How a pair of bloomers added an entire theme to Kiki's Delivery Service OR: the conclusions we draw when we've watched a beloved movie too many times

This is really dumb and super oddly specific. Have you ever watched a movie like a hundred times and you have cross-analyzed it backwards and forwards to the point where you aren't even sure if you're reading way deeper into it than it really ever was meant to be? That's this movie for me. Read on for details I guess

A facebook Ghibli fanpage posted a silly list of oversimplified descriptions of various Ghibli films.

Kiki's Delivery Service was summarized as "too many bloomer shots" and it gave me pause, because it's something I've thought about a lot.

Kiki's Delivery Service does not have too many bloomer shots. It has exactly the right amount of them.

First of all, bloomers are just underpants that go over your underwear. You're not supposed to see them specifically, but they exist so you don't see something you're really not supposed to see.

And in this movie, bloomers provide a necessary channel for natural movement which in turn drives the direction of this movie. It allows Kiki, a 13 year old, to fly and fall through the air candidly and innocently as a 13 year old would: clumsily and with abandon. It allows for some really great cinematic shots with interesting perspectives, but most importantly it allows a degree of awareness. The viewer can see the spectacle that she creates for the people in her universe, bloomers and all. We see her as they do.

And this is the theme. Kiki is a girl that feels like a bit of an outcast, and they frame this so beautifully: in the beginning of the film she passes another witch as she flies towards her unknown destination. Flying is not unique to her, flying is normal. To her, she is nothing special. Yet being a witch separates her from being a normal girl. She feels like a weirdo. This juxtaposition exists in pretty much every girl on the planet and it's captured so perfectly here that it almost blows my mind at times.

However, to the viewer and all of the people she meets, she is a goddamn marvel. She literally flies through the air, soaring above them.

And without bloomers? Avoid shots from beneath her, have her sit funny, or make it so somehow she always has the grace to keep her dress firmly in place all the time.

Bloomers were crucial to the successful depiction of this theme. And also, it adds a little extra depth to the idea that she's old-fashioned. I am mad about the bloomers. I think anyone that's uncomfortable about the bloomers is kinda projecting preconceived notions of fanservice. It's certainly not the intent of the direction, at the very least.

Also I'm probably super biased because I literally have a drawing of kiki wearing bloomers tattooed on my arm

Anyway, what movie have you seen too many times that you never get your share your random rants about?

Submitted November 05, 2017 at 03:54PM by valicat http://ift.tt/2hGUVMD