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Spirited Away Actor: Miyu Irino Director: Hayao Miyazaki Number of Items: 2 Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen Format: Animated, Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) Running Time: 132 minutes Studio: Walt Disney Home Video Region Code: 1 Product Group: DVD Release Date: 2003-04-15 Buy from Amazon |
 "One of the greatest films ever made!"Words cannot express what an incredible film this is. I love that Miyazaki has included so much Japanese mythology and culture into this film. The film can be slightly confusing if you only watch it once, but I think this has more to do with the English translation being confusing rather than the actual plot. The film is visually stunning and the musical score accomodates it with perfect harmony. This is by far Miyazaki's greatest work in my opinion. In fact, this was the first film that I've ever seen my Miyazaki and I had the pleasure of seeing it in the theater when it was released in the United States. I have so much respect for Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki's work after seeing this film. "Carried away --"-- by some of the best story-telling in animation today. The basic plot is familiar, especially to Miyazaki fans. A plucky young girl, thrown into strange circumstances, wins her goals through hard work and bravery. In this case, little Chohiro is thrown into a Japanese fantasy world, working as a bath-house drudge, in order to save her enchanted parents. The bath-house, however, serves the spirits, gods, and other beings that apparently inhabit Japan's fairy tales. Remember in Shrek, how seemingly every one of the Brothers Grimm characters came to life, all together? It's like that, but with a serious tone. The difference is that I didn't recognize any of the characters. They're not the fairy tales I grew up with. I could see that they were cultural icons, but not from my culture. That fascinated me - now I want to go and find out just who all those characters were, and what cultural meaning they have. It's kid-safe, with no serious adult themes or violence. Those aren't needed to keep Chohiro's quest interesting and to sustain a sense of wonder. There's enough to keep an adult interested, too. Don't wait til there's a kid around to treat yourself to this incredible movie. //wiredweird  "Marvelous"Referring to previous reviews, I find it particularly heinous for an anime fan to imply that Miyazaki has a feebleminded imagination. Ouch...that's so unforgivably tacky. Also, it'd be ideal that making sure meaning isn't lost in translation would be the director's responsibility; no such luck, particularly with dubbed anime, and especially with Disney. It's always been an issue that's been apparent since anime crossed over from Japan. That said, Spirited Away is an amazing movie, and while Otomo and Oshi are forces to be reckoned with, so is Miyazaki. "The Best Japanese Movie!"This is the best Japanese movie i've ever seen! I watched it with ALL of my family even my cousins and we all loved it! This is a very good movie for kids & EVEN FOR ADULTS! I think you should buy it! this movie is FANTASTIC!!  "This movie hurts"I thought this movie was obnoxious. Maybe its meaning was lost in translation from Japanese to English, however, its the director's responsiblity to make sure that does not happen. I thought that maybe my presupposition was a little uncultivated, so I resorted to independent arguments from friends. They, for the most part, felt inebriated and uninterested in the first 15 minutes of the film. Even though they were the ones who labored through the entire insane, prosaic, and venal "toon", they felt that I should reimburse them for the time that they wasted when each one of them would have been better off shaving their hairy asses with toothpaste and a butter knife.... Anyways, I just glanced over some of the reviews and was dumbfounded at the rave reviews that people gave this movie. I still shiver when I see the front cover of this movie anywhere..... I keep telling myself "Don't worry, go to your happy place.... You don't have to go through that again". I am an addict when it comes to Anime. My favorite movies are Ghost in the Shell and Akira, so its not that I don't like Japanese animation, I just do not like to watch bogus fragments of someones feebleminded imagination. |
