It’s been more than a week since we started on our Studio Ghibli movie marathon and we’ve finished the five movies released in the 1980s. Four of them were directed by Hayao Miyazaki and one by Isao Takahata.
For each movie, I’ve created a simple graphic using poster images by Studio Ghibli sourced from the internet, added the year released, director, film duration and wrote a synopsis in 5-7-5 haiku verse.
It may or may not constitute a spoiler, so if you haven’t watched them yet and intend to do so, probably best to stop reading here. Though a 17 syllable summary hardly does justice to an entire movie, so I think you should be safe.
The 0 to 10 rating is based on the average of subjective individual scores by me and The Wife, as explained in an earlier post.
The rating of 6 for Grave of the Fireflies requires some clarification. As a standalone movie, it deserves a 10 for its haunting narrative of quiet desperation and heart wrenching despair.
Try to recall the saddest movie that you’ve ever seen, whether it’s live action or anime, and I’m very sure that you’ll find this even sadder. The reason why we scored this so low here is because it doesn’t feel like a Studio Ghibli anime.
Five down, seventeen more to go.
Poster image credits: Studio Ghibli
