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Overview Mamoru Fujisawa (藤澤 守 Fujisawa Mamoru, born December 6, 1950), known professionally as Joe Hisaishi (久石 譲 Hisaishi Jō), is a Japanese composer and musical director known for over 100 film scores and solo albums dating back to 1981. Hisaishi is also known for his piano scores. While possessing a stylistically distinct sound, Hisaishi’s music has been known to explore and incorporate different genres, including minimalist, experimental electronic, European classical, and Japanese classical. Lesser known are the other musical roles he plays; he is also a typesetter, author, arranger, and conductor. Joe Hisaishi’s name began to become well known after the anime works by cartoon artist Miyazaki Hayao. Joe wrote music for all of Miyazaki’s films including Ponyo (2008), Spirited Away (2001), Howl’s Moving Castle (2004), Princess Mononoke (1997), My neighbor Totoro (1988), and Nausicaä of Wind Valley (1984). In addition, he wrote music for film producer Takeshi Kitano with film...

25 JUL The brilliant Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki may have retired from feature filmmaking but his influence is evident in every frame of Mary And The Witch’s Flower. Director Hiromasa Yonebayashi worked with Miyazaki on several Studio Ghibli titles (among them Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle) and the new film is very much in their vein. This is one of several Japanese animated features with western stories and settings. Based on Mary Stewart’s 1971 book, The Little Broomstick, it’s about a little, red-haired English girl, Mary (voiced by Ruby Barnhill), stuck for the summer in the countryside with her kindly great-aunt Charlotte. No other children are around. Her parents are far away and she is profoundly bored. Mary is impulsive but self-conscious and accident prone. The only child of her own age she encounters is a local boy called Peter, who is working in the village. He teases her constantly. Great-aunt Charlotte’s home is on the edge of a big forest. Ma...