movie night

[ellen_datlow]

Boiler Room--yeah! liked it, with Giovanni Ribisi, Ben Affleck, and Vin Diesel --all very good and the post Wall Street movie in which the principals, who are eager sharks, can recite Gordon Gekko's lines as he says them. Odd seeing the twin towers on the NYC skyline. I'd heard it was a good movie, and it is.

And Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind--also terrific. But what's with the round-eyed Japanese humans who populate all these films? Where has this weird tradition come from? And am I the only one who thought Nausicaa was bare-assed through the first third of the movie until I finally figured she MUST be wearing some kind of weird tights????Or do I just have a dirty mind?

I have the first disc of the last bunch of Sopranos but figured I'll wait till I get the rest so I can have a Sopranos orgy when I get back from WFC.

Comments

[czakbar.livejournal.com]

The round-eyed Japanese humans are pretty much a staple of anime at this point. And--LOL--I know what you mean about the weird look of those tights. I thought the same thing the first time I saw and picked up the dvd box to make sure I had got the right anime and not a hentai (perverted) anime by mistake. ;-)

I saw Boiler Room a few years back and loved it too.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I guessed that --as all the anime I've ever seen (from what I recall) seems to be all round-eyes. So weird. Thank you for confirming that I'm not a total pervert :-).

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

And the relationship with the father (in Boiler Rom) was very moving (as was Nausicaa's relationship with the baby Ohmu --ohmigod! I'm comparing humans with cartoons!)

[shadowsandice.livejournal.com]

....as far as I know she's going commando. It's just the Japanese thing. If you have the same cut of the movie as here, then a lot of her butt flashing has actually been removed.


Not all anime characters have round eyes. You can tell the bad guys by that fact alone.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

It's from netflix and there's a lot of butt flashing in the first 15 minutes or so, then it seems to subside.

I haven't seen all that much anime--so who often has the round eyes usually? The goodies or the baddies?

[shadowsandice.livejournal.com]

Round eyes are definitely for the good guys.

You've mostly been watching Studio Ghibli works, right? They're practically all round eyes, that I can think of. Even the villains... Characters with murky motivations tend to have thin, sharp slanted eyes.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Yeah, just started. Now that's totally weird --do at least some Japanese people think there's something wrong with that?

[shadowsandice.livejournal.com]

It's the aesthetic; they find large round eyes attractive, since as a people they don't tend to feature them. Just as western cartoons feature square jaws and ridiculous waists, they're all feeding into what people (supposedly) want to look at.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Oh I understand. I just think it's a pity-I've heard that Japanese women sometimes have eye surgery to get rid of the epithantic fold.

[shadowsandice.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I've a feeling a lot of the fashion conscious women in Tokyo had that operation performed; there were more folded and large eyes around than there should have been.

[charlesatan.livejournal.com]

As far as I know everyone has round eyes! Most of the time. =)

[nballingrud.livejournal.com]

I just picked up the last Sopranos set, and just finished watching the first two. I'm savoring every minute. Six Feet Under, Deadwood, now The Sopranos ... once The Wire is over, it'll be the end of an era of great tv.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

I've got Deadwood in my queue. Plus Carnivale and Prime Suspect. They should keep me going in between movies.

I'm really going to miss The Sopranos once I'm done with it. Never much interested in Six Feet Under.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

I've watched Prime Suspect and Carnivale (the ending is a little abrupt) and the first two seasons of Deadwood. I have the third season partially on my endtable and partially at Netflix.

[slithytove.livejournal.com]

Carnivale is utterly weird and wonderful. Such a shame it was canceled.

The first season is much slower than the second, but still very good. The second season roars out of the gate and never stops.

Watch for Tarot references.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the rec. I'm not sure when I'll actuallly get to the series but it WILL happen!

[ecmyers.livejournal.com]

And am I the only one who thought Nausicaa was bare-assed through the first third of the movie until I finally figured she MUST be wearing some kind of weird tights????

You aren't the only one: http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/nausicaa/faq.html#bottom

As far as I know, no one has actually complained about it though :)

As for the big eyes, here's a more complete response: http://www.abcb.com/ency/t/tezuka_osamu.htm

Basically, much of the aesthetic originated from the "father" of anime, Tezuka Osamu. He actually borrowed those character elements from Disney movies, supposedly. A lot of current anime departs from this somewhat; Satoshi Kon (director of Perfect Blue) often favors more realistic characteristics with smallish eyes and harsher faces in his work.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Eugene,
Thanks for all the info!

[cinriter.livejournal.com]

I just always assumed in NAUSICAA that underwear was too hard to get in the future! In other words...yep, I still think she's bare-assed.

The round eyes thing in anime is one thing, but so is Miyazaki's interest in both eastern and western culture. Look at something like KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE or PORCO ROSSO, and the settings and characters are all completely European. In those cases, the large eyes work.

It is slightly odd, though, in a film like MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO - in which both characters and settings are clearly Japanese - to see the round eyes on the characters.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

I do too :-)

I've KIKI and PORCO ROSSO on loan from Eugene and will watch them in between The Sopranos to cheer me up!

[slithytove.livejournal.com]

Note that despite the big eyes, the epicanthal fold is usually preserved. Look closely: usually in anime character design, the inner 'canthus' of the eye is not well defined, as it is in Europeans. There are occasional exceptions to this -- for example, the character of Gally/Alita (http://tbp.berkeley.edu/~jdonald/ocf/gally.jpg) in Battle Angel. This is unusual, though. Here's a more typical character design, Ikari Shinji, (http://www.cristalab.com/images/anime/evangelion/shinji-1.jpg) the protagonist of Evangelion.