Date night, date night…date night, date night…
About 10 years ago, Darin went to Japan on a business trip. At the end of that trip, he flew to Detroit to go to MacHack, and he had a stopover in San Francisco International. We were still in the cute phase of our relationship, because I went to the airport and met him in the passenger lounge, where I found him exhausted and not at all looking forward to the next four hour flight, and I gave him a bag of Gummi Savers, which was then his favorite candy snack.
Man. That is saccharine-level cute.
Anyhow, one of the things he brought back from Japan were the complete works of Hayao Miyazaki on laserdisc, which weren’t yet available here in the US: Laputa, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Totoro. We watched them all, in Japanese, and I really enjoyed all of them.
Since then, Miyazaki’s been imported by Disney. There was a big splash a couple of years ago with Princess Mononoke, a film I didn’t particularly enjoy. And now there’s Spirited Away.
Chihiro, a young girl, is moving with her parents away from everything she’s ever known to a new house and a new school, and she is not looking forward to it. On the way to their new house her father takes a “shortcut” and they end up at a strange abandoned theme park. Turns out to be a spirit playground, and when Chihiro’s parents get transmogrified by strange magic, Chihiro has to stay at the bathhouse of the spirits to rescue them.
I liked Spirited Away a whole lot. There’s lots of great visuals (well, it is a Miyazaki movie), and there are some fun-to-watch setpieces. Plot is not Miyazaki’s strong point—for example, early on Chihiro is given a test and is told, “Do this and don’t let the boilerman scare you away or trick you into leaving,” but the actual scene isn’t that much of a confrontation—but I found Spirited Away to be more coherent and accessible than Princess Mononoke.
There are some very gross (as in, “Ewwww”) scenes, and I think the movie is probably too filled with tension for the younger set. Darin and I both agreed that Sophia would be ready to see this movie when she was, say, 15. She would enjoy the premise of this movie—all about kids and grownups!—but there are lots of scenes that are intense in a way that definitely a 3-year-old can’t handle. (Only recently has she been able to handle the scene where Pooh’s tushy gets stuck in Rabbit’s front door.)
The story doesn’t build in a way I’d like, and there are some revelations that seem to come out of left field (like I said, not Miyazaki’s strong point), but there’s some fun stuff in there for adults.
Oooooo…Miyazaki! Totoro is absolutely my fave Miyazaki film. Laputa and Kiki’s Delivery Service are second faves. I’ve got the music from the sountrack back home in Canada. Thanks for reminding me of Miyazaki. *hums the title music to Totoro*
I am a huge Miyazaki fan. Huge. My favorite work by him is Porco Rosso, which is unfortunately unavailable in the US other than bootlegged fan-subtitled copies. The Crimson Pig is about pilots in between the two great World Wars, specifically a bounty hunter who catches pirate pilots who is, strangely, a pig. My second favorite is a tie between Tororo and The Castle of Cagliostro, which features the gentleman thief.
I wanted to let you know that Spirited Away, Kiki’s Delivery Service, and Laputa: Castle in the Sky are going to be available for DVD on (or around) April 15th. Tonari no Totoro (My Neighbor Totoro) is already out on DVD.
If you like Miyazaki’s work and are interested in seeing more of similar work, I would strongly recommend Grave of the Fireflies. It is definitely not a children’s movie: it is about the struggle of two Japanese children after a bombing. It was created by Miyazaki’s studio, Studio Ghibli, so the quality is everything you would expect from him. A warning: it is tremendously sad. I sniff just looking at the cover.
Porco Rosso and Grave of the Fireflies were also both among the laserdiscs I brought home from that trip to Tokyo back about 10 years ago. So, sadly, was Conan, the Boy in Future, Chapter 6. The other that Diane didn’t mention was Nausicaä. We didn’t get to see Castle of Cagliostro until I got a VHS cassette of it, years later.
I found both Crimson Pig and Fireflies confusing and not really all that entertaining without dubbing or subtitles. My favorite Miyazaki is Laputa. That one is actually better without dubbing or subtitles.
My least favorite thing about the Miyazaki movies are the sappy, lame, yet strangely catchy theme songs played over the end credits of most of them.
Gross / “ewww” as in bathroom stuff, or what? I need to know before I decide to go….
The disgusting stuff is pretty much kid-level disgusting and there isn’t much of it: there’s a “stink demon” who shows up covered in goo and ooze leaving a trail of something icky across the floor. But I’ve definitely had worse times listening to Ren and Stimpy (which actually made me gag).