Club Ghibli #12 - Arrietty the Borrower (2010)

[Diddy]

Onward we go, and it's back to the relatively recent end of the Ghibli canon, as dear sister @Queen of the Bay selects "Arrietty the Borrower", or "The Secret World of Arrietty", depending which region you're in.

We have another debutant director in the form of Hiromasa Yonebayashi, one of the new crop of Ghibli directors who directed one more Ghibli movie to date, which we haven't gotten to yet. The movies sees us yet again dip into British literature, a popular source of inspiration for Ghibli, this time Mary Norton's "The Borrowers".

We follow the adventures of borrower Arrietty, a teeny weeny girl living with her teeny weeny family in a full-sized family's home. It's full of danger for teeny people, but Arrietty can't resist getting to know sickly boy Sho, and we will answer the question on everyone's lips: will they fuck?



HOW THIS WORKS
In a semi book club format, the films will be announced, and over the course of about 2 weeks we can watch it and let everyone know what we thought. I'll nominate someone to pick the next film each time, but maybe let's try not to blow all the famous ones first!
I was thinking 2 weeks should be enough time for most people to fit in a viewing at some point, but it's not strict so please come back when you have a chance, no pressure!
@Christian @Gangsta Nancy Lam @jivafox @COB @Haiku @ZenGiraffe @Lucille @KindaCool @Eyes @Queen of the Bay @RaspberrySwirl @RJN @Beverley @big ron @ButterTart @Mats (let me know if you don't want to be tagged any more)

 

[Peekaboo]

I really liked this when I saw it but it's not one of those that I would rewatch today. Maybe I am too old for late-career Miyazaki... (He wrote this and did a lot of pre-production on it).

 

[Diddy]

I really liked this when I saw it but it's not one of those that I would rewatch today. Maybe I am too old for late-career Miyazaki... (He wrote this and did a lot of pre-production on it).

You haven’t rewatched any of them, you bugger

 

[Peekaboo]

Oh I rewatch the GOOD ONES like PORCO ROSSO in my head CONSTANTLY!

 

[Diddy]

I think this is one of the first movies that made me think I should watch subs rather than dubs. Having the Ghibli visuals with a very British dub felt so jarring.

 

[Diddy]

Btw wiki says this film was the first screen outing (albeit as a voice) of Tom Holland

 

[Eyes]

Oh I know the book of this from years ago. Had no idea there'd been a movie made of it.

though from what I've heard about Earthsea I'll tread carefully, at least this one hasn't been constantly brought up as complete crock which always pains me as a big UKLG fan

I often like a guideline of choosing 'subs vs dubs' based on whether the characters would be speaking Japanese or not (though not one I follow if the dubs are awful), Porco Rosso worked quite well in the dub that way, I'll try dub but if it's too bad I'll switch back

 

[Diddy]

I often like a guideline of choosing 'subs vs dubs' based on whether the characters would be speaking Japanese or not (though not one I follow if the dubs are awful), Porco Rosso worked quite well in the dub that way, I'll try dub but if it's too bad I'll switch back

That’s a good idea - actually this film was a little unusual in that there was an American dub and a British dub - I guess that was a bit jarring for me in the cinema. Maybe that was just the start of me becoming an insufferable arsehole #sub4subs

 

[Eyes]

That was a really nice adaptation, very cute film throughout. The constant reminders of how the small people use ordinary things in different ways from regular humans was cool to watch. I thought the setting was really well designed with great shots all around the house and its inner walkways and the Borrower home. Also the shots of them avoiding the rain/getting rain droplets the size of footballs off their clothes were really well done.

Arrietty had a cute relationship with the boy, I liked how much they made of him being able to see her/her showing herself to him, as if the fantastical is meeting reality and there's some barriers to overcome.

Spoiler

I wanted them to end up living in the dollhouse (I did not recall the ending of the original book and I never read the sequels) and that Haru fired for cruel and unusual actions but that could never work with the parents distrusting humans so much. It did feel like Haru was hamming up being evil a lot though that may just be us getting not the perspective of a housekeeper getting rid of thieving nuisances but rather that of an existential threat to the main characters.

 

[Diddy]

How are you doing, Honey B, @Queen of the Bay ? I’m going to watch this tonight, wondering if I should delay the next thread

 

[Marina Salty]

I'll be watching it this evening too.

 

[Diddy]

Hmmm - well it's all relative, even a meh Ghibli movie is better than most movies, but this was a test case for that theory.

It started out pretty strong, I was taken in by the world, and like @Eyes said, the way they used household items in their daily lives was great. The biggest problem is that the existential threat to their lives was mostly from their own paranoia, and then suddenly Haru (who had been quite nice) totally loses it and becomes an attempted murderess. Even the animals are cunts for most of the film, very unusual for Ghibli!

I mean they needed some sort of conflict to drive the plot - or did they? I mean things like Only Yesterday pootled along at its pace. I think the part that left me cold is that there wasn't any resolution to the plots. I mean I know we don't need the ending of every movie spelled out, but if there's tension, there needs to be some release. Do the Borrowers find a safe home and not go extinct? Who knows? Does Sho drop dead? Imagine that on your own time! It's not a requirement to have a happy ending, but it wasn't very satisfying as a conclusion.

It's not even like I could invest much in the characters - the parents were pretty one-dimensional, Sho didn't really get much development apart from being a nice kid who really needs to stop running around - Arietty herself was alright, she could portray emotions as believably as, say, Kiki, but didn't quite have the charisma.

Let's just say it's the first movie we've done when I didn't cry at something. I almost did at the last sunset because the gorgeous art in the movie was the only reliably Ghibli part of it.

Adaptations are always tricky - I think they've always been the most likely missteps in the canon (Earthsea is looking more likely than not). In this case, the source material was probably fine, but there wasn't a viable screenplay taken from it.

 

[Marina Salty]

Still have two-thirds to watch but so far it's pretty amazing, am fascinated by their world. The book must be beautiful too.

Edit: Finished. I think am sticking with my initial impression, it was lovely throughout and I don't think it's that different to the ghibliverse. The extremely noble person is there, the brave little person coming of age is there, the romance, good sensible and gentle characters, cute animals, the crazy old lady with the big nose, gorgeous animation in the landscape and the two worlds, beautiful music, the message about respecting differences and every species is there What's not to like? I wish it lasted a little longer so that we know how the next couple of days would unfold for everyone but that's Ghibli magic, most of the time it's not about what happens next, it's about the moment that marked their heroes.

 

[Diddy]

Omg 10/10?
I wonder if my preconceptions affected my experience, I can’t say I was particularly excited about this because I didn’t love it at the cinema. But I remembered that I had a problem with the dub, and this time I used the original Japanese.

One bit I really didn’t get was when they were in the garden (WTF kind of house was this in the middle of a city with a Porco Rosso secret paradise?) and Sho, who has been totally sweet and kind until then suddenly says “oh your species is probably going to die out lol” like a total cunt

 

[Eyes]

I think I remember being similarly disappointed at the lack of resolution in the original book now I think back. Given there were sequels (that I didn't know about until looking it up a week ago) perhaps it's down to what the film is adapting, only the first book in a series, and then not having much vision for it beyond Japan-ifying the setting, somewhat loosely as nothing is particularly Japanese except for the human characters.

It's a complete Ghibli world and I do think the film did a good job of showing that world but the main plot... Haru was just leading that by turning evil.