Spirited Away is an animated Japanese movie that won the best animated feature film in 2003, and did it deserve it. One of the best movies I have ever seen, Spirited Away fully encapsulated me into its fantasy world, and I honestly upset when the movie ended wanting more. Directed by Hayao Miyazaki, his first movie back after the critically acclaimed Princess Mononoke (plan on watching this one soon), Miyazaki created another masterpiece. I give this movie a 9.7/10 and have/would recommend this movie to everyone.
Spirited Away starts with Chihiro, a ten-year old girl, and her parents driving up to their new house for the first time. After taking a wrong road leading to a mysterious tunnel, and despite Chihiro's protests, the family decides to take a look around what appears to be an abandoned amusement park. This leads up to the parents discovering a freshly made feast in this ghost town, and begin to splurge as Chihiro checks out the "castle" of the amusement park, only to return, finding her parents have been turned into pigs. The rest of the movie is Chihiro's adventure to return her parents to their normal form, and leave the spiritual world. I know the way I just described this movie makes it sound terrible, but this is described as a Japanese Alice in Wonderland so its best to have a open mindset going into the movie. What made the movie amazing was the array of characters and scenes only an expansive imagination could create, and does Miyazaki have a great imagination.
While this movie really had it all, I thought the lighting and color were especially exceptional. In the screenshot above is when Chihiro meets the boiler man for the first time. We are filled with suspense waiting to meet this mysterious man for the first time, only a creepy shadow on the wall to be seen in the brightly lit room. The color in Spirited Away were just unbelievable. The vibrant colors of the movie fit the incredible animation perfectly. As seen in the scene above and the three scenes below, Miyazaki has mastered creating moods with the colors he has chosen to fill the screen with. Overall, Spirited Away is one, if not the most artistically beautiful movies I have ever seen. Even though I had watched it two days ago, writing this review has made me want to watch it again, right now. SEE THIS MOVIE!
Yes, Eric, so glad someone reviewed this movie. Honestly one of my favorite movies as well. This movie was a pretty big part of my childhood and I couldn't agree more with your review. The artistic and fantasy aspect of this movie is what makes this film stand out. The way Miyazaki creates an entire world with color variety shows that he wanted to focus on the artistic views just as much as the story. Plus the soundtrack to this movie is still one of my favorites. Great review.
ReplyDeleteEric,
ReplyDeleteThis movie looks really cool, and like I alluded to in my own review, I'm starting to get really interested in foreign films. I'm really interested in what you said about color and lighting espeically in terms of an animated movie. I've never really dipped my toes in that genre and the fact that you gave it such a high ranking really motivates me to do so. A fun note, if you haven't already seen it, take a peak at Roshomon, it's an older Japanese film (not anime) but it's in the top 50 best movies of all time and I feel like you'd really like it.
Yeah, I need to see this movie. I've heard nothing but good things about it. I've seen Princess Mononoke, and that was my first step into the world of Miyazaki. I liked that film, partly because it was so different from the Hollywood formula film. The characters were well-crafted, and I really liked the strong female characters.
ReplyDeleteGreat review. I put this on my queue.