Levitating

something genuinely rare here. rare in the sense that it lifts up a local tradition, a communal possession ritual rooted in cultures  treats it as a living, breathing source of joy. it's a gift. every time the possession sequences happen, there's this electric, sweaty, deeply human energy to them. the film kept reminding me of two things; Kucumbu Tubuh Indahku, that same quality of the body as political territory, tradition as resistance, identity as something worth fighting for with your whole chest. but more than anything, Princess Mononoke. the allegory sits in the same water. capitalism arrives with its permits and its machinery and its security uniforms. Wanaria as the industrial force of erasure, and the spirits as the forest striking back. and there's Bayu's spirits; bulus, kutu, lintah. dismissed early as weak, embarrassing, small. and by the end, those are the ones that save everyone. and lintah, the leech, becomes the most devastating force in the entire film.