Club Ghibli #1 - Spirited Away (2001)

Dried lizards out of 10?

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Diddy

Diddy

愛してるって 言わなきゃ殺す
Joined
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Welcome all, to the inaugural meeting for Moopy's Club Ghibli. Over the forthcoming weeks and months, we can take a plunge into the mysterious waters of Japan's premiere animation studio and its 22 official feature films (depending how we go).

Judging by the interest shown in the other thread, I think it's sensible to start with the Studio's breakthrough film in the West: Academy Award winning "Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi", known as "Spirited Away" to Western audiences.

Ghibli's 12th feature film and 6th directed by studio founder Hayao Miyazaki, "Spirited Away" is one of the flagship films of the canon, and since only a handful of us have seen it, I thought it might be a good entry point to this new endeavour. It was the highest grossing movie in Japanese Box Office history until last year, and tells the story of a young girl Chihiro, coming to grips with her life in flux as she moves to another home, being waylaid in a fantasy world where the only way to survive is to grow up fast.

ICONIQUE doesn't even begin to describe it, so please enjoy on Netflix (unless you're in the US, Canada or Japan - but it's on HBO Max too), DVDs, or on the dark web (just don't eat the pork while you're there).

HOW THIS WILL WORK

It seems that the book club method was slightly more popular, so when we've had some time to watch and feed back, I'll nominate someone to pick the next one. But maybe let's try not to blow all the famous ones first :D

I was thinking 2 weeks should be enough time for most people to fit in a viewing at some point, but it's not strict so please come back when you have a chance, no pressure!

@Christian @Gangsta Nancy Lam @jivafox @COB @Haiku @ZenGiraffe @Lucille @KindaCool @Queen of the Bay @RaspberrySwirl @RJN @Beverley

Spirited_Away_Japanese_poster.png
 
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Here's some further reading for dessert too, if you don’t mind them each pronouncing everything differently, even though they KNOW IT’S WRONG!

 
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jivafox said:
Oh ease me in GENTLY why don't you :D What the fuck are THESE?!

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Just a large old woman and a… miscellaneous? Anyway don’t be scared, the plots are straightforward enough - it doesn’t descend in to pseudo-science nonsense like some animes
 
Well the plot of Spirited Away is quite OUT THERE :D But if you like fairy tales and suspend disbelief you'll be fine jiva. It's a fantastic film
 
Peekaboo said:
Well the plot of Spirited Away is quite OUT THERE :D But if you like fairy tales and suspend disbelief you'll be fine jiva. It's a fantastic film
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Yeah people do tend to go into anime with an expectation that it’s going to be baffling, and that makes people more susceptible to being baffled (not saying that’s Jiva). But fairy tales are fairly batshit anyway but it’s not really the details that make the story
 
Going in at the deep end then? :D

This is a fine film, though it does take a bit of adjusting to. It has quite a strange structure and the plot moves in quite unexpected ways.
 
I think I’ll bite having never seen any of these films.

Potentially controversial question @Diddy do we stick with the original audio and watch with subtitles or do we do the English dub? I’d always go with subs for a live action, but I guess it doesn’t matter as much with animation…..
 
The translations and dubs are so good for Ghibli, especially the later ones, I think it's fine to go with the English voices.

I tend to watch the ones rooted in reality in Japanese and the high fantasy ones in English.
 
This was my first Ghibli, a cousin made me watch it. Despite not being a fan of the genre, I fell in love with it and its strange and magical world and it made me want to see more of their films.
Favourite scene is the train ride, it’s the most dreamy part of it.
 
This will be like the fifth time I've watched this.

I think the first time I downloaded it off LIMEWIRE.
 
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jyxz said:
I think I’ll bite having never seen any of these films.

Potentially controversial question @Diddy do we stick with the original audio and watch with subtitles or do we do the English dub? I’d always go with subs for a live action, but I guess it doesn’t matter as much with animation…..
Click to expand...

I realise I’m in a different situation now to to then, but I feel the western voice actors really jarring, and while there are plenty of fine voice actors, it’s all too tempting for western studios to stunt cast a name and hope for the best.

So these days I’m a subtitles guy, but I’m not going to be a twat about it
 
RaspberrySwirl said:
This was my first Ghibli, a cousin made me watch it. Despite not being a fan of the genre, I fell in love with it and its strange and magical world and it made me want to see more of their films.
Favourite scene is the train ride, it’s the most dreamy part of it.
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I just saw it was your cousin, the first time I read it I thought you’d watched it today and fallen in love thanks to Diddy :D
 
Christian said:
Going in at the deep end then? :D

This is a fine film, though it does take a bit of adjusting to. It has quite a strange structure and the plot moves in quite unexpected ways.
Click to expand...

Well weirdly only a handful of us had seen in, even some of the ones who’d seen a fair number hadn’t seen it.

It might not be the easiest but if THIS doesn’t pique your interest at least, it’s going to be a harder sell.

As for the structure - well it never hurt Girls Aloud :disco:

If anything, I’m glad for a change from the Disney way of obvious heroes and villains and 3 act structure. Why do all movies have to follow that style (according to studios and everyone - not pointed at you Chrissy!)
 
Diddy said:
Well weirdly only a handful of us had seen in, even some of the ones who’d seen a fair number hadn’t seen it.

It might not be the easiest but if THIS doesn’t pique your interest at least, it’s going to be a harder sell.

As for the structure - well it never hurt Girls Aloud :disco:

If anything, I’m glad for a change from the Disney way of obvious heroes and villains and 3 act structure. Why do all movies have to follow that style (according to studios and everyone - not pointed at you Chrissy!)
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I remember Mononoke throwing me when I first saw it as I was looking for the obvious villains and the typical structure you talk of and of course they're just not there :D

Spirited Away is a good choice to start with (it obviously worked for Ghibliotheque too) though it is quite jarring. I missed all the Japanese folklore references when I first watched it but it's an excellent jumping in point, as the design is amazing and the story rattles along at a rate of knots (unlike some of the others).
 
Christian said:
I remember Mononoke throwing me when I first saw it as I was looking for the obvious villains and the typical structure you talk of and of course they're just not there :D

Spirited Away is a good choice to start with (it obviously worked for Ghibliotheque too) though it is quite jarring. I missed all the Japanese folklore references when I first watched it but it's an excellent jumping in point, as the design is amazing and the story rattles along at a rate of knots (unlike some of the others).
Click to expand...

Btw Chrissy, I’m fingering you to choose the next one since you’ve seen them all - choose wisely :D (and don’t tell us until later!)
 
Do we need to rate this WITHIN the Ghibli canon or as a STANDALONE film. It's an obvious 10/10 if you compare it with 99% of NORMAL CINEMÁ but for Ghibli films it's a 9 out of 10 for MOI.
 
I think I’ve seen this twice, I went in the first time completely blind and a Ghibli virgin so was quite AGOG at the whole thing! The second time I enjoyed it more as I was accustomed to it’s weirdness, haven’t watched with a CRITICAL EYE over it which I will do on my third watch. I’d advise the initiated to go in without knowing much of the plot as it’s QUITE THE RIDE that way!
 
Peekaboo said:
Do we need to rate this WITHIN the Ghibli canon or as a STANDALONE film. It's an obvious 10/10 if you compare it with 99% of NORMAL CINEMÁ but for Ghibli films it's a 9 out of 10 for MOI.
Click to expand...

As a stand-alone film I think, it’s in the Odeon forum so let’s keep it like them. We can always do a Ghibli rate later on
 
Oh it’s Saturday, you say? What a lovely day for an adventure!

So has anyone watched it yet?
I think it’s a wonderful alternative Halloween film, what with all the spirits and supernatural creatures etc.

Planning to do it this weekend, ironically my YouTube video about Japanese spirits and supernatural creatures has consumed most of my week (dropping 10am Sunday Japan time)
 
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I was going to review last night but thought maybe i should wait till the deadline to avoid giving away any spoilers, anyways i'll try my best not to.

It's a solid 10 from me. The animation is simple and effective, the landscapes in particular are exquisitely beautiful, the flowers, the colours and all is just mesmerising to watch. The plot is really nice it's like a little horror film for kids but yet it does not feel childish in any way on the contrary feels very mature. This could be because the characters have a certain depth and even the bad characters are not villains in the stereotypical sense. The weakest thing about it for me was the character development of Chihiro's parents, but I suppose they had to be like that, so that they serve as a mechanism for this fantastic story to unfold. And now am eager to watch more of this genre. Cannot wait for the next one.

One last thing, if you are not using english subs, but of your own language, they may contain errors, mine did and was only able to understand it cause i had the english audio on which seemed to be much more correct.
 
I wasn't planning on having a scheduled feedback period, so go ahead with anything! I think people shouldn't read this far down if they are worried about spoilers!

It is so gorgeous isn't it? I'll respond a bit deeper after I've watched it (hopefully finally tomorrow)
 
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