My favourite film of all time

Rating: Null/10 (28 January 2016)

To me, this is the most real film I've ever seen. And it's an animated fantasy film inhabited by spirits, witches and dragons. It takes place in a Japanese bathhouse of all things and is full of magic, strange and new worlds, gods and mystical events. And yet I've learned more from it, identified more with its characters, than from any other film. Hayao Miyazaki is that good of a storyteller.
Now, what do I mean by saying it's real? Simply put, it feels like I've known these characters my entire life. Chihiro, or main character, is a young girl moving to a new town, but on their way there, her family happens upon what seems like an abandoned holiday resort. Unfortunately, things are not as they seem, and her parents get captured into the spirit world, inhabited by gods and spirits. And now she has to accept responsibility for the first time in her life and stand on her own feet in order to rescue her parents.
But that's not the only story line. We also have Haku, her mysterious helper, who has been captured as well, in his own way. We have Yubaba, the witch owner of the bathhouse, who seeks to enslave Chihiro by stripping everything from her, including her name. We have Kamaji and Lin, who work at the bathhouse. And we have No-Face. All these characters seem like they could easily be the focus of the movie, each of them having a very detailed and rich backstory, which we get to explore as the movie goes on, but it never feels like it's too much. The story lines support one another in a way I've almost never seen anywhere else. Miyazaki has woven it tight and whenever I see the film I find new or forgotten ways in which the events work together.
It's also a beautiful film. Out of all Studio Ghibli films, only Princess Mononoke can compete with it in terms of beauty, quality and grandeur of animation. The colours, the character designs, the small touches and details. All wonderful. The score by Joe Hisaishi is also fantastic. It's a bit more downplayed than say Mononoke, not containing quite so memorable tunes and themes, but it's still beautiful and supports the storytelling perfectly.
This is about as close to a perfect film as you can get. At least, for me. I think Doug Walker said it best in his review. It's a film so good that it makes you jealous. It's a story so good that you wanted to be the one to tell it. Well, that might be true for me as well, but I still enjoy the film above all else. I love it, I respect it and I'm going to see it regularly for the rest of my life.