Hayao Miyazaki

Spirited Away introduced me to Miyazaki.  I now own all his films.  He should be named a national Treasure of Japan; they do that there.  People are given status because of their talent, so as to perpetuate the genre.  They have ceramicists, sword makers, textile designers, weavers, all given government aid to continue their craft, AND to pass it on.  Miyazaki does that through his Ghibli Studio museum which introduces the art of animation to children and young adults.  Word was that Howl's Moving Castle would be his last film.  Thankfully that is not so.  The Wind Rises is a biographical flight of fancy about  Jiro Horikoshi the designer/engineer responsible for the "Zero" fighter plane.  Set between the two wars it is also a portrait of Japan in the crisis of it's global identity as a third world country.  Miyazaki's fascination with flight [a major theme in his films] is manifest in technical jargon, stylized schematics, and historical references but it is the actual flying sequences, some in dreams, some depicting test flights, that mark this as Miyazaki at his best.

Rabbit Woman

Am I watching the right film?  Am I in the right theatre?  It's in Chinese, shot in a Chinese market and without subtitles.  What's going on?  Probably headed for cult status with little or no exposure, Rabbit Woman is a great little conspiracy-driven thriller. Good, fast-paced editing intercut with Japanese style anime tells the tale of a conscientious civil servant caught in a web of 21st century genetic crimes.  Chinese Tongs, flesh eating rabbits and a backwoods gang armed to the teeth make for a riotous ride.