animation, manga

1222 – From Up on Poppy Hill / Kokuriko-zaka kara (2011)

timespace coordinates: 1964 Yokohama, Japan

From Up on Poppy Hill (Japanese: コクリコ坂から Hepburn: Kokuriko-zaka Kara, “From Coquelicot Hill”) is a 2011 Japanese animated drama film directed by Gorō Miyazaki, scripted by Hayao Miyazaki and Keiko Niwa, animated by Studio Ghibli for the Nippon Television NetworkDentsuHakuhodo DY Media PartnersWalt Disney JapanMitsubishi, and Toho, and distributed by the latter company. It is based on the 1980 serialized Japanese comic of the same name illustrated by Chizuru Takahashi and written by Tetsurō Sayama.

Set in 1964 Yokohama, Japan, the film tells the story of Umi Matsuzaki, a high school girl living in a boarding house, ‘Coquelicot Manor’. When Umi meets Shun Kazama, a member of the school’s newspaper club, they decide to clean up the school’s clubhouse, Quartier Latin. However, Tokumaru, the chairman of the local high school and a businessman, intends to demolish the building for redevelopment and Umi and Shun, along with Shirō Mizunuma, must persuade him to reconsider. (wiki)

upoptm2gyci01

historical basis   /   imdb

movies, quotes, Uncategorized

1216 – Sanatorium pod Klepsydra / The Hourglass Sanatorium (1973)

Among all the tales there is one, / which you haven’t heard / and which the night reclaimed long ago. / Have you enough patience to listen to it?

The Hourglass Sanatorium (Polish: Sanatorium pod klepsydrą) is a 1973 Polish film directed by Wojciech Jerzy Has, starring Jan Nowicki, Tadeusz Kondrat, Mieczysław Voit, Halina Kowalska and Gustaw Holoubek. The story follows a young Jewish man who visits his father in a mystical sanatorium where time does not behave normally. The film is an adaptation of Bruno Schulz‘s story collection Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass. It won the Jury Prize at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival. (Release)

MV5BMjIxMzBlNDgtMTM0Zi00MmEyLWIxMTAtYTFlNGE4OTMyZWVjL2ltYWdlXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNTAyODkwOQ@@._V1_timespace coordinates: The time period of the film is a mixture of elements from the turn-of-the-century Galicia where Schulz grew up, and Has‘ own pre-World War II memories of the same region

Joseph (Jan Nowicki) travels through a dream-like world, taking a dilapidated train to visit his dying father, Jacob, in a sanatorium. When he arrives at the hospital, he finds the entire facility is going to ruin and no one seems to be in charge or even caring for the patients. Time appears to behave in unpredictable ways, reanimating the past in an elaborate artificial caprice.

Though Joseph is always shown as an adult, his behavior and the people around often depict him as a child. He befriends Rudolf, a young boy who owns a postage stamp album. The names of the stamps trigger a wealth of association and adventure in Joseph. Among the many occurrences in this visually potent phantasmagoria include Joseph re-entering childhood episodes with his wildly eccentric father (who lives with birds in an attic), being arrested by a mysterious unit of soldiers for having a dream that was severely criticized in high places, reflecting on a girl he fantasized about in his boyhood and commandeering a group of historic wax mannequins. Throughout his strange journey, an ominous blind train conductor reappears like a death figure.

Has also adds a series of reflections on the Holocaust that were not present in the original texts, reading Schulz’s prose through the prism of the author’s death during World War II and the demise of the world he described. (wiki)

imdb


“There are things than cannot ever occur with any precision. They are too big and too magnificent to be contained in mere facts. They are merely trying to occur, they are checking whether the ground of reality can carry them. And they quickly withdraw, fearing to loose their integrity in the frailty of realization. ”  (Bruno Schulz)

movies, quotes, Uncategorized

1214 – Tumbbad (2018)

timespace coordinates: 1918 – 1933 – 1947 Tumbbad village, western India (British Raj) / Pune

“The world has enough for everyone’s needs, but not everyone’s greed,” Mahatma Gandhi (!)

Tumbbad is a 2018 Indian Hindi-language period horror film directed by debutant Rahi Anil Barve and co-directed by Adesh Prasad. Written by Barve, Prasad, Mitesh Shah and Anand Gandhi, who also served as the creative director, the film was produced by Sohum ShahAanand L. Rai, Mukesh Shah and Amita Shah. Starring Shah in the lead role as Vinayak Rao, it follows the story of his search for a hidden treasure in 20th century Maharashtra. Pankaj Kumar served as the director of photography while Sanyukta Kaza was its editor. Music. (wiki) 

The movie was shot for 6 years. The scenes shown in the city of Tumbbad which gets rain throughout the year was shot over 4 monsoons.

imdb   /   trailer   /   ost

animation, movies, Uncategorized

1212 – Where the Wild Things Are (2009)

MV5BNzQ1NzAwODEwM15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNTE4MjI4Mg@@._V1_Where the Wild Things Are is a 2009 “self-consciously sad” fantasy drama film directed by Spike Jonze. Written by Jonze and Dave Eggers, it is adapted from Maurice Sendak‘s 1963 children’s book of the same name. It combines live-action, performers in costumesanimatronics, and computer-generated imagery (CGI).

The film stars Max Records and features the voices of James GandolfiniPaul DanoLauren AmbroseForest WhitakerCatherine O’Hara, and Chris Cooper. The film centers on a lonely boy named Max who sails away to an island inhabited by creatures known as the “Wild Things,” who declare Max their king.

imdb

movies, Uncategorized

1210 – Predestination (2014)

timespace coordinates: 1945 – 1975 Cleveland / New York City

MV5BNzZiMGY0YWEtMDVmNC00YmMzLTlhYzYtMGE2ZjgxNGIxYWIwXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNzI1NzMxNzM@._V1_SY1000_CR0,0,714,1000_AL_

Predestination is a 2014 Australian science fiction thriller film written and directed by Michael and Peter Spierig. The film stars Ethan HawkeSarah Snook, and Noah Taylor, and is based on the short story “—All You Zombies—” by Robert A. Heinlein. (wiki)

imdb   /   hard science fiction   /   intersex   predestination paradox

predestination-232000l

documentary, movies

1209 – Boyhood (2014)

timespace coordinates: Texas, 2001 – 2013

Boyhood is a 2014 American epic coming-of-age drama film written and directed by Richard Linklater, and starring Patricia ArquetteEllar ColtraneLorelei Linklater, and Ethan Hawke. Filmed from 2001 to 2013, Boyhood depicts the childhood and adolescence of Mason Evans Jr. (Coltrane) from ages six to eighteen as he grows up in Texas with divorced parents (Arquette and Hawke). Richard Linklater’s daughter Lorelei plays Mason’s sister, Samantha. (wiki)

imdb

movies

1208 – Little Boy (2015)

timespace coordinates: 1945 seaside town of O’Hare, California

MV5BMTUyMjkxMTEzNl5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwMzA2MTM2NDE@._V1_SY1000_CR0,0,666,1000_AL_

Little Boy is a 2015 (Mexico | USA) World War II war-drama film directed by Alejandro Gómez Monteverde. The film stars Jakob SalvatiEmily WatsonDavid HenrieCary-Hiroyuki TagawaMichael RapaportBen ChaplinEduardo VerásteguiTed LevineAbraham Benrubi, and Tom Wilkinson. The title is a reference to Little Boy, the code name for the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, as well as a reference to the main character Pepper’s height. (wiki)

imdb   /   Japanophobia