Miyazaki's Weird One

I agree with the Japanese people: I didn't like this movie. Can't really say why, because it wasn't bad; I just didn't like it. I think it was mostly that the romance was too cheesy half the time. Like Karli pointed out, "I have tuberculosis!" Where did that come from?

I loved the planes, and Jiro's best friend, and Jiro's boss; everything was great, and interesting, and I think it would have been better if the romance had been left out. Also, did the romance add anything to the story? I don't think it did, except to make Jiro more human, as his boss said. Yes, I think we did need to see a more human side of Jiro; but could we not have seen it in some other way? And if it had to be romance that brought out his humanness, couldn't it have been less cheesy? Tuberculosis-dying-girlfriend-we wanna spend our last days together-the girl leaves to die alone- has all been done before and was just hyped-up emotion, I thought, and I think that Miyazaki, being Miyazaki, could have done much better.

Also, I've heard it said that the stories that should be animated are the ones that cannot be done in live action; I think this was a story perfect for live action, and I didn't really like it as an animation.

I have bashed this movie, I'm sorry. There were beautiful moments, like this one: