Before starting any musing, it has to be said that I did not understand 100% everything in the film. I think I understood almost all of it, but there were one or two (or three) parts where something was said, and I thought to myself “I didn’t understand that Japanese”. Therefore despite being an amazing authority on all things, I am a somewhat flawed authority because maybe those one or two (or three) lines I couldn’t understand were bloody amazing.

What I like about films like this, it’s not really about if it is good or bad. Miyazaki made the film he wanted to make, how he wanted to make it, and presented it the way he wanted to present it. This is not a spectacle for the masses to marvel at and escape into. This is not something where critics should be able to say that it needed more action or sex appeal or something. This is someone presenting something on the human condition, and I am allowed to view it, and think about if I understand what the themes are, agree with how they are presented, and what their ultimate meaning is.

For me the lack of any real advertisement was very good for the story, because I was subconsciously always trying to figure out which Ghibli box the movie was going to fit into, and it kept jumping out of one box and into another. I think some would see this as directionless, but I saw it as both lovingly subverting expectations, and also as being free of any obligations to be anything else besides that which it wanted to be.

Perhaps the one or two (or three) lines I didn’t understand explained everything in detail, but I believe that a lot of what was going on was not explained. I really truly love it when not everything is explained, and we are expected to be like children and just be forced to accept that something is. There are many characters and whatnot and you cannot help but wonder their allegorical meaning. When I watch it again, I’ll probably mainly be thinking about that.

To contradict myself from earlier, despite being impossibly free from the constraints of expectations, it also seemed constrained to express itself in an overtly Ghibli way. Many scenes reminded me of other Ghibli movies, and Ghibli movies that are very different from one another. I guess this goes back to the directionlessness, but I don’t see this as a forced greatest hits/reunion tour feeling, but more of tried and tested methods of expression to rely on. Wheelbarrow ruts on the path or something like that.

To me the story is ultimately about a very simple very specific aspect of the human condition, told beautifully in a Japanese setting. I am curious about how many scenes will be translated, because I would not know how to adequately translate what is not being said with many simple polite phrases. You could just convert it to something British I suppose. It’s cliched to talk about tatemae and honne, but I think they are good concepts to think about when watching the film.

I’m going to say the words someone said in the middle of the film that I thought was the best part of the film. Perhaps this would be seen as a spoiler, so if you do not want to know the words someone said in the middle of the film. Please don’t look below.

The words I liked in the middle were:

大嫌い(I hate you)