Immanentizing the eschaton
It means Japanese people really like trains in their cartoons.
United Earth
So do I, but that's not it. I mean, why is this scene so charming and soothing?
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
Immanentizing the eschaton
Well, it's always difficult to speak about exactly how art affects people, because they experience it in an infinite amount of ways. But if I had to guess, for this particular scene, it's a combination of the music and perhaps of "ma", which Miyazaki talked to Roger Ebert about, once.
"We have a word for that in Japanese," he said. "It's called 'ma.' Emptiness. It's there intentionally." He clapped his hands three or four times. "The time in between my clapping is 'ma.' If you just have non-stop action with no breathing space at all, it's just busyness."
I think that helps explain why Miyazaki's films are more absorbing than the frantic action in a lot of American animation. "The people who make the movies are scared of silence" he said, "so they want to paper and plaster it over," he said. "They're worried that the audience will get bored. But just because it's 80 percent intense all the time doesn't mean the kids are going to bless you with their concentration. What really matters is the underlying emotions—that you never let go of those.
"What my friends and I have been trying to do since the 1970's is to try and quiet things down a little bit; don't just bombard them with noise and distraction. And to follow the path of children's emotions and feelings as we make a film. If you stay true to joy and astonishment and empathy you don't have to have violence and you don't have to have action. They'll follow you. This is our principle."
He said he has been amused to see a lot of animation in live-action superhero movies. "In a way, live action is becoming part of that whole soup called animation. Animation has become a word that encompasses so much, and my animation is just a little tiny dot over in the corner. It's plenty for me."
It's plenty for me, too.
United Earth
Miyazaki is the Chuck Norris of modesty...
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
In the name of being honest
Ghibli films do tend to punctuate their pacing with a lot of mundanity and silence. It doesn't always work that well in my opinion, but that train scene just feels like a wonderfully atmospheric, almost purgatorial breather in the otherwise emotionally intense third act.
Echoing hymn of my fellow passerine | Art blog (under construction)
United Earth
Well, technically the purge had happened a little while before that. And it remains calm as we leave the train and walk through the swamp towards the old witch's cottage, make some charms...
And then the young ones fly, and... recognition and rememberance...
;_____________________;
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
It's one of my favourite moments in all of fiction, and yet absolutely no plot happens, none whatsoever, it's just passively moving from one point to another and watching the scenery.
And yet... that vision, that soundtrack, they haunt me still. What does it mean?