Now This
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My Neighbor Totoro (1988)
A Japanese movie marathon wouldn’t be right without delving into the wonderful world of Japanese animation, and I’m starting with my favorite out of the few that I’ve seen, the beautifully hand-illustrated film My Neighbor Totoro. Set in 1950s Japan, My Neighbor Totoro tells the story of a professor, Tatsuo Kusakabe, and his two daughters, Satsuki and Mei, who move to the countryside to be closer to their mother who is in the hospital recovering from a long-term illness. Once they arrive, the children start to explore the old house that they are moving into, and discover that it’s inhabited by dust bunny-like spirits called “susuwatari” or “soot sprites” that…
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‘city life’ by Birb
I love falling down rabbit holes of obscure piano music and city life is one of the best finds yet as far as obscure piano rabbit holes go. The four-song EP was released on August 31, 2021 by Birb and features short, simple but pensive instrumental piano songs. You know with titles like “falling in love with a new york pigeon,” “a cat gets stuck in traffic,” “the same cat gets stuck in the infinite time loop of life,” and “small fish drowns in the big city,” it’s got to be good. Other singles, albums, and EPs by Birb include 2025’s the cat collection, daydreaming in an empty parking lot…
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‘The Lonesome Crowded West’ by Modest Mouse
This week finds me going back to one of my favorite times in music, 1997, an absolutely incredibly good year for music which saw releases like Björk’s Homogenic, Elliott Smith’s Either/Or, Built to Spill’s Perfect from Now On, Daft Punk’s Homework, Ween’s The Mollusk, Pavement’s Brighten the Corners, Buena Vista Social Club’s self-titled album, and one of my personal favorite album’s of all time, The Lonesome Crowded West by Modest Mouse. I’ve heard the songs on Lonesome described as ‘hypnotic’ and I can definitely relate to that. The Lonesome Crowded West is the second album from Modest Mouse, following This Is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think…
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Shoplifters (2018)
Father and son team Osamu and Shota Shibata, respectively, are experienced shoplifters, working together with hand signals to procure some items from the supermarket in the opening scene. Clearly, they’ve done this before, they work well together, and afterwards, the two look happy just to be together. They stop at a street vendor’s stall to buy some warm croquettes, and then on their way home, they see a frail, young girl, who they’ve seen before, sitting alone in the cold. We soon learn that her name is Yuri (played by Miyu Sasaki) and she is around four years old. Osamu offers her one of their croquettes and lets her come…
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Perfect Days (2023)
With films directed in at least five different languages, perhaps most notably the Spanish language documentary Buena Vista Social Club; the primarily German language film Wings of Desire; and 2023’s Japanese film Perfect Days, Wim Wenders is no stranger to international work. This has shifted my radar a little bit more in his direction lately as I look for more foreign films as part of my language learning process. But that aside, Perfect Days is a quiet masterpiece that I would recommend to anyone. Capturing the spirit of zen, Perfect Days is a slice-of-life style film which follows Hirayama, a Tokyo public toilet cleaner who appreciates the everyday, especially music…
