Sen falls into a dreamworld of beauty, horror, and bravery

Rating: 10/10 (15 April 2003)

Miyazaki is in a class by himself, with an imagination the West is mostly unaware of. This tale was somewhat unexpected, many thought Mononoke no Hime was his magnum opus and finale, but in many ways Sen is a more approachable and timeless piece, it is wonderful to see he has resumed. The imagination draws on a floating world of ghosts and demons which has a Japanese character while it is also uniquely Miyazake, and nothing like you have seen in western animations. The story line is universal, even if the dreamscape is strange (even to a Japanese person, this is an unexpected world), a story of a child discovering her inner resources, honesty, loyalty, and bravery to save herself, her friends, and her parents.
And not to be forgotten, there is breathtakingly beautiful animation. The scenes of flight (a Miyazake hallmark), the riot of ghostly life, the vistas, the boat along the water .. both technical mastery and artistically balanced. This is a film children can appreciate (though children too young to understand the abstractions may be truly scared) and has a depth to it that can allow an adult to watch it many times without tiring.
It is somewhat better with the Japanese dialog than the English, as usual. Probably this is because Miyazake gets involved in the casting and dialog work too, in the original, and this seems lost in the translation. If you've understood the story line in English you may one day consider watching it again in Japanese, just for the feel of it.