From:         Miho Nishida <vray@cornella.cit.cornell.edu>
 
I agree with you about first viewing of TOTORO.  I was a bit
disappointed at the end of the movie the first time because
it had no action.  Then my father and mother, who were viewing
it with me (and my sister; at our house, anime, especially
Miyazaki anime, is viewed by the family), said it was a very nostalgic
do^wa story.  Do^wa is japanese for Children's story, or children's
fantasy story.  And suddenly the movie took on a different shade.
If you look at the movie in that context, TOTORO is extremely well
done.  Most of what goes in TOTORO (except maybe the last part of
the movie where the cat bus finds Mei and the two go to the hospital)
can be explained either by the fantasy we are shown, or by natural
cause that a chile might interpret as something else.      Example:
Satsuki goes outside to pick up some wood for heating, and a gust
of wind wooshes by her.  In the movie, it's hinted as Totoro on his
nightly ride on his top, but it could simply be a gust of wind.]
 
Furthermore, older Japanese folks will love this film, as did
my mother and father, because it is nostalgic.  It is their childhood
that they see on the screen.  The lush green nature, the call of the
birds, the music of the insects (unlike European counterparts, insects
are not dispised in japan  --- except, of course, the cockroaches).
These are all things japanese rarely hear now a days.  If any of you
thought that scenery shown in Totoro is what you find in contemporary
japan, it is sadly not the case.  So, of course, we could, underneath
this wonderful fairy-tale children's story, hear Miyazaki's cry
for the older, better days.  The age where, if indeed such creatures
as the forest spirits did exist, it wouldn't really be a wonder for them
to be living next door.
 
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vray@vax5.cit.Cornell.edu                       vray@cornella.Bitnet
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TO BE FREE..   | Tommorrow, and tommorrow, and tommorrow,
(I wanna play) | Creeps in this petty pace from day to day... (eeek)
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