Remember my definition of "soon" is quite relaxed :kink:

 

But yes that's perfectly fine! These threads can obviously always be revisited at any time even if we do move on. Also noticed i haven't given my full verdict on them so i'll get to that myself and rewatch both again over the weekend.

Okay, Spirited Away (probable a lot of spoilers if you continue reading and haven't watched the film, I'll only hide the most massive of the twists if I mention them):

 

I feel that Pan's Labyrinth is the more powerful film and probably better overall, but this is certainly a lot more FUN. Which is very good as well. Chihiro was very easily relateable as a lead, which is really so important for a film, I wanted her to succeed.. in whatever she needed to accomplish. The imagination put into the film was the highlight, I don't know if a lot of it comes from Japanese fairytales or some such but either way it's incredibly colorful and the plot is delightful in that it's pretty complex but not overly so. The bathhouse organisation was fab, it seems so delightfully obscure as a cleaning place for passing gods and the bureaucracy that goes into this and was described by the film, all those little details are fab. I liked how the bathhouse denizens quickly became kind and helpful to her once she'd done the right things by them, it felt like it was creating an ensemble of characters which is always good with me, as well as allowing her to become more mature and able to move about in this spirit world unhindered. She actually went over a great spectrum of character development over the film.

 

Minor niggles then: a) her parents looked so dumb at the beginning. I know they have to get turned into pigs or whatever some way to move the plot along but eating piles of cooked food in a ghost town with no one in sight is just ASKING for it if you're even slightly genre savvy. b) I don't get how she first figured out

Haku was a dragon

, there seemed to be no hints before she first made that assumption unless something was written in Japanese that I missed. c) I really want to know how long they were in there for, the theories I've found range from a few days to YEARS. Given the removal men were also going to their new house that'd produce some sort of awkward situation no matter how long they'd been in there. These things are important. (especially there didn't seem to be much reason to not have them just have spent no time in there at all a la Narnia, right?)

 

Overall a lovely film, yeah, felt like a proper fairytale away from the world, wasn't quite as tied to a real-world event as Pan's Labyrinth was so did feel a lot less serious but still an important 'coming-of-age' theme throughout that helped tie it together.

Very biased when choosing these two because they are two of my all-time favourite films for similar but different reasons.

 

'Pan's Labrinth' is one of the most relentless films i've seen, barrage after barrage of all things harsh with humanity but coupled with the most beautiful setting/story/escape from all of that so i always watch it feeling enlightened after. Ofelia embodies the innocent childish mind as i see it; trying to assist others whenever possible, wildly imaginative, colourful and so similar to the other hero here too. 'Spirited Away' in all of its beauty and magic, depresses me. I know it shouldn't because it's joyous and a heap of fun, but that final moment when Chihiro looks back at the world she just experienced but leaves it behind to follow her parents always gets to me for some reason. The Japanese mythology and culture that feeds throughout the film is what makes it so special for me. It's imaginative and just makes me despair that i can't think up similar worlds in my own life :lol: Both do this through the use of the central characters being so young, innocent, naive and adorable. You really get behind them and will them to escape their horrors in these fantastical worlds.

 

Fans of 'Pan's Labrinth' should definitely check out more of del Toro's stuff. 'The Devil's Backbone' uses children too and is similar in ways to this, and obviously fans of 'Spirited Away' need to binge on all things Studio Ghibli <3