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Marvin Gardens
Citizen
Username: Marvin_gardens
Post Number: 19
Registered: 11-2003
| | Posted on Monday, December 1, 2003 - 7:03 pm: |     |
...was the weirdest acid-trip of a movie I've seen in a long time. It was just out there. The art and animation was absolutely unbelievably amazing but because it was so twisted, I can't say that I liked it.
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Do Not Pass Go |
wharfrat
Citizen
Username: Wharfrat
Post Number: 863
Registered: 6-2001
| | Posted on Monday, December 1, 2003 - 8:10 pm: | |
If you think that "Spirited Away" was a wild movie, run, don't walk, to "The Triplets of Belleville". |
L'Angelo Misterioso
Citizen
Username: Misterioso
Post Number: 13
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, December 2, 2003 - 8:13 am: | |
I'm anxious to see Triplets.
Miyazaki's Spirited Away is an amazing, beautiful, great DVD rent - a tour-de-force of a movie. It communicates, much better than live-action does, how similar AND how foreign Japanese culture is to our own. It's also exciting, scary, funny, and sad. Don't miss it.
Maharishi University Class of '67 |
Yossarian
Citizen
Username: Yossarian
Post Number: 112
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, December 2, 2003 - 9:43 am: | |
Spirited Away is brilliant. It's an amazing fantasy trip that is beautiful to watch (but too scary for the little ones, IMO).
Anyone who likes it should also check out My Neighbor Totoro. Similarly beautiful yet mostly without the trippy-ness Marvin Gardins refers too. |
musicme
Citizen
Username: Musicme
Post Number: 411
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, December 2, 2003 - 9:55 am: | |
Kiki's Delivery Service
Princess Monoke
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ml1
Citizen
Username: Ml1
Post Number: 1387
Registered: 5-2002
| | Posted on Tuesday, December 2, 2003 - 10:45 am: | |
Another thumbs up for Spirited Away. If your children aren't frightened by Harry Potter, they can handle this movie. I would say though, that it's too sophistocated for kids under 8 or 9 to enjoy. It's really an animated movie for adults -- another cultural difference between us and Japan. |
weekends
Citizen
Username: Weekends
Post Number: 14
Registered: 1-2002
| | Posted on Tuesday, December 2, 2003 - 12:46 pm: | |
On a trip to Tokyo last Spring I had a "spirited" conversation with an Australian woman who has lived in Japan for 12 years, is fluent in Japanese, and who'd only seen Spirited Away in the original Japanese. She couldn't understand my enthusiasm for the film. By doing only what she was told to do, the little girl who is the main character was exhibiting stereotypical Japanese behavior, in the Australian's opinion. It was sexist, demeaning, and typical of Japanese attitudes toward girls. Moreover, the spirits that inhabit the bath house (the giant radish, etc.) which were SO over-the-top to me as an American seemed like stock Japanese characters to her. We had a fun, long, drunken argument about it one evening in Roppongi. At the end we both remarked that it seemed like we hadn't seen the same film.
Six months later I ran into the Australian woman here in New York. She'd seen Spirited Away again but this time the English version. She found it to be a completely different film, and liked it. In English the girl, though scared, is portrayed as much more the master of her own fate, taking initiative, and by the end shows new confidence in herself and her abilities. The Australian woman thought that the English version wouldn't be acceptable to many Japanese, and I thought that the Japanese version wouldn't be acceptable to many Americans.
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Hank Zona
Citizen
Username: Hankzona
Post Number: 869
Registered: 3-2002
| | Posted on Tuesday, December 2, 2003 - 12:53 pm: | |
My kids liked the movie and all the characters...especially Giant Baby. |
Yossarian
Citizen
Username: Yossarian
Post Number: 113
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, December 2, 2003 - 1:22 pm: | |
weekends -- Interesting post. My wife has seen Spirited Away many times in both languages. She is fluent in both languages and prefers the Japanese version. In particular, the Japanese actor who plays the boy in the movie is a delight to her. Something about the tone of his voice and his inflection.
I'm not sure why your Australian friend had such a problem with the Japanese version. It's the same movie, and simply translating from one language to the other cannot make a film more or less sexist or demeaning. (We've studied this with several other films that are available in Japanese and English. At the most, some things are lost in translation (another great film, although Japanese I know didn't like it too much), but nothing extreme.
I remember seeing The Firm in Tokyo with Japanese subtitles. At one point, I was the only one in the thrater laughing at a humorous exchange. Later, when I asked my wife about the specific moment in the film, she said the Japanese tanslation of the lines made no sense. I think that's more typical than the kind of situation you've described.
Perhaps the female actor in the Japanese version of Spirited Away varied her inflection, but it's very unlikely (and my wife has confirmed this) that it could make the dramatic difference your friend suggested.
Of course, she's entitled to her opinion.
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