If you missed part one of my Me and Studio Ghibli series you can catch up at the link provided. Today, for part two, I move onto two film's that could not be more different in tone. Both were released in 1988 astonishingly as a double feature. They are Grave of the Fireflies and My Neighbour Totoro.
1988- Grave of the Fireflies The first film of Isao Takahata to be released by the studio and most certainly one of his most celebrated. The film is based on a popular semi-autobiographyby Akiyuki Nosaka, of the same name. I have already posted on the film. Catch it in my World Cinema link at the end of the post. But for the continuity of the series I shall continue.
So having given you a little introduction to some of the fantastic movies that may have gone unnoticed to some of you but that have had an extreme and profound effect on me, movies that show a great and unparalleled capacity to investigate the human psyche or dazzle with astonishing beauty, heart or just plain story telling. In this post I'm going to look at a few of those such films which are not in the English language.
Y Tu Mamá También
One of the very first films I've ever seen not in English, it takes place in Mexico. Two friends Julio and Tenoch (played by real life pals Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna) embark on a road trip with Luisa (Maribel Verdú) heading to a beach they have fabricated in their minds in order to impress the older woman. the film deals with the sexual journey the group experience together in a beautiful, often funny and unashamed way. When I watched this film I was in my last years of an all boys high school. Watching the two average teenage boys extolling their sexual prowess but also seeing them as immature and flawed showed me how perfectly this film deals with this period in the lives of many young men. Coupled with snapshots of Mexican culture along their travels Y tu Mama Tambien is a fantastic piece of film making that shows us simply that life is a journey and along the way the things we experience make us who we are. (More after the break)
