It is finally winter here today. Overcast and constant wind. Maybe I will have a Ghibli-fest and pull out all my DVDs.
Edit: got roped into line dancing so I switched into my scoot boots
Edit: they finished with a dance off. Left everyone on the floor except 2 guys aged 22 and 16. It was a tie. They ran out of time and had to close it all up. Rented facility.
I remained safely stationed at a table playing Spades
Since my friend bought the tickets and just told me to keep the date free, I never actually looked up the info on the shows programming.
I kept saying orchestra when referring to it but it was actually a string quartet and pianist known as Mystery Ensemble (it seems the mystery is how big the ensemble is, a quick google shows they sometimes have a somewhat larger or smaller crew for other themed shows; harry potter music, olafur arnalds tribute, etc)
It was fantastic! They opened with my favourite piece from spirited away (The Sixth Station) and ended with Merry-Go-Round of life from howls moving castle <3
Googling them for a proper setlist of the night pulled up this spotify playlist someone whose seen the show must have made
I donāt know if this is the full list of what they played or not but its close enough.
I still argue it should have been called Joe Hisaishiās Dreams since it was all films he composed for.
OMG I still have not seen this movie (The Boy and the Heron) (How Do You Live)
OK itās on Hulu which I get with Disney + so I am going to remedy this right now
Nope I still donāt see itā¦ughhhh requires HBO max
And I am not paying YT to āownā it
Ok screw it. I paid the 3.99 to rent it on YT and ordered a physical copy from amazon
Itās on Netflix. Has been for quite some time now.
I donāt use Netflix 
The only sub I have is Disney+ with Hulu
ā¦OMG I want to live in an old ship covered in vegetation
Thats just for us super cool europeans, netflix procured the streaming rights here long before there was a disney plus etc.
It used to be on US netflix too, before all the other giants in america had their own streaming platforms. Then they came along and everything got carved up and seperated.
The distribution/streaming rights for ghibli in the US are owned by HBO or whatever umbrella company they fall under.
I believe they didnt renew their distribution rights with Disney becauseā¦ well the partnership only happened because Miyazaki admired Pixar and trusted John Lasseter to take good care of the stewardship, but that all soured when Pixar became not only Disney in ownership but Disney in its direction and stories in recent years.
They politely declined a renewal a few years back.
Im glad because its a wonderful thing to just have them all on Netflix still and not have to worry about it. Its also nice to not have those walt disney logos on the boxes now like they ever had anything to do with the quality 
Sorry im a bit of a bitter boy when it comes to Disney corporate structure. I miss old Pixar 
cinema goers dont seem to notice or care.
I find the whole thing strange. It would be like if video rental stores back in the day only had certain films, and if you wanted to rent a disney movie youd have to go to a disney specific rental store 
Edit:
It seems GKIDS got the distribution rights for Ghibli in 2017 and even better yet, Toho in japan acquired GKIDS in 2024 
bit of a weird ouroboros situation.
@sheralmyst Enjoy!!! After youre done viewing, Your Presence is Requested 
edit: Smooth moves, I was thinking myself we may have overstepped a boundary there XD
Well, that was definitely Miyazaki.
Full of Japanese folklore, spiritism and ancient beliefs tied closely to nature. That nature seems to always try to tell us that we are too rigid in our views. We are wrong in trying to force the world into a mold of our making.
Life is messy, like the bird poop that was everywhere.
Be willing to open the doors and discover more about yourself so you can grow and improve and broaden your perspective.
Love and loss and anger are part of our messy lives but will we let the emotions control us or will we control them. Will we steer our lives in a more positive direction or let ourselves be washed out to sea by being swept under
I enjoyed it. Glad I have a physical copy headed this way.
Did you watch it subbed or dubbed? I have yet to watch it Subbed (went dubbed for the cinema as my dad was tagging along and he hates subs)
Dave Bautista as the fascist Parakeet King was so damn good. I donāt normally say this about Fascists, but I loved those Parakeets XD
Now you can watch the new documentary 
Hayao Miyazaki and The Heron (the heron is producer Toshio Suzuki. Figuratively and literally.)
(omg i never watched the trailer, it makes it sound like he has dementia XD Theyāre talking about burnout within the context of those clips in the doc. )
The movie has many layers as always but a lot of it is pulled from Miyazakis childhood and the legacy he is leaving behind with the studio (like how he tried to hand the reigns to his son, who refused).
If you have seen the previous doc, The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness (covering the production of Wind Rises and Princess Kaguya), they make good companion pieces.
Mostly because Isao Takahata is a living spectre that somewhat haunts Ghibli and barely shows up in the Kingdom doc; and then with the newer Doc; Isao Takahata had already passed on from this plane and becomes an actual spectre that haunts the studio.
Theres also a very long form one avaialble for free (last I checked) on HNKās website for international audiences called ā10 years with Miyazakiā (doesnt seem to be available anymore, selecting language brings nothing up). Itās episodic and covers production from howls moving castle all the way to Wind Rises. One of the things I loved most about that series was how it went in to detail about how Miyazaki puts his mother in every film, thereās always a character that represents a side of her personality.
In How do you Live, sheās there in multitudes, definitely his most personal film in that sense. <3
The dubbed. Had to hear Mark Hammill. He has voiced so many Miyazakiās.
My preference though, is the subbed. I will definitely do that when the physical copy arrives.
I will never look at my keets the same way again
I have seen just 1 doc but I do not remember which one. It may be on one of the discs I have. Will look
wouldnāt I love to see this one
Speaking of Kurosawa, one of my faves
If you watch it, keep in mind post WW2. This is what happens when you have 2 atomic bombs dropped on you and your whole world has been shaken to the core. The fact it takes place in the bombed out ruins of a once sacred shrine, really strikes at the heart of just how deeply the Japanese belief in good was wounded.
Oh Wow ;-; Iāve been thinking of getting one of those big box sets to replace boxes where Iāve misplaced the disc or discās where Iāve misplaced the box. Teenage me wasnāt very good at putting things back and just grabbing the nearest DVD case to the PS2/Etc
I wonder what version of Arriety it has? There was an American localisation and a UK localization for some reason and I never can tell which one websites are selling.
One has Saoirse Ronan and Olivia Colman, which makes sense for an adaptation of The Borrowers. The other, has a full american cast and even changes the ending with narrationā¦ Hmmm. This might have been what caused the Disney/Ghibli schism now that I think about it ;0;
This seems to have basically EVERYTHING. Only Yesterday and The Yamadas are my favourite Isao Takahata ones. Obviously Grave of the Fireflies is incredible too but I really need to have a good mental state before I can revisit it.
Now put on a festival for all your neighbours and convert them >:)
Why build up a good mental state only to completely annihilate it again?
Some of these I have never seenā¦.
Finding the info on which version is which is difficult. This boxed set seems to be more official than others but, yeah, so many versions out thereā¦
I prefer the original Japanese voices with subtitles. To me, the Japanese voices make much more sense and the emotion conveyed is true and more impactful. English speakers are sometimes unable to capture the emotion involved.
This set was very affordable. I got it thru WalMart
I havenāt seen Squid Games but it was such a phenomenon I think it was most peoples first exposure to eastern television.
My sister was watching it dubbed, and it was the most painful experience of my life. I asked her why she was watching it that way and she looked at me confused. She thought that was their actual voices.
It wasnāt even a good dub, some of the line reads were so bad, worse than the lowliest tellanovella actors. I tried to convince her that it will be a lot more enjoyable with subs but she told me she ādoesnāt like to readā.
This was enough to make me never want to watch the show or support anyone who does. Is that a silly and bitter stance to take? Yes. Yes it is 
I had a friend in college who was big into Kurosawa, watched a few of his films but never actually got around to Rashomon, didnāt even realise theyād be in the pubic domain by now, thanks for this link, will be watching it later I think :3
You must be the only household in america with a keeping up appearances DVD. I think owning that is enough to qualify for British Citizenship. @Polyphemus can sponsor/vouch for you to the King.
How is Gekster enjoying their Ghibli education thus far?
I had bought Howls Moving Castle on special edition DVD when it came out. It had a cool pop up book style cover that when opened, Howls castle would pop out. I lent it to a friend towards the end of 2nd level education. Who then lent it to a friend. Who then lent it to a friend. I have no idea where it went to but at the time I was happy for Howls Castle to move about the place of itās own accord and put people on to the Ghibli buzz.
I hope itās somewhere where it is loved. But if I was a betting man I would say it was traded in with a bunch of other DVDs during the recession.
I have more than 1 Keeping Up Appearances. I have the entire series. 
Gekster is not quite sure what to think about all these strange shape-shifting beings. The hopping scarecrow seemed to amuse him
I personally relate to Sophie. I feel much older than I am and if I see something dirty, I have to clean it.
Funnily enough, Hyacinth Bucket is a classic example of the social pressure to adopt RP - and upper middle-class attributes in general. Sheās funny because there really are hundreds of thousands of people just like her.
Donāt worry. There will always be an Onslow in every crowd. If only they would wear a shirt.
