Disappointed

Rating: 1/10 (31 August 2003)

I had heard that this was a wonderful piece of animation and a truly creative and imaginative story, and in that regard this movie does not disappoint much, although I have little appreciation for anime. However, it seems to me the film is lacking in some of the basics of cinema. There is little plot or character development, serious lack of continuity, plotlines left dangling, situations resolved far too tidily, etc. At one point Kamajii tells Chihiro that, rather conveniently for her, he has been hanging on to some train tickets for 40 years. Why?? Where was he planning to go? Why didn't he use them in all that time? Why is he now so willing to hand them over to Chihiro without a moment's hesitation? There were countless examples of this sort of thing throughout the film. After experiencing No-Face's devastation of the bathhouse, Chihiro just walks out ahead of him and says matter-of-factly that he just got a little crazy in the bathhouse - reminded me of a scene in Monty Python's Holy Grail (except the scene in Holy Grail was funny). At the end of the film, Chihiro has little trouble determining that her parents are not among the pigs shown to her, although earlier in the film she could not pick them out in a dream. If you're going to put foreshadowing in a film, you ought to follow up on it and not just ignore it! Chihiro falls in love with Haku (vital to developments in the film) despite having spent only about 10 minutes with him (some of which he spent being nasty to her), despite the fact that she has been told that he is not to be trusted, and despite the fact that she has proof that he has stolen in the service of Yubaba. I know this is a movie, and a fantasy at that, but I need some reason to believe that she might have fallen in love with him, not just some other character stating that it is so. Haku, mortally wounded as a dragon and now back to being a boy, inexplicably recovers and is well enough to fly to Zeniba's house; again somewhat reminiscent of a scene from Holy Grail ("I got better"). I could go on with other criticisms of the film, but I could be here all night if I really got started.
To me, this film was simply a collection of well-animated fantasy pieces strung together to fill out 2 hours. And, to be honest with you, while the backgrounds were incredibly drawn, I didn't think the movement was anything special. It wasn't particularly funny, exciting, or interesting. I spent most of the movie thinking that there must be a tremendous gap in my understanding of Japanese culture, theology, and mythology that would have helped me to better appreciate it. Upon reflection, however, I think that no amount of cultural sensitivity could have made up for what was simply poor film- making. I concede the posssibility that, as suggested by some at this site, the English dubbed version that I saw is far inferior to the Japanese version with subtitles. However, I am not willing to waste yet another 2 hours of my life that I will never get back to find out if that is the case.