Japanese Movies

To keep current with my recent posts about Japanese Pop culture and Entertainment I am going to share with you two of my favorite Japanese movies Death Note and My Neighbor Totoro.

Death Note is a movie about a college student named Light Yagami who finds a supernatural notebook on his way home one day. Light soon comes to realize that who ever's name is written in this notebook will die. Light also befriends the previous owner of the notebook, a Shinigami (Japanese for Death God) named Ryuk. Light develops a god complex and begins to try to rid the world of evil. Although Light's original intentions are good he soon becomes power obsessed and the number of unexplained deaths catches the attention of the police and a mysterious detective called "L." Light is known to the public as "Kira" ( the Japanese pronunciation of killer) and "L" and the police will stop at nothing to capture "Kira." This movie has two sequels, Death Note: The Last Name and L Change the World which are equally as good. I am not sure the original rating of this movie but I would give it a rating of PG-13 for mature themes (i.e. death). I really enjoy this movie and each character has something unique about them that really helps to make this movie entertaining. My family really likes "L." If you see the movie you will discover some of his quirky habits that my family finds to funny.

Death Note Trailer :

By the way, Shinigami love apples!

My Neighbor Totoro is an animated film by Hayao Miyazaki. This movie is about a family who lives in rural Japan and the magical creatures that live in the forest next to them. This movie is a great family movie and gives you a glimpse of everyday life in a Japanese household. The creature Totoro, whom the younger daughters in this movie befriend, is a very big icon in Japan. It would be very hard to find someone in Japan who doesn't know who Totoro is. Other wonderful movies by Hayao Miyazaki are, Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, and Princess Mononoke. Each of these movies are produce by Studio Chibli who work with Disney to bring these movies to America. If you have younger children, Totoro would be a great family movie to watch. Totoro has an English dub so there is no need to worry if you cant speak Japanese.