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NEWS: Gedo Senki Panned by Online Critics

Lots of people have regrets from childhood, but that doesn't mean that you...

spoiler[pull up stakes, ditch your career and marry a farmer. She had that "You're getting old. When are you going to get married?" pressure working on her too. It was pretty stereotypical of the pressures of the working female imo. This female, unfortunately, caved into her traditional role in the end.]

But then again I hardly listen to critics, if I really want to see a film I am going to. Most of the time I can tell from a trailer if it looks appealing and if I want to see it. So yes I do plan on seeing Gedo Senki sometime in the future when it become available to me in an R1 format.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0495596/ - Gedo senki

Ahh I see the reason for the bad reviews.

Directed by
Goro Miyazaki

This movie is NOT directed by Hayao Miyazaki. I seem to remember a news story about how Hayao Miyazaki was against his son directing this movie. I now understand why.

Ahh here is the link: http://www.kaijushakedown.com/2005/12/new_ghibli_proj.html

hikaru004 wrote:

Well, I never thought that the Earthsea series was Ghibli material anyway from what I read about the title. It dealt with complicated and tragic issues and didn't seem to have a truly happy Ghibli ending. It's not family material imo. That could be a reason for the uproar, esp. if Goro Miyazaki stayed true to the series.

The thing is, the reviews say he didn't say true to the original novels which is one of the reasons many reviewers are angry. Furthermore, they say that Miyazaki Jr. didn't only deviate horribly from the novels but the result is kind of slapped together with a confusing story (many reviews mentioned that the dialogue was confusing and hard to understand - note that the reviews are written by adults) and without any clear intentions or message. In short, the writing and directing sucks.

An interesting review is written by a parent (a mother, I guess from the style) who took her child to see the movie. She says the movie made children in the theater uncomfortable and events in the end frightened them so much that some children cried. She then asks the question, "what kind of a Ghibli movie is one that makes children cry?" (I'm not trying to pass judgement based on this or anything, I just thought it was an interesting point of view.)

An interesting review is written by a parent (a mother, I guess from the style) who took her child to see the movie. She says the movie made children in the theater uncomfortable and events in the end frightened them so much that some children cried. She then asks the question, "what kind of a Ghibli movie is one that makes children cry?" (I'm not trying to pass judgement based on this or anything, I just thought it was an interesting point of view.)

Well, I never thought that the Earthsea series was Ghibli material anyway from what I read about the title. It dealt with complicated and tragic issues and didn't seem to have a truly happy Ghibli ending. It's not family material imo. That could be a reason for the uproar, esp. if Goro Miyazaki stayed true to the series. If I remember correctly, people were raving over Howl's Moving Castle, but that title did not stay true to the original source material.

mufurc wrote:

An interesting review is written by a parent (a mother, I guess from the style) who took her child to see the movie. She says the movie made children in the theater uncomfortable and events in the end frightened them so much that some children cried. She then asks the question, "what kind of a Ghibli movie is one that makes children cry?" (I'm not trying to pass judgement based on this or anything, I just thought it was an interesting point of view.)

I can see that, but, as you say, it's an interesting point of view. I don't think, for example, PRINCESS MONONOKE is suitable for young children (I also think it's Miyazaki's best film). And as for Ghibli films not making children cry...this is the studio of GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES (which Roger Ebert said deserved to be ranked with SCHINDLER'S LIST).

The only thing that really bugged me was when her dad spoiler[smacked her so hard a button on her dress flew off. I don't know what they call that in Japan, but that's defiantly child abuse over here.]

http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/opp/faq.html#father

By the way, while Ghibli's movies are highly popular, I don't see many ANN users using their characters as avatars. Besides myself I could only find one Pazu, two Totoro, one Kiki, one Conan, and that's it.

Ahem

No doubt, there was that movie Hero (Jet Li) a few years back. It got near perfect critical accliam, but I watched it and the story was a complete mess, as, for the first half of the movie, the story the main character tells isn't even what really happens. More of an exuse for more floaty battles if you ask me.

But the thing is both Mononoke and Fireflies are both movies for other older/teen audiences.

I get that they're teenagers and they know everything, but to assume that you can completely sympathize with, recognize and totally "get" the way 30-somethings feel when you're 15 is, to me, nonsense.

halochief_90 wrote:

No doubt, there was that movie Hero (Jet Li) a few years back. It got near perfect critical accliam, but I watched it and the story was a complete mess, as, for the first half of the movie, the story the main character tells isn't even what really happens. More of an exuse for more floaty battles if you ask me.

Nonsense, the story's not a mess. It's just told in a very non-western way. What made Hero interesting was that the parts of it that didn't happen are almost as important as what actually did. It also has, or so I'm told, some passing similarities to Rashomon, a film by Akira Kurosawa.

halochief_90 wrote:

But the thing is both Mononoke and Fireflies are both movies for other older/teen audiences.

Ok, so from what I hear Gedo Senki is a movie for an older audience as well. Big deal. Maybe I'm mistaken, but I didn't think Gedo Senki was necessarily aimed at younger audiences. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

I don't think, for example, PRINCESS MONONOKE is suitable for young children