Above goes the wind

I discovered the animated films of Studio Ghibli as an adult: they fascinated me right away.

Part of the appeal stems from their apparent simplicity: no fuss or baroque, the stories arrive like a train at the Empathy station. Sometimes, too, without quite understanding what path they follow to arrive so punctually and deliver their loads of meaning.

Rice paddies, over which the wind blows, are a topos of Studio Ghibli's films: a green sea where swift waves form. Add on top of it some dragonflies, and white butterflies with their Brownian motions, and out come scenes that, seen from here, can only have come out of the author's imagination.

Instead.

Leaving Tokyo for Chizu, I soon found myself immersed in movie scenes. A situation of asking for pinches to make sure I was awake. Not that I felt like I was dreaming, rather it was like, slowly, walking off the screen of the movies and realizing, bit by bit, that it was all real.