Forum - View topicREVIEW: Wolf Children BD+DVD
|
Goto page Previous 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 Next Note: this is the discussion thread for this article |
| Author | Message | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
vashfanatic
 Posts: 3490 Location: Back stateside |
|
|||||
Bamboo also reviewed it in the latest Shelf Life, so that's a third. Also, this is what comment boards can be useful for. If you disagree with a critic, or want to expand on something they said, this is a good place to write a respectful rebuttal. (I will admit I've not always been good about that respectful part, mostly when I feel reviewers are giving a pass to something really bad, but I'm trying to get better.  )
Btw, the argument that Hosoda is idealizing Hana to the point that she's not a character is actually something I first read about in Japan, as critics who praised it got push-back from women and esp. mothers who said that it didn't properly grapple with the emotional toll that the spoiler[loss of a spouse] and raising children on your own can have on a person. Basically, their argument goes, it elevates the ideal of the Perfect Woman as someone who uncomplainingly completely gives up her life for her children, which is something modern Japanese women who want to work while raising families are fighting against. I haven't seen the movie yet (so behind on anime!) but I want to, and then I'll make up my mind if I agree. |
||||||
|
||||||
|
Fronzel
Posts: 1906 |
|
|||||
I also rather liked that, but I think the character design is a big problem here spoiler[Yuki's wolf-girl form is too cute, like something from a kid's cartoon.] It's really hard to take dramatic scenes seriously with that in there. The spoiler[fight scene between Yuki and Ame] was another high-point for me. I in general found the struggles of the two children to reconcile their mixed identities to the best part of the movie. I might have failed to finish this film, as happened with me and Hosoda's other films, if not for that. |
||||||
|
||||||
|
Fronzel
Posts: 1906 |
|
|||||
She does put her university studies "on hold" when pregnant and they just never come up again. I imagine she didn't continue them after moving out to a rural area to tend a farm. |
||||||
|
||||||
Leebo
 Posts: 660 Location: Somerville, MA |
|
|||||
|
I'd have more of an issue with the Perfect Woman thing if I felt like it was saying that a decision not to have children would have been a bad thing or if the dad stayed alive and she still didn't pursue her education.
It was kind of a contrived way to create a single mom, but I think that's all... A contrivance rather than a message that you should give up all your dreams and have kids. |
||||||
|
||||||
|
JacobC
ANN Contributor
 Posts: 3728 Location: SoCal |
|
|||||
Damn. Cool to know, thanks for sharing. You don't hear much about Japanese criticism over here, so it's neat to hear stuff like this, helps with perspective. |
||||||
|
||||||
|
Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18210 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
|
|||||
Yeah, I particularly liked that scene, too, as I thought it epitomized the struggle between the two different directions that the children ultimately went in. I also did especially appreciate how the movie showed each of the children ultimately favoring a different side of their dual nature. And I did also wonder how spoiler[Hana was going go explain the disappearance of Ame at the end], but I can just barely buy that such details step beyond the storytelling mode that Hosada was aiming for. All-in-all, a good movie, but I don't think I'd consider it Hosada's best. (And I'm still not a fan of his visual style.) Last edited by Key on Fri Dec 06, 2013 2:23 pm; edited 1 time in total |
||||||
|
||||||
danilo07
 Posts: 1580 |
|
|||||
|
There is nothing wrong if a woman wants to sacrifice her ambitions for her family and children,it is her own choice.Otherwise we would just be obstructing someones freedom of choice.
|
||||||
|
||||||
|
Leebo
Posts: 660 Location: Somerville, MA |
|
|||||
Yeah, especially since the kids start on opposite ends of that duality and switch over. I enjoyed watching that. |
||||||
|
||||||
Maidenoftheredhand
 Posts: 2633 |
|
|||||
Hosoda was definitely idealizing Hana but again his own mother was the basis for the story. The story wasn't told from a single mother's perspective of raising children it was told from the perspective of a child about her single mother and the sacrifices she made for her. Would the former have made for a more unique and stronger story, well perhaps but it just wasn't the story Hosoda was trying to tell. I also don't think the film was saying "this is how mother's should be" but more "this is the sacrifices mother's make for their children", at least from one adult child's perspective. Of course everyone is not going to have the same experiences with their own mother. |
||||||
|
||||||
|
vashfanatic
Posts: 3490 Location: Back stateside |
|
|||||
There's nothing wrong - if she wants to. The problem is that there is a LOT of social pressure, especially in Japan, for women to make sacrifices for children that aren't expected from men. The idea that women should quit their jobs as soon as they're married is still very much a thing in Japan, much more so than in America. (Reminder: employers were free to not hire or to fire married women in the US until 1964) It's part of why Japanese women are putting of marriage and childbearing later and later. I have met Japanese women who that is literally why they never got married - because they wanted to pursue careers. In short: Choices aren't made in a vacuum. And women face a lot of pressure to sacrifice education and careers for their children, while it's assumed that men won't. [[Edit: should note, for fairness, that things are getting better for women in Japan, and it can really vary according to how conservative an area you live in, and whether your family can really afford to lose that second income. I worked and lived in a relatively liberal area, and a lot of the young and middle-aged women I knew worked even after they were married. Promotion, however, is still very hampered for married women, which is sadly very much the case in America as well.]] Last edited by vashfanatic on Fri Dec 06, 2013 3:16 pm; edited 1 time in total |
||||||
|
||||||
|
Fronzel
Posts: 1906 |
|
|||||
Now I can't help but gush a bit; spoiler[I love how the fight scene ends with Yuki closing a door, locking it, and having a cry in the bathtub, all things that only humans can do. It's a signal that she's conceding defeat in the fight as wolves she had with Ame.] I also really liked the single shot where about five years pass. It was very clever.
What I like about this is that they also stay the same; Yuki is interested in the outside world and things in it (like other kids) and Ame is very introverted and shies away from other people. |
||||||
|
||||||
trilaan
 Posts: 1055 Location: Texas |
|
|||||
|
I love the movie. But I'm an easy sell because it focuses on transforming characters and my obsession with shapeshifting is quite unhealthy.
My favorite scene is spoiler[running through the snowy forests and hills. ] It makes my heart soar. I think the movie is only as in-depth as childhood memories can be and that it may have been the planned that way. The review mentions how we don't learn anything about why Hana fell in love with the father or what friends or family Hana left behind to raise her kids. If the story is Hana's story but told from her daughter's perspective it makes sense that such questions aren't answered in the film. After all, how many children really care about their parents lives before they were born? I know I did not. Skipping ahead, because I don't have much time, regarding the ending of the film where Hana asks if she really managed to teach them anything worthwhile, spoiler[Ame's response is to raise the sun.] Whether an act of the film as a fantasy or an act of the film as a true life coincidence it seems like a pretty epic affirmation that she raised them well. |
||||||
|
||||||
|
Fronzel
Posts: 1906 |
|
|||||
But then why does the part of the story before the children are born take so long? I think the movie has some pacing problems and that's one of the big ones. |
||||||
|
||||||
|
JacobC
ANN Contributor
Posts: 3728 Location: SoCal |
|
|||||
You may have also noticed that he spoiler[runs up a waterfall] to do this. spoiler[Falling rain and, eventually, a river] are associated with wild danger and the frailty of life, particularly for frail little Ame. spoiler[His father is found dead in the city's river, and the country's river almost claims him. Hana is more wild and happy on snowy days, which remind her of good times, but wary and protective on rainy days which symbolize deep sadness for her.] So seeing those painful aspects of water being turned into something triumphant for her instead at the end was nice. I still hold that the world and weather of Wolf Children are more complex characters than the family themselves. Not necessarily a bad thing. But certainly unusual and hard to catch at first when you go in and start watching it as a more conventional family film. |
||||||
|
||||||
|
trilaan
Posts: 1055 Location: Texas |
|
|||||
|
Fonzel: I think we will just have to assume it's part of what's needed to make a fictional movie as opposed to a documentary. At least for now.
I did not think of those things, cool stuffs, JesuOtaku. I look forward to repeat viewings of the film to catch such meanings. |
||||||
|
||||||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group