toddly6666

Japan's MAI MAI MIRACLE now available on English-subtitled Hong Kong DVD.

I'll check it out. It looks a bit Miyazakish!


DVD Subtitles : Chinese, English
Audio : dts 6.1, Dolby Digital 5.1
Region/Format : Code 3, NTSC, Anamorphic WS
Language : Japanese, Cantonese
Rating/Genres : Animation
Distributed by : Deltamac Hong Kong
Directed By : Sunao Katabuchi
Release Date : 23-12-2010


IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1517216/


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BigSue

Mmm, that looks good. I love Ghibli-ish anime. I looked up the DVDs on yesasia and the Hong Kong version is $12.49 and the Japanese DVD is $72.49. That's got to be wrong. That price is more in Japanese blu-ray territory.

toddly6666

A 70-dollar Japanese DVD seems normal for me! Japan is still stuck in the days comparable to the time when VHS tapes cost 90 dollars to buy back in the 80s!

BigSue

I remember that! Where do you usually pick up your Japanese/Korean/Hong Kong DVD/Blu-rays? I use yesasia and cdjapan simply because they're so easy, but I wonder if there are other retailers that I should be looking at.

I'd like to add that I wish that more Japanese films came with English subs. I'm ready to take courses in Japanese so I can watch the films with my fave stars in them. It's frustrating

toddly6666

DDDhouse.com and jsdvd.com are pretty good ones too.

BigSue

Thanks!

Ash Ketchum

I get my Hong Kong imports of Japanese films from stores in New York's Chinatown. They're usually subtitled and the prices are usually below $20.

I'd love to get MAI MAI MIRACLE. I saw it last year at the New York International Children's Film Festival, along with two other worthy anime features, SUMMER WARS and OBLIVION ISLAND. SUMMER WARS has already come out on DVD in the U.S.

MAI MAI MIRACLE definitely has a Miyazaki vibe. It was directed by Sunao Katabuchi, assistant director to Miyazaki on KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE. It's a sweet, gentle film and draws a parallel between scenes of the kids in rural Japan in 1955 with their counterparts from a thousand years earlier on the same piece of land. The two lead characters are a local girl and a girl from Tokyo who's newly moved to the country with her doctor father. The scenes in old Japan are the most fascinating.

BigSue

I have Summer Wars on my to-buy list. I just looked up the trailer for Oblivion Island on nipponcinema and it looks awesome. Thanks for the tip!

toddly6666

Decent movie - it turned a little too dark in the 3rd act, which was quite unnesessary and hurt the film. This would have been an excellent children's film if they left out the suicide/mafia elements. The animation was beautiful though, and the director certainly learned a thing or two working for Miyazaki.

Mai Mai Miracle is a bit like a cross between My Neighbor Totoro (only without the Totoros) and Stand By Me.

The DVD quality is excellent - anamorphic video and DTS 6.1-ES Japanese, and the English subtitls were perfect. Definitely worth a watch despite the melodramatic dark elements in the 3rd act that hurt the movie's charm.

BigSue

Thanks for the update/review. Is the 3rd act bad enough that you wouldn't let kids watch it?

toddly6666

If you are ready to explain suicide to a kid, then by all means, play the movie for the kid.

Some parents may also get upset by other aspects such as the kids getting drunk. But I thought it was funny and done in a charming innocent way. But the suicide/mafia element just throws off the movie's tone and is now more for young teens.

It's just sad that the director had to bring in some unrelated conflict into the end of the movie. He should have stayed in full-Miyazaki mode (beginning and middle) before turning the film's climax into typical Japanese melodrama screenwriting.