The film My Neighbor Totoro (となりのトトロ Tonari no Totoro, lit. “Totoro the Neighbor”) written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki and produced by Studio Ghibli . This film, which I never get tired of watching both for its characters, for the wonderful images, and for the soundtrack composed by Joe Hisaishi which for the song Tonari no Totoro composed by Miyazaki himself which has become so famous in Japan as to be taught in schools, tells the story of two sisters, Satsuki and Mei who move with their father to Tokorozawa, a small country village in the prefecture of Saitama about 30 km from Tokyo, to be closer to the mother who is hospitalized. Thus began their adventure to discover nature and rural life.
Arriving at their new home, they are very excited and Mei, browsing through the various rooms, sees the blacks of the dark, soot sprites who occupy the abandoned houses, then she heads into the garden where she meets two long-eared sprites, one very small with white fur and a bigger and blue one and following them is found in the woods where Totoro lives a troll, in Japanese tororu, which the girl calls Totoro by mispronouncing the name; finally one evening she and her sister see the cat bus (nekobus) arrive, a furry bus with a cat’s face and 12 legs that moves at great speed overcoming any obstacle and the trees move as it passes. These characters, especially Totoro and the Gattobus, reveal themselves in the most difficult moments for the girls, in those in which they feel most alone and in difficulty, and only they can see them.
Two very important topics for Miyazaki are intertwined in the story: his mother’s illness, an autobiographical topic because the master’s mother also fell ill and was forced to spend a long time in hospital, seen with the ingenuity and light-heartedness of Mei, a four-year-old girl years old, as opposed to her sister who being eleven years old is apprehensive and aware of what is happening in their family and respect for the environment, for nature and for life in the countryside. Thanks to the extraordinary representation of the landscape and the various interventions of Totoro, guardian and protector of the forest, the viewer has the opportunity to reflect on the fact that it is essential for people to coexist with nature. The film is set in a Satoyama that is a natural environment that offers habitats and natural resources such as food, timber … nothing is thrown away or wasted, for example the straw left over after the rice harvest is used to make roofs or as food for animals and also in this place there is the wisdom of the elderly and specifically Mia and her sister are lucky enough to be looked after by a grandmother, their neighbor, who helps them to evaluate the various situations that life poses in a prudent and balanced way in front of them.
In recent weeks in Italy there is a fire emergency, the fires are often arson, the flames are threatening inhabited centers, people’s lives and biodiversity. Legambiente explains that in Italy, from the beginning of the year to 27 July, 51,386 hectares equivalent to over 73,408 football pitches went up in smoke. We should stop, use our imagination, think about it together with Totoro, look at things with the astonished eyes of children and reflect on the fact that the environment around us is to be respected and loved and that we often behave selfishly, treating nature as if it were our property with which to do whatever we want, thinking that it is at our disposal in an inexhaustible way, until “the spirits of the woods” protectors of the natural environment will rebel and make us pay the bill.
By Valeria Turino