It really was good!

Rating: 10/10 (8 May 2004)

The tale of the Chihiro, the small girl who finds her self in a strange and daunting spirit world working to save her parents and return them all to the world from which they have come. Not knowingly seen or heard of Miyazaki's work before ( although it takes a few times for a name to penetrate my consciousness), I was without preconceptions about the film apart from my friend's "It's really good!" as she handed the DVD to me as a birthday present. I have to agree with her. This film rocked. Appealing, I should say to many age groups, (I saw it with my mum and some 30 something year old friends), it in turn scared, startled, moved me, made me smile and laugh and warmed the deepest cockless of my heart. This has everything from adventure and mythology(Japanese of course) to friendship and love. I was with the little girl and her friends every step of the way. It is a bizzare film but very watchable and completely enchanting. The animation is much softer than the usual Japanese Manga style of cartoon, and the tale certainly not as bloody. (Barely bloody at all) I saw the American dubbed version and the Japanese, subtitled version one after the other, and I prefered the latter. A good film, when well subtitled, leaves you with the feeling of actually having heard the characters say the words in English, and this was the case with this film. The translation in the 2 versions were not the same and to me some of the subtleties in the Japanese version were lost in the American version were there was the added pressure of having to syncronise the words to(cartoon)lip movement. There were also some cultural adaptions from the Japanese version to better suit an American audience, which I prefered without. Having said that, the American(English) version stands successfully in it's own right. My friends(& mum)who only watched the American version thoroughly enjoyed it. The DVD extras such as interviews with Miyazaki and the American director/producer? and the lead up to the Japanese release made fun watching too. Some of it just to get a little peek into the life/hard work/mad stresses behind making the film. I gave it a 10.