News about Hayao Miyazaki

On Tuesday 19 September 2023, I wrote a Substack piece about that week's big story, Russell Brand, and (according to my texts), I messaged my eldest son, Jackson, at 17.38: I posted my Substack. There wasn't a Wednesday for Jackson. Because at approximately 12.50am, after an unfathomably random accidental fall into a void hospitality space on Hastings seafront - the Courtyard, where the bars and cafés were all closed - my eldest son died instantly.

X/ Twitter, Spider-Man: Shameik Moore confessed to being a "definite loser" after venting on X/ Twitter on Sunday following the movie's demise at the Oscars. The motion picture, which premiered in theaters last June, had been nominated in the category of Best Animated Feature Film, but at Hayao Miyazaki's event on Sunday, it lost to The Boy and the Heron.

VINER: BRIAN VINER: In the Spanish-language film Society Of The Snow, an uplifting true tale involving a tragic plane crash and cannibalism can be considered encouraging. A Uruguayan air force plane Flight 571 bound for Chile in October 1972, carrying the Old Christians Club rugby team among its 40 passengers and five crews, crashed in the Andes. Almost half of those on board died as a result of their injury or within seconds. Others died later, but the 16 remaining survivors were rescued after only ten weeks.

Despite a slow weekend at the box office, Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki's debut was rather significant, notching his first US box office with The Boy and the Heron. Via Deadline, the film, which received a 96 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, earned $12.8 million in its first weekend. Beyonce's concert documentary Renaissance, which slid from first place last weekend to sixth place, dropped by 71% to just $5 million.

The 2023 Toronto International Film Festival opens with Hayao Miyazaki's The Boy and the Heron, but the sales portion of the festival gets off with a bang, with Lionsgate's landing The Crow Resurrection. According to Deadline, Lionsgate paid the domestic distribution fee to the remake down by eight figures. Bill Skarsgard portrays musician Eric Draven, a role played by late Brandon Lee, who was tragically killed on the set of The Crow's 1994 original version.

In a tweet shared to its website on Thursday, the acclaimed Japanese animation company Studio Ghibli announced that it was working with Disney-owned production company Lucasfilm. The tweet, which didn't include text or additional information, included a short clip opening with the recognizable Lucasfilm logo before fades into Studio Ghibli's famous blue logo featuring the title character from My Neighbor Totoro. Although the article does not specify that no such collaboration is forthcoming, it could be a hint that Studio Ghibli is currently working on the forthcoming second season of the animated film Star Wars: Vision, according to Polygon.

Ghibli Park, 150 miles west of Tokyo, is based on the celebrated Studio Ghibli's best-known anime films. Three of the park's five sections are now open, including the 'Hill of Youth', the park's entrance, which includes an elevator tower based on Castle in the Sky. With bucolic walking paths and an impressive Totoro statue, Elsewhere, 'Dondoko Forest' recalls the retro tranquility of 1988's classic My Neighbour Totoro. Ghibli's Grand Warehouse, a hangar-like indoor portion of the park with various attractions, including 14 sets from 13 of the studio's film classics, would be a big draw. Tourists can stroll along an alley modeled after Spirited Away's opening scene or stand on a red velvet-covered train seat in a carriage next to the movie's instantly recognisable 'No-Face' character.

PATRICK MARMION: You will not beat the Royal Shakespeare Company's scruffy new family show for sheer, turbo-charged, off-the-Richter scale, a sigh-inducing spectacle. It's based on Hayao Miyazaki's animated cult film about a family in 1950s Japan who moves to the countryside to be near the mother who is convalescing in a hospital. The 'Totoro' creature, which made four-year-old Mei and his big sister Satsuki come to terms with their mother's illness, was the unique selling point of the 1988 film. In Phelim McDermott's stage performance, the big cuddly Totoro is therefore, also the biggest draw.

Five young women are tied together by dark secrets concerning their childhood misdeeds in the new chapter of Pretty Little Liars. Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin, a streaming service available on HBO Max, tells the tale of five teen girls in Millwood, Pennsylvania, who banded together to seek revenge for their high school's queen bee, Karen Beasley. Every group member is sent an anonymous text message from an entity that is only identified by the letter A. When Karen is led to her death during Millwood High School's spirit week dance. It reads, "To thine own self be true." One bully has been down. Five more will be released. At one point, have me or you're next," as the community mourns Karen's death. A. A. continues to track the girls and send threatening notes, leading them to suspect that the elusive entity is seeking revenge on behalf of Angela Waters, a former classmate of their mothers who died at a school dance 22 years ago.