http://i.imgur.com/s6IBrsi.jpg

 

 

Welcome to TAKE 2 of the Buzzjack Film Club.

 

In this instalment we take you around the globe at two of the biggest international hits of the noughties.

 

A.) Pan's Labyrinth // Guillermo del Toro // 2006 (http://www.alluc.to/movies/watch-pans-laby...ine/ ---- 483994.html)

 

B.) Spirited Away // Hayao Miyazaki // 2001 (http://kissanime.com/Anime/Spirited-Away/Movie?id= ------- 45074)

 

 

Here, each film is loosely linked through their central characters: young children facing the harsh world around them and using their minds as a means of escaping it. The films deal with huge global issues but are shown through the perspectives of innocent and endearing children. How is the world of the film shaped by such young characters and how are their imaginations damaged by the harshness of the real world? Both films also present stunning worlds and fantastical, weird & wonderful characters to get behind so i hope you take the journeys with an open mind.

 

You have three options. You can watch either film a, film b, or both. We have decided to arrange it like this to allow for more casual/busy-bodies to choose one to focus on, and have given two for people wanting to expand discussion and enter into comparisons. There is nothing to stop you comparing to other films you may have seen, and we will be building a database of films that also fit this theme. Ideally we'd all watch both films, but obviously this may prove difficult for some.

 

Super secret links have been included above. Watch whenever you can and report back for some healthy discussion on whatever takes your fancy.

 

Enjoy.

 

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/thumbnail_570x321/2013/07/spirited_away_poster_piece_a_l.jpg

I saw the word children and so thought it would be a couple of nice animated films...

 

...but then I see that!

Oh I have heard of Spirited Away but never got round to watching it! Will get down to that soon.

I watched Spirited Away about a month ago, incredible film. The main theme is so beautiful too, really added to the whole thing.

 

I watched the English version so hopefully didn't miss out on anything, but I thought it was a very clever take on the whole 'journey from a child to an adult' thing that has been done so many times before, and often not very well.

Spirited Away is incredible, I associate it with my childhood and on repeated watches, holds up just as well. The animation, the story, the characters...everything is perfect :heart:

 

Pan's Labyrinth is one I've always really wanted to see but never got round to it so this is a mighty good selection for me.

I saw Pan's Labyrinth a few years ago at school and although I don't overly remember much about it, I don't remember enjoying it that much either.

 

Spirited Away sounds much more like my thing so I'll try to find time to watch it next week ^_^.

Oh my goodness, Pan's Labyrinth is incredible! Again helped along by a deceptively simple, yet stunningly beautiful melody running throughout. I thought the 'real' stuff (ie. all the nasty shit about war) was very well played and although the character was utterly, utterly VILE the guy acting the Captain did a wonderful job.

The mother's death lost a little bit of poignancy for me because it was so obvious it was going to happen from the off. It set in motion a truly gripping last half hour though, especially Mercedes' cutting the captain and escaping, I did almost shed a tear when I thought the guys on horses were going to catch and kill/torture her though.

 

 

I'm not sure if the ending was meant to be open ended or not?

For me it kind of felt like the end of Life of Pi, in that it could be taken two ways really: one, she is the princess of the underworld and lived happily for hundreds of years or two, she died and went to heaven and that was her imaginary escape. I'm not sure which I believe really, I mean the former is much 'nicer', but the latter is just as good really, because either way she has left behind the horrors she was experiencing in her mortal/earthly form.

 

 

So yeah, overall probably a 9.5/10, which is what I would give Spirited Away too. Both incredible films, but both in very different ways. SA is much 'lighter' and can just be watched, but PL felt like more of an experience and I reckon will probably stay with me longer.

'Pan's Labyrinth' is absolutely brilliant and stunning. I saw that for the first time about a year ago! I watched it as people were telling me it was "scary" and whatnot, so I thought, "ooh a horror!" I watched it, although I was disappointed it wasn't as scary as I expected it to be (seriously, the picture above really isn't as scary in the film when you're watching it :lol:) I still enjoyed it so much. The theme itself is pretty scary/daunting when you really think about it, but it's so beautifully executed and really does stick with you in the long run! I will be trying to give it another watch sometime soon, just to see what else I can talk about, but I do highly recommend it to anyone!

 

As for 'Spirited Away', it's been on my "to watch" list for quite some time now, but I've just never got around to it. This gives me a valid excuse to push it up the list and get talking about it! It's been recommended by just about every one of my friends who have seen it, so I look forward to it!

Watched Pan's Labyrinth last year too! It was an amazing one. Loved the scene where that hoe ate a grape. Literally screamed at her to not be so f***ing stupid lmao :D

 

Saw Spirited Away too a LONG time ago but it was a weird movie and I need to rewatch it to get it since I was too young to understand it the first time, it seems.

I studied Pan's Labyrinth for a European Cultural Sociology module a few years ago. It's one of my favourite Spanish films, almost beating the likes of Volver and El Espíritu de la Colmena, which all have a couple of things in common. I'd like to watch it again though as I've forgotten a lot of the symbolism that was used!

 

I've never seen Spirited Away. I recognise it though and it looks really good so I'll give that one a watch as well.

 

Excellent theme btw, Bal!

Oh my goodness, Pan's Labyrinth is incredible! Again helped along by a deceptively simple, yet stunningly beautiful melody running throughout. I thought the 'real' stuff (ie. all the nasty shit about war) was very well played and although the character was utterly, utterly VILE the guy acting the Captain did a wonderful job.

The mother's death lost a little bit of poignancy for me because it was so obvious it was going to happen from the off. It set in motion a truly gripping last half hour though, especially Mercedes' cutting the captain and escaping, I did almost shed a tear when I thought the guys on horses were going to catch and kill/torture her though.

 

 

I'm not sure if the ending was meant to be open ended or not?

For me it kind of felt like the end of Life of Pi, in that it could be taken two ways really: one, she is the princess of the underworld and lived happily for hundreds of years or two, she died and went to heaven and that was her imaginary escape. I'm not sure which I believe really, I mean the former is much 'nicer', but the latter is just as good really, because either way she has left behind the horrors she was experiencing in her mortal/earthly form.

 

 

So yeah, overall probably a 9.5/10, which is what I would give Spirited Away too. Both incredible films, but both in very different ways. SA is much 'lighter' and can just be watched, but PL felt like more of an experience and I reckon will probably stay with me longer.

I see the entire fantasy world as her means of escaping the wars as many probably do, and the struggle it is to truly remove yourself from it (the various tasks etc).

 

The entire film touches me repeatedly. The first spoiler you mention, the opening & ending, the brief relationships she forms, the wonder she has as she moves around the forest. It's just such a delicate film with a harsh bite and so essential. And as you say, the first time i saw it, it stuck with me for ages after.

 

'Pan's Labyrinth' is absolutely brilliant and stunning. I saw that for the first time about a year ago! I watched it as people were telling me it was "scary" and whatnot, so I thought, "ooh a horror!" I watched it, although I was disappointed it wasn't as scary as I expected it to be (seriously, the picture above really isn't as scary in the film when you're watching it :lol:) I still enjoyed it so much. The theme itself is pretty scary/daunting when you really think about it, but it's so beautifully executed and really does stick with you in the long run! I will be trying to give it another watch sometime soon, just to see what else I can talk about, but I do highly recommend it to anyone!

 

As for 'Spirited Away', it's been on my "to watch" list for quite some time now, but I've just never got around to it. This gives me a valid excuse to push it up the list and get talking about it! It's been recommended by just about every one of my friends who have seen it, so I look forward to it!

HA i had the exact same things told to me before watching. But like you say, I think a lot of the horror comes out of the war aspects though and how truly terrifying that world is from the eyes of an innocent young girl.

 

I studied Pan's Labyrinth for a European Cultural Sociology module a few years ago. It's one of my favourite Spanish films, almost beating the likes of Volver and El Espíritu de la Colmena, which all have a couple of things in common. I'd like to watch it again though as I've forgotten a lot of the symbolism that was used!

An expert?? *.* I do wonder how it's viewed in Spain...

 

Glad we have so many fans of the films already btw!

I see the entire fantasy world as her means of escaping the wars as many probably do, and the struggle it is to truly remove yourself from it (the various tasks etc).

 

Yeah, that's pretty my the way I ended up going with it too. I've actually been thinking rather a lot about it today.

 

Half-term for a lot of you so NO excuses :angry:

Half-term for a lot of you so NO excuses :angry:

 

Give me until Reading Week and I'll be there!

I'm seriously tight for time so I don't know if I'll get to see Spirited Away (I will try and sneak it in somewhere), but I've just spent the last couple of hours watching Pan's Labyrinth, and well.. that was pretty excellent. All the darker versions of the traditional 'fairytale' narrative was pretty good. The scene where the faun asked her to obey his orders without question felt so powerful juxtaposed with the doctor's one-liner attack on fascism earlier in the film.

Ultimately it was a subversion,

but I found it very interesting he was asking her to behave the way the Captain might ask her to behave.

 

All the war stuff, loved that. I don't know as much as I'd like to about the situation in Spain at the time, but the Captain was a fantastic character, a clear irredeemable villain but his fascist side was very well presented with regards to their motives, while those working undercover were presented as just being desperate and fighting for their lives as one might imagine they would be if they were living as outlaws. Despite the clear black and white of the two sides, and that the non-Mercedes/Doctor Ferreira rebels were a bit one-note, I thought they were a lot more interesting than many similar factions in other films.

 

Also, I'm currently trying to learn a bit of Spanish so this was really quite good for me. Recognised more words than I normally do in a foreign language film.

omg two of the best films of all time :o

Right, well I didn't get to rewatch Pan's Labyrinth (omg real life :() but I'll try go off what I can remember from it years ago. My memory is patchy at best so this is probably all wrong and disjointed ooops.

 

I know that with films like this there can be SO many different interpretations of themes, motifs and symbols, but again this is basically what I got from it. The story, set in 1944 (pretty significant), may seem like a dark fantasy on the outside, but it offers the viewer a very vivid, sombre, and depressing tale of a young girl’s escape from fascism (or ‘falangism’ as it was in Spain at the time) and Spanish society after the end of the Civil War which saw Franco defeat the left-wing Republic in 1939(?). Ofelia is determined to leave the oppressive Franco Spain behind by escaping into this fantasy of the faun and his labyrinth. She’s young, smart, courageous, and speaks her mind, which is extremely representative of the Republic (this is open to debate as I'm being very biased here :P). She loves books and anything intellectual, which was basically a massive no during the Franco era. Anything holding any intellectual bearing was banned in Spain at the time, so she’s definitely a threat to the Right falangist ideology. The novel The Shadow Of The Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón explores this theme in great detail with the location of ‘The Cemetery of Forgotten Books’. It’s well worth a read if you want to explore Spanish history through fiction. Anyway, you witness Ofelia’s resistance when she first meets her new step-father, the awful and very-much-like-Franco, Captain Vidal. She attempts to shake his right hand with her left hand, which instantly gives away her ideological stance, something which Vidal despises. The fighting that we see between the Republican resistance fighters in the mountains and the fascist forces is a carbon copy conflict of Captain Vidal and his stepdaughter, something which comes to a tragic end in the final scenes.

 

One of the many themes is patriarchy. I know it's fairly obvious but Vidal is SO MACHO, which is something that is dealt with throughout the film (and other films dealing with Spain's gory past) as the women in the film tend to be the ones who fight back a lot, and this is seen by some as a symbol of the Republic. The women represent the Republic while the male husbands represent the oppressive Nationalist Falange. Up until King Juan Carlos (who was actually one of Franco’s protégées) reformed the extremely Catholic Church-orientated Spanish constitution during the transition to democracy after Franco's rightful DEATH in the mid 1970s, women and other minority groups (including the LGBT community) were treated appallingly and many believe it’s because of this why Spain today is quite liberal in its laws towards abortion and gay marriage/adoption. The shaky political scenario after Franco's death (El Tejerazo being the main 'holy shitballs' moment in recent Spanish history) still remains relevant to this day and forms a part of the national psyche. The obsession with death and tragedy is everywhere. I think this was touched upon in

as well. It’s all women-centric (and very RED), which is a theme/motif Pedro Almodóvar often uses in his work (

has a ton of red in it). In this instance, one of the main heroes of the film is Mercedes, who is almost more of a mother to Ofelia than her actual mother and Ofelia's tragic death is often viewed as the death of the Republic.

 

There are so many layers to this movie that I can't remember much about so I had a hard time expanding on them. There's also this obsession with time and we can see this with Captain Vidal and his pocket watch, and I think his main room (office?) has a massive clock wheel (?) in it or something? Aggghhh. Not even sure if I'll get to watch Spirited Away either but I'll try! :(

OK this review is gonna seem so tame coming after that.

 

Pan's Labyrinth really was excellent, as expected. Definitely very dark and without the slight fantasy element (and it really is quite slight), it is very much a gritting realistic portrayal of Spain in the Civil War. I know little about the context of the Spanish Civil War so won't dwell on it, but it definitely seemed relatable to any war scenario and Captain Vidal portrayed the evil, Hitler-esque figure excellently. Really excellent performances all around and Ofelia was really likeable and believable as a protagonist (as a contrast to Sen from Spirited Away who I personally found a little bit annoying (one of the rare not so great things about that film)). I also liked how quiet it all was, as in very few of the characters shouted during the film, even the Captain.

 

The little fantasy elements it had looked really great, but I admire that it didn't make that it's complete focus and instead used it to strengthen the harshness of the context, and a means of escapism in one's life. I think the fantasy is also representative of her imagination and spiritual goals and realisation at the end as a stark contrast to the world she lives in - a point that is very relevant today, and how that can prevail against the odds.

 

 

I was a bit confused if the labyrinth/or any of the fantasy stuff was actually real or just in her head. Especially when Vidal didn't see the creature she was talking too and how she goes to a sort of heaven in the end, when in the real world she is dead. Also the fact we never really saw the 'world' that they were talking about except a brief glimpse at the end I think backs this up. I guess it's a question it leaves to us in the end.I like to think it was mainly imagination/metaphorical sense. It's a slight contrast to Spirited Away, where the fantasy was real and essential to her as a character.

 

 

Overall, yeah, a fantastic film and definitely a future classic. Don't really have time to review Spirited Away unfortunately, but yeah, Pan's was almost as good as that.

Been quite busy so haven't got round to bumping this until now, but wow Cal! A lot of the historical context i really don't know about but i feel another watch having read up about it is definitely worthwhile then. A fair bit of that makes sense from what i can salvage from my own knowledge, but it just proves how rich and layered the film is.

 

Hope a few more people get a chance to watch the films eventually, but either way we can hopefully move to new territory soon enough.

 

Apologies for not being as on top of it all this time, i've been fairly busy, but very happy to see at least a few of you have made good discoveries from this pairing :D They are both wonderful, so well worth a watch whether you feed-back in here or not!

I've watched Spirited Away now and will post a (hopefully long) review of it as soon as I get time. Definitely haven't had enough people talking about that.

 

(but also move on whenever you can as well, no need to stop discussing in here just because of that)