The one who has the deepest memory is the four-year-old Xiaomei. Seeing a behemoth like My Neighbor Totoro, she never showed the slightest fear. Go play with the tail and sleep on your stomach when you come up.
The first time I watched [My Neighbor Totoro], I was about 10 years old, about the same age as my sister Xiaoyue in the movie.
In the film, the little chinchilla is 109 years old, the medium-sized chinchilla is 679 years old, and the big chinchilla is 1300 years old.
In "Hayao Miyazaki and His World", the author Kenichi Yamakawa calculates:
If you look backwards from the year when the movie was released, it can be known that My Neighbor Totoro was born in 686 (the age of My Neighbor Totoro was mistaken for 1302 in the book). At that time, Japan was in the Asuka era. Soon after the death of Emperor Tenmu, Emperor Jitong just started to take charge of government affairs.
In other words, it is probably dressed like this age:
I also settled an account. My Neighbor Totoro was born in the year when Xue Shao died in Princess Taiping's family, the year she died (I didn't suggest anything).
My favorite animated image of Ghibli is a thousand-year-old man.
But what does age matter? My Neighbor Totoro and his sister Xiaomei in the movie are 1296 years old, and they both play so well.
He is a little younger, and he may not be so cute.
Detoxification index: 9/10
01
Of course, age is not entirely unimportant.
Saying this sentence may be beaten. But when I watched this movie for the first time, I had so few seconds that I was afraid of My Neighbor Totoro.
But when it speaks: mouth full of teeth, breathing like a hurricane.
But my sister Xiaomei is happier.
I am in awe of this four-year-old: my 10-year-old sister, I do not have the guts of you.
But also because of the little risk of being eaten, this time the secret exploration "cat" is even more thrilling.
I was sure that My Neighbor Totoro would not eat children, so I felt relieved and happily held an umbrella with them, took the cat bus together, and planted seeds and trees together.
In the animation, Xiaomei's first action is to play with Totoro's tail.
Not afraid of being blown away by the big chinchilla's sneeze, and babbling and crawling on his belly again.
The big chinchilla roared, and she roared.
My sister, Xiaoyue, was about the same age as I was at the time, and just like me, she expressed a few seconds of hesitation.
Then, just like me, I decided that Mr. Totoro would not hurt me and played with him happily.
The same is true for the first appearance of the cat bus.
If I saw [My Neighbor Totoro] when I was four years old, I might have been so bold.
02
The roles of Xiaomei and Xiaoyue were the same person at first.
As early as ten years before [My Neighbor Totoro] was put into production, or even longer, Miyazaki's sketchbook contained a picture of a little girl and a big Totoro waiting for a car.
Hayao Miyazaki said:
He must be an older child who can pick up his father at the bus stop. But it must be a kid who can show Totoro. I didn't know what to do for a long time.
When the girl splits into two and becomes a pair of sisters, the problem is solved.
Different ages, the dose of childlike innocence, there are also subtle differences.
Because every child has seen Chinchilla before. Not only sisters, but sisters, not only them, but also us. We are the kid in the painting.
03
Only real children, children who are unsuspecting the world, can immediately accept this big plush toy.
Or the book "Hayao Miyazaki and His World", the illustrator in the book Sumi Ishihashi asked his children, are you afraid when the cat bus arrives at home? The answer is: I'm not afraid, I want to sit on it immediately.
Parents lament:
If the cat bus really shows up in front of me, I must be so scared that my legs are weak...
Toshio Suzuki compares [My Neighbor Totoro] to [ET Alien].
Some adults don't even believe My Neighbor Totoro.
As early as the 1970s, when Hayao Miyazaki first drew that manuscript, he handed it over to the TV station but was rejected.
If it weren't for Suzuki's strong persuasion, he would definitely not be able to take out this little bit of meat and accept another public sentence after ten years.
Investors heard that they were going to shoot a story about a monster and a little girl in the Showa 30s (1955-1965), and they all thought the keynote was "terrible".
The manager in charge of this film, Yamashita Tatsumi also said that this film is difficult to pass. Then Toshio Suzuki not only produced [My Neighbor Totoro], but also shot [Tomb of Fireflies] by Takahata Hoon. Manager Yamashita yelled anxiously:
I thought there were only monsters, but I didn't expect to have a tombstone!
When it was released, [My Neighbor Totoro] and [Firefly Tomb] both created the "worst box office record in history" (Suzuki Toshio).
Adults are really hard to please.
Hayao Miyazaki once said:
([My Neighbor Totoro]) The production process was extremely difficult, and my colleagues were very tortured. It seems that there is a smell in the air, an unpleasant smell. People draw original pictures, make animations, and then go home from get off work. We must open the windows and change the air. Until now, the smell has not disappeared. That bad feeling is still around. I think little babies can better appreciate this smell. But at the same time, they are also more likely to be amused by smiles-as long as you show your teeth, they are very happy.
Just like My Neighbor Totoro showed her teeth to Xiaomei, she laughed wildly.
04
But fortunately, there is more than one type of adult.
Their father is not much different from our age at this time. He said to Xiaomei:
Dad and sister did not say that you were lying. Xiaomei must be the owner of the forest just now, which means Xiaomei must be lucky, but this kind of opportunity is rare.
[My Neighbor Totoro] When it was released in Japan, Hayao Miyazaki was 47 years old. Not only did he see My Neighbor Totoro and believe in My Neighbor Totoro, he also drew the story of My Neighbor Totoro.
Now [My Neighbor Totoro] 30th anniversary, when it is re-screened in Mainland China, My Neighbor Totoro himself, 1330 years old.
The 1330-year-old "old man" My Neighbor Totoro was still on the big screen, feeling the vibrations of raindrops falling on the umbrella surface, and followed this frequency with excitement and dancing with the umbrella.
My Totoro and I are not so old for generations, what qualifications do I have to be old-fashioned.
Anyway, we and My Neighbor Totoro will always be more than a thousand years old. My Neighbor Totoro can dance happily on the screen, so we are still young.
Reference
[1] Kenichi Yamakawa. Hayao Miyazaki and his world
[2] Wikipedia: Emperor Jitong
[3] Wikipedia: 688
[4] Toshio Suzuki. Ghibli's wind: from "Nausicaa" to "The Wind Rises"
[5] Ghibli unofficial fan station: Hayao Miyazaki’s secret story of "となりのトトロ" production
[6] "Empire" magazine interview: Miyazaki On Miyazaki: The Animation Genius On His
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Text: Jiang Nonstop
The article comes from WeChat public account: movie detoxification
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