toddly6666

If anyone is interested in a seeing a good Japanese animated movie influenced from Miyazaki/Ghibli films, I highly recommend Summer Days With Coo.

Summer Days With Coo is sort of like a darker version of E.T. - Coo is cute little water sprite (aka kappa, which is some sort of Japanese mythological nature beast) that has some adventures with a nice family. More or less the same premise as E.T. basically (a lot better than E.T. though, I never really liked that film as a kid). The movie has nice storytelling, highly entertaining, and it's one big teardripping, touching flick. The animation and editing of the film is beautiful, very reminiscent of a typical Miyazaki/Ghibli film.

Those Japanese kids certainly get some darker stuff than American kids. Eventhough it is a family film, the film has one bloody Ninja Scroll decaptitation/arm chopping scene, and some other dark, violent issues (bullying, suicide, etc.) in it. I wouldn't play this for a young kid. I think it's maybe okay for a 13-year old and up.

The movie is 2 years old, but it finally came out on DVD with English subtitles on Thai DVD. There's an unsubtitled Japanese DVD that exists as well.

The Thai PAL DVD is anamorphic, Japanese Stereo 2.0, and has excellent English subtitles (unexpected for a Thai DVD). The anamorphic video is excellent. The movie is so pleasantly bright that I was able to watch this movie from midnight to 2:30 AM (the film is a bit long at 2 and 15 or so minutes, but it's okay because the movie has no filler). So, I was pretty impressed with the video quality. There's a dubbed Thai DD 5.1 audio I didn't listen to, but the original Japanese 2.0 stereo sounded very nice...the only extras on the film are a couple trailers for the film.

Movie: 8.5
DVD Video: 9
DVD Audio: 8

Here's the imdb page: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1179773/
Here's the movie trailer (sorry, I could only find it in Spanish): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcfOFvS2vto
The Thai Pal DVD is sold here for a total of $11.50: http://www.ethaicd.com/show.php?pid=46221

If you are seeking out a good new animation film a la Miyazaki, skip the painfully boring forgettable Mamoru Oshii's SKY CRAWLERS, and purchase this film instead.

manicsounds

The Japanese DVD had a lot of extras, but no english subtitles. One problem with the movie was it was way too long. 140 minutes or so, i think.

toddly6666

the length of the movie is only a problem if one doesn't enjoy the flick. I loved every moment of it. It basically has the same amount of endings as Return of the King though (at least 3), haha!