With this being the second Hayao Miyazaki film I have seen (Spirited Away being the first), I can safely say that he is brilliant. Having always been a tad skeptic about anime films and television shows, I was certainly apprehensive to give this genre a chance. What made me watch Sprited Away however, was my Film Studies class. We watched a 15 minute clip and I was left wanting more, wanting to see what happened next. This reaction surprised me but nonetheless, I was left downloading the film that night.
At the time I was introduced to Spirited Away, I had already been quite interested in Japanese culture. For my sophomore year literature circle book, I read the novel Battle Royale and just had to watch the film version after. This could not have been a better decision, as I just about fell in love with the movie. I suddenly became fascinated with the Japanese language. Unfortunately, this fascination faded until senior year, actually until pretty recently, when I watched Lost In Translation. This film portrays a more modern version of Japan, in the capital Tokyo to be exact. Anyways, the point is this: one should not form an opinion of something without first doing some research.
Miyazaki's animation is just so incredibly crisp, bright, and simply beautiful. I get lost in his films and my jaw constantly drops open. One can only dream of having an imagination as vivid as any of his films.
I must say though, that one of my mistakes may be that I watched both of these in English, for the sole purpose of not reading subtitles. Any film critic I'm sure would argue that it takes away from the film-not watching in the intended language. However, I disagree. What a viewer makes of a film is created by them, independent of any other factors (language, whether watched on a big screen or small, etc.)
Now, all I can hope for is to watch all of his animated films. I am almost certain that I will not regret a single moment.
