Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Tales from Earthsea Screening
Went out to the Ghibli offices today to catch a subtitled press/industry screening of Tales from Earthsea (Gedo Senki,『ゲド戦記』), which will be released this coming Saturday across Japan. Unfortunately I don't have time to write a proper review, but I can say that I was quite impressed with Miyazaki Goro's directorial debut. I think in some ways he may have overextended himself in his first outing, but the film definitely has the Ghibli hallmarks of quality. If audiences don't expect it to be Miyazaki's Hayao's latest creation, I think they will be pleasantly surprised. 
Made in approximately half the time of either Spirited Away or Howl's Moving Castle, the film perhaps recalls some of the earlier Miyazaki works. There is some excellent use of light and shadow, which is a running theme in the story. The character designs are simple but effective. I especially liked the evil wizard Cob, excellently voiced by Tanaka Yûko. Sugawara Bunta is of course no slouch in the vocal department either, lending a gravity to Ged (who's only called by his real name once in the film, usually referred to as Haitaka, "Sparrowhawk") . In fact all the voice casting is strong. The film manages to be both epic and personal at the same time. On the negative side, I felt the story was thin in several respects, and emotions sometimes felt dictated. The bombastic orchestrated score was somewhat overused, but the theme song (sung by Teshima Aoi, who voices female lead Therru) was affecting.
Miyazaki Sr. had wanted to adapt the books for a long time, back when he wasn't known outside of Japan. The rights weren't granted, which in a way helped give birth to Nausicaa. Many years later when author Ursula K. Le Guin finally came around after watching Miyazaki's astounding body of work, the timing was wrong. Perhaps by fate, son Goro ended up in the director's chair. It's a strong first film obviously buoyed by all the veteran talent that helped produce it, but I'll be interested to see how Goro's storytelling develops in the future.
The photo above is of a billboard I saw by chance after the screening, at Yotsuya station. It's part of the Daily Yomiuri's print and TV ad campaign for the film.
* If anybody has questions about the film, feel free to post them in the comments.
18 comments:
you my man, are one lucky person to have seen a screening release already.
I have no idea what to ask actually, I just hope that the movie has the same spirituality, mystery and deep meanings as the hayao one's ^^
Lucky fella, got to see it before me, makes me kinda jealous. ^_^ Anyway, glad to hear you liked it! Care to rate it from 1 to 10???
Cheers,
Peter van der Lugt
(GhibliWorld.com)
So, were the characters in the film multi-racial, like the books made a big point of being? Or was everyone all caucasian (as it looked in the trailer I say)?
Maybe it is not the most important point in the world, but it is something that has me a little worried.
- H
Papigiulio,
The movie's heart is in the right place, but as I said Goro Miyazaki is still a young filmmaker. I guess big expectations are unavoidable, but try to keep them in check and you'll like it.
Peter,
The out-of-10 system? Going by what I wrote about the movie, do you think around 7 or 7.5 would fit?
H,
I haven't read the books so I'm not sure what the characters' origins are but I wouldn't say that they're all "white," no.
Only Tenar had lighter-coloured hair, and the skin-tones and eye shapes varied. I can say that the character of Cob definitely suggested a Japanese look. But again, I'm not familiar with the source material...
I would like to know if any dragons take part in the actual story. Orm Embar and Kalessin mostly, as the third book had both Ged and Arren speak to them.
Regarding dragons in the film:
*** POSSIBLE SPOILERS ***
The movie begins with an exciting scene at sea as dragons soar and fight to the death in the lightning-filled skies above. According to Ged, the fact that dragons are anywhere near this region of Earthsea, and especially battling each other, indicates a shift in "the balance" of the world. His quest is ultimately to restore this balance.
Dragons fly overhead in several other scenes, including the extended Hort Town sequence (which I thought was excellent). They don't interact in the story per se, but are part of the backdrop.
When the promotional artwork was released I thought the main dragon pictured would be a character throughout the film. In fact, she doesn't appear until the very end. I won't say how it comes about, but it's a fairly thrilling, kinetic moment.
*** END OF POSSIBLE SPOILERS ***
@ Jason:
Thanks, that'll certainly do (as those Japanese reviews got me worried), but I guess all I need to do is see it myself to see if it's good or not.
Regards,
Peter
(GhibliWorld.com)
Dear Jason,
I know that Gedo Senki was sold to many different countries. According to your expirience could you predict success/failer of this title in the cinemas in Japan, US and Europe. Or it's just a non-commercial piece of art?
Thanks.
Alexey
I don't have a crystal ball, but it's definitely not a non-commerical film. All of the Ghibli titles are artistic, and a good number of them works of art...
I have my prediction for the Japanese box office take, but I think I'll wait for the first weekend grosses.
Is there a sequence where the young protagonist talks about what a dick his father was?
No, but if there was it would've explained a lot! The subplot about the father/King is one of the "thin" aspects I referred to.
any news about the 1st weekend box-office? or don't you have a link where it's possible to check this kind of info?
Alexey
Alexey,
The figures came in today. Tales from Earthsea earned 905,335,600 yen ($7,860,301.65) on 435 screens. It earned 86.1% of Spirited Away's first two days, which is very impressive.
My prediction for final gross was 9-10 billion yen. Distributor Toho has pegged it at the latter, so I was spot on.
I thought this review was very generous. I saw the movie. And I give it a thumbs down regretfully. Eventually, money will flow in just because people will be unable to believe how there could be a "bad" Ghibli movie. I think it sucked bottom line. OF course there were good things about it, but I found myself waiting the entire time for it to get good. It never did. If you think I am just being a tough negative critique, I really wish I was. I wish I could say that the movie rocked! But I can't. Let's be fair. Even if it's a Ghibli movie, when a movie sucks, it sucks. Sorry. I'm just looking forward to the next Ghibli movie so I can erase this one from my memory.
Thanks for your comment. It sounds like you're a Ghibli fan, so it's too bad you didn't like the film.
I don't think there's a "right" way to rate a film, but from looking at many of the comments on Yahoo! Japan, most people are rating it as a Ghibli movie, rather than as a movie period. This is not wrong, but I think it skews the numbers lower than the film perhaps deserves because of the studio's amazing track record.
It seems the fact that it is a Ghibli film and has the name "Miyazaki" on it is too much for people to leave at the door (not saying this was true in your case). I guess the ganbatte spirit is ditched when you're dropping 1800 yen at the box office -- fair enough (I didn't pay to see it).
In short I thought for a first film (recognizably so), it had some inspired elements but the script could've definitely gone through a couple more drafts. It won't be regarded as a classic but Goro Miyazaki could make one someday, if he chooses to make another film.
Hi. I saw the film on opening day here in Kyoto. Unfortunately, I was severely disappointed. Aside from the incoherence of the plot, I thought the quality of the animation itself was substandard for Ghibli. That's why I was surprised to here you thought it was technically proficient. Ah well, to each their own. Here is my review:
http://www.biocom-jp.com/ee/tn/weblog/comments/tales_from_earthsea_reviewed/
The animation? Well, I mentioned it was made in half the time of Howl's and Spirited. It didn't have the photorealistic BGs of those films and used a much smaller percentage of CG. I'm not an animation connoisseur, but visually I thought it had some good points.
Don't have a lot left to say about Tales that I haven't said already -- I usually don't discuss a film this much unless it's something brilliant.
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