Even though The Castle of Cagliostro is one of Miyazaki's first films, it is still very entertaining with a bunch of different elements, including festive, nostalgic, and apocalyptic themes. These were all pretty obvious in the sequences shown in class: the opening scene of robbing the casino is festive, the flashback scene is nostalgic, and the destruction of the castle and the tidal waves are apocalyptic. What I found interesting is that at the end of the film, the heroes do not end up with immense fortune as what is expected. Instead, they leave with exactly what they had when they arrived, aside from new friendships and experiences. This "happy ending" is very different compared to mainstream American cinema where the heroes always end up with treasure at the end of the film. A perfect example of this would be National Treasure where the heroes obtained riches for finding the lost artifacts. In Cagliostro, even though Lupin "found" an ancient civilization, he had no desire to become rich from it. Perhaps this is just a difference in story, or it could be a difference in culture.
8.0
No comments:
Post a Comment