(The Borrower) Arrietty

johnny_ultimate

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJt2YumMMH8

Delighted to see this film advertised for a 29th of July release in the IFI's latest monthly brochure. The latest from Ghibli, and the first from director Hiromasa Yonebayash. It's based on the Borrowers, although personally get a distinctly Ghibli Howl meets Totoro vibe from the visuals. And best news of all is that Optimum are releasing it here, so it seems we'll be getting a subtitled version while the US have to wait another half year to get their dodgy Disney dubbed version

Delighted I don't have to fork out for the stupidly expensive Japanese DVD now :P

e_e

Terrence Malick and apichatpong weerasethakul retrospectives, The Tree of Life, Poetry and then the new gem from Studio Ghibli. Gonna be a hell of a month at the IFI.

Also found out that this was directed by the key animator from Serial Experiments Lain, which is my favorite anime series. So excited for this.

johnny_ultimate

Yeah, was disappointed glancing through the catalogue when all the new releases bar Tree of Life seemed fairly uninspiring. Then, bam, this and Poetry at the end and two awesome retrospectives (and having - shock! - never sat down and watched the Thin Red Line I'm particularly pumped for that). And the Weerasethakul should be awesome, must try and grab tickets for that tomorrow.

Back to this, TBH I didn't even know it existed til I saw all the merch for it over in Japan at the end of last year (although isn't as merch friendly as Ponyo was!). We can only hope it's great and not another Earthsea

Mickeroo

Here's the UK trailer for the new Studio Ghibli version of The Borrowers called Arrietty:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzBBIBSi2Vo

This is directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, first time director but has been an animator on a few of Miyazaki's movies. The trailer didn't blow me away or anything, but it doesn't look bad and I'm always willing to give Studio Ghibli the benefit of the doubt.

I think it's out on the 29th of July in the UK.

emo72

Mickeroo wrote: »

Here's the UK trailer for the new Studio Ghibli version of The Borrowers called Arrietty:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzBBIBSi2Vo

This is directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, first time director but has been an animator on a few of Miyazaki's movies. The trailer didn't blow me away or anything, but it doesn't look bad and I'm always willing to give Studio Ghibli the benefit of the doubt.

I think it's out on the 29th of July in the UK.

Starts today in cineworld. Probably going tonight. Bringing my 8 yo as a special treat.

johnny_ultimate

Well, just back from the disaster of a first screening in the IFI. Was loving the glorious subtitles, then around forty minutes in the film just cut out. After a bit of waiting around, we were informed that the film would continue - but with the dubbed version instead After a false start (they accidentally skipped a minute or two ahead of where it left off) we had to endure painful English voices for the second half - Saoirse Ronan was OK as the lead, but the others were distracting and, as always, a distant second to the original voice actors.

**** it, what about the film? It's fantastic. A week after Pixar attracted critical ire with their most ADD riddled film yet, it's great to see such a relaxed, gentle animated film. This is the closest in vibe to My Neighbour Totoro, and that's only a good thing - the central theme of real life intruding in on imagination is carried over particularly. Miyazaki has clearly had a hand in it - his favourite environmental themes are back with(out) a bang. It's breathtakingly illustrated, and the sense of scale is wonderful. Seeing a world from the eyes of a small inhabitant has never been this beautiful. A particularly nice touch is the glowing eyes of the rodent threats, and a very amusing incident with a crow sparkles. The story is basic but very affecting - just Arrietty discovering the 'human bean' world and forging a peculiar friendship with the ill but good-natured Sho. The threats to their world are very credible, but it's the world itself that engages from beginning to end. Plus, the music is simply incredible.

It may not be best of the best Ghibli, but it's damn close, and IMO one of their best recent efforts. Just make sure you see it in subs if you can!

TheIrishGrover

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Well, just back from the disaster of a first screening in the IFI. Was loving the glorious subtitles, then around forty minutes in the film just cut out. After a bit of waiting around, we were informed that the film would continue - but with the dubbed version instead After a false start (they accidentally skipped a minute or two ahead of where it left off) we had to endure painful English voices for the second half - Saoirse Ronan was OK as the lead, but the others were distracting and, as always, a distant second to the original voice actors.

**** it, what about the film? It's fantastic. A week after Pixar attracted critical ire with their most ADD riddled film yet, it's great to see such a relaxed, gentle animated film. This is the closest in vibe to My Neighbour Totoro, and that's only a good thing -

Ah DAMNIT!!! I'm going to this tomorrow in the IFI. Hopefully they will have sorted that problem. If I wanted to see it dubbed I would have seen it in a UCI in a few weeks. I've only seen Spirited Away and Nausicaa (in Helsinki subtitled into Finnish, French AND English. Made it kind of hard to see the flick ) so I was looking forward to it.
I only read your review up to the quoted point above Johnny. Still looking forward to it. After the couple of more serious films; Earthsea and Howl I wonder was this and Ponyo a deliberate move back to a lighter tone.

johnny_ultimate

I think Ghibli have always had a welcome blend of light and heavy material, and their variety - from schoolyard romances to epic battles of the Japanese Gods - is one of the studio's strongest points. Definitely echoes of many of their other films here, though - the very beginning is pretty much a direct lift from the opening of Spirited Away!

This is definitely a candidate for soundtrack of the year - perfectly suits the tone and atmosphere of the film. You won't miss Joe Hisashi at all!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6i0AgH_Y0Y

e_e

Yeah saw it in the IFI and it was in English as well. Still loved the film in spite of that though.

johnny_ultimate

That's a shame, hopefully they'll sort out the subbed version because the dubbed one is playing in a few cinemas around town.

Was reading the Guardian review today. The last paragraph stood out:

Arrietty is being shown in two versions in this country, a Japanese one, and one dubbed into English. Given the choice last week, I opted for the dubbed one, which I normally do with foreign animated pictures, because after all we're not concerned here with losing the actors' real voices the way one is with customary dubbing. Of course I noticed a superior smile on the faces of some purist colleagues as they descended to the basement viewing theatre (the appropriate place for those who sympathise with the borrowers) to hear the Japanese version.

I'm one of those superior grinners. A dub version is a necessity for kids, but animated or not the original language option should always be available if at all possible.

TheIrishGrover

Well, just back from it. The IFI abandoned the subtitled version and instead showed the dubbed version. As you said Johnny, Saoirse Ronan was fine as Arrietty and I liked Mark Strong as her father, Pod but the voice of Sho was terrible. The dialogue felt like it was pretty forced and, at times, didn't suit the film at all

esp when they are talking about The Borrows numbers dropping

I did really like the film overall apart from that though. The animation is top notch. Some of the best Ghibli has done. Ronan is very good in it. Looking up on IMDB for the voice casting I noticed that there was a US and a UK voice casting which I think is a good thing. If you can't have the original voices, given the nature and origins of the story, I think the UK cast would probably be better than the US casting (Ronan is in both the US and the UK casting)

If you like Ghibli then check this out. I'm interested to see what this new director will do next. I would like to see him try his own thing a little as it looked like Miyazaki could have directed this himself apart from a couple of scenes. But, as we know, Miyazaki can be a bit of a control freak so we'll see.

johnny_ultimate

I was kinda cursing that I was probably at the one IFI showing that wasn't going to be completely subbed, but looks like the possibility that it might end up being the only (partially) non-dubbed screening in Ireland Maybe Optimum will sort out a replacement copy - it is digital after all!

I agree that the translation was heavy-handed. Stood out particularly during the

environmental conversation between Sho and Arrietty and also their final goodbye

. They seemed to have been translated directly with no thought of whether it would actually sound any good in English! Sho's voice being distracting dreadful didn't help! Can't say I was too fond of Strong either, but I only caught the second half where he doesn't have quite as much dialogue and just mutters more.