Monday, August 24, 2009  Pondering Ponyo  (There are spoilers
below.)  When I first watched Hayao Miyazaki's latest feature
Ponyo, I thought it was another of Miyazaki's ecological fables.
Based on Nausicaa and Princess Mononoke, it wouldn't be
surprising to once again see Miyazaki dealing with humans'
relationship to the environment. However, a second viewing and
much thought has led me to the conclusion that the ecological
elements are something of a MacGuffin, Hitchcock's term for an
excuse to set the characters in motion when the director's real
interest is somewhere else.  Miyazaki's subject here is love,
though not romantic love and certainly not sexual love. What the
characters in this film are missing is devotional love. Just
about every character in this film has been abandoned in one way
or another.  The nursing home that Sosuke's mother Lisa works at
is next door to a school (or is it a pre-school?). In each case,
the old and the young have been isolated from the world of
adults. The old women in t