Ghost of a flea: Gedo Senki

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October 27, 2006

Gedo Senki

The studio responsible for My Neighbour Totoro and Spirited Away offers more myth in the form of Tales from Earthsea, an adaptation of Ursula Le Guin's famous franchise. The trailers look promising. I loved this world as a kid but I still draw the line at getting sucked into My Neighbour Totoro.

The tale takes place in Earthsea, an archipelago of innumerable islands. After two dragons appear, this world starts to experience strange phenomena, such as raging seas and withering plants. Ged, a wise wizard, sets out on a journey to find the cause of these problems and meets Arren, a young prince who has rejected his homeland by killing his father, the king, and running away. The story traces the development of Arren as he travels with Ged against a constant backdrop of life and death. This epic film marks the directorial debut of Miyazaki Goro, who is the son of acclaimed director Miyazaki Hayao and used to work as the director of the Ghibli Museum.

Hence the Japanese title; more martial than its English equivalent. Note to self: Must get round to watching the Earthsea adaptation that triggered a bun-fight between Le Guin and Sci Fi Channel a while back.

The literal translation of the Japanese is "GED military history" or "A military history of GED". A more sensible translation is "Ged's war chronicle" or "Ged's history of the war". The official English title is "Tales from Earthsea".

Posted by Ghost of a flea at October 27, 2006 10:27 AM

Comments

Mein Freund, you are missing out in supreme weirdness by skipping Toturo. I like most of what Ghibli produces. Spirited away is most cool.

I loved the earthsea books as a teen and the Sci-Fi channel version kinda sucked.

Posted by: Gorthos at October 29, 2006 06:58 AM