of adultos is not only in Kuzu No honkai but in the most of Slice of Life and/or teen colegial life. In this type of genre, the adults is not a character that is showed in totality (or is not showed), even characters like teachers or parents. It's different than ocidental TV series/teen soup operas where teenagers/teacher have more participarion in story (even, something, they are showed like "a bad evil while teenagers is like a saint who must to 'purificated' their parents and theacher"). It can be explained by the hectic routine of Japanese adults in a country where the workload is very high.
Akane, the mainly antagonist in anime, has, in a psicological aspect, a instantanea mudance when the teacher has relationship with Kanai. In same way, the construction of personality non-espontanea, like as personality of people is a lot of caricatures. The Akane's evil side don't have a logical explication like a event in past, for example. It's like the only ration to the existence of Akane is represent a typical stereotypic representating a psicopaty characters (something like "yandere"). This problem about the personality of Akane is like the way that Kanai is showed in anime: like as a excellent teacher without deffects who everyone love, and his function is "purificate" Akane.
Kuzo No Honkai is about sexuality and relationships in a contemporany obsessive world. The characters is so extreme and strange, mainly Akane and Moca, that, if the objetive of the anime it's represent a human deffect with a exaggeration, its objetive was accomplished. It's like show machism with a incel/misogine that kill womans (Tarantino's Death Proof style). In the end, Hanabi and mugi questions aren't gone.
Élite (2018)
Not always the political representation is made by a good way, and The Élite shows it.
Spain showed La Casa de Papel in Netflix, one of the most successful series in streaming. Carlos Montero and Darío Madrona's The Élite is another success in streaming, but its story is similar of clichés and stereotypes Latin American teen series like the Mexican soup opera "Rebelde" and the Brazilian Young Hearts, being only a "adult version" of this type of TV serie. Élite camouflage its mistake with using of Flash-Forward, the "reverse flash-back", that shows future events instead of pass events. In a thriller TV serie, where the climax and the outcome is the most expected situation, the flash-forward is the opposite of this type of production. The real thriller of the serie is not what will happen, but how it happens. The telespectador doesn't want to know if Marina or Samuel would die or disappear, but how they will die of disappear. The inversion of the main focus of story makes the serie different. However, we can't say the same thing about the rest.
The Élite is cliché, showed itself like different than Latin America series focus in elite teenager, but the stereotypes, the archetypes and the distorted ways to speaking about themes like homosexual relationship and teenage pregnancy, only to show itself like "progressive" in a conservative society, is the same way of former colonies of the Iberian Peninsula series. The teenager is, one more time, corrupted of own morals and religious values when relates with others characters: Nadia is no more the "muslin virgin and pure girl" when she relates with Guzmán. Omar is no more the "example to family" when he is dealer and has a homosexual relationship with Ander. Marina is the girl who question about capitalist and greedy attitudes of her business contractors family (that destroyed Samuel, Nadia and Christian's school), old relationships like Lucrecia and Guzmán and Polo and Carla over with the apparition of new people in the school (and because, obviously, the lack of morals of the characters).
This moral corrosion of the old values is worked like it would transformate the person in someone happier, like in Omar who thinks the abandonment of family conservative values is happiness, but he has a bad relationship with Ander. The sexual liberation showed like happiness is one of the worst clichés of Élite, the same cliché of teen Latin Americana productions, where everyone has active personal life, everyone has relationships, everyone goes to parties, everyone drink alcohol and use substances as if that is the reality of every teenager in the world, that, not coincidentally, is the contemporary teenager consume dream. It's true the TV series search audience with personification of their fantasies and consume dream according to a politic and economic elite high life, because it's very simple to romantize flits, parties and personal life with the elite good and easy life than with lifestyle of a middle class or low class full of daily routines and jobs, that is the life of the most of people.
One more thing The Élite copy of Latin America productions is characters archetypes and stereotypes of teen entertainment: the terrible little rich girl who everyone hate (Lucrécia), the rebel girl (Rebecca), the rich party boy (Valério), the manipulator (Carla), the virgin and pure girl (Nadia), the protector brother (Guzmán), the depressive girl, who is pregnant teenager too (Marina), the "normal" protagonist (Samuel), the homosexual couple that don't like the conservative family valuers (Ander and Omar), etc. Another similar thing is Élite demonize all the adults, who is a figure left out in teen entertainment because we "have to give all the attention to teenagers", showing their like as "greedy, selfish, capitalist and wealthy that only think about money and luxury", and the teenager is a hero who is save the world of this cruel figure, even consuming the same luxury and having the same moral defects. It's clear how Marina see her parents and how Samuel see the police officer, who was deceived by students in final episode in a plan that they think nobody would suspect.
The Élite was made for a generation that live in an ambient with discuss about sexuality and genre questions, that were taboos until then. I'm not saying this discuss isn't important to society, but not in the way that Élite does, through the create of a pseudo female empowerment and a trivializing the topic addressed. The script trivialized the bisexuality when many characters like Polo, Christian, Valério and Malick, who was hetero (or considerate hetero by public) and, suddenly, has homosexual relations spontaneously and empty, as if the discovery of sexuality was something banal. It's the hypocrisy of the people who want to defends LGBT representativeness, like in Ander and Omar, but don't work it seriously. The way of the serie to sell itself like progressive and defender of representativeness, but lazily, it's more clear in pseudo female empowerment of the female characters (Marina, Carla e Rebecca), who is showed like independents girls who never fit the values of their families, but they transformate in "extensions" of each other because they have the same personality: The three girls have relationships with Samuel, they live in same family structure that have illegal actions about drugs or corruption, they have a rebel idea about the family, they search substances, relationships and the many parties that happen in script as if are a refuge from youth metal and depressive disorders, etc. They are three different characters, with different names and interpreted by three different actresses, but all the personality is the same.
The Élite is bad and cliché. All of this is only to please a generation that want to see their ideas and representativeness in entertainment, something that is great, but a lot of ideas that don't take the audience out of their comfort zone, that don't understand this type of themes is about politics and social question, a complex theme, and it can be showed only like a fetiche and teen consumption dream. In last times, there is a discuss about if comics, cartoons, video-games and other medias and entertainment, mainly pop culture, can be politicized, a debate that divided those who want to "see TV serie, read comic book and listen to music without politic" and those who defends "everything is politic", and, really, all of thing is about politics, society, representatives, costumes, values and ideologies, but not always this representations is made by a good way, and The Élite shows it. Not always the political representation is made by a good way, and The Élite shows it.
Natsunagu! (2020)
A little experience to get out of the frenetic world
Natsunagu! is not good, but is not bad too. Is an anime in the media, but not in the negative meaning, it's a work that is maded more to relax in afternoon then see a long (or not) narrative. This serie was maded by Kumamoto Prefecture, in the extreme south of Japan, where have a earthquake in 2016, and has a amateur animaton, nay, a simple animation that is not the same of bad animation.
The serie was maded by Kumamonto Prefecture to promove the city after the earthquake. It's possible found an excessive valorization of the local ambient, scenery and landscape present in composition of the city, in stores and streets, but the scenary and the lanscape of Kumamoto is not only in places, but in the local people too, in their actions, situations, emotions, like in the pictures of Natsuna and Itsuki in the on-line game. All of this to show the beauty of Kumamoto, and the way to do it was thought colors, even if half off due to amateur animation, and open plans like and a low presence of detail plans / more closed. However, it's not meaning the characters is less important than scenary and the anime is only a romantic landscape picture; the characters are part of this picture, like they are the own scenary, and it's the objetive of the serie: show the humanity and simplicity of people.
The simplicity of people in Kumamoto is a contrast comparing with busy and cosmopolitan life in tokyo, where Natsuna lives. Implicity, Natsunagu! is a critic of individualist and frenetic life of urban citys. Natsuna, the girl who has little physical contact with her friends and her best friend is a person in a online game, go to another world with a different reality that she doesn't live in Tokyo. It's a little experience to get out of the frenetic world that we live.
Koisuru Asteroid (2020)
Bad pessoal development
A story that, in beginning, is very relaxing and, in the same time, mild dramatic content. It's my first impression that I have about Koisuru Asteroid. Storys that talk about characters united by same thing like a hobbie of a familiar event, likes as Kimi No Na Wa, always attract me, and was that happen with this anime. The art color are, impressionaly, vivid and bright and are extremaçy rare on anime series art tecnics, because this type of art is more used in anime movies. If you watch Koisuru Asteroid in a dark room, you can have headache due of bright and vivid colores.
We know the work is about two childrens in a camp that do a promisses of "found his own star" and after found each other on college. Therefore, exist a manner in artistic production to reproduce fells like nostalgia, tranquily and chilbourhood when it mix the vivid colores of animation with the light and childlike traits of the characters. In other words, they try to pass the anime mensage in animation. The characters are adolescents but they are similiar to childrens due draws style that, in mangá, is used to make kids, like short stature and small breasts (in girls). Koisuru Asteroid doesn't show adolescence like studyin, fun, sex or other themes that are showed with stereotype in ocidental culture industry (mainly in romantic comedies of Hollywood), but like as a continuation of chilhood dreams and ambitions.
However, in same time the anime art surprised me, the story and the pessoal and intelectual development of characters was very bad. The geoscience club is a group of stereotypes of anime characters (the protagonist so cheerful and positive that it sounds something unnatural and irritating like mira is impossible to found her on real life, or, if she can be founded, she will be very irritant). However, the worst thing about Koisuru Asteroid is the way that the story is happened: In some episodes, the characters prefer only talk about astronomy or geology than participate in the screenplay). Koisuru Asteroid is similiar to an scientific educative cartoons for children. I was very unhappy because of an anime that have a nice art but with a bad story.
Over the Garden Wall (2014)
The fear is over the garden wall
"(...) she is lurking like night, she sings like wind, she is the end of hope, she theaft children and she would destroy". Over The Garden Wall is not only an animation, is a passage between confort and desconfor, the known and the unkown and between childrenhood and adulthood. Is a retrat about the interior externally. The theme is talked in fastly and fluidly, but the story hasn't press. It's an open world animation with a lot of elements, but with a temporal fluidity not artificially accelerated that show all element crudely, something like a citation, execept Greg and his jokes when he walks in all of cenary while Wirt is fixed in only place to search informations about home. There is a fenomenon in Cartoon Network that make many projects like Adventure Time and Steven Universe with characteres who live in a big and open world with its vastness. However, in Over The Garden Wall, Wirt and Greg are lost and alone in that world, while, for example, Finn and Jake in Adventure Time lives freely in Ooo like they knows this place. Over The Garden Wall, a story about the fear, the unknow and the obscure, shows the contrast between characters and ambient, while Adventure Time, a story about heroism, feelings, adventures and superations, shows the union between characters and ambient (something that changes, obviously, with characters ripening).
Over The Garden Wall's elements appear in other series that Patrick McHale, the cartoon's creator, already work. This series are very important to construction of OTGW, mainly The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack and Adventure Time. However, is Flapjack that deserves the greatest merit, because it's not only Patrick McHale in Over The Garden Wall, but J.G. Quintel in Regular Show, Pendleton Ward in Adventure Times and Alex Hirst in Gravity Falls too that are influenced by Thurop Van Orman's work. McHale take FlapJack's animation colors and created a new aesthetics for his cartoon serie. Flapjack's colores has pastel and cold colores with a dark aesthetic, while Over The Garden Wall has a idea of ilumination with this type of colores, mainly when cartoon taked place at morning.
In cinema, the fotograph determinate color intensitive and ilumination on movies that changes viewer's perspective. In Over The Garden Wall, this influence made by color and iluminations is present in the way to approach the fear and character psicologics fights: when the cartoon is taking place at morning, the hope is made by orange brown ilumination, while the hope is made by cold colores when the cartoon is taking place at night. Tim Burton, a famours director who create a youth audience with movies like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The Nightmare Before Christmas, is known by his gothics and dark elementos mixes with cold colores, and he's a big inspiration to Over The Garden Wall to creation of its artistic base, along with children's literature and Grimm brother's fairy tales. By the way, one of the most famous children's tale that influences Over The Garden Wall, Alice In Wonderland, was tranformated to movie by Tim Burton in 2010. It's interesting to perceive the importance of 2010 movie because McHale's cartoon is more silimar to Tim Burton movie than Lewis Carrol book. In book, Alice is a girl more curious about the place she is while, in the movie, she's is more reservate and quiet. It can be talk Wirt is more similar to Alice's movie while Greg is similar to Alice's book, but Over The Garden Wall is like Tim Burton work.
More than fear and mistery, the mini-serie approach the consequence of this feeling in characters who contrast directly not only in the concept of this fear and mistery, but in its personalities that influences in this contrasts. In Wirt and Greg, for example, the "union" of responsabily and infantily, the "boring teenager/adult" and the happy child, respectively, is very clear. This personaly contrats between Wirt and Greg make contrast even in the language used by both characters: Wirt, poetry and clarinet lover, use a subjective and poetic languague, having a performance, in some moments, of intense drama, like he's reciting a poem, while Greg, being a little child who act whithou thinking, talk random thing in his mind, using a spontaneous objective language. This diference between protagonista and other characters, like Beatrice, are more clear in cartoon first half, but the semelhance are more clear and has more participation when the fear ups. In Beatrice, for example, the girl transformate in a blue bird is a rude and agressive contrast againts Wirt, full of irony, debauchery and jokes againts the boy. However, they get closer and know each other better in episode 5, mad love (in the half of mini-serie), when they are in brothers "uncle"'s mansion. It's just in this episode is showed the Wirt passion for poetry, for clarinet and for his friend and how Beatrice was tranformated in blue bird. It's the first time the relationship between both is not full of jokes and debauchery.
Over The Garden Wall doesn't transformate its characters empty creating only diferences among their personalites that the only function is make stereotypes and archetypes, but make semelhances among each other to humanize them, or rather, shows the humanity has the same substancial and existencial form independente of psicological, moral or ideological questions. Wirt, Greg, Beatrice and, other character who didn't quoted but not less important, The Woodsman, have their the same conflits, the same problems, the same search for the goal and, the cartoon key-word, the fear. The Woodsman is the only adult in the serie, and shows how the fear act in an adult mind. While Wirt, Greg and Beatrice be afraid with personal life and objetives, The Woodsman life the fear in parallel. We know he has a lantern with His daughter's soul, and he must to keep the flames from the lantern lit to, according to the beast, keep the The woordsman's daughter's soul lit. However, it's the own beat is acesses. We own the lantern is a simbol of his fear that is, in final, overcome when Woodsman bring his daughter back.
In the main characters (Wirt, Greg and Beatrice), there is a reflexion about habilities, blames and human defects. Wirt is a niilist teenager with fears and tipics loves of this age, but he can overcome it accepting yourself. Beatrice is a girl who feels guilty because her family situation transformate in blue birds, but the magic is broke. In Greg, there is the biggest transformation. The boy reflets about his function of leadership, having a magic dream whit angels in clounds. However, is already showed Greg has inteligency to change all the situation in episode 4, when he transformate a bad escolar ambient controlled by an authoritarian system in a funny place.
The last character is The Beast. His fisic appearance is an abstract shadow, expressive human faces and elk horns that could refer to the devil, horror figure shown in last episode. Being a symbology to fear, an abstract feeling, The Beast is diferent than Bill Cipher, in Gravity Falls, and Lich, in Adventure Time, who has fisic appearance with concrects symbologies.
Over The Garden Wall is reflex of two tendencs in animation world, an intern and an extern. The intern is the is sucess of Cartoon Network in production of mini-series like Infinity Train, with few episodes that is like a lot of seasons. The extern is the fenomenon of the wave of animations with philosofics and existencials, like Rick and Morty, Bojack Horseman and the recent The Midnight Gospel. In "the age of depression and anxiety in an informative and frenetic world, this type of animations is very necessarie. The Patrick McHale work has all of this in few episodes cause' the time it's not relevant to transmite it. The time is little while the human and unknown fear is enorm. The time is a cut flower. The fear is over the garden wall.
Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi (2001)
Chihiro is an ative agent in Spirited Away. It's transformate the way to express the childhood in animations
Spirited Away is, of course, a big experience to evertyone who wants to know the process between chidhood and adulthood/amadureciment. The film express this theme thought Chihiro, the main agent of this process, who doesnt have the perspective of the adult age, like a psychology book about chilhood, but the movie shows the consequences of this transition thought the own children.
Chihiro is showed in the beginning like a spoiled girl that all time is complaining about everything and everybody. She complain about the fact her are going to other city and about the fact her flower are dying (this is her responsability). In this first half of movie, Chihiro is, basically, a girl who have fight with whole the world about little things. With the happening of the story, when this parents are transformate in pigs and the region of restaurants started to be invades by ghost and sobrenatural criatures, the world had the effort to challenge Chihiro to get out of this situation, and this is one of the mensages of the movie: The world is a place that is indiferent or againt you.
To survive, Chihiro need to work in this sobrenatural society, a society that have a big obssession for gold. In this little information, is possible to compare with the capitalist real world about work and greed, for example Yubaba, the society's leader who's appear in movie like a authoritarian person. Yubaba, who's represent the boss, the politic and all of people who's only see money, shows her insanity when she "take" Chihiro's name, removing some letters in kanji (japanese writing) e transforme it in "Sen". The name "Chihiro" is formated by "thousand" and "search" kanjis, representing the person who's is big, numerally, but "Sen", name imposted by Yubaba, is formated only by "thousand" kanji, transforming Chihiro in a number. However, the most interesting about Yubaba is, not necessary, she is retrated like a bad character even have some characteristics of ocidental animations villains, like Disney. In some moments, she helps the people in some hard works in the bathroom, like in the "stink spirit"(Kawa no Kami)'s incident, when she motivate Chihiro/Sen to serve the customer. An antagonist building that isn't totally bad distance of cliches animation and transforme Yubaba in a more humanizate character.
When it's know all dificulties that fight in this journey, important to her ripening that isn't "opost to chilhood" in any moment, many elements appear in movie, main in the second half, represent the memorie and the nostalgia of chilhood not valorized by Chihiro in the benning. The hair tie gived by Zeniba (Yubaba's sister) and stitched by No-Face (Bandai-Gaeru) is one of this elements. This Tie, that according to Zeniba can protect Chihiro of all bad things, transforme the material object, liked to polit in the capitalist world, in a emotional object, when, in this topic, express the emotional value of the things and not only the finantial value is part of individual ripening.
Spirited Away is one of the best Hayao Miyazaki's movies. Chihiro is not a passive agent that only see the world happen in your life, that is the form to represent the childhood in many times, but a ative agent who can build new thing in the world and suffers the consequences of his actions because the child is part of the world too. Like say the song of the brazilin poet and composer Arnaldo Antunes: "Everybody was child yet, Einstein, Freud and Plato too/Hitler, Bush and Saddam Hussei/Who have money and who doesn't have"
Scarface (1983)
Scarface is a good experince destroyed by Tony Montana clichês
A movie that has a interesting propost and mensage, Scarface is a good work when it do a relation with a real historic fact, like the coming of cubans to United States (especially to Flórida) durring the socialist government of Fidel Castro, but it's a big clichê because of the building of the protagonist, Tony Montana. The cuban drug dealer, that build his criminal career in US, has a big different between other character interpretated by Al Pacino, Michael Corleone, of The Godfather trilogy, with his descontrolation and his personally extremally violent and authoritarian. It's like Tony Montana is a comic caricature full of various stereotypes of the bandit, not a reality artistic representation.
Scarface had a good base to be a good movie, but the way how Tony Montana was made destructed all the work. Everything about the protagonist is extreme, his violence and his authoritarism. Nothing is balanced in Tony Montana actions like he hasn't a ration and emotion control, but a supergo in his brain. Obvious the objective of Brian de Palma e Oliver Stone (director and roterist, respectively) was create an Antonio Montana irrational and unbalanced, but it's create a Tony Montana ufanist and alienated. All violence and arrogance that character use to fight in situations are show when the protagonist uses the word "fvck" 152 times in movie, showing his violence is not only fisic, but verbal too. The arrogance of Tony Montana transforme in a powerful energy when he think he can fight with the legion of Alejandro Sosa men when the bolivian drug dealer invade Tony Montana mansion, like a super man. Tony Montana isn't an admirable anti-hero, but a disgusting anti-hero, a character that express hate about Fidel Castro regime, who start his government in Cuba in 1959, but he is authoritarian like the cuban leader with all people, including his sister and his friend that died by Tony because of his relationship with Tony's sister.
The age when the movie live was a conturbade period, ideologically and polically. The cold war against URSS/Cuba and the american civil culture with armamentism and racism, the United States lived in an intensive fight. The violence of the movie is contraditory, because, in same time it can be understood like a representation of USA in this time, it's inexplicated (main Tony Montana) because the movie focus more in this violence than in history and operation of crime and its consequence to people, like made The Godfather, the best crime movie of history. The only consequence of crime showed in the film is Tony Montana death showed in a clichê form with the saying "power corrupts the humans", when the protagonist dies in his piscine with the saying "power corrupts man" that was old Tony boos Frank's piscine mansion. if the movie's mensage are converted to any politic history, for example, the clichês will be the same. If I can describe Scarface in a only sentences, will be: "interesting, but clichê".
Gisaengchung (2019)
The "parasite" can be Kim or Park family and can be all of sentiments that kill people (envy and greed)
With a great mundial attention, Parasite surprise evertyone win 4 orcars against favorites movies like 1917 (Sam Mendes) and The Irishman (Martin Scorcese), and all of this is not for nothing: Parasite is a refletion about politics scenario about misery, social inequality and other social problems that aren't be seen, mainly in a country like South Korea that is always showed like a technology and science power without any social problem (that is deny in Bong Joon-ho film).
Like as all movie that talk about humanities contrast and inequality, Parasite is a relation between Kim family and Park family: the fisrt lives in a house basement and the second family lives in a beautiful and big mansion in a elite neighbourhood. In addition focus in scenes that show the both ambients, the movie has another way to show the inequality between Kim and Park: Kim and Park are two of three of most popular and communs surnamens is South Korea, however, Kim is most commun (21% of koreans) than Park (9%).
The contrast in the reality not only in South Korea, but alround the world, is not realized by Kim family when they are work in many funtions in Park mansion, as like they are part of the Park family. The lack of class awareness in a group that feel privileged by an elite that always oppressed is showed when Choong-sook say "she isn't poor" to Moon-gwang, the last Park housekepper, when she founds Moon-gwang's husband in basement.
There'is a discussion about is the "parasite" in movie is about Kim family, that lives in Park home illegaly, or about Park family, that explore the work of Kim with the inequality. Actuallity, the parasite is about the actions of the both family and, in same time, is the envy, the greed and the preconception that kill Kim- jeong and Nathan Park. Therefore, Parasite has a many interpretations about an only mensage
All of the adventure vivenced by Kim started with a rock brought by Min, Ki-woo's friend, that is an amulet very commun in asian countries that bring lucky to families. This object is very important to undestand the movie because many events in movies is about it and it construct slowly the social context of movie: The first event is a Choong-sook commentary when Min brings the amulet, when she say: "It would be better if is was food", showing that the basic necessites is most importante than religion. The second event is when Ki-woo go down the basement to give the amulet to Moon-gwang and Geun-sae like a gift, but the man almost kill the boy blow to the head, and the third, and the last, event about this amulet is when the rock is returned to river, like Kim family is returned to misery after the happening in Dae-song party. In any moment in the movie, the amulet is showed like a religious object that can save somebody of poorness and misery, but is showed only like a material object, the same manner that capitalism sees the world and the same manner that inequality and poorness is in the world, a fisical and real problem. As Kim-Ki-taek said: "That's the reason that people can't be have a plan. Without plan, nothing can't be wrong".