I just saw this awesome movie! This Korean guy tries to commit suicide by jumping into a river from a bridge. He doesnt die, but washes ashore and island in sight of skyscrapers. The island turns out late in the movie to be a nature preserve, but he only wants to get out at first, in order to jump off a building. He cant swim, so he cant get off the island and is forced to find his own food. His first revelation is when he finds wild annual sage and knows to suck nectar out of them because he learned to do that as a child. The experience of living by his own efforts brings him to a new understanding of the worth of life and himself. In the process, he ends up healing the mental illness of a woman who happens to see him with her long range camera lens. She is inspired by his emotional trials to go outside of her room for the first time in three years in order to communicate with him (which consists of throwing a bottle with a note in it from the bridge). Oh, its called Castaway on the Moon.
What movies do you guys like?
I just saw this awesome movie! This Korean guy tries to commit suicide by jumping into a river from a bridge. He doesnt die, but washes ashore and island in sight of skyscrapers. The island turns out late in the movie to be a nature preserve, but he only wants to get out at first, in order to jump off a building. He cant swim, so he cant get off the island and is forced to find his own food. His first revelation is when he finds wild annual sage and knows to suck nectar out of them because he learned to do that as a child. The experience of living by his own efforts brings him to a new understanding of the worth of life and himself. In the process, he ends up healing the mental illness of a woman who happens to see him with her long range camera lens. She is inspired by his emotional trials to go outside of her room for the first time in three years in order to communicate with him (which consists of throwing a bottle with a note in it from the bridge). Oh, its called Castaway on the Moon. What movies do you guys like?
wow thanks, this sounds awesome!
There’s a really good French movie called “The Sorceress” (La Sorciere). It’s set in the 1500’s, I believe, and it’s about a monk working for the Inquisition coming to a small town and giving the local herbalist a bunch of crap about being a heretic. I feel like it speaks to the issue of rewilding because it’s like the origin of when we began to be officially disconnected, or afraid to be connected because we’d get “in trouble.” The herbalist is completely in tune with nature, the seasons, the people’s needs, etc., and the monk is operating purely on doctrine and religious law, which means he’s completely out of touch with reality. They have some fascinating discussions, and some really eye opening things happen. For example, this one guy gets in trouble with royalty and is imprisoned. His wife comes to see him, bringing their infant child along. The guy is being starved to death for his punishment, so the guards check the wife to make sure she’s not smuggling food in. When she gets in there, she takes his weakened head into her lap and breastfeeds him. To me, it’s the most in your face, awesome scene of making use of whatever resources you have in a survival situation, and also fooling people who are too out of touch to realize what’s going on, because obviously she had an infant with her, so of course she “has food”… Anyway, worth watching, for sure.
Spirited Away is my favorite. My children love My Neighbor Totoro, but are frightened of Spirited Away. One thing I like about Miyazaki movies is that spirits are real things in the real world and you never know when you may come across one. A very animist point of view.
Totally. I love those movies!
And The Sorceress sounds pretty cool, too. Ima have to check it out.
I was just thinking of Spirited Away last night. I’m more a fan of Princess Mononoke, but Spirited Away is really good too.
One of my faves: Jeremiah Johnson (1972 Robert Redford)
"This tale of isolation in the great rocky mountains, perhaps reflects America’s mood as the Vietnam war was coming to a close as much as anything else. Johnson, seemingly war weary, yet with a sense of respect for indigenous cultures as if one informs the other. The only thing he seems to want is to share utopia with those who were there before him and perhaps leave his implied past behind. But even in the vacuum of an isolated life, Jeremiah Johnson seems doomed by threads to culture he cannot completely escape. As with “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” one can’t help but feel that along with Indians and animals with which he shares the land, “A Brave New World will soon rush in and overrun them all.”
I really liked Jeremiah Johnson as well. I love the slower pacing of the film, and the beautiful nature shots. More inspiring for mountain man adventures than a rewilding culture, but inspirational nonetheless. In a similar vain is The Outlaw Josey Wales. More of a western than mountain man movie, but it has similar themes related to rewilding.