live hi everyone and welcome to the nerdy of north vakas. Is it only pakasim has hosted by northern nerds? I am one your horse Sam. And I am the horse the other horse Paul.
I am the host of the mostest and yes and we are joined tonight by two fabulous wonderful people shall we call them people human beings monstrous of the light and we've got the the pegging queen herself that is done. That's actually what it was for him. No she's back. Peggy queen.
She's out of the dungeon. She's been released and just stopped torturing good will for a good few hours to join us to talk about a certain film that she was very excited about. No sir he wasn't getting tortured so. No it's well.
Well he's not in the chat store. It'll be appearing soon. They're kind of escaped. Yes and we are joined by the tracker himself the guy that brings the sexy back in blue for the trekking up north.
I have no idea. The little hardest working man in the UK. It's just because I'm too busy ending bloody interviews from Dracon. I'm like oh yes.
Oh so it's super busy working with Dracon's fabulous lives and stuff. Oh let's complain a little bit more shall we? Yes. Oh I will.
I will. I will. Do that actually I brought one of my favourite things is that one of the Dracon's acts back on just May from season four of UK. Basically had a booth decorated like the queen Vic from EastEnders.
One of the things you could do is you could pay like five pounds to end the tambola where you got a packet of scamby fries and on the back it has a prize. My prize was get fucked. And how do you redeem that prize there Graham? I didn't stay around long enough.
It's like luckily there wasn't a suitable entry point on my outfit but yeah. Really one of the prizes was a cloned your wee kit though. Oh well. Quite an interesting thing to get to a round of tambola.
And you didn't win it? No I didn't. I just ended up going back but I just love the idea of just winning a thing and she's just like oh let's see what prize you've got. Oh get fucked.
To be further imagine a bit of poi willi won that. He would have to have three sets to do his 40 ninja. Yeah to be fair you know they'd have to you know they'd have to sort of maybe you could fill it out like you could put sandpaper or something in there. Oh so I'm curious if I had a size limit.
A size limit. Fun cloned a wee bit of size limit. Hold on he's got a statement written. No I'm not going to say that's a demand.
That's a demand. That's a demand. No I don't know. No I don't know.
No I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. So some of you have to.
I've got a five minutes in. No I'm a big team. I don't know. I'm a big team.
I'll try to do that. I'll just claim a first. Yeah get a disclaimer at the way please. I forget Grimz on we have to do it straight away.
So everything discussing today's episode is our opinions and our opinions alone. If you'd like to discuss anything from today's episode please come and join us in the Facebook the discord or the comment section where we can have an open discussion. But what we want to have is anyone coming for us and tell us our opinions are wrong. We can all agree to disagree in fandom.
So let's keep it fun. Keep it kind and keep the toxic behaviour out of nerdism. Very well said there. Thank you.
So always remember when Grimz on. Disclaimer first. Disclaimer first. Disclaimer first.
Rid away. And then more coverage. I love how frequent no face is. I've done this cool thing where it'll happen like every few minutes and like every few seconds.
He's appeared more than he does in the movie. I'll turn him off in a while don't worry. He's just made himself comfortable and made himself happy. So Sammy do you want to ask us what will be watching?
I would love to ask you as what you've been watching. What have you been watching this week? What has tickled your fancy? Well it's because you run Grimz you just do something well.
So tickle my fancy. What's tickled your fancy this week? What has been watching anything interesting anything fun anything exciting? Okay.
For some reason. Okay. Like you know what I don't know if I was saying it on the podcast but my Amazon Prime has the worst recommendations ever. Like they are the most random thing where you're what the documentary about serial killers and it'll just be like do you fancy like studio Ghibli afterwards?
You're like what? I might need to bring you down from the highs of like one of the big learning tricks to be a serial killer. Well maybe the same way that when they released um oh what's it called a grave the fireflies. They were like oh we best do this as a double bill with my neighbor Totoro just to kind of take the edge off afterwards.
A very heavy film. You know but with this it's just weird. So what I did is I just randomly watched the films that it gave me after watching so I watched Star Wars the motion picture because we're covering that on Friday for taking up nor and then the recommended film afterwards was Day of the Dead the original 1970s one. Excellent.
Yeah and I watch that and then the recommendation after that which suggests something about Day Dawn of the Dead is the Warlock 2 from the 90s. Oh it was gorgeous. Was awful. It was like like I've never seen special effects that bad like you know you know this thing it just being like we had better effects back then.
Yeah. They're just not. Yeah so it's mainly been that and then obviously I watched the Spooted Away twice I watched it. I'm familiar with it but I watched it in the English dub and then I watched the Japanese dub with the English subtitles just to see if there was any difference between the plot between the two of them.
So that's a question I will be bringing up later so a very good point there. What about you Donna? What have you been watching you you beast of a woman? I watched travel in the end of the world on Netflix which is um it's really good but strange and certainly it's like um around and parents being nudist and stuff like that.
Has anyone seen that? No no I haven't watched it. No but now you said that. It's basically about the call of a carl and like how she's like managing and like a countdown to the end of the world and everyone's just went on like crazy riots and stuff but for some reason I can't get out of their parents in some kind of like a triple that's a little bit of a color with the doctor who used to care for them for like eight years but it's the end of the world so why not?
Yeah it's unusual but it is good. So it's one of the things that anything can be fixed with a finger up the ball so yes. I also watched um Salterbone. Still I'm speaking of a finger up the ball.
Nick watched that scene too. And neither say yes and just to know what's going on what the joke is I need to be in on this joke. Yeah which one which one which one which one which one which one which talk? Oh look at them look at them bloody having a private program set.
Me and Doneys are BFS. Yes Doneys. Doneys I kind of like how you make Done a cuter like as in what could you Done Dones? Done Dones.
Done Dones. Well she has a job on her part of that sense still. She is the dildo donner so yeah. It's dildo donner in her don't dones.
Don't give a mighty donner. That's what Done Dones is going to be when she's a 90 year old woman in her chair. I'm done Dones for Dildos. Two Dildos up round the people all last on the street.
You know the last time the big young bit ages and this is what she gets when she comes up. To be fair though she gives a good as she goes she don't beat me when she says in person like the like the bruises and the scars from saying donner. She's the last person that actually did stab me when I told the stabbing stories it was Donner. I just loved it.
That was the initial thing I mean don't know you get stabbed in the ribs. Yes. Nice. Yes I just looking at the chat just looking at the chat and immediately my eyes get drawn to the the line pegging videos and fisting montages.
I was like oh Lee you've got my birthday present so you're really very very Christmas yes and I watched the Marvels yesterday so I like say I'll be honest it wasn't a great film it's not it's very standard with Marvel is putting out but I do have to say that the half given the characters more and the characters were better like Kamala Khan in Miss as Miss Marvel was absolutely head and shoulders above anyone else and even Brie Larson wasn't bad in this movie. No. We're starting to get a feel of actually Carol from the comics a little bit. 100% agree with that.
I'm worried about this because it's like because the problem is I didn't know anything about you know like the character until I saw the movie and I was like oh that was awful and people were like blaming Brie Larson but I was like I don't know what I don't know where to come it I thought it was the film that was terrible but then like you know it's that is she she wouldn't like I haven't seen her in enough stuff but it's that you know they're christians stupid thing were you just going is that was she doing the character like that deliberately or is that just how she is and it's I don't think she knows the character in that movie I don't think she knows her at all and she just thought pilot serious let's just go with that and it just doesn't it didn't work this one or this is Carol yeah this is the goofy Carol this is the fun Carol she really elevated it would come while a carne runs rings around them all yeah and she's just having so much fun in it as well that was the thing and that's what it's a silly superhero film that makes no sense to plot wise literally I can't remember what the big bad guys problem was or what the powers were but I just remember like the three of them coming together and having fun and Goose was fucking in the mears and like like literally if you love cats it is a film for anyone who loves cats but yes also as well and I'll not give a spoiler because I know it's not out on streaming in the UK just yet it's not hit Disney push yet after credit scene is the best after credit scene we have had in a Marvel film in a long time after credit scene was actually better than the Marvel's movie well I generally can't remember what the after credit scene is and so I'm gonna have to google it once I'm finished because I did stick around for it I went this and I just it was it feels like lifetime ago only spoiler I kind of because I see a single thing it is a quite a big spoiler and it leads into the next fears of what's what's coming up but yeah I enjoyed it here's a question for the first on the chat though like have you ever been to the cinema with someone who was okay with just skipping the credits and the end scene thing like I went the cinema with a guy who was just like oh yeah let's just leave and I'm just like but the post credits you know I want to see it and they're like no no no no no be sure and I'm just like who are you? You disgust me why are you? Even if it's not a Marvel film I have to know what it does nothing there so the likelihood is I am googling afterwards to make sure that there's nothing there I'm not being caught out I'm not being that person who doesn't know anything. I think there is like a little something at the end of the credits but I don't think it's worth it but it is just like I'm not sure what it's there.
Me and Carol and sitting congratulation to the people in the credits we shout their names out and say well doing good job really you know he's a lot of people around us but yes we give everyone that we try and do the best pronunciations of their names yes and also I started Echo as well which is I didn't think I would like but it is very much and the same vein well not as gritty and as dirty as the Daredevil series on Netflix but it is along the same lines and we see Matt in the Red Suit for the first time in the Marvel universe and it is beautiful and the fight scene with him and Eko is probably the best action scene Marvel have produced in a long time and that's quite sad thing because you only get it for two minutes as well. I'm a watchit at some point I have sounds so sad that I have totally given up on Marvel at the moment couldn't even watch what if started watching it and it was like I am not feeling this I am not liking this I'm just going to end it right yeah I think the what if series for some reason the thing Peggy Carter is a bigger character and loved more than that she is she's loved but not that much yeah it's like oh I bet you did well you're right but you're not that big of a deal get out of yourself right so have you watched something um and there's been watching is it love in robots anthology and program that's on Netflix is there no series of that now because I don't know what two series but is there one just come out okay three because he's been you didn't realize until the other days actually been watching them backwards because when you press play it plays from the third series and then it goes back over itself so it was back to season two back to season one so he didn't realize until he had a look at the episode list but I watched a couple of them it was so good and so we've been watching a couple of them we're still watching always sunny it's on the background right now but I've been watching my lover my killer on Netflix I was like two series about it only sounds good when you do it in a corner jack send my number of my killer and wow wow like a lot of women getting murdered in the UK like a lot it is the number is fucking terrifying but there was um there was some interesting ones now because there's ones that unfortunately have the same theme young girl bad boy it doesn't end very well but there was one about um uh writer who was who lost her husband in the Bahamas um she like it was just like luggage in the seats he had he went to the sea and he never came back about the crimes just like I've been here for an hour and he hasn't come out yet so it's a fucking SpongeBob you got more than a TikTok kid's like you got corner ripped out and he never came back out again so she but she started this whole grief thing and she ended up meeting a man who lost his through natural causes turns out this guy is a bit of a wronging and she's a very famous father she's like in her in her field she is very famous very well off and he killed that and he almost got away with it until his neighbor who was fucking amazing by the way like murder she wrote that woman is it and she told the police they were just about to go on the search and they were like have you actually checked their house properly they have a septic tank which his car sits on top of lo and behold there she is in the septic tank and yeah there's just some really interesting ones on it so we've been watching them we watch a murder murder murder murder murder yeah i want to watch more murder watch murder she wrote with and looks here she was a great serial killer but never got called oh yes so yes so we have a very special no no we've already did this game because we prepared for grim it's fine um so yes we did something a bit different this week so thank you guys for like being patient with us just simply because normally we've seen the movie or i've seen the movie a few times before we review it some it can be hit and miss let's be honest um we both hadn't seen this movie before we've heard of it as donut donut has banged the drums for this movie for so along now saying we have to watch it we have to watch it and we thought well we'll do it we'll watch it and we'll review it and give our honest opinion now i must apologize at the start as well we will get names wrong graven donut are here as the experts to kind of keep us on tangent keep us um like say right but um it was a lot to take in i watched it yesterday sam watched it today is that correct me and sam both watched the dub version because i'm not going to take in like a film and try and review it and read it's eczive uh at the same time so the question i want to ask as well because i know gremen donut you've probably seen both of them so is there a big difference between the dub version and the sub and on the sub version no no not really i mean uh like i sorry do you wanna answer this donut no okay no no the only the only notes that i made is basically you barbers a bit nastier in the japanese version she's a bit more sort of like going like oh you're a shithead and your parents deserved it kind of thing which is a bit like harder she's not like yeah she's And at the end she's kind of like a bit kind of like, oh, you know, a bit more bugrudging than letting her go. But the main thing is all the stuff to do with Haku, like the the blokey turns into a dragon. Like a lot of that is just like in the Japanese version with the English subtitles, uh, Chihiro doesn't know doesn't immediately go, oh, it's a dragon, that must be Haku, like she does in the English version.
Yeah. You are a bit like, oh, weird, like, like, it's so sweet. Hang on, it's this dragon Haku. Oh god, you know, and then also just he's a bit nicer.
Like, but in the English version they make it where basically Haku is doing things selfishly, he is doing things on his own to get more power. Whereas in the Japanese one, he's always following you barbers orders. So even when he steals from as what's her name? Sabira?
So, the neighbor, when he's stealing from the neighbor, that's on you barbers orders in the Japanese one, because he's like very much under the thumb, whereas in the English one, yeah. And then the other thing is less jokes. It's the sort of thing where the English version has a lot of little gags that they threw in because they're like, oh, we're just showing a picture of someone with a mopro. Let's have them saying something.
And it's kind of, you know, it's kind of fun. And then it's like, what is it? There's a bit where there's like a foreman who is got fans and he's dancing in front of no face when he's coming through the back house. And he says like a really silly one line about, oh, he's getting patter, so there's more arster case.
When he's doing that, he's like, literally like, hey, it's an important person coming through, you know, it's very much like they just went, let's have a laugh and put it. So it's not really changing the whole tone or the feel of the film. It's more just like Westernized for us type of things. So don't know, because I know you've been like a big supporter of stupid people, you're ghibli and telling me in San Juanita to watch this for so long.
Why is this film so special to you? I saw, why do you love it so much? Well, I think that's like most jibing movies I feel like that with not just this one. But I don't know, there's just a mix of everything, really, the characters, the animation, the art, like everything about it, like you can just sit there and kind of be mesmerized by it to the whole movie, even with the like kind of creepy characters I've got in this.
But I don't know, like even the tune at the beginning there, the name of life is what Adam to do, he's version of, what I'm doing right now too. And then I guess the movie just like kind of mean a lot to us and I'll just sit and watch them most of the time really, like to get up with it back on and go like, you want to do this again? I just like a comfort, like it's like, because it does feel very comforting, like, and it's one of the notes that I wrote down as the art style, it's just beautiful. There's not one bit in it where I'm not sitting there going, it's beautiful.
It's beautiful. I think the wonderful thing is that Studio Ghibli does it where they, they put like human bits of humanity into the animation and we tend not to do that in the West. In the West, we tend to go kind of, oh, well, we skipped a couple of frames because you just need to see if these lighting some stairs or whatever, whereas Ghibli will very much go, oh, let's actually put a bit in where she slightly trips when she's doing this, or she doesn't, or she like tries to strike something and doesn't get it right the first time or whatever. Like for instance, in this one where they're trying to pull the thorn out of the stink beast, she's trying to wrap the rope around it and she's got to look and it misses and it's these little things where it's the love and care that go into it in order to make a world is what makes it the comfort when it is.
And if nobody knew before, I can say, I know we've got a lot of friends in the chat as well. So if anyone's new or listening on the audio, if you don't know who Donna is, she runs one of the biggest like anime conventions in the UK. And one of the most well-run conventions I must say in the UK as well. So she knows her shit about this stuff.
So that's why we wanted to really get Donna on. There's your credentials. Can I, can I, can I, can I, can I, can I, in order for one second, because you know me, I love a tagline. I had to go and find a tagline for this movie.
And there is only one. And it's just a ton of letter Chiro to a mysterious town. No more. I don't know how you, what tagline would we do for this?
Like, you know, if you were sort of working marketing, what would you come up with? Because I don't know how to do this. I've got the perfect one because I know with, with me and Sammy watching the first time, this is what I thought. If you're like Alison Wunderland, you'll love this.
Because it is basically just like, like you said, a Japanese version of Alison Wunderland, done in the most creepy and weirdest way. And that's probably the best way I've ever, except for like being old British and people worried about being late a lot. And the role of family trying to chop people's heads off. I would have probably gone with, you know, like, preteen girl goes to creepy bath house.
At least then we'd be able to get Epstein into the cinema, you know? Well, yeah, we'll go. Well, the creator of this one, because I did do a little bit of reading, but I didn't do is I kind of had to stop myself because I was starting to confuse myself. And I was like, no, you just need to watch the movie.
But what he was, he did not like the idea that the bath house was being turned into a brothel in some people's narrative when they were talking about this movie they're talking about. And he was like, no, completely different thing. Yeah, a lot of people stuff like that. Yeah, and you didn't like the fact that that was where like they were changing it.
Also, one thing that I read about the creator is that and how he does his work, it's so brilliant. He doesn't tell anyone the storyline. So he doesn't tell the storyline. He doesn't give anything away when it comes to dialogue.
He does storyboards. And the storyboard can change as it goes along, whether he's feeling it or not. And then eventually he will get to the end. But everyone who is in that creative journey with him from voice actors up to the people who draw the lines and that everyone is part of that journey with them.
So he just, he storyboards the whole thing and he chops and changes. And then he'll change it. He never knows how it's going to end until he gets to that point. And I just thought that was such a creative and brilliant way of writing a story.
It's not just, he's done it. There's the paper paper and pen. And then it's gone to story. He's figuring it out as he goes along.
He's correcting his mistakes. He's figuring his character out. He's going on that journey with that. And I absolutely love that.
It made the movie even that more special when I was watching it. And I got so much meaning from this movie as I was watching. Honestly, I get quite emotional thinking about it because it is very much a coming of each film. This is the thing.
It's that jibby, I say gimby, but it is jibby. But jibby films are all about that. They're all about these wonderful things. But we have films like the Spose will films where you watch an action film, you're like, Oh cool, that was cute.
You watch a cartoon, you're like, Oh, that was cute. Jibby films are, you know, they will hit you. So there's some of them where you just go, Oh, that was a cool little story and I was investing in all of the characters and stuff. But then you get other ones where you're like, Wow, that made me cry.
Wow, that made me reassess my life. You know, like, my favorite jibby film is a lesser known one called only yesterday. And it is no magic at all. It's literally like a very sort of real world story of a middle aged woman reassessing what she wants to do with her life.
And it's just very basic. She works in office and she goes and spends a summer in the countryside. And I always cry during it because it's a situation that we can all relate to, told in this wonderful journey story where you kind of just go, Oh, I can apply that to my life. Like there's lessons there.
Whereas like we're watching the marvels, we're, are we going to walk home with a kind of like going, Oh yeah, I really need to, you know, get on top of my life. Yeah, it's just they hit you so hard. And I always cry in total where the little girl goes missing. Oh, no, I just I got so much from it from Jashiro's starting point where she is.
I don't want to see just a brat because she's not a brat because she's a very nervous little girl. I don't see I got completely different from the starting point because I got so angry out of parents out of father especially because he saw. I got critical money. It's so bloody miners like, Oh, we can see me house up there.
Great. I've got the wrong turn and I'll just follow this word. No, just turn the foot ground and go the right way. And then the typical dad like, I don't know.
We'll take a short and then just through here and then they put the pull up to the bit. So they're this amazing looking like tunnel, but the statue was just locked incredible, which kind of I would get out of the car and look at was like, Oh, let's walk through this tunnel. Why? Like so you can say, you want to get to your new house, you've got moving people comment that you've got responsible.
You are sort of in this conversation right now. But yeah, but the kid was the adult though. That's the thing the kids in. Let's not do this.
It's not right. And when they get through the tunnel, it's like, Oh yeah, it's beautiful. Let's go for a walk. Why are you going through a walk?
It's just like, I think the thing is though that there is a central theme in this movie, which like is every single part of it, but we'll go into that later. But the journey for Chihiro isn't necessarily sort of, you know, we have other Jimmy films where it is like going, Hey, stop being a brat. You know, learn how life works in this one. It's her learning to go with the flow.
Like it's the idea of all these things around her that she can't control, like having to move house, leaving her school friends and stuff like that. It's the fact that at the end, the final line of the film from in the English version is no, I think I'll be fine. Like I think I'll be all right. Is her just going, Oh, I can actually, I can feel all this crazy stuff.
So I can kind of deal with her stuff. So it's more of a kind of how you deal with anxiety, rather than being selfish, like which a lot of the other films are that, but this one is. That's exactly what I took from it. One of my notes is to Chihiro's journey into the unknown and completely forgetting her own fear, because she is very scared to start with.
She's incredibly anxious. Like obviously our parents are slightly irresponsible for going into that tunnel. But it just shows that I'm not completely irresponsible. I'm not trying to get my hand in charge.
Should I put my arm in it? But the idea is that they're not, they've got the fee is not there. They're willing to walk into the unknown and just deal with what's in front of them. Where is she is quite anxious about it.
And obviously, it doesn't turn out that way, does it? And the one bit I didn't like so much was at the end and it really got us upset when it's just before she says that line and she goes to Chihiro don't talk on his, he'll make us trip over and it's like, you have no idea what this fucking girl's just been through. That's what you've got to say to her. I was so angry at that line.
I took like a different kind of thing from Chihiro's journey. I feel like just kind of like, loneliness and then she got like feeling kind of abandoned. Obviously she's got to go see my parents I think that's kind of one of the reasons why like Norface but kind of comes obsessed with her because it doesn't really have like a personality, so he takes their traits. But he can sense her loneliness and which is kind of why he's on the journey with her throughout the whole movie.
Yeah, that's it. No face to me is loneliness. Like it's the whole thing and we will be in there with this idea of just like you're in the wrong situation, you're with people, you don't really know how to deal with people, especially in the idea of North where you know we're kind of insecure people, which is why it's great having this community. But it's the idea of no face kind of going, oh he's he's on the outskirts of everything, he doesn't know how to relate to anyone, he doesn't really have a personality himself.
And then when he realizes, oh if you've got money people like you, so you become popular if you've got money and then he becomes this horrible thing, taking on the traits of these toxic people that he ingratiates himself to and become this horrible beast and then you know it's and it's there's a wonderful little statement there about sort of you know and then at the end it's like going meeting, is it, is it, is it, is it, is it, why can I have a name? Grandmother, copy and grandmother, and being like, oh this is a really much better relationship and it's, it's not a find you tribe, but that's what we were saying on checking up Northern Friday, it's the find of you know, don't force yourself to fit in with people just because they're the only ones there, find you tribe, you know. I love the fact though that North-East kind of left her alone because he sensed her kindness, she was the only one who just was completely not be kind to the point where she was like yeah just come on in, come on in. And innocence was there as well, but that's top up because I think as you said this is very much like as a start out I thought it was going to be very cute, see very childlike, but it gets dark pretty quick like like my childhood was always disturbed by the scenes from not your when the kids are turning into uh, yeah, now that's being replaced by your parents turning to them pigs, that was just horrific like that's nightmare.
If you have any kids watching that now that's going to have the same type of effect because it has that much of an impact and they were so disgusted and so like just greedy and like all of that it was just horrendous, but then not just that part, it turned into a nice bit but when she meets the guy in the furnace what was his name again, and come at you lovely lovely person but like a spider with long arms freaking out it literally is the creepiest thing I've ever seen and then as you said it as Graham said as Northius kind of morphs into different aspects and different things like the first time we're saying he just like she just walks past him like kind of hardly nor does them and the next thing he's eating the poor frog like he just walks on him and just numbs him, he goes numbs him, numbs that frog was fucking class the first meeting of the human the stinky human and he probably was all dramatic I was like oh my god there's my spirit animal right there, that frog but I want to reach that level of dramaticism. I was loved though when he surprises Johiro at the beginning and obviously breaks the spell by jumping up in front of her haku it's the fact I was like how could he just trapped him in this bubble and he's floating in this bubble like oh that's one of my favourite shots of the barrel. Um is it Kimijia? Comi, I'm not saying that right the old man with the arms was his name?
Um, I mean come on G, come on G, come on G. I've even got it brought down. He's become a Spiderman Spiderman Spiderman Spiderman Spiderman, I feel like if I watched the Japanese version he wouldn't have come across because his voice was quite kind, his um his western voice was really, really kind and I was like, oh, I don't think that would be the same effect in the Japanese one. I feel like he may come across a bit harsher.
He's harsher. His voice is a very kind of creepy and harsh and his lines aren't as sort of friendly, but I think what happens is it's like, that's a standard trait for male voices in Japan. Like, you know, it's that thing where it's like, women tend to be sort of, you know, squeaky, women tend to be sort of squeaky or nicer and then, or if it's like an old woman, it's an old woman, like the group variances at all. Yeah, I fall asleep to a lot of anime.
So then kind of angry Japanese voices are sitting down here before I go to bed. Have you ever watched, have you ever watched like Japanese X files? I've got it on the DVDs for the X files. It like has in the extras, it basically has like certain scenes, but like done from around the world seeing listened to the German one.
The German one is like good because they kind of work, but like the Japanese one is amazing because literally it's like, oh, I just got really high-fist. Oh, really? I got you. are.
This doesn't work, but that's just like Japanese voices for you. I do want to go back and watch it though with the Japanese voices because the, I was sitting before we came on, the English subtitles, some what did not meet with what was actually being said. So there was extra dialogue added in and there was some things where they taught it, something that didn't even go with the plot. And I was getting a bit confused, so I might actually watch the Japanese one at some point.
I just knew I wasn't going to today. Didn't realize how long that film was. Just ask the question. This is probably the most disturbing thing in the movie as well, is what the hell was the big baby?
Like who gives birth to that? Like if she like that popped out of like, like, like, see her vagina, that vagina has never got to be a gay woman. She's a working woman. But that was an unusual thing.
Like, I didn't get the whole big thing. I thought it was cute when you got turned into a little rodent. And then you didn't want to get changed back. I think the whole thing, okay, is that like the main part of this is that this is the underworld.
So where they are is the afterlife technically, you know, in the thing. And with a lot of Japanese, what are they called? Kaiju, you know, like spirits and ghosts and stuff. Their whole stuff for the underworld is very obscure.
So there's so many bits in it where there's only walking around, there's like certain things and you can, you know, if you know, you can kind of point at them like, oh, it's that kind of ghost or all that kind of even kind of thing just in the background. The thing is everything is very literal here. So it's the whole thing of that character is that he is a big baby. He is scared of the outside world.
He is not responsible in the slightest. He is entirely selfish and he's entirely dependent on his mother. So that is represented in the fact that he is a big baby, you know, and you know, and that's how I kind of took it that way. Where's this ideal?
And can you imagine, like, how difficult he is to look after and his size in the thing represents that, like, represents sort of going, yeah, okay, being a parent to this is going to be a so I think that's why he's that big, you know, you're going to be like, now it's all politics, not the underworld. Who should a big baby? Fuckin' Zet and Kent. Don't know how do you feel about the big baby?
The baby is creepy. I don't know if you know what, that's what it's voiced by Tara Strong and the... Really? No, I didn't know that.
I did know what is that Meg from Hercules, voice the air, the young girl who helps her. So, I'm a sort of sweet, like, I really like, like, I'm going to say it's a really sexy voice. Like, I love, you know, like, Megan Hercules, it's an amazing voice and then Lynn here, it's this wonderful, ah, it's like, it's a full 360 voice, it's a wonderful, you know, I loved that character being voiced that way. I love all the characters, like, but Lynn stood out, like, the nice ones as well.
But even the nasty ones, you, you, Baba, that was an interesting look to choose and like, for it goes like, the first time you see a kinder is when she's like, the bird, and you see the bird flying about that was just... Nobody was gonna take off with that noise, but yeah, it was just an interesting bad guy, but not really, but I love the whole idea behind it that if a human comes in, you can be controlled by losing your name, and if you get your name, then you forget you can never leave typing and that's how it keeps you trapped. And that's with, sorry, sorry, there's fun stuff with this because this is the underworld, like in Japanese folklore, the way the underworld works is basically if you take anything or if you consume anything of the underworld, you are stuck there. So the stories are basically people stumbling upon like, you know, obviously when they see the tunnel at the beginning, it's got the statue facing both ways.
It's basically a watchman being like, hey, keep the spirits in, keep the people out kind of thing, but they're too dumb and modern to like, know it, but the idea is that's why when the parents go in and they immediately start eating the food, they get trapped there, they become over the underworld, they become like, you know, distorted spirits, I guess, whereas, and that's why she starts vanishing because like, she can't exist there as like a mortal, and that's why Hakugo's, hey, eat a tiny bit of food, and that'll lock you here, but it's not gonna transform you, but it's basically, it's like anchoring you here basically. I wonder where she would have went though, because as you said, if she was just saying, if that was the underworld, where would she have gone? I don't know, I don't know if she just dies, or if she like would appear back in the real world, I don't know, like all the stories I've heard about it are like, they die in the Japanese folklore, that's lovely, it's like folktales in the UK, where you're like, oh, you were married, he died at sea. You were never seen again, you were never seen again, but I did love the spirits and seen all the different types of spirits, and the first introduction to them as well is about the start when Hakugo's trying to get her to leave, and since I'll protect you just leave before the landlands come on, and you see, because all of a sudden it was this bright blue sunny deer, and it suddenly gets dark very, very quick, it's almost like Wizard of Oz style where someone's like, turned the lights on and turned the lights off for the world, but the Latin effect was so beautiful, and so like, hypnotizing as well, when you're watching it, it kind of drew you in to the animation, that was such so well done, and so beautifully well done as well.
I kind of just, I wanted to steer that, I wanted to go to that world and kind of see, I didn't want to work in the bathhouse. Oh, I did, yeah. This is one thing, like, I want to go into like the main themes of the movie, like later, but it's the idea of that's the whole point, the whole point is how attractive this is, like how beautiful it is, and how easy it is to get lured in by this. Effectively, this is Vegas, this is like the idea of you go down, you're like, oh, this is amazing kind of thing, but the reality is, a week in, you're a crack head with no money, you know, and it's that kind of thing of going like, oh, well, and that's why the food looks so beautiful, that's why all the stalls look so wonderful, that's how the bathhouse, it's that idea of going, oh, if only I was the person rich enough to use that bathhouse, where actually, you'd be the person working there and unable to leave, like, you know, because you can't afford the train tickets, you can't, you know, and then that's deliberately so beautiful, like, you know, because I want to go there, I want to walk around those streets and eat all that food and stuff like that, but that's the trap, you know.
I did enjoy this little story telling as well, because a lot of these films are a lot of movies these years, like slap you in the fierce with a plop or slap you, like say you foreshadow what's going to happen type thing, but this one, the whole like little side, well, the side plot, the little piece, I don't know how to explain it, when Haku tells, I'm going to call a sinner, it's in better, basically, go on ask, ask for a job, and she goes to the the boiler room, ask for a job and he sends a to the witch to ask, and then she's going, oh, no, you can't have a job, and then bows down goes, ah, I hear it's that whole pledge that anyone who asks for a job I have to give, I was like, that's so clever because you could have like just forced down on throws, but it just doesn't it's subtly so kind of engaged in your thing, why does she have to ask for a job, like, why? And again, it's just very good stories on done wealth in my eyes, I'll let Donna sort of speak more about this, but part of the joy of Ghibli is like world building, like we see a movie and we see a snippet, a tiny little fraction of a whole world that you could build, like a whole lot of the rings that you could make with these worlds, and it's unlike Western storytelling where a lot of the time we go, oh, well, why does that happen? Oh, well, doesn't we didn't really think through it kind of thing. Ghibli has it when you just go like, well, like, you know, you have stuff like Kiki's delivery service where you're like, you could have make about 10 movies set in this world where these things happen and where people do this, and you know, and like same with Nausica and stuff, you could happily just keep going and do full shows with the world building because of these little details, these little sort of like, oh, yeah, that's a thing and oh, yeah, that's a thing and what is the seal?
What is Granny's seal? What does that do? We don't know, but you know for a fact that there's probably an explanation, there's probably a designer in Ghibli who's just going like, oh, yeah, we're not using any of that. Right.
Okay, never mind. Well, you don't know what you think about the world that was built? It is weird if you're saying that because when I watched it earlier, Gav turned around and said, you know, they could make a second or third one of these, it'll be amazing. And my response was, basically, something along the lines of, but they don't need to because it's just perfect as it is.
Like, I don't want a second or third one. As fun as it would be, I think all of the movies are just like perfect as they're standalone, but obviously, yeah, like, it is very well-building. Like, there's a lot of like, you could see it being a game almost, like, particularly with VR headset on and kind of being a mercenary, but yeah, like, beautiful. Imagine walking around the 3D bath ice in like, the arms of a stinks spirit comes in, the smell returns, rice and bread.
Imagine, imagine, just imagine trying to run like, no, it's just like literally on your shoulder, I'm trying to nom nom, yeah. So we can't like the characters as well, because we do get to see a lot of spirits. Like, I love the little sprites, little calls, sprites, whatever they'll call it. So they were adorable.
Like, how nicely were and like, as soon as intelligent as well, as soon as one realized, oh, if I pretend I can't carry this, all of them will get the bitch to do the work for us. Which kind of spirits do you feel like represented you? Because I know Graham asked that in the chat, and please, Paul, ask this question. I must go through a fucking, which character from this movie do you identify with?
Because there's so many of them, because last minute, like, the radish spirit. And I'm just there, like, sort of like, Leonardo DiCaprio being like, I don't know, like, it's not one thing. Like, I kind of, I think when I was younger, I could very much identify with no face this idea of like, trying to fit in and then realizing that actually, this isn't the game for me kind of thing. But I think, I think, not taking it too deep.
I kind of, yeah, I kind of identify with Camaggio a lot, like, because it's this idea of he works very hard for no reward. It's like, one of the points I was going to bring up later is the idea of like, he is essential to the whole barfos. Like, it is this idea and there is no acknowledgement at all. Like, all of the interactions with from the normal people with him is silent.
It's through the tokens in the wall and whatnot. And you barber doesn't ever refer to him, never say his name, never mentions him. She just goes, oh, you know, where did those tokens come from? Where did the water come from?
And stuff. And if this idea of that being trapped in a corporation where he's this metaphor for that worker we've all been at work, cough, goodwill, cough, where you are the one doing five people's jobs. Like, he is actually doing all of these people's jobs. He's had to grow extra arms in order to actually do all of the work he's doing.
He's getting no recognition from anyone. And, you know, how does he actually get through it? Oh, my fucking magic. You're using magic and nothing.
Like, I can't think of a better representation of nothing than such, you know, like, and it's this idea of going, we all have someone like that in the office, if it's not us, where you're the one making sure everything gets done and not getting acknowledged for it. And I think, yeah, I think there's something, there's a wonderful little message there that we can all kind of learn from. But it's a bit sad that he doesn't really get out of it at the end. Like, he kind of gives away his tickets as if to be like, oh, well, I'm trapped here forever.
So, um, you might as well live your life, you know, it's like bloody pauler in accounts or something. Just accept it. Just accept it. The next stage of my life is death.
And he's sitting there and like, okay, that's nice. Come out, you can't die. Come out, he will get his way out somewhere. We'll find a way.
That's the next story. It's come out. He's journey out of the out of the furnace. Well, you don't know who you're related to.
Originally, I was going to say in no phase two, but I think I'm not at Mars. Like, so the stink spilt that comes in, but obviously it's not a stinks spirit. It's the river spirit. That's the one I'm going for.
Because I feel like, um, like, kind of like, in a way, like my brain's cluttered and I've got all that stuff and then underneath me. So like, I feel like, if you live in all that stuff, then you kind of get like, so we need to pull out the peg to get Donna to be Donna again. That's going to need a rope tie around it. Oh, I actually, I love that answer.
Oh, that was lovely. I'm not saying that thing. Well, you do not. She's over it.
The Spain D is done. I'm not going to lie, but still. I can smell you from all the way over here. But yeah, smell the vision.
Don't just want to punch his next time she sees his. Yes. Fine. What about you, Sammy?
It's so difficult. Um, because I'm really the frog. I was going to say, you're about to use the which that makes us do all the stuff that for it. Sorry.
What you do this? Um, I don't know. It's so difficult. I can't place myself on one view and on where I would sit.
Um, so I'm going to have to pass and say, well, I'll say I'm definitely the frog the minute I saw how much that frog can be dramatic. I was like, Oh my God, it's me. I can do that. I can reach that level.
Um, so yeah, I don't really know. I don't know why it plays myself. I'm still trying it in my head to like kind of bigger this movie out. Yeah.
Well, which character would you like to be? Like, you know, not that you identify with, but you're just like, Oh, I want to be that guy. I want to be the crazy big frog guy, you know? Probably to Cheryl.
Um, I love it. Oh, because she's she's an anxious person. She's an anxious person. And she found a way to conquer each of her anxieties as she went along.
And in the end, when she's walking out the tunnel, she doesn't need to look back. I would have to look back. Yeah. And I would love to be that person who doesn't have to look back and just look forward.
So probably just just about say that your answers get a lot of love in the chat as well. So everyone's saying nice things about you. What are those things? Yeah.
Yeah. I'll probably score the most obvious one for me. And probably the one I relate to the most is probably his North because I spent most of my life trying to fit in or trying to basically be what everyone else wanted me to be. And it took us a long time to realize that that wasn't spacey, the right path or the right thing for me type thing.
Which I realized that a lot longer I probably would have got a lot more shit done in my life, which is the sad, sad state of affairs. But um, I don't know. Probably he's like who as well, because he's like the kind of the hero in the piece where he's kind of always looking out for someone or a lot of the person who needs it the most. And I always find myself kind of in that situation, right?
You're wrong. You actually, I wouldn't actually, I wouldn't ever complain about. But I do care a lot about probably too much. So I hate his old notes.
That's fine. Oh, so you've gone from loving everyone to hitting everyone in a moment. Okay. I've got to put up that facade, like say Chris, you're a dick.
So just this is actually going to a question in Chris has just prompted us in one of these comments. Paul is one of the bouncy heads. Can someone explain to me the bouncy heads? Because I couldn't figure them out.
Donna, do you know? Like it's one of these things I looked through. All of my like sort of Kaiju books and we're not kaiju books. I'm like, oh, you're kaiju.
Sorry. I've said kaiju. Yeah. But you know, and the you're kai and Yuri stuff and you're just kind of going, I have no idea what they represent.
Like this is the thing with Studio Ghibli though, where it's the idea of you, like you don't know what is folklore because we're English. We don't know what it is like, you know, like the Japanese kids being like, oh, look at it's an only and us just like, what is that? You know, that's a monster. That's a monster.
Whereas the Japanese kids are going to be like, oh, that's an only. Oh, that's a neat thing that Ghibli's like created for the movie. So I don't know. I don't even know what they represent.
Like at all, they're just a fun little beard. He has. But you know, it's one of the fact that I was going to be for an answer. Yeah.
I was in the same boat as you agree. I don't have a particular background saying that he knows. For a while, it's like the Romani, that's such a community to have like these shrunken heads. All right.
I was going to say that. Yeah. The colour's been, yeah. Kind of like today, I would be more of like a witch kind of thing.
It's more of a aesthetic thing. Of course, I like it's all the whole belief. Yeah. I don't know.
Who doesn't like three heads as well. So it's. So they're like a humongous really. They're just like I said, a minion or something that she's got because that's the fun thing about it where the fact is like that I'm going to, this is not validated at all or just about all.
But like we see that a lot of her minions take on her appearance. So like the bird has her face and stuff. And it's this idea and that's a kind of common thread where basically minions and like summon demons will try to ingratiate themselves with a master by being like, take that on. I kind of wonder if maybe that's the baby's father and the humongulai being a taking on his like appearance or whatever, because that's what they did.
But they need something. I'm just making that up. I'm just making that up. Because they're most classic hard to answer.
They're fucking weird raspberries and bouncing heads. If you look at like, if we're going to take a page out with the monsters up north side of things, when you go to the classic universe and monsters, all the big monsters have like a sidekick, like Dr. Frankenstein, how the enegor, Dracula, how the Renfield. So is the three bouncing heads, like see the witches little minion?
Like the problem is that Hakku is technically the eagle to you, you barber. Like he's the sort of the confused minion who does everything she asks kind of thing, but they're just like the black cats. You know, like our witches would have black cats, but they're like the assistant, you know, it's like the flying monkeys and the Wizard of Oz. Yeah.
It's just something of, because she is technically a witch, isn't she? Yeah. So the heads are kind of like familiar. Yeah.
I'm talking about the bouncing about being absolutely hilarious because the minute they came and I went, what the fuck did I have to everything I have already seen? I am like, what the fuck are them? It's the noise they make as well. They're like, what is this?
It will not be norfitz's noises because they were some brilliant... It is actually his first time, Chris. And I do like some of the action scenes in this as well was really well done, like especially a cartoon. Like when, uh, Chury, I'm not gonna pronounce it right.
I'm not gonna, um, when she's trying to get to the roof, when she knows Hakku's crashed up there, and she walks along that pipe, that animation there, when the pipes start going and she just starts leggin' it along was absolutely something out of the born films. It was like, absolutely brandy and getting it. It's just like, I was like, oh no, I don't know. This is all either.
But as well, like when the fantasy comes in, uh, with the element I didn't quite get, the paper planes chasing Hakku, and then it ended up, one of the paper planes attached itself to her and then started helping her. Like, what was the, was that because she broke the spell with love? I, like, I saw the paper that was the origami, that's how I, I'm sorry. I don't know enough about origami and Japanese culture at all.
But was that it is? Because you mentioned about the curse being broken. How the curse, how have you brought in the curse for the, because he saw the stamp, and that he was cursed because of it? Were they in Cheerson and because he was cursed and that her love brought that curse, and that's why it started helping her?
Well, there's two factors to it. Where basically he was sent, but well, in the English version, he goes off of his own volition. He basically goes, hey, I've learned magic from you, Baba. And now I'm going to go over to a sister granny, where I come from the name of Zebira.
Yeah. And I'm gonna steal her most like powerful artifact and take it for myself. And that's basically what he's doing. He's basically taking everything from everyone.
Where's in the Japanese one? Basically your Baba's like, well, let's frankly my sister, let's go and steal her most precious artifact. So what happens is if he steals the artifact, and then she just goes right, send my minions after him kind of thing. And then basically, so she basically creates minions, these paperbirds, or whatever to go after her.
But the reason why he is kind of, well, the curse that makes him die, obviously, makes him die is obviously like from her because he took the seal. And on the seal, there is a curse and if you take it, and that's what love breaks. So love man, I just to break that curse because naturally, granny beating the good witch out of the two of them goes, hey, only good people can break my magic. And then it's kind of fine.
But then what she accidentally does is she actually ends up taking his electric collar off effectively, you know, like by getting rid of that bug that was inside of which you barber put into control. Yeah. So she handed so the medicine from the river spirit, frees him from you barber and her love frees him from Zebira. Granny, yeah, I'm the googler.
The reaction of Granny though, when she read when she tells her that she stood on the bug and squished it and she just bursts up like a lap and like, you did what? Brilliant. I did love the revelation of Hakula when you find out he is the who he is and the connection that he has to her because he says I've known you for like many years. And you don't really, it's set at the beginning and it's almost like the doorway comment because it's not really, I didn't pick up on it any other time throughout the entirety of the movie until the very end when she really realizes who he is.
Yeah, done as not an agreement there. I was into years. When it starts to break away and it's just him and they just going down the side. When she remembers his name and frees him from that place as well.
And it's the wonderful thing of like this different forms of love. Like the fact that they are truly in love with each other, but it doesn't need to be boy and girl sexual kind of thing, like this standard kind of thing. It's the idea all in a metaphysical world, the fact of your love for something you enjoy or an idea or an emotion can be like an end. It's powerful.
Yeah, and I like that because we don't talk about that enough. We don't talk about how much we love our friends as much as, or how much we love particular things as much as we go. Oh, well, oh they're in love. Well, it has to be a sexual thing.
Oh yeah, it has to be romantic, I clearly. And it wasn't. You could tell there was genuine love there, but it wasn't of the romantic style. Yeah, and Graham's just done like a really good point there as well.
And it's such a sad state for the society that it's deemed as unusual or wrong to tell. Someone that you love them in a platonic or even in a friend way as well. Like I know, like with you guys, like say, here's the best, but I'll tell you as I love you as more than probably as I tell you. It should be normal.
Yeah. That's what we should be doing though. It should be normalizing telling people or telling, like, even just people telling things like, I love you, lamp. I love you.
Yeah. Do you really love the lamp, Paul? Not today. Not today.
Not today. It's it's it's vexing me today. Vamp, but I think it's. I'm literally just writing a tournament because Chris Googled it for us.
Which is great. But yeah, I think that's a quite a beautiful message in this movie as well. It's just normalizing telling someone or telling or telling like being in love with something and not being scared to show that love as well. Yeah.
But that's the nerdy thing. It's the idea of going, hey, you know, we grew up being like, oh, we can't talk that we like anime or we can talk about like, well, I'm or whatever, because we'll get bullied or whatever. It's this idea of being like, no, fuck that. You know, into what you're into, you know.
Don't be ashamed of it. You know, and if you're with people who will make you feel ashamed for things you like, you're with the wrong people. I think we've all learned that lesson. You know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you're just having a week.
So trying to think as well though, because like at the end, the whole, I love the whole, you've, you've, still tries to follow over by. Because you try to twice, it's like, haha, you've come back when you've not brought my baby, you're trapped. And then the baby took like from the little scrolling wrapped thing, turns into the baby going, says, hi, honey, I like her be nice to her. We've been weird all weird.
And she goes, no, no, she's got to pass my final test. And to try, even then she tries to trigger as well. So she's been a conniving bitch, even towards the end as well. This is the weird thing, because like I say, she is nastier in the Japanese blood version with the English subtitles.
But then this is the changing point. Well, at the end, she's nicer than the Japanese one, because basically there's a lot of stuff in Asian magic. Like I was saying, I was going to say earlier, like Asian magic, like Eastern magic is, there's a big focus on writing things down in the paper. So a lot of the time, like curses or protection spells will be written on paper and then put over doors.
So if you want to protect your house from like evil, you basically put the spell onto paper and put it onto your door. You know, and basically there's a lot of things like that. And that's why there's paper birds, because it's basically going, yeah, that's basically a cheaper than efficient way of making millions, rather than eating cats and rice and stuff like that. It's quite resourceful.
But then at the end of the film, in the Japanese version, she goes, hey, the rules of magic are that I can't actually let you out without testing you. And I don't want to, but I kind of have to because those are the rules of magic. And that's why she does it. So she does it in a very grudging way of going, I'm sorry, kids, you know, like, I'm sorry, baby, I'm gonna, like, you know, I just need to do this.
Whereas obviously in English version, it's very much a kind of like, I'm gonna fuck you over one last time. So there's never a little difference between the two versions. But it's that weird thing of like magic has rules. Like it's not like Harry Potter, where it's like, why don't you just kill everyone?
Yeah, I mean, you've got that one. Yeah, there's gonna kill everyone. You've got that one curse. Everyone knows it.
Everyone can see it. Why aren't you just saying it constantly? Anyways, and I can't say it properly in the film. It's like, I can't, that's not your sense.
I can't. Oh, good. Oh, good. Yeah, then, but then Voldemort really goes on.
I'm just trying to say that with no, no, it's so funny. And I did love it though, when she, even when she's standing in front of the pigs, even amseering, they're not in there. Yeah. That's like the final test, like they're not there.
And then the when the paper poofs out of her hand is our reaction to fuck. She did have some of the best reactions throughout this old film. I absolutely, I know I'm not meant to, but I really liked her. I felt like, and especially me watching English one, she was fair.
She was stern, but she was also fair at the same time. Was she the same in the dark news when she just meme throughout? She's mean, but the fact is she's like, she's consistent. So it's this idea of like, she doesn't really have a reason to like Chihiro.
Like the whole thing is she's a businesswoman. Like it's the whole thing of going, how does any of this help me? Yeah. And that's why the bits where she comes over and she kind of like starts liking Chihiro and getting invested are when she's benefiting.
So when she helps the river spirit, she's like, oh, we made so much money. And then obviously when they've got no face, it's like, oh my god, he's loaded. This is amazing. Go and help him.
You know, these are things she has driven by profit. Yeah. That is the only way to win a round. Where's Zaneba, thank you notes and Christopher, and he's driven by sort of love and compassion, is kind of like, that's why I don't know if she says it in the English one, but in the Japanese one, she describes how she and her sister are different halves of the same coin than men to be opposites.
So, you know, you bother is meant to be the evil or selfish one and Zaneba is meant to be the sort of kind and selfless one. Great. Just to see as well, because like one of the things I did notice, and again, I'm Grim's like, I'm gonna laugh at this, always gonna hear this forever. Um, did you ever like model for any of the studio ghibli characters in this screen?
Because I'm just gonna put a picture up. Like this is just that is so close. I was like, look at him. Oh my god, this is my SullyCon.
This is my SullyCon cosplay. Oh my god, yes. I'm gonna be a dick. I was like, do I see anything?
It's just a judge. I was like, it reminds me of so much of your pleasure. I was like, I just love it. He doesn't want the guys who get swallowed by no face.
I think so. Yes, he gets. He gets. He gets.
He gets. He gets back out later on. No time. It's, I don't know.
Oh, but um, that's not in my opinion. I was gonna say he's like the foreman, you know, who refuses to give him, uh, Chihiro bath tokens. Like, uh, yes. Yeah, but it's not cos he's like a.
Oh, no, he's a. Yeah, he's a frog man. Yeah, he's a frog man. See, this is one thing I wanted to mention about it, which is the idea of like a lot of this film kind of goes into like the spirit world in terms of like reincarnation and stuff.
And a lot of the demons you kind of going, what? You know, you've got people who are humans and people who have been born in the other world as humans. So even though Haku was a river, they appear as a human, whereas some of them appear as frog people, some of them are actual frogs, and some of them are like, you know, and it's this kind of idea of what were they in a previous life that they are this. So the humans, obviously people who have been good people in a previous life, whereas obviously the frogs are pretty like nastier people, I assume and whatnot.
And it's like an interesting thing that they, because there's a lot of concepts in this, like Buddhism and whatnot, such as the distinct spirit. It's the idea of going, hey, this is literally a beautiful spirit of a, you know, it's weird in the Japanese, it calls them a famous spirit. Whereas in the English, it calls them a, um, like a rich and powerful spirit. Like a elder.
Yeah, yeah, he's like this elder, like the sort of Buddhist monk effectively, who has turned into something horrible because of physicality, because of things from the world. So basically he's been bogged down by physical possessions, the stuff that you're meant to get, you know, not gets drawn in by in Buddhism. And that's how they do it. They basically go, hey, we get his soul in the afterlife, and we take away all of the bullshit that it's collected in life, such as like, you know, bicycles and, you know, money and stuff like that.
And it makes him a cool creature. You know, and it's, and it's, and it's that like fun little thing that these themes are visited in it, but you don't know if it's like a special thing, or if it's just Japanese people being like, oh yeah, book is it cool. Just all the other people are yanking your toy collection away when you go into the afterlife. I don't want to get all of this shit.
Let me keep my leaves going away, kid. Just a question to Donna as well, because with the merchandise side of things, I've seen other Jubilee or Ghibli items and stuff that you can buy, like Teddies and stuff, from what I've watched the movie, I've not seen many things from this movie that you can pick up, which is quite unusual, especially with like how unusual and interesting a lot of the characters looked and failed. I don't know, with you doing something kind of with your salon like that merchandise as well, was there a lot of merchandise with it? Mossaw and the Sutt sprites and North Face really, but nothing compared to like Torteiro and Ponyo and stuff like that.
I don't really see that much. Like I've got a North Face that's going to take a time to get to come on. I've got a little Sutt sprite over there, which is an official one, but I think the merely focus on the Sutt sprites. Right, because I think the Japanese stuff tends to focus on cute things.
So it's the sort of thing where when you have like Totoro or Ponyo or like sort of Gigi, the cat from Kiki's delivery service and stuff, or no face in this one, that's what they focus on. And you could do tons of stuff, like you could do a Lego set for the Vartos. You could do sort of like all these amazing things, but like all of the merch needs to be Japanese style merch and they tend to go for stuff of a cute character that could be a keyring or something. But they must have loads of stuff at Ghibli World for this.
I didn't get to go. I tried to go and I went to Japan and they were like, we are booked up for the next two months. You should have planned better. But I've got to make these go on sometimes to ask them like, do they have tons of stuff for it?
But I think it's like on a Saze, it's all of the merch is basically either Lapita or Totoro. Basically, seeing as well, like videos and images that they've done a clear, there's actually a clear of this as well. I'm sorry, the live action. Yeah, that's on that, wasn't it?
Yeah, like August. I went to have a look at the tickets and I was like, oh, I don't even know what this is. Yeah, it's at the time looking at the tickets for a stage show. I'd love to go to that though.