Velvet Hustler *
Toshio Masuda, 1967
Japan
@ Northwest Film Forum

I felt like we were on the edge of something interesting here. I understood the connections to French gangster films, New Wave or otherwise, but I couldn't figure out exactly why one would choose to watch this instead of, I don't know, Shoot the Piano Player, other than its relative obscurity. Unless you're Japanese, I guess.

See also: IMDb

My Neighbor Totoro ***
Hayao Miyazaki, 1988
Japan
@ Northwest Film Forum

Deeply odd, but in a particularly beautiful way. There is no real conflict here between selfish humanity and benevolent nature, nor any traditional conflict at all. The children get sad, and the king of the forest cheers them up.

One thing that really stuck out to me was the bizarrely long commute the father had sentenced himself to in order to move his family to their country home. I didn't sense much of a critique here, though it might be implied by the hardship on the girls as they wait for hours at the bus stop or try to run off to visit their mother in the hospital.

Rather than just quirky, Miyazaki seems to have a fully formed "other" sensibility that runs according to its own logic. As one who often gets frustrated by what I see as limited flights of fancy, an inability to really get outside traditional Hollywood norms and values, this commitment to working in what appears to be a parallel universe is admirable.

See also: IMDb

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind **
Hayao Miyazaki, 1984
Japan
@ Northwest Film Forum

This was sort of weirdly silent (except for voices) near the beginning, though as the action picked up that got less noticeable. It seemed like the characters explained everything really explicitly, but maybe that's necessary in a kid's fantasy movie. It is kind of a complex story. Some of the images are haunting/thrilling, if not as technically impressive as the later stuff. Star Wars influence on a lot of the anachronistic design, maybe?

See also: IMDb