The first recording today is the Studio Ghibli classic My Neighbour Totoro. According to my daughter, who’s learning Japanese on Duolingo, this main title says “Totoro” three times.
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The film is about two young girls, Satsuki and Mei, who have moved with their father to a rural part of Japan, while their mother is in hospital with an unspecified condition. Here they’re pushing the rotten beams of part of the outside. I joked to my daughters that this whole film from this point is the hallucination of one of the girls who was dying because a huge wooden beam fell on their head. But it’s a much nicer film than that, I promise.
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The house is a bit strange. There’s Soot Gremlins.
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One of their neighbours is a young boy, Kanta, who seems unable to actually talk to the girls. But he does tell her the house is haunted.
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They visit their mother in hospital with whatever is wrong with her. This takes place a reasonably long time ago, so it could easily be something like consumption.
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This is quite adorable. “Dad, you be the flower shop.”
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But there’s definitely something strange around here. Mei sees this strange creature and follows it.
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She follows it to a huge tree, and eventually finds Totoro.
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When Satsuki comes home from school she goes looking for Mei, and finds her asleep in the tunnel of trees she followed to get to Totoro’s tree. When she tries to take them there they end up back at their own house. The tunnel doesn’t go anywhere now.
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One day it’s raining really hard. Satsuki and Mei take an umbrella down to the bus stop to wait for their father, who forgot to take an umbrella to work. But he’s not on his usual bus. It gets late. Mei is tired and falling asleep on Satsuki’s shoulders. Then Totoro arrives and waits next to them. Sastsuki is surprised at first, then, because it’s raining so hard, she offers him the spare umbrella.
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Then Totoro’s ride arrives. It’s a Cat Bus. He gives them a small present and leaves.
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The present is a lot of seeds wrapped up in a leaf. They plant them in the garden, then that night, they see Totoro again. They go out and start making the seeds sprout.
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They do more than sprout – they start shooting into the air.
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Then Totoro starts a spinning top, and Mei and Satsuki grab on as he flies them around, and they end up at the top of the tree playing ocarinas. Next morning they’re disappointed to wake up and find no tree there, but delighted to find their seeds have indeed sprouted.
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After doing some vegetable picking with Granny, the local lady who helps them with the house, Kanta brings them a telegram. It’s from their mother’s hospital asking them to contact the hospital immediately. Satsuki goes with Kanta to his uncle’s house, where there’s a telephone. Mei follows them but gets lost.
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She finds them walking home. Satsuki tells her that their mother has got worse and won’t be coming to their house to visit at the weekend.
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Later Granny comes to tell Satsuki that her mother just has a cold, but Satsuki cries because she’s scared her mother will die. Mei sees them talking. Then she runs away with the corn she picked to give to her mother.
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Satsuki and Granny can’t find Mei. Satsuki thinks Mei might have run to the hospital. She runs off to find her on the way, but there’s no sign, and it’s a long way to the hospital. Kanta arrives on his bicycle to tell her that all the villagers are out looking for her, but they found a sandal in the pond. They don’t know if it’s Mei’s.
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She runs all the way back. She tells them that the sandal isn’t Mei’s.
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Satsuki has nowhere else to turn so she runs to where Mei told her the tunnel to Totoro’s tree was, and asks it to take her there. She finds Totoro and begs him to help her find Mei. It occurred to me that this shot wouldn’t be out of place in a horror film, but here it’s a warm and loving moment.
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He takes her to the top of the tree and calls the Cat Bus. The destination sign flips around until it reads “Mei” and Satsuki gets on.
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The Bus finds Mei, who’s just lost.
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Then it takes them to the hospital where they can see their mother, who did only have a cold. And just to prove this was all real, they even leave the corn for their mother.
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Media Centre Description: Animated family movie from Japan about two young girls who go to the country to live with their father in his large house. Here they discover a collection of extraordinary creatures known as the Totoros, who educate the girls about the nature that surrounds them.
Recorded from Film4 on Sunday 16th December 2007 14:53
The recording stops with the start of a Cary Grant thriller The Talk of the Town.
The next recording is (for some reason) 13 minutes of Earth: The Power of the Planet – Oceans.
Media Centre Description: Geography series with Dr Iain Stewart. Iain travels to surfers’ paradise Hawaii to learn more about oceans, explaining the difference between waves, tides and currents. In the Amazon, he rides the world’s longest tidal bore. In the beginning, there were no oceans: they are thought to have gradually formed from volcano steam and melted comet ice. Change continues today: a new sea is forming in Ethiopia, which will separate East Africa from the mainland, and the Mediterranean is drying up.
Recorded from BBC TWO on Sunday 16th December 2007 19:05
BBC Genome: BBC TWO Sunday 16th December 2007 19:00
The final recording today starts with the end of Father Ted.
Then there’s Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip – K & R Part Three which we saw a few days ago.
Media Centre Description: Drama series about a late-night comedy sketch show. Harriet and Danny feel helpless as fears mount that Jordan may have suffered an infection. Jack tries to pressure Simon into issuing an apology.
Recorded from More 4 on Monday 17th December 2007 00:08
After this, there’s the start of Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Here’s the ad breaks from My Neighbour Totoro.
Here’s the ad breaks from Studio 60.
Adverts:
- Country Life
- Garnier Nutrisse – Davina McCall
- Beautiful by Estee Lauder
- MFI
- Smirnoff
- trail: Pan’s Labyrinth
- trail: Coming Up on Film 4
- trail: Sleepy Hollow
- Specsavers
- LG
- Sony Centre
- L’Oreal Elvive
- Homebase
- Dior Midnight Poison – Eva Green
- The Company on DVD
- Philips arcitec
- iPhone
- World Vision
- trail: Pan’s Labyrinth
- J’Adore – Charlize Theron
- Waterstone’s
- LG
- Articulate
- L’Oreal Derma Genesis
- Beechams All In One
- L’Oreal Casting
- Marks & Spencer
- Fahrenheit 32
- Threshers
- Super Mario Galaxy
- Alvin and the Chipmunks in cinemas
- Smirnoff
- Beechams All In One
- L’Oreal Derma Genesis
- Sainsbury’s
- World Vision
- Givenchy – Ange ou Demon
- Mock The Week Too Hot For TV
- Philips arcitec
- trail: Y tu Mama Tambien
- trail: Coming Up on Film 4
- Schweppes
- Friends Scene It
- PC World
- Ardal O’Hanlon Live In Dublin on DVD
- trail: True Stories: ABC Colombia
- trail: Pan’s Labyrinth
- Comet
- Threshers
- TomTom
- Samsung G800
- Dyson
- Co-op
- Homebase
- World Vision
- Armani Code
- Articulate
- Rennie Dual Action
- Olympus Tough
- trail: Unveiled: Un Homme Perdu
- trail: True Stories: ABC Colombia
- Deal or No Deal DVD Game
- Fahrenheit 32
- The Famous Grouse
- PC World
- iPhone
- Philips arcitec
- Peugeot 308
- Get Set for Digital
- Givenchy – Liv Tyler
- Threshers
- trail: Come Dine With Me
- iPhone
- Marks & Spencer
- VO5
- J’Adore – Charlize Theron
- Strepsils
- Lacoste
- Dyson
- PC World
- Kelloggs Optivita
- Country Life
- Big Brain Academy for Wii
- Baileys
- Sainsbury’s
- Ardal O’Hanlon Live In Dublin on DVD
- PG Tips
- H. Samuel
- LG
- Carling
- Friends Scene It
- trail: Unveiled: Un Homme Perdu
- Santa on his carbon footprint