Showing posts with label Japanese animation movie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Japanese animation movie. Show all posts

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Spirited Away



"Spirited Away" by Hayao Miyazaki is one my favorite movies that I watch whenever I want to just relax and be free from all the stress. I think it is one of the very few animation movies that can be watched by a wide range of audience, but still contain a lot of significant, deep meanings within the context and plot of the movies. Just to tell you a little bit about the story, a ten-year old girl, Chihiro, accidentally gets to a mysterious place where monsters and spirits live while exploring a new place with her parents. To return her parents into humans (while exploring the place, they turn into pigs because they eat the foods of the mysterious place), Chihiro gets a new name, Sen, to work in the bathhouse of Yubaba with a lot of help from Haku. Overall, I think the movie portrays Chihiro's transition from childhood from adulthood by showing her entering the new, mysterious world. When she starts working at Yubaba's bathhouse, she loses of name, which represents her childhood; then, she gets a new name for her adulthood to start almost a new life with full responsibilities for herself and also for people around her, such as her parents. The vivid images and detailed settings of the movie makes me fall deeper and deeper into the movie as I watch "Spirited Away". There is a Disney version of the movie, but I personally think that the original Japanese version of the film is better with the Japanese voices that make the story sound more realistic for some reason.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea


Ponyo on the Cliff is a movie made by a famous Japanese movie director Hayao Miyazaki. I've watched many of his other movies, but didn't get a chance to watch this one when it first came out in 2008. Personally, I like Hayao Miyazaki's movies because his movies not only enrich the audience's eyes but also their minds; every scene in his movies contains a deep meaningwhile being portrayed with beautiful illustrations at the same time. I watched a dubbed version of the original Japanese movie, Ponyo on the Cliff; although some people might think that animation movies are just for little kids, this movie was actually very interesting and fun for me because all the characters in the movie were positive-minded and very pure, I would say. Even the adults in the movie were pure like little children; for example, Soske's mom let Ponyo stay at her house right away instead of thinking that Ponyo's story, that she turned into a human from a fish to meet Soske, was just a story made up by a child.

This is a movie trailer of the Japanese version with English subtitles.


I would definitely recommend you all to watch this movie, especially if you haven't watched any of Hayao Miyazaki's movies, because you will be able to learn lessons and enjoy the story, in which Soske and Ponyo become great friends!

Click Here for a website that has the original Japanese version of the movie divided into eleven parts. Unfortunately, there are Korean subtitles in it, but no English subtitles.. : ( By the way, I LOVE Ponyo and Soske's voices in the movie! They're so cute!

Sources
http://www.nipponcinema.com/releases/dvd/ponyo-on-the-cliff-by-the-sea-walt-disney-home-ent/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gh4rqs62pL8