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movie review - Spirited Away

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-eight years and a million words

Toronto, 2002.10.07

This is a Japanese animated movie of outstanding art work and brilliantly original storytelling. It's about a girl who gets separated from her parents after they blunder into the spirit world. She is forced to rescue her parents once they fall victim to a spell; a task involving dragons, voracious monsters, evil witches, and gargantuan infants. It's really quite brilliant, and I recommend it for the cinema rather than rental. I love its mad, almost feverish feeling as surreal events play out between and around the heroine.

A favorite. Strongly recommended.

P.S. A personal favorite among the ghosts, monsters, demons, and so on: kaonashi. I'd like to make a Hallowe'en costume of that character some day.

rand()m quote

You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the guy who'll decide where to go.

—Dr. Seuss