magic and wonder

Rating: 10/10 (18 September 2016)

Ten-year-old Chihiro Ogino is a spoiled unhappy girl moving with her parents to the countryside. Her father takes a wrong turn and ends up in front of the entrance to an abandoned theme park. They walk through a tunnel, across a dry artificial stream, and find one operating food booth. Her parents can't find anybody but starts eating anyways. She refuses and walks off when she meets a boy called Haku. He implores her to leave across the water before nightfall. She's too late and the dry riverbed becomes a vast river. The park becomes inhabited by spirits. Haku sends her to boiler-man Kamaji and tells her to beg for a job with the ruthless witch Yubaba who runs the magical bathhouse.
This is possibly the first Hayao Miyazaki I saw and in my opinion still his best. He's done plenty of great work but this is the pinnacle. It's a simple coming-of-age story but filled with magic and wonder. It added to the language of animated cinema.