MOVIE REVIEW

Spirited Away



Last week we rented and watched 'Spirited Away'. This is a Japanese movie that Disney bought and translated into English. Part of the conditions of the sale was that Disney not change any of the content or cut any of the movie. Miyazaki is who actually made the movie. He's made several movies and has a huge following in Japan, I can understand why, his movie is a master piece.

About the movie - this is kind of an odd movie to anyone who doesn't watch much Jap anime - and I don't, but I did find the movie intriguing enough to turn away from the computer and watch it. When hubby put the movie on I was sitting at the computer not very interested at some point I turned around and was enchanted by the art work. The animation is beautiful and very detailed. I sat there starring at the screen trying to absorb everything. By the time the movie ended I was wishing there was another 5 or 10 minutes left and had the feeling that I had somehow missed quite a bit in the movie. The next day the little people wanted to watch the movie again and I had no problem saying yes to that. This time I watched the movie from the very beginning, and again at the end I had that feeling of having missed something - not something essential to understanding the movie, but something else. There are a lot of things that happen in the movie or some of the characters in the movie that you get the feeling are symbolic of something else and yes you get the distinct impression that the story is not just about a 10 year old girl who winds up in the spirit world but there is a much deeper meaning to all of this. Hubby and I discussed the movie and the symbolism and speculated on the things we didn't quite understand for well over an hour. I enjoyed the movie and the art work - the simplicity and yet detailed beauty were delightful.

All total I've watched the movie 5 times. After the last time there was still that nagging feeling that maybe 5 or 10 more minutes were missing from the ending. I went online and searched out information on Miyazaki and Spirited Away. I found an interview with Miyazaki where he explains what the movie is about and suddenly it all made sense. My inability to grasp everything was not from me being dense it was from my lack of knowledge about Japan and Japanese culture.

Read more about the movie here: Spirited Away

'Spirited Away' is well worth watching (it's won several awards) - not your typical animated movie.