you humans always make a mess of things

This is my second time watching this movie. Although the first time I watched this movie I really enjoyed it, watching it a second time in Art of Film really opened my eyes. The first time I watched this movie was a few years ago, I didnt think about the morals they were trying to teach, I was simply just watching the animation.

The one thing I noticed both times was the animation and imagination. The animation is so real and now that I learned that each frame was drawn, I am still mind boggled by that idea. The imagination of Miyazaki was also another thing I noticed both times. I still don't understand how Miyazaki can create such a world, with such great monsters and such an interesting plot just with his imagination.

This time, the two themes that stuck in my head - that I never realized before - was the theme of love and the environment. I dont know why but the first time I watched the movie I didnt realize that Chihiro and Haku were in love...even though Haku is a river....... [a person and a river in love?] But this love story was so inspiring because of how quickly they fell (not even fell, were destined) in love together.

The second theme I really admired about this movie was the environmental theme. I really thought it was so creative to incorporate it in an animation movie. The first point was Chihiro's parents turning into pigs. More points where we were able to see this theme was when Sen pulled out the thorn of the river god, how much no face consumed, and when Haku's river doesn't exist anymore because they built on top of it. I've never thought of a movie indirectly showing children what it is like to be gluttonous. I thought it was clever and I really think that more movies should show this concept to the world.

How To Do The Asian Squat

As an Asian... this really made me wonder about how true this was. I mean, I guess I subconsciously noticed that Asians squated differently. But... so differently that someone needs to make a short out of it? But, thats the point - to get people to notice these small cultural differences in a funny way.
Don't get me wrong - this was a pretty funny video. It was pretty ridiculous with the penny going under the shoe and the squat theory book. I'm not a fan of that kind of stuff.
But other then that... the whole short is true. "Western" squating does hurt after a while. And everyone in China, does squat like that if there are no seats available.
But this is going to make me very aware everytime I go into Flushing or Chinatown now - maybe even at home when my grandma chops chicken on the floor.
Asians have a whole different culture, so I guess this is why its so easy to make so many parodies of the culture. I had fun with this short and hope to see more.

If you liked this I recommend: Yellow Fever, by Wongfu Productions.
Its a short about how you always see a white guy with an asian girl, but never an asian guy with a white girl. It's video that a video group did for fun when they just started in college.

North by Northwest

Even though i watched North by Northwest backwards, (2nd half of the movie first, then the first half), I did enjoy it.

The movie started out great. It made me confused and wanted to know more. And by the time we find out that Kaplan is a CIA decoy, the whole movie starts to come together.

After the introduction to Eve and the scene of love, the action/thriller part of the movie starts. (Besides the plotted killing of Townsend and all the other ways of framing of Kaplan) R.O.T. gets chased down by a plane, goes to Mt. Rushmore, prentends to get shot, falls in love with Kendell, and almost falls off of Mt. Rushmore.

Besides all the heart attacks you almost get, this film, for 1959, has great special effects. This was a part of the movie that really amazed me. I was really suprised by the day for night effects and how it was used so much in this film; it seemed so realistic. The airplane blowing up was also a great effect.

I also liked all of the directors cuts. I had notice a lot that the cuts he makes in his movie are realistic and make the film better. A couple of the directors cuts that made the movie interesting was when Thornhill had bourbon poured in front of him and the next thing we see is was him driving drunk. Another example was when Thornhill and Kendell were in the room together, then Hitchcock cuts it and shows us the picture of the sunset and the darkness coming - we all know what was going to happen. All these cuts, make the watchers imagination be put to use and let us imagine things on our own.

All in all, the movie was pretty good. It felt cliched - but, I think I only say that because it resembles so much to the 007 movies. I recommend it to anyone who loves James Bond, aka people who love action, romance, thrillers and mysteries.

holler.

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