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My neuroscience brain is so happy and so amused at the same time

Inhibiting the frontal lobes usually just makes you give in to the natural impulses that you suppress, you intelligent fools!

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Doctor Slump 닥터슬럼프 (2024) Dir. Oh Hyun Jong – Episode 4

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I'm interested in you ✖️

I'm infected by you ✅️

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BOH the mouse

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the tradegy of charles finding out that the first major decision he had made in his life was an orchestrated test by his father that his mother knowingly let him walk into because she knew she could only save one of her sons from their father

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I love a show that gives me characters deep enough to analyze

I love that this entire show builds off of the unaddressed unavoidable tension between the two titular brothers

You have Daddy’s Perfect Little Soldier who has been abandoned by his mother and actually brainwashed and made into a weapon, seeing his little brother live a normal life in the normal world with the very same mother. He sees his mother prioritize his brother over him. He sees exactly who he could be and the only reaction he knows is to despise it but you KNOW there’s some part of him that’s deeply envious

And then you have Mama’s Boy who suddenly finds out he’s been lied to his whole life and probably suddenly feels a huge disconnect from his culture and language and family heritage, because those are all wrapped up together, and he knows he’s the lucky one because he looks at what has happened to his brother and knows it would have happened to him too if he stayed. So he feels guilty and responsible for Charles, but even more for taking their mother away from Charles….

It’s like the worst Fucked Up version of The Parent Trap and they STILL love each other and put family first….

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I am thankful I am fluent in mandarin and cantonese since so much is layered within the words chosen in each of the interactions.

This whole thing is a masterpiece and so deeply enriched by the Chinese culture of tradition and the life of an immigrant. Of the practical frugality and the love shown in actions and care-filled food.

Just to speak on the meaning of food in Chinese culture and how Charles Sun's joy for life comes through most when he is baking. A toxic embodiment of all things traditional and masculine, is shining most when his hands create and bring the very essence of love in a very nonverbally demonstrative culture.

In this essay...

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the brothers sun is like here's our action dramedy about triads and power struggle then it hits you hard with the complex nature of familial relationships; like the eldest is bearing the weight of the family's legacy and is his father's greatest weapon, the youngest has been sheltered from the truth of their family's history and is his mother's greatest joy (and her greatest weakness), neither has ever been given a choice regarding their life path, they briefly resent what the other brother represents, they love each other to the point of willing to do anything to protect the other, they want the other to have a good life where they can finally choose for once and each are willing to make sacrifices to make that happen

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June & The Suns

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Sobbing this show is so fucking good because each character is purely motivated by the mantra “Protect the family” but they each interpret it in wildly different ways and almost every conflict in the show happens because of how these interests actually conflict……

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Obsessed how in Ghibli films, you can never go back to the magical world you've visited - the gate closes, the era ends and we will never be who we once were during the adventure! And that's life, it just goes on

And in this one too, Mahito leaves the tower and it crumbles behind him, but he can still remember? In this one, he carries the memento with him, not unlike Chihiro and her charmed hair-tie, but it's framed in this kind way - 'You're not supposed to remember, and you must forget, but you can carry it with you for a while yet' and this gentleness absolutely fucking ruins me.

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i keep thinking about the boy and the heron / how do you live and how at the end the grand uncle asks mahito to build a new world with the stones because only someone truly good supposedly can create a good world. and how mahito says he can’t touch the stones and can’t build a new world because the injury and scar he gave himself are a visible reminder that he is not solely good and has the capability to be bad as well. and how that is such a human thing, such a thing about growing up, where you realise the world you live in and you as a person aren’t entirely good or entirely evil but a little bit of both. but returning to that world is still worth your time, no matter how deep you wander into yourself or another idealised fantasy altogether.

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A heart’s a heavy burden to bear

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With The Boy and the Heron, Miyazaki really said: I accept that my legacy is out of my control, that my children may not be my successors, that this tremendous monument I've built with a lifetime of toil, this fiery blessing that simply fell out of the sky, may not continue without me, In fact, it may crumble to dust, I accept it because my children and their children are alive and well, in this imperfect world, and thats enough. Yes, I accept that this is the end, but God damn, I'll go out with a bang.

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How Do You Live?

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studio ghibli movies must have:

old ladies

cool lesbian aunt

gorgeous forest/garden

little guys