lenora_rose (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
lenora_rose) wrote2006-01-24 03:57 pm
lenora_rose) wrote2006-01-24 03:57 pm
Entry tags:
General Notes, Miyazaki Rant, and a Hypothetical Daughter
I'm almost wondering why I'm updating. Well, aside from the fact that I have an hour of work-time to go and finished the last piece of work for the day, and I've done enough reading on the internet to make my eyes glaze.
Mom and I went to the Wonderful Wedding Show over the weekend - Sis was there, too, briefly, but she failed to meet up with us, and had to run home to deal with some unrelated stress. I found the whole thing a weird mixture of fun, useful, tiring, and just annoying. The crowd were a bit much - the best moment, I have to say, was while the fashion show was going on at the other end. Since the dresses are chosen, and even the men have done some initial tux-checking, we didn't go over, and this meant more room to wander, more chances to see things up close. But now I have a pretty good idea who or what I want to do with a lot of the details, like decor and cakes and photographers and -- oh, lordy, there's a lot to do. I did end up getting the invitations ordered, at least.
Writing wise, the weekend wasn't as prolific as I'd hoped. I'm still technically in the same scene as before, mostly because it is a full chapter long (And a slightly long chapter at that). I also went back and looked over some of my other rewrites, and... I've decided I really rather like the revamped version of a character originally drawn as a male version of the Evil Temptress and now, instead, fervently pursuing his own, rather different ends, and forgetting that sometimes the means do matter.
I've also, finally, got the Christmas Decorations taken down and mostly put away. Yes, almost a month after the fact. I'd been pecking at it bit by bit over the past week, but yesterday, I put Miyazaki's Laputa: Castle in the Sky* into the DVD player to entertain me as I pulled everything apart, wrapped every ribbon, etc.
I {heart} everything Miyazaki. Some more than others, nobody's work is flawless, but I can't see how it's possible not to love even the weaker ones. I understand, intellectually, that there are people who are otherwise sane who do not. But it doesn't process.
I put the movie on with dubbing because I wouldn't be able to watch continuously while packign ornaments and branches. I figured that however well I know the story, it would help to have even sub-standard dialogue. But I added the subtitles as well, so that if someone said something especially clunky, I could check the line against the much better translation.
Unfortunately, they said something especially clunky about once a minute. At best. Sub-standard? Add a few more subs. The whole opening sequence, previously close to dialogue-free, is filled with unnecessary "We're being attacked!" "Look! It's pirates!" crud. The Pirate Queen's sons were given so much added smart-aleck goofball dialogue (anywhere and everywhere they're on screen, or just stepped off, and you can't see that their mouths aren't moving). I could hardly bear to leave it on. And some of the dubbing came very close to contradicting the more accurate translation in the interests of telling a 'simpler' story. I kept finding myself thinking, this was done by a professional, high end company?
Then I remember the company in question is Disney. Sigh. Good voice acting, smooth performance -- polish on a turd.
When I heard they'd picked up Miyazaki's works for North American Distribution, I was apprehensive. When I also learned they'd agreed to show every frame of every movie without editing, I let myself hope that emant real Miyazaki. Alas! I still have a many generations gone copy of Nausicaa so jerky and staticky it's almost unwatchable. I probably won't watch it again, but I am grateful it existed, and I saw it first -- the subtitles on that one beat even Disney's subtitles, which, unlike their dubbing, is bearable. It does mean that, while the stunning animation is clearer than the best fansubs I saw, and I feel as if I'm finally looking at the real thing, I simultaneously feel as if I'm listening to the memory of a better film.
Funny enough, the thought I had while I was putting away Christmas decorations was that it would be deeply sad for me not to be able to show my (hypothetical) daughter half Miyazaki's oeuvre until she could read off the screen. Well, My Neighbour Totoro -- Fox did a shockingly good job on that dub, and so far, Disney hasn't tried. Kiki's Delivery Service and Spirited Away are bearable, if better in Subtitles. But Castle in the Sky? Porco Rosso? Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind? The Cat Returns? These are the movies I would want my hypothetical daughter raised on. (Some Disney, too, but emphasis on some: Sleeping Beauty, yes. Lilo and Stitch, sure. Cinderella? By God, not if I have a choice. That movie is excrement.) Bringing them to her attention later on, when the reading speed is up to it? Welll... it's better than not showing them, but it's not the same.
That hypothetical daughter is a funny character. I am, and always have been, slightly ambivalent about the whole idea of having children, some of it for what I feel are good reasons. And now there's the question that if I do go back and get my education degree, and I become a teacher, AND plan on having a child, how long will I actually be working at all before I end up on maternity leave, putting at least a temporary halt to that progress and that aspect of my own future? One year of work? Two?
Yet this hypothetical daughter pops up in my thinking fairly often. Occasionally, a son crops up instead, but I'm not ashamed to say the thinking is female-centric. (Thus guaranteeing that should I have a child, it will be a boy. Bah.) There are things I would want to show a growing girl. Pieces of the world. Attitudes I'd want to instill. I'd want to hear her say her own bizarre and fine ideas as her imagination opens up in its turn, and surprises me (an overheard conversation on a bus between a happy and deeply imaginative nine-year old, her mom, and her mom's friend still echoes as a dialogue the likes of which I'd love to be part of). And yes, some of it I could do for children I taught, though my thoughts on teaching seem to aim for the trickier territory of puberty and adolescence. It's not the same.
Huh. Considering where I started and where I ended, this just goes to prove I know how to stay on topic.
*The most problematic translation of a Miyazaki title, even more so than the full Sen and Chihiro Spirited Away, where tricky because Sen and Chihiro are the same person. "Laputa" is a Gulliver's Travels reference, but Disney quailed at including it in their title, because pronounced differently, it's a rude term in Spanish.
Mom and I went to the Wonderful Wedding Show over the weekend - Sis was there, too, briefly, but she failed to meet up with us, and had to run home to deal with some unrelated stress. I found the whole thing a weird mixture of fun, useful, tiring, and just annoying. The crowd were a bit much - the best moment, I have to say, was while the fashion show was going on at the other end. Since the dresses are chosen, and even the men have done some initial tux-checking, we didn't go over, and this meant more room to wander, more chances to see things up close. But now I have a pretty good idea who or what I want to do with a lot of the details, like decor and cakes and photographers and -- oh, lordy, there's a lot to do. I did end up getting the invitations ordered, at least.
Writing wise, the weekend wasn't as prolific as I'd hoped. I'm still technically in the same scene as before, mostly because it is a full chapter long (And a slightly long chapter at that). I also went back and looked over some of my other rewrites, and... I've decided I really rather like the revamped version of a character originally drawn as a male version of the Evil Temptress and now, instead, fervently pursuing his own, rather different ends, and forgetting that sometimes the means do matter.
I've also, finally, got the Christmas Decorations taken down and mostly put away. Yes, almost a month after the fact. I'd been pecking at it bit by bit over the past week, but yesterday, I put Miyazaki's Laputa: Castle in the Sky* into the DVD player to entertain me as I pulled everything apart, wrapped every ribbon, etc.
I {heart} everything Miyazaki. Some more than others, nobody's work is flawless, but I can't see how it's possible not to love even the weaker ones. I understand, intellectually, that there are people who are otherwise sane who do not. But it doesn't process.
I put the movie on with dubbing because I wouldn't be able to watch continuously while packign ornaments and branches. I figured that however well I know the story, it would help to have even sub-standard dialogue. But I added the subtitles as well, so that if someone said something especially clunky, I could check the line against the much better translation.
Unfortunately, they said something especially clunky about once a minute. At best. Sub-standard? Add a few more subs. The whole opening sequence, previously close to dialogue-free, is filled with unnecessary "We're being attacked!" "Look! It's pirates!" crud. The Pirate Queen's sons were given so much added smart-aleck goofball dialogue (anywhere and everywhere they're on screen, or just stepped off, and you can't see that their mouths aren't moving). I could hardly bear to leave it on. And some of the dubbing came very close to contradicting the more accurate translation in the interests of telling a 'simpler' story. I kept finding myself thinking, this was done by a professional, high end company?
Then I remember the company in question is Disney. Sigh. Good voice acting, smooth performance -- polish on a turd.
When I heard they'd picked up Miyazaki's works for North American Distribution, I was apprehensive. When I also learned they'd agreed to show every frame of every movie without editing, I let myself hope that emant real Miyazaki. Alas! I still have a many generations gone copy of Nausicaa so jerky and staticky it's almost unwatchable. I probably won't watch it again, but I am grateful it existed, and I saw it first -- the subtitles on that one beat even Disney's subtitles, which, unlike their dubbing, is bearable. It does mean that, while the stunning animation is clearer than the best fansubs I saw, and I feel as if I'm finally looking at the real thing, I simultaneously feel as if I'm listening to the memory of a better film.
Funny enough, the thought I had while I was putting away Christmas decorations was that it would be deeply sad for me not to be able to show my (hypothetical) daughter half Miyazaki's oeuvre until she could read off the screen. Well, My Neighbour Totoro -- Fox did a shockingly good job on that dub, and so far, Disney hasn't tried. Kiki's Delivery Service and Spirited Away are bearable, if better in Subtitles. But Castle in the Sky? Porco Rosso? Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind? The Cat Returns? These are the movies I would want my hypothetical daughter raised on. (Some Disney, too, but emphasis on some: Sleeping Beauty, yes. Lilo and Stitch, sure. Cinderella? By God, not if I have a choice. That movie is excrement.) Bringing them to her attention later on, when the reading speed is up to it? Welll... it's better than not showing them, but it's not the same.
That hypothetical daughter is a funny character. I am, and always have been, slightly ambivalent about the whole idea of having children, some of it for what I feel are good reasons. And now there's the question that if I do go back and get my education degree, and I become a teacher, AND plan on having a child, how long will I actually be working at all before I end up on maternity leave, putting at least a temporary halt to that progress and that aspect of my own future? One year of work? Two?
Yet this hypothetical daughter pops up in my thinking fairly often. Occasionally, a son crops up instead, but I'm not ashamed to say the thinking is female-centric. (Thus guaranteeing that should I have a child, it will be a boy. Bah.) There are things I would want to show a growing girl. Pieces of the world. Attitudes I'd want to instill. I'd want to hear her say her own bizarre and fine ideas as her imagination opens up in its turn, and surprises me (an overheard conversation on a bus between a happy and deeply imaginative nine-year old, her mom, and her mom's friend still echoes as a dialogue the likes of which I'd love to be part of). And yes, some of it I could do for children I taught, though my thoughts on teaching seem to aim for the trickier territory of puberty and adolescence. It's not the same.
Huh. Considering where I started and where I ended, this just goes to prove I know how to stay on topic.
*The most problematic translation of a Miyazaki title, even more so than the full Sen and Chihiro Spirited Away, where tricky because Sen and Chihiro are the same person. "Laputa" is a Gulliver's Travels reference, but Disney quailed at including it in their title, because pronounced differently, it's a rude term in Spanish.