So after having had some time to sit down and digest this film in the best way a non anime watcher can I decided this film is pretty good. So the basic premise is that a little girl Chihiro and her parents go into what they believe is an abandoned amusement park to find what appears to be an all you can eat buffet. Little did the parents know that the food would turn them into pigs. At this point the topic of cannibalism could pop up if there was bacon or sausage there since the pigs could be other people who stumbled in but the movie does not address that. So in order to survive in the spirit world she must take a job at the local bathhouse. From there on it is various subplots.
The parts I want to talk about the most are some of the reasons why I hate anime. The first is fluid animation and the lack of blinking in characters. Luckily I didn't have this problem (Well blinking could be better) for the animation it is pretty solid. Especially with some of the creatures which are pretty cool. The character which I want to note the most which I think is everyone's favorite or 2nd after the baby turned rat is No face. I'm gonna skip the part where he has a mask as his face since that really isn't his face. His animation of being slightly transparent is pretty cool and the expression and feeling are amazing especially cause his "face" does not move. It is all sounds or body gestures which is pretty cool to have a character that does not talk or visually show emotions through his face. Well he talks but that is when he eats people and it is their voice.
Another aspect that was cool mostly because of my film background that the hero was a girl and was independent. I bring this up because I have watched things about the Bechtel test and the Anita Sarkesen(I think I spelled that right) feminist frequency videos about a lack of good female characters out there. Though I think the use of "Love" in the movie seemed weird. I guess it works but I think I would of used friendship instead since both the characters are young and it never advances into anything serious.
Overall this film it is pretty good. The characters are all likable even the villain. The story can be confusing but it never gets so confusing you give it up or can't remember what you have seen. The animation is Beautiful even next to some of the big Disney movies. This film as does make me curious to watch some other films by Hayao Miyazaki so that's pretty good!
Wanna clarify that Ghibli movies are anime only in the sense that they are animated in Japan (which is what anime means) - typical television anime and bigger budget movies are totally different and often worlds apart in terms of animation quality.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the 'love' thing is much more cultural. Unfortunately our American standards have taken the use of the word 'love' to be exclusively romantic. The love here is not. In fact, Miyazaki said "“I’ve become skeptical of the unwritten rule that just because a boy and girl appear in the same feature, a romance must ensue. Rather, I want to portray a slightly different relationship, one where the two mutually inspire each other to live - if I’m able to, then perhaps I’ll be closer to portraying a true expression of love.”
There are different words for love in Japanese and the one here is not romantic in nature~ And unfortunately the English script here was written to match the lip flaps as much as possible so 'love' takes up less syllables than 'frienship'.