Instead of talking about seasonal shows I watched this past week, instead I wanted to talk about something else I got to watch. A while ago, I posted a news story about Studio Ghibli Fest that is happening over the course of the year (at least in the US). On Sunday, I got the chance to watch Spirited Away on the big screen, so I thought I would share some thoughts. Putting most of it behind a spoiler tag in case any of you out there have yet to partake of this incredible Ghibli movie.
First of all, it was really cool to see this on the big screen. Where I was living at the time the movie first came out had very little in the way of movie theaters and I was never able to make it to a showing. The other parts of this experience that I found notable was that there was almost nothing in the way of lead-in trailers. The only video clip they showed prior to the movie start was a ~5 minute tour of Ghibli Park (which looked pretty cool, especially if I was a kid). Then it rolled straight into the movie. One of the children in the theater next to me even asked their parents if the movie started as the title card was pulled up on screen.
Spirited Away Thoughts
Alright, we are behind a spoiler tag now, so story discussion time. Due to my schedule, I watched a dubbed showing, whereas I had only ever watched the subbed version before. Overall, it took a couple minutes for me to get used to watching something dubbed, but it was very well done and I stopped thinking about it pretty quickly.
I had forgotten how unlikeable Chihiro's parents are in this movie. It is hard to imagine what compelled her to go through so much in order to try to save her parents since I don't think there is any scene in which they seem to be good parents during the whole runtime. Even at the end of the movie after Chihiro has saved them and they are leaving, they are still getting annoyed with her.
I was in the theater with a couple irl folks and one of them afterwards was talking about how Yubaba isn't exactly evil in the traditional villain sense, and felt more like an exploitative capitalist. Thinking about this some more, I think that she certainly does evil things, like taking peoples' names, stealing things (like the seal from her sister), and essentially imprisoning her child. So, I think that we are supposed to see her as evil. However, the movie leaves you with a much warmer impression of her than it started with. She lets Haku pressure her into giving Sen a chance to save herself and her parents. She also seems to be truly welcoming of having her baby home after it has returned. She then lives up to her end of the agreement.
My favorite part of this movie upon rewatching it is Chihiro's escape from the bathhouse and her trip to Zeniba's house. The movie up to that point felt quite hectic in my opinion. It is Chihiro (then Sen) reacting to all the strange things happening around her. She finds herself suddenly thrust into an alien world surrounded by danger and is fighting to survive. She begins to assert herself in the movie when she deals with the polluted river spirit. However, I didn't feel like she had taken charge of her own destiny until she decided to save Haku and travel to Zeniba...then ultimately her escape following her return to the bathhouse.
Overall, I really enjoyed my experience. I also found out that my local theater has pretty tasty churros that they will deliver right to your seat in the theater. I am hoping to do more screenings for Ghibli Fest over the course of the year. The next movie that I have an opening in my schedule for is Mononoke. So, look forward to my thoughts on that one after I see it in July.
