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Not Afraid
What rewatching My Neighbor Totoro with my nephew taught me about the difference between danger and uncertainty.
My nephew wanted to watch My Neighbor Totoro again today, so I obliged.
I have decided that introducing him to Ghibli is one of my responsibilities as an aunt. There are worse ways to spend an afternoon.
But this time, watching the film with him, I noticed something I hadn’t really noticed before.
The children aren’t afraid of people.
There is a scene where Satsuki and Mei are waiting for their father on a rainy night. They are standing at a bus stop in the dark, with the rain coming down around them. Satsuki is holding an umbrella. Mei is tired and asleep on her back.
And as an adult watching this, I realised how much my brain had been trained to supply a danger that the film never introduces.
Two little girls. At night. Alone.
Where is the stranger?
Where is the threat?
Where is the moment when we’re supposed to worry about who might come along?
There isn’t one.
Instead, their father arrives late. And while they’re waiting, another creature appears.
