Tag: Isao Takahata

April 6, 2018 · 0 comments

To many people, Isao Takahata will be remembered as the man who directed Grave of the Fireflies, the saddest Japanese animation ever made. Yet his work brims with the joy of life, from Heidi frolicking in the Alps with Peter in Takahata’s landmark 1974 series, to a gang of mischievous children calling “Li’l Bamboo!” to […]

September 26, 2017 · 0 comments

Jonathan Clements on Isao Takahata’s obscure pre-Ghibli comedy. Chie the Brat, the adventures of “the unluckiest girl in Japan,” was conceived as a slapstick celebration of blue-collar life in Osaka, based on an award-winning strip by Etsumi Haruki in Manga Action. Chie helps out at the family restaurant, a shack selling grilled offal in downtown […]

August 17, 2016 · 0 comments

Jeremy Clarke finds out what’s really new in the new release. A week before When Marnie Was There arrived in UK cinemas this June, Studio Ghibli’s earlier Only Yesterday came and went with comparatively little attention. Isao Takahata’s 1991 follow-up to Grave of the Fireflies, Only Yesterday came out on DVD in Japan in 2003, […]

June 16, 2016 · 1 comment

By Andrew Osmond. Here’s a paradox. Even as When Marnie Was There, Studio Ghibli’s Last Feature Film (Probably), plays in British cinemas, a new animated feature bearing Ghibli’s logo opens in the festival circuit. This is The Red Turtle, directed by Michael Dudok de Wit, which debuted at Cannes before playing at another French event, […]

November 28, 2015 · 0 comments

By Meghan Ellis. “Films sure are organic”, quips Hayao Miyazaki, legendary anime director and 72-year-old man in a bear apron. It’s this quote, and the meaning behind it, that explains just why The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness works so well. An all-access documentary following the staff of Studio Ghibli during the production of The […]