Cinema is Dope

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It seems to separate the karaoke masters from the karaoke neophytes to count how many times one has sung this song for karaoke. If you never have rocked out to this, then you surely have not lived a very long karaoke existence. Forget Elvis. Forget the Beatles. Forget Jefferson Starship. Bring on some Linda Linda Linda for the all-time karaoke anthem! The film itself is an absolute treasure that leisurely unfolds with a near avant garde prowess as we follow a group of girls as they come of age both as women and as musicians. Leave it to helmer Nobuhiro Yamashita to craft a memorable journey that in any other hands would have been the Sisterhood of Traveling Guitars.

Highly recommended viewing and it’s out on Region 1 DVD from Viz Pictures (Official US Site).

Amazon.com Link:
::: Buy the Linda Linda Linda DVD

Related Coverage:
::: My Interview with Nobuhiro Yamashita on Cinema Strikes Back
::: Tom Mes Interviews Nobuhiro Yamashita for Midnight Eye
::: Tom Mes Reviews Linda Linda Linda for Midnight Eye

Japanese Cinema:
::: Jason Gray
::: Mark Schilling’s Tokyo Ramen
::: Midnight Eye
::: Nippon Cinema
::: Outcast Cinema
::: Ryuganji
::: Toronto J-Film Pow-Wow

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New Cinema Wallpaper of the Day
Tuesday, August 12, 2008

“No one but Miyazaki could have created anything like these moments, with anything like his mastery. If “Ponyo” is the start of his artistic second childhood, I say welcome to the sandbox,” says Mark Schilling about Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea over at the Japan Times (read here). This is great advance word on what is sure to be one of the best fairy tale and fantasy films of 2008… well probably 2009 for US audiences.

Japanese Cinema:
::: Jason Gray
::: Mark Schilling’s Tokyo Ramen
::: Midnight Eye
::: Nippon Cinema
::: Outcast Cinema
::: Ryuganji
::: Toronto J-Film Pow-Wow

SYNOPSIS

This is the story of Ponyo, a little fish from the sea who struggles to realize her dream of living with a boy named Sosuke. It also tells of how five-year old Sosuke manages to keep a most solemn promise.

Ponyo On The Cliff By The Sea places Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid in a contemporary Japanese setting. It is a tale of childhood love and adventure.

A little seaside town and a house at the top of a cliff. A small cast of characters. The ocean as a living presence. A world where magic and alchemy are accepted as part of the ordinary.

The sea below, like our subconscious mind, intersects with the wave-tossed surface above. By distorting normal space and contorting normal shapes, the sea is animated not as a backdrop to the story, but as one of its principal characters.

A little boy and a little girl, love and responsibility, the ocean and life - these things, and that which is most elemental to them, are depicted in the most basic way in ponyo on the cliff by the sea. This is my response to the afflictions and uncertainty of our times.

- Hayao Miyazaki

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