What a simple formula for those of us who are getting more and more impulsive amid the chaos and stimulus bombardment of modern city life. Today, I think what we need to keep this chain of command intact as it is formulated above is to recognize our feelings and watch them change from state to state. The animation titled Turning Red (2022), which is recently released, offers this opportunity for adults within the limits of an animation film.

The film is about thirteen-year-old protagonist Mei Lee’s transition from childhood to adolescence and her realization of changing emotions in the process. Mei Lee, who has an authoritarian mother and a relatively supportive father, lives in the oldest temple in Toronto.  She helps her family with the service of the temple in her leisure time after school. Besides that, we see Mei as a successful student who tries her best not to disappoint her mother’s expectations; although it means being away from her friends whom she loves to hang out with very much.

The transition to puberty, which is the main subject of the movie, comes in sight when Mei Lee wakes up as a red panda after a night where she quarreled with her mother. Although she freaks out when she first sees her reflection in the mirror as a red panda, she realizes that she can return to her own body as she calms down. Our heroine, who wants to hide this situation, finds the solution in becoming “dull”. Along with the main theme of the film, we are invited to think about the necessity of preparing the children for the difficulties they will experience during the transition to adulthood.

When the nosey and over-controlling mother figure finds out about the panda, we also learn that this is a legacy Mei inherited from her grandmothers. It turns out that the red panda transformation was a gift that was given to the great-grandmother who begged the gods to protect her village in ancient times, and passed down from generation to generation. Later, it caused difficulties for women when their families moved to the city. Due to the danger and destruction caused by the uncontrollable emergence of the panda, this gift should have been excreted from the body with a panda liberation ritual performed during the Red Moon.

Although her family wants to keep Mei at home until the ritual time, Mei gains self-regulation skills thanks to the compassion and trust shown by her friends, to the point that they even collect ticket money for a concert with the help of Mei’s special ability.

In the scene where the mother, who learns about Mei and her friends’ crazes for concert tickets blames all the other children, we watch Mei’s relationship with her friends and family comparatively. Besides we observe the relationship between the “family” and the “friends” as a third dimension. Being able to observe the emotions of the side characters helps us mirror the relationships we have in our lives. On the other hand, the communication of Mei’s mother with her sisters and mother who came for the ritual invites us to think about the genetic transmission of behaviors.

When the red moon appears in the sky and the ritual begins, Mei, who meets her panda for the last time in company with  heartfelt songs sung by her family members, does not want to let it go. Because Mei refuses to give up on the red panda, the ritual fails/could not be completed. Thus we meet the pandas of other family members. In these scenes, besides the showdown between mother and daughter, we also get to see the solidarity between the family members along with the support among friends. While the movie ends with the acceptance of the red panda by Mei’s circle, we also understand that Mei, who did not give up on her panda, is the first grandchild who truly honors her grandmother, even though she seems to be breaking the tradition.

While the elders of the family imprison their red pandas, using the excuse that they are uncontrollable, Mei learns to control hers at a young age. This of course is about getting to know her emotions and learning to balance them instead of escaping from them. Although the film is criticized for being overly didactic, it opens a new window for the audience who watch the film with the intention of seeing themselves on the screen. During Mei’s transformation scenes, it is possible to find clues about what we can do when we experience emotional outbursts. In addition, I have to admit that this animation, which contains a little bit of nostalgia in terms of taking place in the 2000s, breaks from the general paradigm by including side characters wearing headscarves. Turning Red allows you to observe the differences between; being a slave to  the emotions, trying to dominate them or taking them into consideration. From the perspective of self-acceptance, it captures the audience while offering an enjoyable experience about being human.

The Kindergarten Teacher (2018) stands out as an exceptional film for today’s people who seem to have forgotten the answers to big questions like “What is poetry?” and “What is art?”. Instead of giving mighty answers to these questions, the film only mirrors what is happening, and reminds us of our lack of response. We can even say that it searches for the answers by reversing the two questions above: “What is not poetry?” and “what is not art?”

Although the roots of today’s type of artist can be traced back to the turning points in the history of philosophy; it has grown from and became visible under the influence of romanticism and modernism. This type of artist is influenced by the invention of the “subject” and a self-legitimized existence. First of all, let us approach to The Kindergarten Teacher in terms of pointing to this type of artist who leads to some sort of  “sick-mindedness.” The characteristics of  this “artist” gradually carry Lisa and Jimmy to such an end.

The artist is different—special— needs to be discovered: Lisa one day hears Jimmy wording a poem, walking back and forth in an unusual manner. Jimmy, whom she had seen as one of her ordinary students until then, turns into a “genius poet” in her eyes.

Questions: Does Jimmy’s poetry depend on Lisa’s discovery? What would change if no one noticed, not even Jimmy himself? Is a poem incapable of existing and reaching its addressee if it is not put a price?

The artist is fragile—needs to be protected: Lisa talks to Jimmy’s nanny, uncle, and father, respectively. She warns them about the perishable nature of Jimmy’s talent for poetry and tries to persuade them to be more attentive to him.

Questions:  How accurate is it to talk about vulnerability if Jimmy is able to voice poems in an environment that is not considered appropriate for poetry at all (from Lisa’s point of view, because his parents are separated and his nanny treats him like a baby). Can anyone talk about protecting the poet, when the poet is the one who is chosen and protected by “the language”?

Real-life annihilates art: Lisa believes that the talent she once had has vanished in the course of life. Her marriage, children, and her relationship with her husband are depicted in a way that they were responsible for it. Her biggest fear is that Jimmy also suffers from a similar fate.

Questions: How is it possible that life tries to annihilate art when it is encompassing, nurturing, and making everything possible? Why are the artists who sacrifice their private lives for their art idealized? Does it necessarily cause resentment if life changes in the course of time, instead of continuing in the way it is planned at the beginning?

Unprotected talent can get lost, and it is a fall: Lisa perceives her life and the life of those around her in a sort of decline. To get rid of this situation, she attends poetry classes and encourages her children to do activities such as reading books and taking photographs.

Questions: Why isn’t it possible to accept decline? As Wim Wenders’ angels taught us [1], isn’t “the fall” a must for a new story to begin?

Art can be revealed only in certain forms: Lisa insists on supporting Jimmy and making him continue his life as a poet. She wants to introduce him to the milieu. To the point that she kidnaps Jimmy so that she can transcribe his poems and publish them as a book.

Questions: Is Jimmy’s artistry limited to his poetry? Who is an artist when he is not dealing with the work that makes him an artist? If Jimmy no longer sings poems, would his talent fade away or would it survive in other forms?

It might be helpful to remember the following lines at this point:

Oh yes. Fulcrum had broken, but that wasn’t wrong. Eggs break. Horses break. Waves break. Of course he broke. How else could someone so all certain-centered let his perfect answers out into the world? Some things were just too true to stay. [2]

It is inevitable for the story to get into a dilemma when an artist has or is thought to have these features. When Lisa cannot get the support of Jimmy’s family and her friends, instead of accepting the situation, she finds the solution in kidnapping Jimmy. Right at this moment, our poet Jimmy, who “needs to be protected”, catches on to the situation and rescues himself from Lisa by locking her in the bathroom and calling the police. The storyline seems to go on without taking sides and without passing judgments on the subject. It neither criticizes the type of artist that is described in the film nor supports Lisa’s effort. We can say that today’s people, who do not know what to do before the art and artist, are embodied in Lisa. However, Jimmy’s unanswered words in the last scene where he was alone in the police car indicate that the film shares all this confusion too. His poem is left unheard in the police car when Lisa, the only person who can protect him and save his poems, is gone.

By handling the issue of being an “artist” through a child, the film approaches poetry and art only via the opportunities provided by “childhood”. However, an average person who is into poetry or spent some time with children might find its approach to childhood a little fictitious. It is incorrect to talk about the distinction between the “poesy” and “non-poesy” of a child at an age when the children already have a special relationship with language. The mundane sentences of any child carry a fresh ripeness that can be handled as poetry. Besides, the poems Jimmy sings here are far from the poesy of a child. Rather, they carry the characteristics of the verses written by adults and recited by a child as per the scenario. This situation, which could well be tolerated in another story, turns into an issue that knocks the bottom out of the scenario which is written about a child poet. On the other hand, an ear that can recognize poetry would listen not only to Jimmy but also to other children in that kindergarten with the same amazement. With such a listening, there will be no need to explore, protect, or save.

[1] Wim Wenders, Der Himmel über Berlin (1987).

[2] Patrick Rothfuss, The Slow Regard of Silent Things, DAW Books, 2014.

One may find themselves asking these questions while watching The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore (2011). The film tells us the story of a young man, Mr. Morris Lessmore, that starts on the porch of the hotel he stays in. He gets caught by a strong wind and then picked up by a tornado while he is spending time with his books, and his memoir. The tornado rips through the city. It sends Mr. Morris Lessmore, his books, and even the words on the memoir he has been writing flying everywhere. Everything tumbles down and loses its color. A comedy of errors! Then a young woman appears in the sky guided by a festive squadron of flying books. There flies a two-legged blue book smiling next to the woman, a book that can talk with the illustrations inside. It flies down towards our protagonist and asks him to follow.  As Mr. Morris Lessmore starts following the blue book, the lost colors on the path he is following begin to come back. The path leads to a special library and Mr. Morris Lessmore starts to spend his days caring for the books there. When gray men and women visit the library, he offers them the books he “healed”. As people meet with the books, the colors return to their lives. The reason the library is special is that the books inside can walk, eat, sleep, and basically act like normal human beings. A magical atmosphere, don’t you think?

We can come to these conclusions after the summary: Books color one’s life, books are the best friends, you will age but you will not get ‘old’ as long as you are with books. Every movie has hidden plot points. This one has too. If we wanted to dig deep to find them, what would we find? First, the movie is silent. The colors and the images do the talking. What does this say to the audience? There is a journey in the film. Mr. Morris Lessmore’s life changes in a blink of an eye. He thinks he has lost his way but as soon as he reaches the end of the path, he realizes this is his real purpose in life. He understands that this is his way. The movie is about a new way of life that has come after a wrecking ball of change. The journey starts with chaos and ends with “logos”.

Life is flux, says Heraclitus. The universe has no beginning or end and it is in a state of constant flux. Since living in a dynamic universe like this requires change, everything inside continuously changes. It happens in a certain extent and regularity. Logos means plan, reason, wisdom, order, and law. It allows this change to be stable. It pieces everything together. Change and the new situations it brings have a dominant side where they can steer the course of all things. This side of them is almost eternal and supersensuous. Logos makes this possible. For Mr. Morris Lessmore, logos is the blue book that guides him, because it explains to him how things work in this special library like an administrator. It shows the protagonist what it feels or what he needs to do in different situations with the pictures on its pages, showing a face with open eyes and raised eyebrows for a surprising event or showing a smiling face with blushing cheeks for happy occasions. That is how it shows Mr. Morris Lessmore the books that need to be moved or in a manner, to be operated on. As he performs restorative surgery on the books, their physical conditions improve while their essence stays the same. We can see some changes in the books that visit Mr. Morris Lessmore’s surgery room, as he performs restorative surgery on their hardback spines, stitches, pages, and other things that need taking care of. And in the meantime, what happens to our protagonist? At the beginning of the journey, he moves from one place to another. As he watches the colors of the world fade, some changes happen in the way he perceives the emotional world. Even though he has many books around him same as before, his relationship with the books changes. He used to be someone who was only learning from books, and now, he becomes someone who also helps them. The intellectual effort he has been making turns into a physical one. The chaos brought by the tornado calms down. It is as if the chaos has brought “logos”. His relationship with the books levels up. This likely moves the protagonist’s thoughts and emotions to another dimension, changing their form.

As for change, it is important to keep in mind that it is inevitable. Yet, to change things around you, you should change yourself first. If you try to do it vice versa, you will likely end up in the same place. Your preferences and behaviors certainly stay the same, but your approach to everything should change up one side and down the other. Mr. Morris Lessmore experiences exactly this in the film. He prefers to fit into this new environment of living books and even dance around with them rather than sitting around and waiting for this new environment to match with him. It is not enough for him to do nothing but read books and write notes in a memoir anymore. Yes, he still spends time reading books but there are some visible changes in his behavior.

It is not so subtle that this change requires a new order, a new “harmony”. As our protagonist walks down the aisle of the special library, he sees some pictures of men and women hanging on the wall. One of the pictures catches his eye. It is a picture of the woman he has seen earlier with the festive squadron of flying books. The place also wishes for order. At this moment, the audience feels that these people are some librarians, the ones who look after this place. Without them, the books would have a hard time deciding which one of them would be the leader, or what they should do and how they should do it. We can make a whole list out of problems that may occur in this kind of situation. Long story short, this place wishes to calm the chaos within and it invites another life to the system. This new life is the one to calm the chaos and maintain the routine. It seems like ‘logos’ is something everyone wants.

At the beginning of the film, we see that the protagonist sits on his porch with a pile of books. Then a tornado picks him up and throws him in another pile of books. As he begins to rewrite his memoir in this new world, the words on the memoir that once flew away come back. This time, he does not only write about himself but about the incredible structure of the world around him. Mr. Morris Lessmore scribbles down the sentence “I knew my eye beheld true magic and majesty.” on the memoir. In other words, he says, “I know that my eyes can see the real magic and glory” because he lives with books that can walk, fly, eat cereal, play piano, and dance around. He witnesses their ability to give people the colors they lost. He does not tell them that their true purpose in life is to age on dirty shelves. On the contrary, he supports them, and he keeps up with their special world. He takes this special library as it is and knows that it has a magical place in the emotional world. He can think of new words, sentences and theses with the help of physical and intellectual actions that taking care of books required.

“If life is enjoyed, does it have to make sense?” asks Mr. Morris Lessmore in his memoir. “If one enjoys life, must his/her life have a meaning?” This question is similar to this one: While change is inevitable, does it have to be rational? Visible changes can be understood. One can guess the road ahead of them. Each place and each era has a specific way of changing and finding peace within. Yet, sometimes unaccountable events may occur because abstract things can happen in life. Naturally, different perspectives may arise and different possibilities may increase.

We watched Silenced Tree on 21st of July as part of the Istanbul Film Festival in 2020. It is Faysal Soysal’s second feature-length movie after Crossroads, the movie he made in 2013 about a set of important issues he was concerned with. It is a successful movie in terms of cinematography and acting. Although it may seem like it is about femicide at first, it is actually a multi-layered film with a potential to do further readings about. The movie gives us, the audience, clues about our main character Hayati who is a literature teacher. It does this by reminding the names and the contexts of the books which we see in the very first scenes of the film. Throughout the film, we often see the characters mention the works of great writers, analyzing the everyday human soul, showing that it is not that easy to analyze any situation, encouraging the reader to question more, succeeding in making the reader bond with the book, and leaving the door of hope halfway open, while discussing the pain.

Character choices and the names that were given to them are products of subtle work. These substantial choices stand out for their elements that strengthen the narrative and feed the integrity. The director also deals with some secondary topics in the film, such as the situation of our youth, art, artwork, and some views on the real artist.

The film shows different elements that affect people in various ways. The question “What would people say?” is another important issue that the director emphasizes in this context from time to time. The scenes where several men are having a conversation in a coffeehouse give us important clues about the social situations. In these scenes, we feel that encouragement has an important place in society as a constructive element. Those who talk in the coffeehouse come to our homes every day, every night. What we hear and what we see manipulatively affect our behavior, whether we are aware of it or not.

The film’s strong emphasis on the human soul and self can be seen in the scenes with a father figure involved. For example, the tree metaphor represents Hayati’s father whom he wants to lean back on. A father should be someone who is deeply rooted, strong, and big like a tree that you can lean back on. Thus, he would show kindness and give confidence to his children. The role of the father is the most important thing in the construction of the personality; it especially affects confidence. The lack of it, like any other, turns into a cage, a shackle of a lifetime, whether the person is aware of it or not. While you can stop poverty by food, lacking anchors in the depth of the soul. For what the person lacks is one of the basic needs of a “human”. It is hard to retrieve that anchor and get rid of it without dying from the bends.

What Hayati writes in the fisherman’s hut rejects fatalism by making the audience feel the importance of being strong and staying strong as a civilization beyond individuals and societies; longevity would come to those who deserve it. And he does this using literary language. As fatalism is a weakness that comes from laziness, the film criticizes us for laying things at fate’s door in this way.

Hayati’s dream lights the touch paper and carries us to the final. The final comes with a decision, a decision to free himself from his father, whose fate he embraced as his own. We see Hayati and his father in a surreal scene. Then the director surprises us with a plot twist as he has done several times throughout the film.

As we approach the finale, we watch some important and touching scenes where Hayati, Ahmet and Serap talk. The film’s stunning finale speech overshadows the scene, even the characters, and throws us a curve.

Although we think that the main idea of the film is femicide at first, we learn that it is actually different. The main idea of the film is the source of violence and the problem of evil that we face everywhere and every time. The director manages to deal with these rough and complicated issues in a poetic way. His view on the subjects is original and deep. The film puts many question marks in the minds of the audience, possibly leading to even more question marks. It succeeds in making the audience feel the tension with the cinematic elements like the pace, light, sound, music, and characters. The director holds a mirror to the inside of the humans, rather than the outside. He tries to find the solution by looking at the reasons, rather than the conclusions. He reveals “what should have happened” in the mirror of “what happened.”

The director expands our perspective and allows us to explore everything in a deeper sense. Nothing is as bad or as good as it seems. In fact, nothing is as it seems. The film makes us track down many toxic relationships hidden behind that one toxic relationship. The audience struggles to make a familiar decision throughout the film, “Which one is the guilty one: the man, the woman, or both?” But the director shouts out: “It is you. It is me. It is all of us. You cannot step aside.”

Yes, everyone is guilty. Parents, teachers, lawyers, and politicians… Everyone, all of us! We are paying a price. It finds us and disturbs us no matter what we do or do not do, because “You do the crime, you do the time.” We have chosen to not accept it in our hearts, rather than saying or doing something to change it. And this is the weakest of faith. Because we have forgotten the truth. We have forgotten that even not building a good, true, direct, and beautiful personality is cruel to self. We have forgotten that the antonym of the word “justice” is “cruelty”. If so, we are the unknown subjects of every crime and every oppression. We have placed the voice that tells us this, the truth, aside. We have put ourselves in the center. We are the guilty ones. We are irresponsible. We do not fight to the best of our ability. We only watch everything on our couches with a remote in our hands. That is why we are guilty.

Where does this violence come from? The violence we witness and escape from. Do we realize that we feed that violence in different ways? However, there are two indispensable and simultaneous ways required to get rid of evil, whether considered in an individual or social context; protecting ourselves from evil, preventing it, being kind, and spreading kindness in society.

If so, we are all murderers. We are murderers of nature, animals, babies, and people. We are the murderers, with full stomachs, of those who starved.

We are paying the price. We are paying for our insensitivity, forgetfulness, and our ugly escapes.

What we “watch” on the news is a cry for help against our silence, overflowing pus caused by our greed, stones we trip over because we try to run from reality, and fire burning our skin for we have never taken the responsibility.

It is easy for those, who are lawyers of themselves and judges of others, to hand down a decision. The director relieves us of this easy judgment and touches our consciences with his bare hands.

Human beings always look around to find someone to pass the buck, sometimes this even leads to God and they blame him. But finally, with this film, one looks at the mirror on such an occasion.

In my opinion, the film makes it to the list of successful films. I congratulate the director wholeheartedly, who succeeds in making the audience understand “Whoever leads to good, he is like the one who does it.” I hope as we watch him improve himself in this industry, we can watch and talk about many works of his in the future.

“The Poet, like this monarch of the clouds,

Despising archers, rides the storm elate.

But, stranded on the earth to jeering crowds,

The great wings of the giant baulk his gait.”  

 – Charles Baudelaire

“You know, for years I thought I couldn’t fly because of my father’s fate of suicide. I’ve never once tried loving these naturally heavy, ugly wings of mine and flying like that. Now, it is a little different.”

In the documentary, The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness (2013), which follows the production phase of the film, it is revealed that Miyazaki, who was accused of both war bias and treason from different parties, set the film as anti-war.[2] Miyazaki is also aware that the planes designed by Horikoshi had fatal consequences. However, what is constantly emphasized in the film is the effort and determination of an engineer to always produce the best.

The movie begins with Jirō Horikoshi’s childhood dreams of becoming an aircraft engineer. To realize this dream, Jirō studies engineering in Tokyo and takes a job at Mitsubishi’s aircraft factory after graduation. Together with his close friend Honjō, they work hard so that Japan can build an all-metal plane just like the Western states. Even though the planes they designed in this process fail, they do not give up their goal of making the best aircraft. On the one hand, the army and navy commission Jirō to produce the plane that will prevail in war, but Jirō Horikoshi’s dream is to make the best aircraft beyond militaristic goals, as Miyazaki highlights in the film.

Jirō is not alone in his dreams. He has been meeting with the famous Italian aircraft engineer Caproni in his dreams since he was a child. During his childhood, which coincides with World War I, Jirō listens to Caproni’s advice. Caproni says, “Listen, Japanese boy, planes should not be used as war vehicles and to earn money. Airplanes are beautiful dreams.” Caproni also shows the Italian-flagged planes passing over them, saying that most of them will not return, but the war will end soon. When the war is over, Caproni’s dream is to build a passenger plane. This scene with Caproni and Jirō, furthermore, reminds us of Japan’s efforts to catch up with the Western states in terms of modernization and technology, beginning from the 19th century. The constant voicing of Japan’s backwardness by Jirō’s close friend, Honjō, also draws attention in this respect.

In a scene where they eat together while in college, Honjō complains that Jirō always eats fish. “All the great powers are modernizing. Eat meat now and then. We’re more than ten years behind,” he says. What Honjō means here is the spread of meat consumption in Japan with the modernization period that started in 1868, and even a reference to Emperor Meiji’s consumption of meat as a symbol of Westernization and modernization. Although eating meat was forbidden for centuries before the Meiji Era, with the modernization movements, the demand for meat spread from aristocrats to the middle class. During this period, sayings, such as “If you cannot eat meat, you are not civilized” became popular. [3]

On the other hand, Jirō is immersed in studying the bones of the mackerel he has been eating and says that the American aircraft are shaped like a fishbone fold. He wonders if Americans also eat mackerel. Although Jirō eats fish every day and his friend encourages him to eat meat, he looks at the fishbone as if it is an important invention. And as it will be seen in the later scenes of the movie, this points out to Jirō’s goal of making the best aircraft with Japan’s technology, rather than copying the aircraft of other countries.

Upon graduation, Jirō begins designing an airplane wing for the Hayabusa (falcon) project at the Mitsubishi factory. Oxen pull the planes in the factory from the hangar to the runway. Honjō says again, “we are in a terrible backward position,” and then the plane in the test flight crashes down to the ground. After this failure, the Japanese army makes an agreement with another company, and Mitsubishi starts getting support from Junkers, a German company. In the 1930s the whole world is in economic depression and Jirō encounters hungry children on the street. When he tells Honjō this, his friend says “Hayabusa’s expense would feed a child’s household for a month. Why is this country so poor? Do you know how much money is paid to the Junkers? Enough to feed even cakes to all children in Japan,” voicing the redundancy of a fighter jet, when people are hungry.

Jirō and Honjō are sent to Germany to examine the aircraft at the Junkers factory. Honjō realizes that there are no oxen to pull the planes. While Jirō examines a plane inside the factory, German soldiers try to hinder him. One of the soldiers says that the Japanese copy everything, so they have been ordered to protect the German technology from them. When they leave the factory, Honjō says that Japan is 20 years behind. Jirō tells him that one day they will catch up with the Germans and surpass them, “just like the tortoise following Achilles.”

On his return from Germany, Jirō stays at a Japanese holiday resort. He meets a German named Castorp, who is staying in the same hotel, and they have a brief conversation. Castorp somehow knows that Jirō is an aircraft engineer, and he begins to talk about the ongoing World War II: “This is a good place to forget. You forget the war with China; you forget that you established the Manchukuo state; you forget that you left the League of Nations; the world becomes your enemy, and you forget it. Japan is going to blow up. Germany will blow up, too.” Castorp talks about what Japan did before and during the war, as well as the future of Japan. The matter of forgetting is something that Miyazaki associates with present-day Japan. In the documentary The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness, Miyazaki explains why he made such a movie and draws attention to the constitutional amendment that has been discussed in Japan in recent years; in other words, Japan’s trajectory towards becoming a militarist state again. Miyazaki says that he is now feeling the weight his parents experienced during their time:

We don’t know where we’re going. We could not even dream of fighting America. We entered the swamp of war with China. This happened when people didn’t pay attention. Ultimately, Japan went to war with the world. I don’t know how people felt at that time, but now I’m beginning to understand. We are going right there. There is no point in making movies anymore.[4]

While Miyazaki’s characters design aircraft for the army and navy, they also express the futility of war. Jirō says that the warplane he has designed will be heavy, but if the guns are removed, it will not be a problem. In a conversation with Honjō, it is mentioned that countries such as the USA, Russia and Britain will be fought with and that Japan will lose. Honjō, on the other hand, emphasizes that they are trying to make the best aircraft with Jirō, rather than aiming for success in the war. Eventually, the Zero designed by Jirō reaches the speed of 240 miles per hour, and its wings are inspired by mackerel bones. In other words, the Zero is Japanese technology, not a copy of other countries’ technologies. As much as Miyazaki admires the Zero aircraft, he only shows it at the end of the movie; they are shattered in pieces on the ground.

At the end of the movie, Jirō meets Caproni again in a dream. Together they salute a fleet of Zero planes and Caproni congratulates Jirō. Yet, Jirō tells him that things he did not want have happened and that even one plane has not returned. It is because the Zero fighter planes were used for suicide flights known as the “kamikaze.” Although Jirō made the best warplane of his era, he is aware of the devastating consequences of his invention. As can be seen from the interviews given by Miyazaki, the Zero plane is an admirable invention with its technological peak, even though it killed both the Japanese soldiers and many Americans.[5] On the other hand, Jirō Horikoshi got to design fighter jets not because he was a militarist, but because he moved with the wind of his time.[6]

Ultimately, films depicting historical events and people can represent the present as well as the past, intentionally or not.[7] It may not be convincing for everyone that Miyazaki narrates the design process of a deadly fighter jet with anti-war elements. However, considering Miyazaki’s war memories from his childhood and his concerns about the present, it can be argued that he is afraid of the militarist wind to rise again; and of the engineers trying to do their best to be carried away by this wind.

[1] McCurry, Justin. “Japanese Animator under Fire for Film Tribute to Warplane Designer.” The Guardian, August 22, 2013. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/23/hayao-miyazaki-film-wind-rises.

[2] Sunada, Mami. The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness. Documentary. Bun-Buku, Dwango, Ennet, 2013.

[3] Lee, Seejae. “Formation of Japanese-Western Fusion Cuisine in Modern Japan.” International Institute for Asian Studies, 2016. https://www.iias.asia/the-newsletter/article/formation-japanese-western-fusion-cuisine-modern-japan.

[4] Sunada, The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness.

[5] McCurry, “Japanese Animator under Fire for Film Tribute to Warplane Designer.”

[6] Sunada, The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness.

[7] Daliot-Bul, Michal. “What Will You Do If The Wind Rises?: Dialectical Cinema by Miyazaki Hayao.” Asian Studies Review 41, no. 4 (October 2, 2017): 575.

Bong Joon-Ho stated in his speech when he won the Oscar for Best Director with his film Parasite (2019) that his favorite saying in college was Martin Scorsese’s phrase “the most personal is the most creative.”[1] Bong also created the story of Parasite with the inspiration of an experience he had in college. With his friend’s guidance, he started to give English lessons to the son of a richer family than his own.[2] In the same period, when he found out that one of his friends had a peach allergy, he could not believe it. But then he saw his friend turning red and having an allergic reaction to it, even though he did not even touch it. Director Bong says that the experience was quite traumatic but it was also very cinematic, so he used the peach allergy in his film. [3]

Bong Joon-Ho’s personal experiences have attracted international audiences with the film Parasite. In other words, we witness “the personal becoming international”. Bong said he wanted to pack this film with very South Korean details [4]. We do not only watch the director’s personal experiences, but we watch the cultural and social details in question, as well. We also witness how the international issues of the country are dealt with as a subject in the film and how they can be a part of people’s everyday life. Cynthia Enloe points out that international politics is not just about diplomatic correspondences between countries, governments, or military units. When Enloe states that “the international is personal”, she means that the roles that individuals play in the relations that countries establish with one another should be considered. Although Enloe underlines that the role of women in international relations should not be ignored [5], we can interpret “the international is personal” as something else, when we think of the meaning of it within the film Parasite.

Kim Ki-Woo lives in a basement with his family. With his friend’s advice, he starts tutoring English for the daughter of the wealthy Park family. When he finds out the family is looking for an art teacher for their young son, he introduces his sister as someone else and her sister gets the job. Then, the sister who does “art therapy” under the name Jessica sets the chauffeur up and gets him fired. Her father becomes the new chauffeur of the family. The trio together manages to get the long-time housekeeper fired. The Park family hires Ki-Woo’s mother as the new housekeeper. Just like that, the Kim family partially settles in the house of a rich family.

Although his sister never went to a college, Ki-Woo introduces his sister to the rich family as someone who went to a good college in the USA. When he first brought her sister to the house, they go through a jingle they made about the fake background before ringing the bell: “Jessica, an only child, Illinois Chicago, classmate Kim-Jin-Mo, he’s your cousin.”

Later this becomes very popular with the name “Jessica Jingle”, so an audio file of this part was made available for free access via Parasite‘s official website. [6] Maybe the melody did the trick and attracted so much attention because the jingle itself does not have a certain meaning.

When you make a fast internet search, you can see that the melody belongs to a famous nursery rhyme in South Korea named ‘Dokdo is our land’. It is also stated that students often use this melody to memorize things. [7] Dokdo or Takeshima as in Japanese is the name of islands that mostly consist of cliffs. These islands are the cause of a territorial dispute between South Korea and Japan. In the current situation, the islands are administered by South Korea but Japan claims the islands. Both countries are trying to claim the islands with special brochures of their foreign ministries. [8]

The lyrics of ‘Dokdo is Our Land’ are like this: “Whoever says it belongs to them, Dokdo is our land. Hawaii is American land, Tsushima is Japanese land, but Dokdo is our land.” [9] It seems like the reason why the director chose a famous South Korean melody to use, is his desire to pack the film with Korean details. But what needs to be underlined is that a territorial dispute between two countries can become a nursery rhyme and its melody -apart from the lyrics- can be used by people in their daily lives.

Another part of Parasite that draws attention to the problems of South Korea is the scene where North Korea is mentioned a lot.  When the rich Park family goes camping, the Kims start to enjoy the house since the house is now empty. After a while, the former maid comes and says she has to get something from the house that she forgot earlier. This woman also does not know that the new employees are a family. So, everybody hides while Ki-Woo’s mother opens the door for the former maid and lets her in. The woman runs to the bunker, which is hidden behind a closet in the pantry, and gives food to her husband who hides there. Since the new maid saw her doing that, she asks for help saying that her husband escaped from the loan sharks and he has been hiding here ever since. She also mentions that the house owners do not know about this.

They are unaware of not only the man but also the bunker. According to her, the architect who built the house built this bunker -as many rich people did in that time- in case of any North Korean attack. But for some reason, he did not mention it to the family who bought the house, and the maid took advantage of it.

The former maid asks Kim-Woo’s mother to help her and her husband. Meanwhile, Kim-Woo, his father, and his sister find themselves in the bunker listening to this conversation. Realizing that these people are a family, the woman immediately takes a video of them and says if they do not help her, she will send it to Parks. She even likens the send button to North Korea’s missile launch button. Then, she does an impression of a North Korean news presenter who presents the missile launch news and praises the North Korean leader nonstop. Director Bong was asked about this scene when he won Palme D’or, he said it was more of a joke and less of pointed criticism. [10] But in another interview, he addressed the problem between the two countries while talking about the collective anxiety of South Koreans. He said war and separation of families affected the society for years and even his mother’s sister stayed in the North. [11]

On the other hand, while rich people have bunkers in their houses, the Kim family house was a bunker on its own. In the 1970s, when North Korean agents were infiltrating to South and carrying out terrorist attacks, the South Korean government updated its building codes, requiring all newly built low-rise apartment buildings to have basements to serve as bunkers in case of a national emergency. It was illegal to rent these basements at first. But during the housing crisis in the 1980s, with space running short in the capital, the government was compelled to legalize these underground spaces to live in [12]. Although the Park family does not know about the bunker in their home, we can understand that the North Korea situation affects everyone’s life no matter their financial situation.

We can also focus on the instructions that the rich mother gave to the maid about the table arrangement in the garden for her son’s birthday. She wants to arrange the guest tables in the form of a crane wing. She tells everything she wants to the maid in detail. She mentions the battleship formation that was used by Admiral Yi during the Battle of Hansan Island. She shows the tent in the garden and asks her to picture it as a Japanese warship. She says the tables should be placed in a semicircular crane wing order around the tent.

The admiral in question is Admiral Yi Sunshin. He fought against the Japanese forces that attacked Korea in 1592 and managed to repel the Japanese Navy with a war strategy called crane wing formation. However, the Japanese occupation continued until 1598 and the war continued for six more years. This rocky road led to hundreds of thousands of Koreans being killed and captured. The cultural heritage in Korea such as temples and palaces were destroyed [13]. Because of that, the Koreans who suffered terribly within that period developed feelings of hatred towards the Japanese [14]. Admiral Yi is still considered one of the prominent war heroes of Korea. There are many statues of him in various cities, including the capital, Seoul [15]. We can say that Admiral Yi and the ruins of war continue to be a part of South Koreans’ daily lives. It is so entrenched in everyday life, even a mother chooses to use this hero’s warfare tactics as an example for her child’s birthday party table settings, let it be fiction.

Bong Joon-Ho discusses the international relations of his country while telling a personal and national story in his film. He uses the melody of a children’s song about his country’s territorial issues for a simple jingle. He makes someone who got the upper hand in a conflict refer to North Korea and its ballistic missiles while threatening others. He uses a successful battle tactic of one of his country’s war heroes as an example to explain a little child’s birthday party table setting. Bong is not doing all these to teach us international relations. But we witness that “the international is personal” with Parasite. A movie that Bong wrote and directed started with his own personal and national experiences.

[1] Bong Joon Ho Wins Best Director, 2020, Access date July 24, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekMl5VHBH4I.

[2] Rose, Steve. “Parasite Director Bong Joon-Ho: ‘Korea Seems Glamorous, but the Young Are in Despair.’” The Guardian, January 31, 2020, Access Date July 24, 2020. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/jan/31/parasite-director-bong-joon-ho-korea-seems-glamorous-but-the-young-are-in-despair.

[3] Han, Karen. “Bong Joon-Ho on Weaving His Personal Memories into Parasite.” Polygon, October 14, 2019, Access Date August 15, 2020. https://www.polygon.com/2019/10/14/20906430/parasite-bong-joon-ho-interview-rock-peach-spoilers.

[4] Rose. “Parasite Director Bong Joon-Ho: ‘Korea Seems Glamorous, but the Young Are in Despair.’”

[5] Enloe, Cynthia. Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics. University of California Press, 2014, p. 350-1.

[6] “Parasite | NEON”. Access Date June 30, 2020. https://www.parasite-movie.com/jessica/.

[7] The Korea Herald. “Doorbell Song from ‘Parasite’ Hits Internet”, November 18, 2019, Access Date June 30, 2020. http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20191118000515.

[8] Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Republic of Korea. “MOFA Dokdo.”, Access Date November 13, 2016. http://dokdo.mofa.go.kr/eng/pds/pdf.jsp. ; Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. “10 Points To Understand the Takeshima Dispute.”, Access Date November 13, 2016. http://www.mofa.go.jp/files/000092147.pdf.

[9] The Original Song of Jessica Jingle “Dokdo is our land” (with English CC). MBC World, 2019, Access Date June 30, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgtYinVy44Q.

[10] Sharf, Zack. “Bong Joon-Ho Reacts to Historic Palme D’or Win, Denies ‘Parasite’ Mocks North Korea.” IndieWire (blog), May 25, 2019, Access Date June 29, 2020. https://www.indiewire.com/2019/05/bong-joon-ho-reacts-palme-dor-win-denies-parasite-mocks-north-korea-1202144877/.

[11] Rose, “Parasite Director Bong Joon-Ho: ‘Korea Seems Glamorous, but the Young Are in Despair.’”

[12] “The Real People Living in a ‘Parasite’ Basement.” BBC News, February 10, 2020, Access Date August 15, 2020. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-51321661.

[13] Kim, Djun Kil. The History of Korea. Santa Barbara, California: Greenwood, 2005, p. 80-3.

[14] Beasley, William G. The Japanese Experience: A Short History of Japan. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1999, p. 144.

[15] “Statue of Yi Sunsin – Sejongro Seoul.” In Wikipedia, December 14, 2006, Access Date August 17, 2020. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Statue_of_Yi_Sunsin_-_Sejongro_Seoul.JPG.

In the documentary that was produced by gathering the archives of İlhan Mimaroğlu, the first thing that stands out is the political aspect. When describing his works at Columbia University about electronic music, Mimaroğlu prefers the word “suicide”. What makes him use these words is the marginality of making electronic music in a period when it can be considered as avant-garde, besides being political. The first question I want to ask is what kind of politics we are talking about here. When it comes to political activism, we do not come across an understanding that goes beyond a nostalgic longing for the street movements half a century ago. Although the film has the potential to bring a fresh approach to political activism through the aesthetics of Mimaroğlu’s music, unfortunately, it fails to get off this prosaic understanding of politics. Almost melancholically, the documentary again confines a couple of footage of the street protests in rote fashion.

Another conspicuous characteristic of the film is its emphasis on the “unsung hero” type. We hear this from Mimaroğlu himself and the other interviewees that are speaking in the film. According to them, his voice was not only unheard in terms of ideology but also in the music industry. For example, we learn that his recording company was on the verge of bankruptcy because there was no interest in avant-garde music among the people.

On the other hand, the question is if Mimaroğlu really wanted to be understood, or wanted his music to become popular. Considering the role of advertisements in the music industry, we cannot help but ask if it is possible to take an ideological stand against the tips and tricks of capitalism, yet being popular.

Perhaps we should return to that big question again: Can technique be independent of ideology? Is it possible to refrain oneself from the very nature of the music industry, i.e. making your voice heard by many, and at the same time being avant-garde? Mimaroğlu, who has positioned himself in a distinctive place from the very beginning, seems to be aware of this dilemma by calling his work “suicide” from the beginning.

Even though we think that İlhan Mimaroğlu is in the center of the film, there is another story that surpasses his: The story of his wife, Güngör Mimaroğlu. For example, we do not find any information about İlhan Mimaroğlu’s childhood or family, even that he was the son of a well-known late-Ottoman architect Mimar Kemaleddin. On the other hand, we learn about Mrs. Mimaroğlu’s poliomyelitis, the story of her marriage and divorce before meeting İlhan Mimaroğlu, and her emotional adventure after Mimaroğlu’s death. Even when they moved to America after getting married, the dominant story is of Güngör Mimaroğlu’s. Leaving her child from the past marriage, she describes how quickly she felt like a “New Yorker” and joined the street movements as if she was a part of the culture. Going adrift in the flood of people, she claims to find her identity. Perhaps this is one of the hallmarks of American culture. You cast adrift in the crowd and congratulations: You have already been a part of it. If you can’t find your identity here, there surely is one for you.

Besides the story of these two people, what attracted my attention was a third one that we can consider as the other side of the coin: The story of Rüstem Batum. Mrs. Mimaroğlu tells how she left her little son behind when she left for America to become a free woman, to work, and to live an activist life. I already mentioned above, the story of this child is what caught my attention the most. Think in the terms of negative space aesthetics: If we are to find an interesting narrative, it must have been engraved right in here. The director does not leave this question suspended, though. The last 20 minutes of the film, which I consider the documentary owes its success to, is where the director passes the microphone to that child. Edited almost in the form of a dialogue, we listen to the problems of Rüstem Batum, “the child left behind”, and Güngör Mimaroğlu, “the abandoning mother”. If we are to seek the director’s signature anywhere in this film, I think it was in this part.

The film at hand does not follow the classical doctrines of a documentary, such as showing the faces of the interviewees but using only their voices. For a documentary in which the main subject is sound and music, I think the director Kökçeoğlu’s stylistic choice is quite appropriate and aesthetic in this respect. However, the footages that are used in the film are mostly captured by İlhan Mimaroğlu himself. This allows us to see the world through his eyes. However, this technical choice of the director leaves us with another question: Since both the footage and the sound used in the film are recorded by Mimaroğlu, what was the role of the director, other than simply arranging them? What makes this film Kökçeoğlu’s, if any other director could have done the same? My answer to this question is that the director’s stylistic preference on establishing the whole narrative on the sound layer, and letting the voices speak, not the faces.

Mimaroğlu has been the subject of many critical discussions both in terms of technique and content so far, and it seems to continue to be for a little longer. If İlhan Mimaroğlu and his music have been understood or not is another question that still needs to be focused on. In this review, my aim was not to answer these questions but underline some of them, and add a couple of new ones.

The main character of the film, Mija is a woman who remembers a memory after fifty years of being away from literature and poetry: When she was a child, her teacher said that she would be a good poet one day. When she sees an announcement of a poetry course in her sixties, she is walking on her way back from the hospital where the doctor predicts a certain disease about her memory. This is also when she encounters a woman whose daughter was dead; the one that has been assaulted, as Mija will learn later. The theme “poetry” follows a path along with the tension of this crime from the very start. However, old Mija always keeps herself calm no matter how stressful the situation makes her feel. Many of the critics argue that the film owes its success to its main actress and her talent in giving this calm expression along with the tension; especially considering that she acted again in a movie after 15 years of retirement. As Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan argues, “If there had been any justice at Cannes, Poetry‘s star, the acclaimed Yun Jung-hee, would have won best actress”.

Mija’s poetry course teacher insistently tells that writing a poem is about the chase for beauty in the world. Following this advice, Mija seeks the beauty in the world around her. However, it turns out that the beauty she is searching for steps away from her as the situation gets worse. She not only realizes that her grandson committed a blood curdling crime, but also the families of the other delinquent children are planning to cover up the issue by paying a generous amount of money to the family of the victimized girl. Meanwhile, the old man with hemiplegia that Mija serves as a nurse tries to harass her. She first attempts to quit her job; however, the amount of money that she has to pay to save his grandson’s future from being ruined forces her to obey the old man’s wishes. Later in the film, we can slightly sense that Mija associates herself with the victimized girl Agnes. This association becomes obvious at the end of the film when the poem that Mija finally wrote was titled “The song of Agnes”.

The situation that led Mija to write a poem turns out to be quite the contrast to what she learned in the poetry course. Being frustrated by the attempts to find the beauty of life, she writes her poem witnessing the disgrace of her grandson and sharing the destiny of the victimized girl.

The main pattern in the film is the contrast. Although it is named “poetry” which sounds elegant both in English and Korean (“shi”), it starts with a scene in which a corpse body is seen floating on the river on a calm and beautiful day. As Turan also draws attention to this contrast and the style the scene is filmed, “superimposed on a close-up of the body is the film’s title, ‘Poetry’, elegantly written in English and Korean, and it is this quietly unnerving contrast between the parallel tracks of beauty and death that is at the heart of the proceedings”. The calm yet unnerving style in the narration of the film does not refrain to touch on the serious issues such as juvenile delinquency, hardships of being a working woman, and the process of creating a piece of art.

Our Grandma can Pick up After the Artificial Intelligence

In Summer Wars (2009), we find ourselves in a not-too-distant future world. In this network society, all of the institutions are connected with the blockchain via a digital system called OZ. From banking transactions to the network operating systems, everything is performed through people’s profiles on this platform. OZ is also integrated with an entertainment system where people can play video games. In other words, in this cyber world which is a virtual copy of reality, the official institutions are intertwined with consumption and entertainment.

However, not only humans use OZ. Accounts managed by artificial intelligence are also a part of the system. The story unfolds when such an account breaches the firewall of the system by simply gaming during its testing phase. This problem in the virtual world suddenly turns the daily flow completely upside down. Managed by artificial intelligence, this account gets out of control and seizes all governmental systems, because it can grasp the hard-wired logic faster than humans. Since the navigation system, social services, international trade works, and many other systems are integrated with OZ, real-life becomes chaos only within minutes.

During the incident, we see a prestigious large family gathering for their grandmother’s birthday in a traditional Japanese house. It will be the ancient knowledge of the grandmother that will solve this nationwide problem. While the digital systems are falling apart, the grandmother of the family manages the crisis manually, giving instructions by making phone calls to important bureaucrats, depending on the reputation brought by her age and the prestige of the family.

However, the problem is not completely solved. Because the system is not fully fixed, a simple health problem of the grandmother falls through the cracks, and the birthday turns into a funeral with her death overnight. On the other hand, the account managed by AI gradually becomes a digital monster. The problem turns into a potential catastrophe when this digital beast takes over one of the state’s combat drones and locks onto a nuclear power plant. Against it, the teenagers of the family carry out a battle in the virtual arena, using the tactic that their ancestors used against the Tokugawa clan during the Siege of Ueda. On the other hand, the game that would bring victory is the digital version of the traditional Japanese card game Hanafuda. Family members prevail over artificial intelligence because they learned the ropes of this game from their grandmother. In this way, we see that tradition overcomes technology.

It is not a coincidence that the digital monster was coded by one of the adopted sons who left the family long ago. A great disaster can be prevented only if the family comes together as a whole. Summer Wars tacitly links the digital creature with the family and skillfully aligns regaining him back to the family with gaining a victory.

Tips for Raising Children and Potatoes

Wolf Children Ame and Yuki (2012) resembles a mythological story. The young woman named Hana marries a man that she met at university and later finds out that he was a werewolf. After her husband’s unexpected death, she cannot cope with the difficulties of living with two werewolf children in the city and moves to the countryside. Raising these cute werewolf babies and keeping them from the harms of the world become the main issues of the story.

The only memory left from the deceased father is the photo on his ID card. No matter where the family goes, this photo takes its place at the center of the house. This is also an item that Hana frequently talks to when she has a problem. Settled in her new house in the countryside, she wants her children to grow up in a comfortable environment without being marginalized. Hana later learns traditional farming methods from the elders and establishes a new life for the family; making the countrymen the real teachers of this university-graduate in her life struggles.

When the wolf children grow up, the elder one finds her place amongst other people, while the other one prefers his wolf identity over being a human. A fox becomes his master in the wildlife. We see that the mother prefers country life over the urban, as her son prefers wildlife over the modern education system. Hana is not able to do anything but to support his decision to live his life as a wolf, despite working hard to integrate him into the school.

Welcome to the World of Beasts: Darkness Cannot Enter

Among the anime films written and directed by Hosoda, The Boy and the Beast (2015), resembles the classic master-apprentice relationship, but reverses it. The wild beast Kumatetsu is a very self-confident swordsman and resembles a bear in appearance. He has never had an apprentice in the world of monsters because of his short-temper. By chance, a nine-year-old little human boy named Ren comes to the world of monsters and becomes his apprentice. The boy is at least as stubborn and grumpy as his master. The two make it difficult to decide the roles when they are bickering. The master-apprentice relationship is not the only reversed element: we find out that in the world of beasts, humans become the “other”. Being the only human in the world of the beasts, the boy is marginalized because, in the clean and orderly world of monsters, it is believed that human beings carry darkness in their hearts.

On the other hand, we find out that Ren took refuge in this world in the first place because of his broken family. After his mother’s death, it was his relatives who undertook his care. Ren is also angry at his father as he was not there for his son after the divorce. While redirecting his anger at his beast master, he realizes that they have a similar past. Just like the boy, his master grew up alone too, so he had nobody to guide him. While Kumatetsu is training him, he also learns how to be a good master. The two constantly exchange their teacher-student roles.

Returning to the human world after eight years, the boy finds his missing father by coincidence. This time, the director takes us to the concept of “family” via the boy and the beast duo, who begin to act like father-son. Neither the real father nor the master is a perfect guide. When Ren realizes this truth and accepts them with their shortcomings, the question of the film also changes: Perhaps the problem is with the perfect masters?

Raised by my Little Sister Coming from the Future

In Mirai from the Future (2018), we leap in time through the eyes of a child. We see little Kun’s coming up with his new identity as a big brother after the birth of his sister. The family bonds with both present and past ancestors are again very important in this film. The photos in the family album blend into the dreams of a pre-schooler. In these dreams, Kun travels to both his family’s past and his newborn sister’s future. In the film, the audience is invited to travel outside of the linear concept of time by twisting it back and forth.

Time is not the only concept that is rearranged in this film. The director also plays with classic family roles. The mother goes to work, and the father takes care of the children while working at his home office. In the film, the characters do not break their ties with tradition when adapting to modern conditions. Although they are living in different conditions from the past, they bear the traces of their ancestors. For example, Kun learns that his naughtiness is inherited from his mother. Even though the everyday activities and environment have changed, the characters have a strong connection with the past.

The Curtain

Mamoru Hosoda’s anime films usually follow a certain track, but the concepts often break from their classical meanings. The director rearranges them within the universe that he has established. Although Japanese culture and tradition have a role in the narration, Hosoda handles these concepts with a fresh touch. When we look at all of his films from a broader perspective, we detect these patterns. In his films, creatures become family members, family bonds tie them to tradition, and the images take us on a journey through time. Hosoda not only deconstructs classical flows, but he also reverses them. Sometimes we see a migration from the urban city-center to the countryside. Sometimes we travel back in time with a gadget or the dreams of a child. A boy can teach his master. Yet, the director’s interference with these flows is not destructive. The tradition is deliberately mixed into the day not in a fanatic but in an artistic way.