Spirited Away
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Movie Reviews of Spirited Away
Movie Review: Great humor for all ages
Summary: 5 Stars
Released in 2001, Spirited Away has become an instant classic in animation, bringing classic anime to a much wider audience.In its roots, this is a classic coming-of-age story like thousands before it. A young girl begins the story afraid of her own shadow, cranky, timid and clingy. The family is moving to a new town and Chihiro doesn't like any of it. Her mother is clearly tired of this behavior and her father tries to push her into being stronger.
Then, just as the girl feared, something went wrong. A little trip into a strange area suddenly has her parents turned into pigs, herself trapped in a servant's contract, and no sign of escape. She's put to hard work and sees no way of escaping. It's the opposite of the Wizard of Oz - instead of a gorgeous world where she has friends, she's a scullery maid with people snarling at every turn. And like in Pinocchio, it was their own boorish behavior that had the parents turn into farm animals.
But slowly Chihiro realizes that things aren't as bad as she first though, once she gives it a fair try. Her fellow maids are actually quite friendly and helpful. The bathhouse in which she works appreciates the things she's able to do. The creatures and monsters that inhabit her new world, once quite fearsome to her, are now friends.
Most especially, Chihiro is taken care of by a boy, Haku, who both works for the witch overlord of the bathhouse and also seems quite familiar to Chihiro. As the story moves along, Chihiro matures quite a bit, of course. The whole story is about her growing and learning and discovering her strengths. Her friends band together to help her out, and the requisite happy ending results.
I understand why this is the highest grossing movie in Japanese history, and also why it was nominated for an Academy award. The general tale is one all people can relate to - the difficulties of change when you're a child, the wonder and strength that comes from realizing you can overcome those difficulties. The characters all have dimension - there aren't "good guys" and "bad guys". Characters start out harsh and annoying, but you get to like them when you get to know them. Even the 'mean' characters have understandable reasons for being that way.
And yet, despite being an avid student of the Japanese culture and understanding a lot of the underlying themes, the movie just wasn't quite "finished". Themes were started and not completed. Things mentioned with importance are later forgotten. There are characters that she meets for 5 minutes and is petrified of, and others that she knows for 8 minutes and is crying when she leaves them. Her roller-coaster emotions are inconsistant, even as she is maturing.
The same is seen in the animation. There were many sequences in the animation where it became jerky and rough. Yes, some scenes (the entrance to the boss' office for one) obviously were labors of love, with exquisite detail. But there were other scenes that should have been breathtaking - the dragon flying near the end, for example - that looked clumsy. And then only a few moments later, the two faces as they fell were again extremely well done. It's as if someone chose key parts that had to stand out, and really worked on those - but left the other scenes to middlemen. When I hold the animation of Spirited Away up to many of my other favorite animated classics, I'm afraid that Spirited Away just isn't as consistant or smooth across the film.
Also, with the theme being so timeless, I'm afraid that much of the movie was incredibly predictable. Even one of the key secrets wasn't much of a great moment when it was revealed, because there was no 'story meaning' to it. I won't give away the ending section, but while much of the middle of the movie sung with innovations and interesting, fascinating twists, at the end it dissoved back down into just about every other coming-of-age story written, and some extremely tired cliches finish the movie off. I truly felt let down.
It sort of indicates the general tone of the movie when my favorite scene here doesn't hold a candle to my favorite scenes in other animated classics, either from a drawing, a plot, or a character point of view. It was simply funny. It was the soot-dust scene, where Chihiro has first entered the scary bathhouse. She sees a poor little soot-dust creature struggling to carry a lump of coal, and it gets crushed by the coal. Aghast, she tries to help out the creature by lifting its coal lump and then carries the coal herself to the furnace.
The other soot creatures all crowd around her and it almost appears they're thanking her for saving their friend. One of the soot creatures lifts his own lump above his head ... and then THUMP, he drops it on himself, wiggling his little arms and legs and shrieking for help. Suddenly every little soot creature is dropping its coal on its head, hoping to get out of some work. It had me hooting in laughter.
So in the end, while other aspects of the movie were lovely but not excellent, I loved Spirited Away for those little spots of laughter in the story. Those little details are where it shone.
Movie Review: DVD Review
Summary: 5 Stars
Spirited Away is another great Miyazaki film and has brought his name and his art to attention of the world. Disney's DVD release of the picture is an all around excellent DVD with some insightful extras.Personally I don't find Spirited Away to be the top of Miyazaki's game. I found Laputa, Nausicaa, Mononoke, and Kiki to be better works. Had Spirited Away been created by another artist I would have hailed higher, but Miyazaki has such a stunning catalogue that comparisons have to be made. The reason for my lower opinion of Spirited Away is the way Miyazaki's absolutely breathtaking and stunning imagination tends to overwhelm the narrative. Spirited Away is a masterpiece in visual design and is a truly one of a kind fantasy world, but the story didn't captivate me as much as other Miyazaki pictures. The grand narratives of Mononoke, Laputa, and Nausicaa dwarf Spirited Away while still thriving in the visual department. The simpler films: Kiki and Totoro captivated me more sucessfully on an emotional level then Spirited Away. Still the film is amazing, a wonder of animation, although I was a little bothered with a few uses of digital work for motion. Integration is still sketchy at this stage, but not as bad as in live action films. The movie is a marvel, but younger children might find some scenes a little disturbing. The dragon bleds alot leaving some heavy blood smears and the No Face eats some people and grossly vomits out brown liquid. When I saw it in the theater several young children started to cry and even as a college student found the scenes pretty intense for real young ones.
Picture quality is excellent. A great tranfer that highlights Miyazaki's amazing animation. Colors didn't seem as bright as the Kiki DVD, but still a flawless print with stunning sharpness and color. Image is nn 2:0:1 to perserve aspect ratio and good for small tvs. Sound is excellent, the Japanese and English tracks are in 5.1. I only have stereo speakers so I can't say much on that. The English track is fine, but always go for the Japanese, although the ending song is in Japanese on both tracks. Making up for the problems on Kiki and Castle is an on the fly audio/subtitle change option. There is French too. Subtitles are yellow and in frame, good for 16x9 tvs, bad for small tvs because it covers up more of the image.
Extras have the standard Lasseter intro, which starts if you change to Japanese and "resume film" even if you don't want it to play. The English production is documented in "Art of Spirited Away". It is a good documentary on the English production, shades of Disney specials. Worth watching for the explanation of the finger chop that Chihiro is given. The behind the microphone section is not interesting. The Japanese Trailers run back to back and give away most of the story. The highlight of the extras is the fabulous Nippon Special on the film. This Japanese documentary gives Miyazaki fans a dream come true, an indepth look at Miyazaki's creative process. We are actually taken into the studio for over half and hour to watch step by step how Miyazaki's team created Spirited Away. From planning to intensive drawing sessions, to recording voices and sound, to the story behind the stunning closing song, the documentary is a wonder. Anyone interested in the process of animation will be amazed at the limited resources Miyazaki has in comparison to American animators. The recording room is a converted movie theater without a soundproof window, so a laugh from a crew member will spoil a take. Miyazaki own dedication and involvement with every detail is made extremely clear with his late night working binges and supervision of everything. We even see him cook dinner for the team. The most fascinating aspect comes in the planning stage where Miyazaki can on the drop of a hat explain the every detail of a single real life movement or action that he wants in the film. Miyazaki is shocked when he discovers his team hasn't seen lizards fall from trees and haven't held open the jaws of a dog. He sighed and laments on the end of Japanese culture. The documentary is a true wonder and an absolute must for any Miyazaki fan. The second disc is the storyboard of the film with complete language tracks. It has what Castle in the Sky and Kiki didn't, an angle switch option with the animated film making it worth something.
Spirited Away is a great animated film a stunning work of imagination and fantasy, but by my taste not Miyazaki's best. Disney's DVD release has the stunning picture and sound of all its Miyazaki release and fixes the angle switch and on the fly audio/subtitle problems in previous the dvds. The extras are amazing with a good English documentary and a fascinating and one of a kind Japanese documentary that takes you into Studio Ghibli to showcase Miyazaki's production process.
The film I'd give 4 out of 5.
The DVD 5 out of 5.
Movie Review: Far more intelligent than typical Disney fare...
Summary: 5 Stars
And there's a reason for that. Although the DVD is made by Disney, the movie is licensed by Disney, and the promotion (such as it is) of this movie is done by Disney, this is *not* a Disney movie. And thank God for that.First, allow me to start with the animation. True, it is not as smooth as a lot of American animated films in several places. However, it is still very smooth often enough, and never drops below an acceptable framerate. In addition, it far more *detailed* than most American animation...yes, there are less unnecessary movements in segments, but there is far more detail in images. American animation rarely has many shadows on characters or moving objects, instead having one base color for every (moving) object with another one to tell you that even though it *looks* like a hunk of concrete, it really isn't supposed to be. The art in Spirited Away, although stylized, is far more detailed...most moving objects obey a "three-color rule" (one base color, one color for highlights, one color for shadows), and far more effort is put into details and backrounds than in any Disney film.
The dub is...well, it's servicable. Apparently matching voices to animation is far more difficult than doing it the other way around, so the voices are somewhat stilted in places. Disney also ruined an entire plotline, and a rather important one at that, so as not to confuse the little kiddies...or something like that, because they completely undid a major mystery of the story right off the bat, probably to try to hit the little kids in the audience over the head with the answer.
The Japanese language version, on the other hand, is excellent, although the subtitles aren't the most accurate translation. Voice acting is believable and so on, and the writing is top-notch.
Oh, and the soundtrack *rules*. You have to buy this if you like orchestrated music *at all*.
A lot of parents are complaining because it's "too confusing" and "too negative" for little kids to see, they say. You see, this movie does not coddle its viewers. In most Disney movies, the plot goes something like this: A beautiful girl is forced into a life of "horrible servitude" (which does not stop her from constantly smiling, dancing, singing, and generally having a wonderful time for the first eighteen years of her life), and then is put to sleep until some random guy with a good smile comes along and even though she's never met the guy they decide to spend the rest of their lives together.
This story is very different. In the beginning of the movie, Chihiro is severed from her only potential allies, her parents. However, rather than mope around going, "Oh my paws and whiskers, whatever shall I do?", she realizes that she's going to have to stand up and figure things out for herself, and in the meantime she has to survive. It isn't easy, because this is nothing like her previous coddled existance...people are not all sugary sweet to her, and she's forced to work hard...and generally, she's forced into a life of servitude, and she does not get the chance to sing or dance or smile about it. She meets a nice guy, but he has some sort of mystery behind him, and also works for the opposing side...however, in the end, through her own strength, and with a little encouragement she manages to (a) save the guy she's grown to love and knows well and (b) save her parents, and free *herself* from her problems. There is no happy ending, she does not live happily ever after...rather, she has to grow up, and instead of living the rest of her life doing nothing must return to the real world, and deal with whatever problems come her way.
Chihiro is a rapid departure from previous children's heroines, because previous heroines did not really do very much. The moral of their stories was that nothing could ever be so bad you couldn't be happy, and that other people would solve all your problems for you. Chihiro, though, teaches us that things won't always be all right. Problems will come up, and times will not always be sing-song-along happy...however, if you work hard you yourself can solve your problems, and although you won't have a fairy-tale ending, you'll be able to live happily enough in the real world, with no problems so great you can't solve them.
This is why I love this movie so much; because the only thing Chihiro gets from other people is encouragement. She has to deal with things for herself. Not only do you have great animation, a great story, and a really really REALLY AWESOME SOUNDTRACK *cough*...excuse me there, got a bit carried away...it also offers a lesson. And again, unlike other films, it does not hit you over the head with it...but if you chose to grab it, you may.
Movie Review: Weird? Grotesque? Well, this is Japan!
Summary: 5 Stars
As a Japanese, I was totally fluttered by whom rated this film 5-stars and gave kind praises to it as if it is me who are praised. On the other hand, it saddens me a little that there are some people who don't like it at all. But can't complain, I guess, as it would be natural thing.Interestingly, though, most of those who say "Didn't like it" seem to just not understand the whole concept of the film that is, say, "Japaneseness".
Weird, odd and grotesque creatures? Well, some of them may be Miyazaki's creations, but the most of them are not uncommon at all in Japanese forklores. We have a milliards of gods and spirits and monsters (most of them are harmless and good-hearted unless you are harmful to them!).
While many of Japanese would say of themselves as non-religeous or rather nonchalant about religions, but, in fact, they are quite superstitious. I could say most of the Japanese are animists deep down in their souls. (Existence of the souls is a priori here, by the way)
Some years ago, then prime minister Mori said "Japan is a gods' land."in a meeting of Shinto (it means "gods' way") priests and stirred a controversy among the left-wingers in and outside of Japan because the phrase was interpreted as "the Divine Land" like in the Christianity's sense. This was unfortunate misunderstanding since, in Japan, mountains, rivers, trees, rocks, earth, and even cooking fire-places have gods in them. Virtually speaking, gods are everywhere. Gods mean the nature itself. So, Mr. Mori said only a matter of course about Japan.
In Japan, children are (or, I might say, used to be) taught not to disturb or impurify those places or things or animals that have gods or spirits in them, or you may get a curse____ like Chihiro's parents did!
It was interesting part of this film to me that Chihiro's Mother (and Father too, I guess) apparently had some knowledges about those gods' houses (Hokora, in Japanese), still, they felt nothing awesome about it. It was Chihiro, who was evidently ignorant about those gods' stuff, lazy and self-centred modern day girl, that sensed something unearthly of them and felt a strong objection to intrude into the gods' domain, almost instinctively.
That made me think about the national identity of the Japanese that, they say, many of us have lost since the defeat of the world war 2 because the American occupation policy denied "Japanese spirit", that is much based on this somekind of religious feelings every Japanese could have at the bottom of their hearts, as a dangerous thought and tried to wipe it out so that the "saucy" Japanese would never stand up against America.
Maybe you could say that Chihiro's parents are typical of post-war Japanese who have been educated in that left-tilted, sort of self-denying way.
But, thankfully, it has certainly remained in hearts of us. Some of us, if not all of us. That is, I think, why this film moved the hearts of such a large number of audience in Japan. Especially the grown-ups who, I think, have searched everywhere and everyday for the "Japanese spirit" that they can identify with their own Japaneseness.
Another significance of this film is that it has restored old virtues such as diligence, being free from avarice and respectful to your superiors, and courage those have been quite neglected recently. That is one main reason why I want my children to watch this film outside the fact that it is simplly a great fun and a joy for the eyes, although they (especially my youngest who was 4 when she saw this film for the first time in Japan) just admire it and watch it for a million times without telling to do so.
By the way, I was shocked by a review with 1-star rating that says Chihiro's work experience in the Bath House as a "slavedom". It reminded me an English person accusing me of using my children like slaves when I asked them to help me do the household chore. When I was young, it was perfectly nomal for the children to help their parents, I admit it is not always true these days, though.
Moreover, for the Japanese, working is not only for living but rather high-minded thing to do, I would say. (At reast it was so just a decade ago until the "bubble" thing made everyone crazy.)
Anyway, finding so many foreigners love this "very Japanese" film makes me almost cry. It means a lot to me. Knowing entire of other people are not disapproval of your cultural origin makes me so happy. That sense of tolerance would make the world much better place to live.
Thank you all, and I am proud of you very much, Mr. Miyazaki.
Movie Review: Astonishing film, miserable dub - very minor spoilers
Summary: 5 Stars
I hardly need to enlarge on the praise already heaped on this film. It's almost impossible to exaggerate its visual quality, storytelling, characterization, and sheer mythopoeic sparkle. But thank goodness the DVD has the original Japanese track and English subtitles done by translators other than those who worked on the dub. The dub is simply awful.
To begin with, the voice of one of the two younger principals is horribly miscast. For some reason, Disney thought it would be a good idea to cast an adult to voice a 12-year-old boy. (He's actually ageless, but this is his usual form.) The voice does not match the character. If this was a compromise to get quality acting then they failed: quality acting is not what they got. Jason Mardsen as Haku is uniformly wooden.
Daveigh Chase ought to have been an appropriate choice for Chihiro, and under other circumstances she might have done a creditable job. Her voice is certainly pleasant enough. But she whines her way through the entire movie even as the character is supposed to be growing past her whineyness. With such a young actress the fault ought to be laid at the feet of whoever directed the English dub, since she simply can't be expected to have the life experience necessary to achieve an in-depth reading of a complex character on her own.
So if the poor translation didn't serve to change the mood or sense of a scene, the actors often did, but no doubt they were often directed to do so. The American director seemed more than willing to sacrifice portions of Miyazaki's vision to put his own imprint on the film. When you see the "making of" feature and understand the great care Miyazaki took to get just the right performance out of his actors, it's hard to see this as anything but vandalism of the crassest kind. If the director didn't do this deliberately, it's an incompetence this film did not merit.
The dub is plagued with needless chatter. It takes advantage of moments where the characters' mouths aren't visible to insert dialogue that adds nothing to the scene but rather destroys the mood it was setting. It was annoying enough when Disney did this to Miyazaki's earlier "Kiki's Delivery Service"; here it's positively jarring even though there's less of it. The added final line of the movie comes close to ruining it, if that was possible, as it reaches for an entirely inappropriate cheap laugh.
Which brings me to the dub's translation. I know that compromises occasionally have to be made to get the lip movements more or less in synch, but that's no excuse here. Some of the English dialogue is so at variance with the original that a character's intent seems to be completely inverted at times, and entire scenes take on different meanings.
However, not all the acting is bad and not all the translation is so discreditable. David Ogden Stiers and Suzanne Pleshette turn in superb performances as the boiler man Kamaji and the twin witches respectively, even if inappropriate words were occasionally given to them to say. I also know that some have objected to the translation of "hanko" as "seal" -- this is the mcguffin driving the second half of the film -- but I'd be hard-pressed to think of something more appropriate. (However, simply calling it "magical" is inadequate to explain its importance. Some cultural background is helpful here.)
The subtitle translation is far superior, although even someone like myself who knows no Japanese beyond a handful of words can spot some changes. For example, at one point the subtitles have Haku addressing Kamaji by name when he can clearly be heard to be saying "ojisan", "grandfather". This speaks volumes about their relationship, but it was just thrown away for some reason. (The same happens with Chihiro, but with her it matters less because she and Kamaji have enough screen time together that their relationship is understood.) However, being able to hear the fine work of the original actors more than makes up for any small deficiency along these lines.
Why on earth does Disney think it necessary to insert a tedious "introduction" by John Lasseter at the beginning of every Miyazaki film it distributes? Yes, the "Skip" button works here, but why should we have to do this every time we play every disc? It's an annoyance that doesn't have to be there.
This movie cannot be truly appreciated in the Disney version, which might go some way toward explaining its poor performance in the American theatrical relsease. It deserves to be seen as Miyazaki made it. Please treat yourself to a viewing of it.