YumCha!
»
Professional Reviews - Anime
Browse
- ycec Editor's Picks By Category
- esid Editor's Picks - By Editor
- yca Feature Articles
- ycpc Professional Reviews
- Awards & Festivals
- ppid Music Pop Chart
- yceb Entertainment News
- About YumCha!
-
Only Yesterday (VCD) (Hong Kong Version)
Miyazaki Hayao (Producer)
| Takahata Isao (Director)
Childhood is a time of powerlessness. Children are dependent and beholden on their parents. Childhood is often governed by familial forces that seem brutally unfair. As we move into adulthood, we nostalgically long for those carefree days forgetting that rules by which we were governed were frequently confusing and inscrutable. Director Isao Takahata explored some of these themes in Grave of the Fireflies. He returns to these them in a gentler, though no less powerful way in Only Yesterday. Okajima Taeko is an office worker who comes across as a little aloof from her co-workers. As she embarks on her holiday, Okasjima's story is intercut with memories of her childhood. These reminiscences... [read more]
-
-
Cello Hiki no Gauche (Gauche the Cellist) (Japan Version - English Subtitles)
Sasaki Hideki
| Amemori Masashi
| Shiraishi Fuyumi
| Kimotsuki Kenta
That critically acclaimed animator Isao Takahata fails to draw the same level of attention and popularity as his much more famous business partner and Studio Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki is no less unfortunate for being understandable. While Miyazaki is a prototypical auteur, creating a body of work immediately recognizable as his own at least as far back as Nausicaa, Takahata has been much more a collaborator through his no less impressive career. While Miyazaki's work has been marked by a consistent approach, Takahata has been much more restless, shifting styles and approaches from project to project with a variety of design and animation styles adopted to suit the needs of the project... [read more]
-
-
Howl's Moving Castle (Japan Version - English Subtitles)
Baisho Chieko
| Kimura Takuya
| Miwa Akihiro
| Miyazaki Hayao
You would have expected the release of a new Miyazaki film to generate more attention than Howl's Moving Castle did when it came to western shores. Sure, the man may not yet be a household name round these parts but his previous feature did win an Oscar and you'd think that fact alone would have gotten Howl's a much wider and better publicized release than what it actually received. But when the film released it was without the unanimous acclaim that welcomed Spirited Away. Yes, the critics agreed that the animation was stunning - which it absolutely is, the level of detail and richness of the design is absolutely incredible - but many felt that the script was lacking, that it felt a little... [read more]
-
-
Howl's Moving Castle Special Edition (Japan Version - English Subtitles)
Baisho Chieko
| Kimura Takuya
| Miwa Akihiro
| Miyazaki Hayao
Howl's Moving Castle is as charming, as astonishingly detailed, as wonderful and magical as anything Miyazaki has ever offered to date. More fairytale than mythology, the story is based on the work of Diana Wynne Jones, a British fantasy novelist of long and popular standing. Sophie Hatter has a quiet and perfectly satisfying life taking after her name as a hat-maker, that is until the day she meets both a handsome magician and the wicked Witch of the Waste in the same day and her life is turned around - or rather, fast-forwarded, from an 18-year-old girl into a 90-year-old woman's body. And the curse, in the best tradition of fairy tales of old, means that she can tell no one who she really... [read more]
-
-
McDull, Prince de la Bun
Animation
| Yuan Jian Tao (Director)
One is almost inclined to forgive McDull, Prince de la Bun if it had been anything other than pretty good. After all, the original was such a good film, and its epic telling of the life and times of one piglet named McDull would seem to make a sequel quite irrelevant. Not so, as Prince de la Bun proves to be a winner in many ways. While still retaining its whimsical and funny side, the sequel has also kept the realities of life, but presents it through the façade of animation. Somehow, things just seem a lot easier to swallow when animated. With all the cast and crew back for the second go 'round, it's easy to see why the film has such a strong continuity with the first. Elementary school... [read more]
-
-
Princess Mononoke (DVD) (Hong Kong Version)
Miyazaki Hayao (Producer)
Princess Mononokeis not a film to watch. It is a film to feel. It is one of those rare films that is as much an experience as it is entertainment and it appeals on a level that goes deeper than thought or analysis, to a place inhabited by the most enduring of truths. This is the same place that all truly good stories come from, the place where mythologies take on the aspect of reality - the details may change but the spirit remains the same and its archetypal elements appeal at a depth that transcend intellect and defy cultural boundaries. It's a place where Mononoke's creator, Hayao Miyazaki, obviously feels at home. Like his young hero Ashitaka, Miyazaki easily bridges seemingly diametric... [read more]
-
-
My Neighbor Totoro (DVD) (English Subtitled) (Hong Kong Version)
Miyazaki Hayao (Director)
My Neighbor Totoro is a deceptively simple tale. It is the story of a father and his two young daughters moving to the country and adventures the two girls, Mei and Satsuki, have with the forest spirits they find there. This simplicity makes My Neighbor Totoro one of the purest examples of Myazaki and Studio Ghibli's themes and preoccupations. There is the pleasure in discovery of the delights of rural life (Kiki's Delivery Service) and the interaction between humans and spirits (Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away). As with all Ghibli creations, the characters of Mei and Satsuki are beautifully realised. Both have distinct character traits that reflect both their age and personalities. Their... [read more]
-
-
Kiki's Delivery Service (Hong Kong Version)
Miyazaki Hayao (Producer)
You know, reviewing all these Studio Ghibli films is beginning to take its toll. My thesaurus is shredded trying to find new superlatives and let's face it, if I say, perfectly realised characters one more time the Reviewers Guild is going take away my keyboard, fez and ceremonial dagger. In Kiki's Delivery Service Myazaki explores a character's need to define themself and establish their independence in the world. His heroine Kiki, bursting with verve and enthusiasm, moves to a large city where, for the first time she encounters the problems of loneliness and future uncertainty. Kiki's problems of that of a teenager moving toward adulthood. Her witchy wardrobe, (which, although black,... [read more]
-
-
Porco-Rosso
Miyazaki Hayao (Producer)
Yes, I know what you're thinking, is this yet another review that waxes lyrical about the genius of Hayao Miyazaki? Well, guess what, you win a million dollars! Well, you would if I had the money in the first place! But how could I not? Porco Rosso is one of my favourite Miyazaki films and worth every damn cent you didn't get from me. A spirited film that surprises and fills you with a sense of elation each time you watch it. Yes, pigs can fly and in fact, according to Porco "A pig who doesn't fly is just an ordinary pig". See, the pig is cool. Where do I begin? Porco is a grumpy, self-loathing pilot pig who wants little to do with the human race. He lives in a secluded lagoon and hunts sea... [read more]
-
-
My Life as McDull (Movie Version)
Lee Chun Wai
| Jan Lamb
| Yuan Jian Tao (Director)
| McDull (Actor)
Animation production is never a popular business in Hong Kong. Back in the 1980s, three Old Master Q were produced, which did not gain too much attention from the public. In the mid 1990s, Tsui Hark produced an animated feature A Chinese Ghost Story. It was pretty well received, but still unable to stimulate the growth of the animation industry drastically. In 2001, Brian Tse animated his highly successful comic series The Story of McMug and released My Life as McDull. This film does not have a very strong narrative structure. As the title suggests, it is mainly about the life of the protagonist, a little piggie called McDull. The film is like a rough autobiography of this character. It... [read more]
-
-
Spirited Away (DVD) (English/ Japanese/Traditional Chinese Subtitled) (Hong Kong Version)
Miyazaki Hayao (Producer)
Can I just say I recently had the fortune to see this film for the fourth time, most recently in the new English dub by Disney, which it looks like they like they will be promoting much more than Princess Mononoke. And yes this is good thing. Everything you may have heard about this movie is true (unless of course what you've heard that this movie is terrible and only deserves to be archived in the deepest darkest pits of hell along such greats as Tor the Fighting Eagle - in that case, I revoke my previous statement). It is a fine movie and well worth watching. I wasn't that surprised that the most anticipated event for the Japanime 02 survey we did recently was Spirited Away (though... [read more]
-
Bookmark & Share