9 ms·

Watching 'Spirited Away' again, and again

299 points by ecliptik 4y ago

shmooperlander 4y ago
I havent watched the movie multiple times, but I have watched one specific scene dozens of times. Its the stink monster getting a bath scene. Something about it makes it incredibly amazing to watch. Makes you feel freedom, almost
drsopp 4y ago
It's the only movie I immediately rewatched.
- bhedgeoser 4y ago
  For me it was tenet
pamelafox 4y ago
When my child was two, we re-watched it about once a week for several months since it was her favorite. The theory we keep debating is whether the two old ladies (the sisters) are actually the same person. Still unsettled. Related: I drew a No-Face on our garage last spring and it's still there, creeping out everyone who walks by. Guess it hasn't rained much in CA! :)
- derefr 4y ago
  If your child is still young enough to appreciate plush toys, can I recommend something? https://www.amazon.com/YOUDirect-Dragon-U-shaped-Pillow-Stuffed/dp/B074P5QYFQ/ https://www.amazon.com/YOUDirect-Dragon-U-shaped-Pillow-Stuf... I'm leaning on one right now :)
  - InitialLastName 4y ago
    Man, people buy stuff from sketchy vendors, give it to their children, and just expect it not to offgas formaldehyde?
tehnub 4y ago
I always enjoy rereading the review Roger Ebert wrote when he added Spirited Away to his Great Movies list [1]. He touches on a similar point, about how the movie all feels like a gift: >The story of "Spirited Away" has been populated with limitless creativity. Has any film ever contained more different kinds of beings that we have never seen anywhere before? Miyazaki's imagination never rests. There is a scene where the heroine and her companion get off a train in the middle of a swamp. In the distant forest they see a light approaching. This turns out to be an old-fashioned light pole that is hopping along on one foot. It bows to them, turns, and lights the way on the path they must take. When they arrive at a cottage, it dutifully hangs itself above the gate. The living light pole is not necessary. It is a gift from Miyazaki. https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-spirited-away-2002 https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-spirited-away...
- ericmcer 4y ago
  That feels a bit like he hasn’t seen much Anime. Spirited Away was my first Miyazaki movie and I was similarly blown away, but after watching his other work and other Anime it felt more like a very polished and creative story but not mind-blowing in its originality.
- npinsker 4y ago
  To me, the animation in Ghibli movies feels lush and alive in a way that’s rare in the (seemingly) difficult, very cost-sensitive world of animation. Ebert’s review is wonderful; I also enjoyed this video, which touches on some of the same points: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jM6PPxN1xas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jM6PPxN1xas
- dereg 4y ago
  If you liked his review of Spirited Away, you will also like his review of Metropolis. I liked that he enjoyed movies from all genres as long as they accomplished what they set out to do. > The movie is so visually rich I want to see it again to look in the corners and appreciate the details. Like all the best Japanese anime, it pays attention to little things. There is a scene where an old man consults a book of occult lore. He opens it and starts to read. A page flips over. He flips it back in place. Considering that every action in an animated film requires thousands of drawings, a moment like the page flip might seem unnecessary, but all through the movie we get little touches like that. https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/metropolis-2002 https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/metropolis-2002
mcbishop 4y ago
The animation is so beautiful. I watch it again just for that... hanging out in that weird dreamscape.
madmod 4y ago
It is my all time favorite movie. Its something of a joke in my family that we always watch it on my birthday.
beilabs 4y ago
Thankfully my kids are devouring my Studio Ghibli collection. Ny Neighbor Totoro and Ponyo are played multiple times in the day. They've not yet gotten to Spirited Away, waiting until they are a little older. I dread the day they turn on Grave of the Fireflies. I thank the stars they have outgrown baby shark and cocomelon.
- flanbiscuit 4y ago
  Have you shown them Kiki's Delivery Service? That's one of my favorites!
- savanaly 4y ago
  The movie that scarred me as a kid was Princess Mononoke. I remember my parents had a few friends over to watch it when it first released on DVD and they did this after my bedtime as I wasn't considered old enough to see but of course I snuck down to watch (I'm pretty sure they knew I was watching in retrospect). The scene that I would relive in my nightmares repeatedly for years was the one where the protagonist's cursed arm comes to life in the middle of a pitched battle and everyone sets down their arms to watch as he pushes open a big gate or something. The music in this scene is foreboding, solemn, yet energetic, and the visual combined with the music evoked exactly the emotion I'm sure Miyzaki intended: dread at the vastness of the power of nature about which humans know naught, finally revealed in all its terrible horror. The prince's fate as a cursed person is supposed to feel worse than death and this was maybe my first time fully appreciating that concept in my short life, so it was doubly effective.
  - darepublic 4y ago
    Maybe bad parenting but my preschool aged kids watched mononoke without issue. I played the first Sam Raimi spiderman for them too..
- dzhiurgis 4y ago
  My nearly 3yo can hardly handle it in a longer drive. There’s always a scene were emotions are too much. Peppa Pig it is for now…
afroisalreadyin 4y ago
The serene joy I get from watching this film with my kids is comparable to nothing. The scene where the parents are turned into pigs is a bit taxing on them, but even that has become an in-joke, with my daughter reminding me that I might suddenly start grunting and keel over if I keep on eating. There are so many inventive moments like those that are also animated with such mastery that you want to rewatch it as soon as you are at the end credits.
greatgib 4y ago
I don't really understand what such an opinion piece does on top of HN. I guess that the article gets likes because of affection people have with this anime. But, otherwise, I have the feeling that this article is completely off-topic, and does not even provide any meaningful information. In addition, the atlantic website sucks so so much as it is completely broken on mobile web browser, with the scroll not working...
- boxed 4y ago
  I think you might misunderstand what HN is.
- Ayesh 4y ago
  ha! I was going to write something similar about the broken website. Turns out it was because my adblocker had blocked their "You don't have free articles" popup and the backdrop. I'd rather not read their articles, no thank you.
- sublinear 4y ago
  I agree. Regardless of opinion on the 00's pop culture, or the cohort of people reading this at the moment, this isn't relevant to the spirit or function of HN. This isn't reddit.
  - martopix 4y ago
    Uhm, perhaps HN is not for you? HN is about the community of hackers, not hacking in itself. Anything you chat about at lunchtime with colleagues is on-topic. Reddit is different, there's a lot more about memes and fun, usually. This is more intellectual.
- mkaic 4y ago
  from the HN guidelines: What to Submit On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity. I would argue that a thoughtful analysis of a film widely regarded to be one of the best films ever made is definitely something that gratifies intellectual curiosity. Furthermore, the fact that the post has attracted high-quality discussion and a high number of upvotes suggests that many hackers do, indeed, find this interesting. I hope you have a wonderful evening!
AndrewVos 4y ago
Not sure what the deal is with this website but I can't scroll or otherwise interact with it at all. Amazing work really. Chrome on Android
- pinato 4y ago
  Do you have an addon that tries to block cookie consent banners? These often create this kind of problem.
  - AndrewVos 4y ago
    No I only have uBlock and AdGuard Home - ok that's a lot now that I think about it!
- cmacleod4 4y ago
  I get that too. I'm using Chrome on Windows 10, the only adblocking I use is a customised hosts file.
- Digit-Al 4y ago
  Try reader mode. Interestingly, this page worked fine for me, but when I clicked links to other pages on the same site they exhibited the same problem you are experiencing. This is on Firefox on Windows. Reader mode fixes the problem.
mudrockbestgirl 4y ago
Listening to the soundtrack of this movie makes me cry.
- maaaaattttt 4y ago
  "The Sixth Station" always gives me instant goose bumps. Probably stating the obvious but soundtracks can make or destroy a potentially good movie. The scary trailer recuts of Mary Poppins [1] or Diff'rent Strokes [2] come to mind for example of how influential a soundtrack can be. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2T5_0AGdFic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2T5_0AGdFic [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwxLekENDw0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwxLekENDw0
atoav 4y ago
On the Ghibli corpus: I recently watched As the Wind rises and I was completely blown away by the kind of perspective it offered into the japanese society of the time. It is more mature than Spirited Away and definitly worth a watch if you are an engineer as the story is a free fictionalization of the life of the engineer that designed the japanese fighter airplane nicknamed "Zero". The classic Ghibli motifs of clouds, grassy mountaintops and fantasy of flying play their role as one might have guessed — but coupled with the serious and mature topics of the film it is even more magical when in a quiet scene the wind strokes through the grass. As an Austrian who lives in Germany I also liked the scene where they traveled to Germany to see the Junkers plant (with the goal of spying of course) — I liked it because it offered a unique perspective on Germany of the time. It was one of those Ghiblis I never watched because of odd reasons, but when I did I was blown away.
- apozem 4y ago
  The Wind Rises is a masterpiece, and one I would especially recommend to any engineer. The protagonist loves planes. He loves their grace, their beauty, the way they soar through the sky. He spends his whole life trying to build a great plane and... succeeds, only to find his dream (and Japan) in ruins from WWII. It's a riveting exploration of the cost of mastery of your craft, made by a master of animation. Highly, highly recommend.
- buildbot 4y ago
  I personally really disliked the wind rises - it seems apologetic to the role of an engineer in creating a machine used to kill people, just because they were beautiful. Perhaps I missed the point and there was a subtle sadness I did not perceive in the creation of the fighters. Also, a somewhat weird romance compared to even other Ghibli movies
  - rawgabbit 4y ago
    I liked the film because I thought it was an honest take on Miyazaki's feelings about that era. The hero and heroine were just people who had hopes and dreams and fell in love. The times they lived in were horrific. I identify with them because I have family members in my extended family who fought each other in the same war. War is evil.
jwmoz 4y ago
Gonna say it.. this movie is overrated.
- sublinear 4y ago
  Agree and I don't understand why anyone reacts to these blatant requests for comment from overt marketing anymore on HN. It's extremely naive to think these articles have any interest in mind apart from determining what sells with various social groups. HN is not an opinion farm and nerd culture has been dead for well over a decade. It's 2022 now, not 2009. No sentiment extracted from this place will capture any meaningful trend apart from maybe the negativity I'm giving off right now.
- Ajunne 4y ago
  Had to scroll down quite a bit on the HN page to find your comment, obviously it has been downvoted because having this opinion is apparently not allowed in this world. That being said, I fully agree with you. I've tried watching this movie multiple times. When it originally came out so many years ago, friends of mine recommended it to me and they were absolutely lyrical about it. I've tried watching it high, I hated it. I've tried watching it sober, I hated it. I've tried watching it many years after it came out, I still hated it. There is something about this movie that totally grinds my gears, and I cannot put my finger on it.
  - noasaservice 4y ago
    > There is something about this movie that totally grinds my gears, and I cannot put my finger on it. Spirited Away is beautiful, in the artistic sense of the word. It has no real story, and is just a hodgepodge of Japanese folklore pieced together to half-resemble even a mild plot. The rest of the stuff that isn't folklore-related is just the anthropomorphic elements Miyazaki added in as filler because of "kawaii". ----------------- And as an aside.... "Had to scroll down quite a bit on the HN page to find your comment, obviously it has been downvoted because having this opinion is apparently not allowed in this world." It's not the "world" that has this problem. It's hacker news. This place seriously has a groupthink problem. For this site, "Disagree(opinion)" == "Disagree(factually incorrect)" == "Disagree(against group opinion) == "Disagree(no reason)" are all given the same weight, and the same gray-on-offwhite text.
NalNezumi 4y ago
My favorite re-watch movie (or in this case, series) have been Neon genesis Evangelion. I have mixed opinions about the show but rewatching it in different stage of life (early teen, depressed high schooler, stressed college kid, anxious junior to the worklife) I always saw some new things. As a kid the robots and fighting the angels were the focus, as a depressed teen the religious symbolism and reading too much in to it was the focus, as a stressed college kid it was the relation between the characters (and their parents) was the focus, and finally as an "adult" it was seeing how completely dysfunctional every single adult is in the series. A hallmark of good rewatchable show is to always explore new stuff. I wonder what I'll explore if I re-watch it in my next step of life
- petamask 4y ago
  > A hallmark of good rewatchable show is to always explore new stuff. I wonder what I'll explore if I re-watch it in my next step of life That's my personal definition of 'classic'.Be it a book, movie or series; something you can always go back to come back little bit anew.
- BigHatLogan 4y ago
  Fantastic. I haven't seen Neon Genesis, but this is how I feel about The Godfather. Every few years I rewatch the film, and different aspects of it stand out to me. I agree with you that I think this is one of the hallmarks of something good.
  - finikytou 4y ago
    totally agree. I hate gangster and mafia movies because I think even great director like scorcese fall into the easy of a boy liking bad guys and most of those movies even the famous ones are really dumb. there are two exceptions to this. The Godfather that is probably one of the greatest movie about a family ever shot and carlito's way, that is just a very naive and beautiful movie about love and redemption
- polishdude20 4y ago
  I think a big life lesson I learned as an adult is how disfunctional all adults are. Or at least, how less functional they are than I thought as a kid. I'm also not excluding myself :)
drewtato 4y ago
I think it really says something that besides the usual complaints about the website, all the comments here are about Spirited Away, with no one mentioning Hulu yanking titles, which is a very software-esque thing to do. Maybe it's because everyone here knows how difficult it is to fully delete something from the internet.
pvsukale3 4y ago
I was high when I watched Spirited Away for the first time. I liked it so much I almost cried sometimes. After that watching I watched this movie multiple times without getting bored. What a masterpiece.
aaron695 4y ago
patcon 4y ago
https://archive.ph/rdwsy https://archive.ph/rdwsy
kstenerud 4y ago
Animated movies that I often rewatch (in no particular order): - Spirited Away - Grave of the Fireflies - Finding Dory - Up - Tokyo Godfathers - Akira (NOT the English dub, which completely changes the story and dialogue for the worse, and for no good reason) - Mononoke Hime - Ghost in the Shell (the original one) - My Neighbor Totoro Animated series I'll rewatch: - Guardian of the Sacred Spirit - Castlevania - Futurama - Archer - Arcane - Cowboy Bebop - Ergo Proxy - The Dragon Prince - Hakaba Kitaro - Star Trek: Lower Decks
- flanbiscuit 4y ago
  I recently got into a Bob's Burgers kick, that show is delightful.
  - lioeters 4y ago
    That reminds me, Central Park is a fun series by some of the same creators. Sweet stories, and I enjoy the music most of all.
    - flanbiscuit 4y ago
      I haven't checked that out, thanks for the tip!
- Beldin 4y ago
  I'll chime in with: - Batmat TAS - Gargoyles - Howl's moving castle And if you'll allow "animation" to also cover animatronics and puppetry: - The Storyteller - Labyrinth
- freetime2 4y ago
  I have not been able to bring myself to rewatch Grave of the Fireflies more than once. Just thinking about it is almost enough to make me tear up.
  - madmax108 4y ago
imagineerschool 4y ago
Surprised no one has mentioned the representational content of No Face - it represents YOU, THE VIEWER. The curiosity, the situational greed and lust, the remorse and the will to be useful and healing... I love this film, and since learning about /why/ the film was made, I have a deep respect for the execution of something that is at once beautiful and inspiring and kid friendly, while also dealing with an extremely adult topic. Layers. I'd be interested in hearing from Japanese lawmakers about the effect this had on the legislation drafting and enforcement process.
- raspberry1337 4y ago
  /why/ do you think it was made? >The film was made to please the ten-year-old daughter of Hayao Miyazaki's personal friend, director Seiji Okuda. https://ghibli.fandom.com/wiki/Spirited_Away https://ghibli.fandom.com/wiki/Spirited_Away
carlmr 4y ago
I watched it, and rewatched it, because my girlfriend is really into these movies. I just don't understand the point. It seems so aimless to me. Can someone explain the fascination with Spirited Away?
- mandmandam 4y ago
  If the movie doesn't hit you, that's alright. Not every movie has to connect with everyone. However there is a lot under the surface. Find some theories and interpretations below, and decide for yourself how much water they hold. https://sites.psu.edu/angelapassion/2016/07/02/spirited-away/ https://sites.psu.edu/angelapassion/2016/07/02/spirited-away... https://visualculture.blog.torontomu.ca/capitalism-in-miyazakis-spirited-away/ https://visualculture.blog.torontomu.ca/capitalism-in-miyaza... https://www.thedailystar.net/shout/news/the-metaphors-capitalism-and-hustle-culture-spirited-away-2937861 https://www.thedailystar.net/shout/news/the-metaphors-capita...
- salty_biscuits 4y ago
  A big thing with Japanese folk tales that is a bit of a jump for people with a European perspective is that they have no moral lesson. They are just a bunch of things that happen. It is fun to watch western audiences come up with theories about what these movies might represent, when they are just very Japanese. There are themes for sure and obvious messages about overconsumption and greed. But they are more about animism. For me the bit that sticks in my mind about spirited away is the part with the empty train going through the water and it just feels so lonely. I can't describe it very well, but I can't think of another depiction of that feeling.
  - Dracophoenix 4y ago
    > A big thing with Japanese folk tales that is a bit of a jump for people with a European perspective is that they have no moral lesson. I would argue that's not the case as there are plenty of morally naturalistic European works (e.g. Alice in Wonderland, upon which Spirited Away, among other anime, is based) just as there are plenty of morally didactic Japanese works. The movie may not be as blatant as an Aesop. It's certainly layered with subtext, but it's also a much simpler picture than most make it out to be. There is a lesson, and it's one given in the form of a command by Hakku towards the film's end: "Leave...and don't look back." Chihiro's (and the audience's) lesson is to move forward in life, just as she's done up to that point. If you recall, the movie begins in media res as Chihiro is being driven away from her soon-to-be-former hometown. She looks sullen as she fidgets in the back of her father's SUV while clutching a bouquet implied to have been recieved from a friend or wellwisher in an attempt to hold on to the past. Despite being on the road for at most a few hours, she already misses whomever and whatever she and her parents were leaving behind. She's clearly frustrated by what seems to be an unneeded change in her life. Throughout the movie, she faces one resentful change of circumstance after another. A change almost always inflicted upon her by an authority figure. As she develops a greater sense of agency, she takes it upon herself to change her own circumstances, and eventually the circumstances of almost every character she comes across including said authority figures. The point of the movie is that things will change whether it's for the worse or the better, and you can either be swept by the river of events that is life or set your own terms and act accordingly. That's not to say that the latter choice will always bear desirable fruit, especially without a prepared plan. Such a choice can horribly backfire even with planning and preparation. Nevertheless, one should refrain from abdicating one's will in the pursuit of a goal. Instead, one should, inasmuch as one can, choose and direct the path that will take one forward.
est31 4y ago
I first saw Spirited Away when I was ten years old or so, and then watched it a bunch of times until I was 16 or so. Many years later, last year when I was in my mid twenties, I rewatched it and it was such a totally different experience. I think in the time between, I've developed a much better appreciation for the beauty of a lot of the scenery in the movie: even the day later I still had the flower garden scene before my eyes, even if it's so short itself. It just gives and gives and gives, it is so amazing. I think I lacked that appreciation when I was a kid. I also realized how much my fear of losing my parents has changed. When you are a little kid who loves and is so dependent on his parents, this is the worst catastrophy that can happen to you, and instills such fear. It strikes so different years later when you are a proper adult who has moved out and I only realized that once I actually rewatched it. It is a movie about the first job, the first love, about independence, about travel, about human's destruction of nature, about japanese religion, and many more things. It is such an amazing beautiful movie. In our field of work you can find many fans of japan's cultural exports, and that's fine, but I was never really deeply into most of it. But Studio Ghibli stuff is just so amazing, I am a great fan (plus Your Name).
louthy 4y ago
What I love about these types of Japanese art is how the magic and the surreal become normalised in a way that western films rarely go anywhere near. I'm not a big anime fan by any stretch of the imagination, but films like Spirited Away and my personal favourite: Tekkonkinkreet just blow my mind with the sheer creative breadth of the vision. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfQjc2hs34Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfQjc2hs34Y
- have_faith 4y ago
  Tekkonkinkreet is great! it's surreal and over the top but somehow still very grounded. Some other awesome experimental animes that I think are worth watching are Redline, which has some amazing animation during car races on alien planets, and Dead Leaves, which is a classic escape from jail plot on steroids. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2t26m_Q6ENo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2t26m_Q6ENo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvDMzmcbNkE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvDMzmcbNkE
UI_at_80x24 4y ago
I've never watched it but have heard about it repeated throughout the years. My Granddaughter is 7 years old, would this be acceptable for her to watch?
- cloverich 4y ago
  It depends greatly on your and their approach; Id check with parents. I generally show my kids everything and try to coach them away from being afraid, but that might seriously bother other parents.
- bjelkeman-again 4y ago
  I think so
- mmmmmbop 4y ago
  Yes, but IMO there's depth to it that she might be able to understand and appreciate more once she's around 10 years old. Another really good Studio Ghibli film with a lot of charm but a bit less depth is My Neighbor Totoro, which might be an even better fit for a seven-year-old.
  - UI_at_80x24 4y ago
    Thank-you for the replies. I'll shelve this for a few more years.
- joshspankit 4y ago
  There are some scenes which can be challenging depending on her temperament: The smackdown of the pigs in the opening scenes, the bloody dragon as it’s chased by a flock of paper, the overwhelming presence of the witch, and of course no face when it starts gobbling people up. I’ve seen a couple kids get visibly shaken while watching Spirited Away, and others who are just peacefully enthralled. It all depends on the kid.
- seanc 4y ago
  As mentioned Spirited Away could be hit or miss at that age, but you can't go wrong with My Neighbor Totoro. It's got some emotionally intense sequences, but they pay off well in the end.
autoexec 4y ago
> Then again, it’s a strange time to consider the staying power of animation, given that HBO Max just unceremoniously erased 36 animated shows from its platform. Did they tho? The NPR article this article links to does say they dropped 36 shows, but they include live action shows such as "Ellen's Next Great Designer" as well as animated titles. Animation looks to be the bulk of it at least, but that'd be a weird mistake considering the author directly linked to an article that would have pointed out the error. > Instead, I’m left with the old ephemeral feeling, anxious about something I may never see again. no need to feel anxious about never seeing Infinity Train again. There are DVDs for at least the first two seasons and it's available online via less than official channels which is always nice, but who knows for how long that'll stay true. If you depend on someone else's service for content, there's a good chance you're going to eventually lose access to something you really care about. Having a copy (physical or otherwise) that you control and can backup is a good idea for the media that matters most to you. Sadly, far too many animated series have never gotten a release on physical media. Disney is especially bad about this, and I suspect it's entirely to help drive up Disney+ subscriptions. Just one more way streaming is bad for consumers.
Namari 4y ago
This one is interesting because when you see it as a kid you see the magic and all and when as an adult you see the geisha world behind the story
aasasd 4y ago
I heard that the bathhouse directly mirrors establishments that doubled as brothels—specifically in Japanese cultural details that aren't decipherable by an average Westerner or even an average weeaboo. Of course, as a Westerner I have no idea if this is true. A rewatch is still in the queue, so I haven't yet seen if this revelation affects the experience.
peteforde 4y ago
Reading this essay gave me the opportunity to realize that while I see (and subscribe to) streaming sites as a convenience, the presence of any given title on streaming services has literally zero impact on whether I am able to watch it. Over the past 25 years, the binary NNTP feeds became FTP servers became bittorrent search engines. And of course, that's additive; NNTP is still alive and well, and I'd guess that most people reading this have that one friend with the half petabyte of every movie made in the past 100 years if your login credentials still work. People reliably seem to upload 1080p cuts of literally every show just minutes after it airs to BT. So yeah, while I usually go the legit and lazy route, if someone says "hey, did you ever see Person of Interest? how about Dollhouse?" it never even crosses my mind that I might have to hope some streaming platform picks it up. The idea that the author clearly perceives an artificial scarcity is fascinating. It's like... should someone tell her?
- krupan 4y ago
  Easynews, if you are wondering what this NNTP thing is. Amazingly fast downloads of just about anything you can imagine. Protip: Go to the preferences and change the settings to reduce your chances of getting all porn in your search results.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
slim 4y ago
it's the best Miyazaki
LVB 4y ago
I didn’t notice mentioned in the article or comments here, but “Studio Ghibli Fest” has been running in Regal cinemas this year and there are still a few movies left (Howl’s Moving Castle, Spirted Away). We’ve pre-purchased tickets; it is a great opportunity for my kids to see some of these on the big screen. https://www.regmovies.com/static/en/us/promotions/studio-ghibli-fest https://www.regmovies.com/static/en/us/promotions/studio-ghi...

299 points by ecliptik 4y ago

I havent watched the movie multiple times, but I have watched one specific scene dozens of times. Its the stink monster getting a bath scene. Something about it makes it incredibly amazing to watch. Makes you feel freedom, almost

drsopp 4y ago

It's the only movie I immediately rewatched.

bhedgeoser 4y ago
For me it was tenet

pamelafox 4y ago

When my child was two, we re-watched it about once a week for several months since it was her favorite. The theory we keep debating is whether the two old ladies (the sisters) are actually the same person. Still unsettled. Related: I drew a No-Face on our garage last spring and it's still there, creeping out everyone who walks by. Guess it hasn't rained much in CA! :)

derefr 4y ago
If your child is still young enough to appreciate plush toys, can I recommend something? https://www.amazon.com/YOUDirect-Dragon-U-shaped-Pillow-Stuffed/dp/B074P5QYFQ/ https://www.amazon.com/YOUDirect-Dragon-U-shaped-Pillow-Stuf... I'm leaning on one right now :)
- InitialLastName 4y ago
  Man, people buy stuff from sketchy vendors, give it to their children, and just expect it not to offgas formaldehyde?

tehnub 4y ago

I always enjoy rereading the review Roger Ebert wrote when he added Spirited Away to his Great Movies list [1]. He touches on a similar point, about how the movie all feels like a gift: >The story of "Spirited Away" has been populated with limitless creativity. Has any film ever contained more different kinds of beings that we have never seen anywhere before? Miyazaki's imagination never rests. There is a scene where the heroine and her companion get off a train in the middle of a swamp. In the distant forest they see a light approaching. This turns out to be an old-fashioned light pole that is hopping along on one foot. It bows to them, turns, and lights the way on the path they must take. When they arrive at a cottage, it dutifully hangs itself above the gate. The living light pole is not necessary. It is a gift from Miyazaki. https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-spirited-away-2002 https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-spirited-away...

ericmcer 4y ago
That feels a bit like he hasn’t seen much Anime. Spirited Away was my first Miyazaki movie and I was similarly blown away, but after watching his other work and other Anime it felt more like a very polished and creative story but not mind-blowing in its originality.
npinsker 4y ago
To me, the animation in Ghibli movies feels lush and alive in a way that’s rare in the (seemingly) difficult, very cost-sensitive world of animation. Ebert’s review is wonderful; I also enjoyed this video, which touches on some of the same points: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jM6PPxN1xas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jM6PPxN1xas
dereg 4y ago
If you liked his review of Spirited Away, you will also like his review of Metropolis. I liked that he enjoyed movies from all genres as long as they accomplished what they set out to do. > The movie is so visually rich I want to see it again to look in the corners and appreciate the details. Like all the best Japanese anime, it pays attention to little things. There is a scene where an old man consults a book of occult lore. He opens it and starts to read. A page flips over. He flips it back in place. Considering that every action in an animated film requires thousands of drawings, a moment like the page flip might seem unnecessary, but all through the movie we get little touches like that. https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/metropolis-2002 https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/metropolis-2002

mcbishop 4y ago

The animation is so beautiful. I watch it again just for that... hanging out in that weird dreamscape.

madmod 4y ago

It is my all time favorite movie. Its something of a joke in my family that we always watch it on my birthday.

beilabs 4y ago

Thankfully my kids are devouring my Studio Ghibli collection. Ny Neighbor Totoro and Ponyo are played multiple times in the day. They've not yet gotten to Spirited Away, waiting until they are a little older. I dread the day they turn on Grave of the Fireflies. I thank the stars they have outgrown baby shark and cocomelon.

flanbiscuit 4y ago
Have you shown them Kiki's Delivery Service? That's one of my favorites!
savanaly 4y ago
The movie that scarred me as a kid was Princess Mononoke. I remember my parents had a few friends over to watch it when it first released on DVD and they did this after my bedtime as I wasn't considered old enough to see but of course I snuck down to watch (I'm pretty sure they knew I was watching in retrospect). The scene that I would relive in my nightmares repeatedly for years was the one where the protagonist's cursed arm comes to life in the middle of a pitched battle and everyone sets down their arms to watch as he pushes open a big gate or something. The music in this scene is foreboding, solemn, yet energetic, and the visual combined with the music evoked exactly the emotion I'm sure Miyzaki intended: dread at the vastness of the power of nature about which humans know naught, finally revealed in all its terrible horror. The prince's fate as a cursed person is supposed to feel worse than death and this was maybe my first time fully appreciating that concept in my short life, so it was doubly effective.
- darepublic 4y ago
  Maybe bad parenting but my preschool aged kids watched mononoke without issue. I played the first Sam Raimi spiderman for them too..
dzhiurgis 4y ago
My nearly 3yo can hardly handle it in a longer drive. There’s always a scene were emotions are too much. Peppa Pig it is for now…

afroisalreadyin 4y ago

The serene joy I get from watching this film with my kids is comparable to nothing. The scene where the parents are turned into pigs is a bit taxing on them, but even that has become an in-joke, with my daughter reminding me that I might suddenly start grunting and keel over if I keep on eating. There are so many inventive moments like those that are also animated with such mastery that you want to rewatch it as soon as you are at the end credits.

greatgib 4y ago

I don't really understand what such an opinion piece does on top of HN. I guess that the article gets likes because of affection people have with this anime. But, otherwise, I have the feeling that this article is completely off-topic, and does not even provide any meaningful information. In addition, the atlantic website sucks so so much as it is completely broken on mobile web browser, with the scroll not working...

boxed 4y ago
I think you might misunderstand what HN is.
Ayesh 4y ago
ha! I was going to write something similar about the broken website. Turns out it was because my adblocker had blocked their "You don't have free articles" popup and the backdrop. I'd rather not read their articles, no thank you.
sublinear 4y ago
I agree. Regardless of opinion on the 00's pop culture, or the cohort of people reading this at the moment, this isn't relevant to the spirit or function of HN. This isn't reddit.
- martopix 4y ago
  Uhm, perhaps HN is not for you? HN is about the community of hackers, not hacking in itself. Anything you chat about at lunchtime with colleagues is on-topic. Reddit is different, there's a lot more about memes and fun, usually. This is more intellectual.
mkaic 4y ago
from the HN guidelines: What to Submit On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity. I would argue that a thoughtful analysis of a film widely regarded to be one of the best films ever made is definitely something that gratifies intellectual curiosity. Furthermore, the fact that the post has attracted high-quality discussion and a high number of upvotes suggests that many hackers do, indeed, find this interesting. I hope you have a wonderful evening!

AndrewVos 4y ago

Not sure what the deal is with this website but I can't scroll or otherwise interact with it at all. Amazing work really. Chrome on Android

pinato 4y ago
Do you have an addon that tries to block cookie consent banners? These often create this kind of problem.
- AndrewVos 4y ago
  No I only have uBlock and AdGuard Home - ok that's a lot now that I think about it!
cmacleod4 4y ago
I get that too. I'm using Chrome on Windows 10, the only adblocking I use is a customised hosts file.
Digit-Al 4y ago
Try reader mode. Interestingly, this page worked fine for me, but when I clicked links to other pages on the same site they exhibited the same problem you are experiencing. This is on Firefox on Windows. Reader mode fixes the problem.

mudrockbestgirl 4y ago

Listening to the soundtrack of this movie makes me cry.

maaaaattttt 4y ago
"The Sixth Station" always gives me instant goose bumps. Probably stating the obvious but soundtracks can make or destroy a potentially good movie. The scary trailer recuts of Mary Poppins [1] or Diff'rent Strokes [2] come to mind for example of how influential a soundtrack can be. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2T5_0AGdFic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2T5_0AGdFic [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwxLekENDw0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwxLekENDw0

atoav 4y ago

On the Ghibli corpus: I recently watched As the Wind rises and I was completely blown away by the kind of perspective it offered into the japanese society of the time. It is more mature than Spirited Away and definitly worth a watch if you are an engineer as the story is a free fictionalization of the life of the engineer that designed the japanese fighter airplane nicknamed "Zero". The classic Ghibli motifs of clouds, grassy mountaintops and fantasy of flying play their role as one might have guessed — but coupled with the serious and mature topics of the film it is even more magical when in a quiet scene the wind strokes through the grass. As an Austrian who lives in Germany I also liked the scene where they traveled to Germany to see the Junkers plant (with the goal of spying of course) — I liked it because it offered a unique perspective on Germany of the time. It was one of those Ghiblis I never watched because of odd reasons, but when I did I was blown away.

apozem 4y ago
The Wind Rises is a masterpiece, and one I would especially recommend to any engineer. The protagonist loves planes. He loves their grace, their beauty, the way they soar through the sky. He spends his whole life trying to build a great plane and... succeeds, only to find his dream (and Japan) in ruins from WWII. It's a riveting exploration of the cost of mastery of your craft, made by a master of animation. Highly, highly recommend.
buildbot 4y ago
I personally really disliked the wind rises - it seems apologetic to the role of an engineer in creating a machine used to kill people, just because they were beautiful. Perhaps I missed the point and there was a subtle sadness I did not perceive in the creation of the fighters. Also, a somewhat weird romance compared to even other Ghibli movies
- rawgabbit 4y ago
  I liked the film because I thought it was an honest take on Miyazaki's feelings about that era. The hero and heroine were just people who had hopes and dreams and fell in love. The times they lived in were horrific. I identify with them because I have family members in my extended family who fought each other in the same war. War is evil.

jwmoz 4y ago

Gonna say it.. this movie is overrated.

sublinear 4y ago
Agree and I don't understand why anyone reacts to these blatant requests for comment from overt marketing anymore on HN. It's extremely naive to think these articles have any interest in mind apart from determining what sells with various social groups. HN is not an opinion farm and nerd culture has been dead for well over a decade. It's 2022 now, not 2009. No sentiment extracted from this place will capture any meaningful trend apart from maybe the negativity I'm giving off right now.
Ajunne 4y ago
Had to scroll down quite a bit on the HN page to find your comment, obviously it has been downvoted because having this opinion is apparently not allowed in this world. That being said, I fully agree with you. I've tried watching this movie multiple times. When it originally came out so many years ago, friends of mine recommended it to me and they were absolutely lyrical about it. I've tried watching it high, I hated it. I've tried watching it sober, I hated it. I've tried watching it many years after it came out, I still hated it. There is something about this movie that totally grinds my gears, and I cannot put my finger on it.
- noasaservice 4y ago
  > There is something about this movie that totally grinds my gears, and I cannot put my finger on it. Spirited Away is beautiful, in the artistic sense of the word. It has no real story, and is just a hodgepodge of Japanese folklore pieced together to half-resemble even a mild plot. The rest of the stuff that isn't folklore-related is just the anthropomorphic elements Miyazaki added in as filler because of "kawaii". ----------------- And as an aside.... "Had to scroll down quite a bit on the HN page to find your comment, obviously it has been downvoted because having this opinion is apparently not allowed in this world." It's not the "world" that has this problem. It's hacker news. This place seriously has a groupthink problem. For this site, "Disagree(opinion)" == "Disagree(factually incorrect)" == "Disagree(against group opinion) == "Disagree(no reason)" are all given the same weight, and the same gray-on-offwhite text.

NalNezumi 4y ago

My favorite re-watch movie (or in this case, series) have been Neon genesis Evangelion. I have mixed opinions about the show but rewatching it in different stage of life (early teen, depressed high schooler, stressed college kid, anxious junior to the worklife) I always saw some new things. As a kid the robots and fighting the angels were the focus, as a depressed teen the religious symbolism and reading too much in to it was the focus, as a stressed college kid it was the relation between the characters (and their parents) was the focus, and finally as an "adult" it was seeing how completely dysfunctional every single adult is in the series. A hallmark of good rewatchable show is to always explore new stuff. I wonder what I'll explore if I re-watch it in my next step of life

petamask 4y ago
> A hallmark of good rewatchable show is to always explore new stuff. I wonder what I'll explore if I re-watch it in my next step of life That's my personal definition of 'classic'.Be it a book, movie or series; something you can always go back to come back little bit anew.
BigHatLogan 4y ago
Fantastic. I haven't seen Neon Genesis, but this is how I feel about The Godfather. Every few years I rewatch the film, and different aspects of it stand out to me. I agree with you that I think this is one of the hallmarks of something good.
- finikytou 4y ago
  totally agree. I hate gangster and mafia movies because I think even great director like scorcese fall into the easy of a boy liking bad guys and most of those movies even the famous ones are really dumb. there are two exceptions to this. The Godfather that is probably one of the greatest movie about a family ever shot and carlito's way, that is just a very naive and beautiful movie about love and redemption
polishdude20 4y ago
I think a big life lesson I learned as an adult is how disfunctional all adults are. Or at least, how less functional they are than I thought as a kid. I'm also not excluding myself :)

drewtato 4y ago

I think it really says something that besides the usual complaints about the website, all the comments here are about Spirited Away, with no one mentioning Hulu yanking titles, which is a very software-esque thing to do. Maybe it's because everyone here knows how difficult it is to fully delete something from the internet.

pvsukale3 4y ago

I was high when I watched Spirited Away for the first time. I liked it so much I almost cried sometimes. After that watching I watched this movie multiple times without getting bored. What a masterpiece.

aaron695 4y ago

patcon 4y ago

https://archive.ph/rdwsy https://archive.ph/rdwsy

kstenerud 4y ago

Animated movies that I often rewatch (in no particular order): - Spirited Away - Grave of the Fireflies - Finding Dory - Up - Tokyo Godfathers - Akira (NOT the English dub, which completely changes the story and dialogue for the worse, and for no good reason) - Mononoke Hime - Ghost in the Shell (the original one) - My Neighbor Totoro Animated series I'll rewatch: - Guardian of the Sacred Spirit - Castlevania - Futurama - Archer - Arcane - Cowboy Bebop - Ergo Proxy - The Dragon Prince - Hakaba Kitaro - Star Trek: Lower Decks

flanbiscuit 4y ago
I recently got into a Bob's Burgers kick, that show is delightful.
- lioeters 4y ago
  That reminds me, Central Park is a fun series by some of the same creators. Sweet stories, and I enjoy the music most of all.
  - flanbiscuit 4y ago
    I haven't checked that out, thanks for the tip!
Beldin 4y ago
I'll chime in with: - Batmat TAS - Gargoyles - Howl's moving castle And if you'll allow "animation" to also cover animatronics and puppetry: - The Storyteller - Labyrinth
freetime2 4y ago
I have not been able to bring myself to rewatch Grave of the Fireflies more than once. Just thinking about it is almost enough to make me tear up.
- madmax108 4y ago

imagineerschool 4y ago

Surprised no one has mentioned the representational content of No Face - it represents YOU, THE VIEWER. The curiosity, the situational greed and lust, the remorse and the will to be useful and healing... I love this film, and since learning about /why/ the film was made, I have a deep respect for the execution of something that is at once beautiful and inspiring and kid friendly, while also dealing with an extremely adult topic. Layers. I'd be interested in hearing from Japanese lawmakers about the effect this had on the legislation drafting and enforcement process.

raspberry1337 4y ago
/why/ do you think it was made? >The film was made to please the ten-year-old daughter of Hayao Miyazaki's personal friend, director Seiji Okuda. https://ghibli.fandom.com/wiki/Spirited_Away https://ghibli.fandom.com/wiki/Spirited_Away

carlmr 4y ago

I watched it, and rewatched it, because my girlfriend is really into these movies. I just don't understand the point. It seems so aimless to me. Can someone explain the fascination with Spirited Away?

mandmandam 4y ago
If the movie doesn't hit you, that's alright. Not every movie has to connect with everyone. However there is a lot under the surface. Find some theories and interpretations below, and decide for yourself how much water they hold. https://sites.psu.edu/angelapassion/2016/07/02/spirited-away/ https://sites.psu.edu/angelapassion/2016/07/02/spirited-away... https://visualculture.blog.torontomu.ca/capitalism-in-miyazakis-spirited-away/ https://visualculture.blog.torontomu.ca/capitalism-in-miyaza... https://www.thedailystar.net/shout/news/the-metaphors-capitalism-and-hustle-culture-spirited-away-2937861 https://www.thedailystar.net/shout/news/the-metaphors-capita...
salty_biscuits 4y ago
A big thing with Japanese folk tales that is a bit of a jump for people with a European perspective is that they have no moral lesson. They are just a bunch of things that happen. It is fun to watch western audiences come up with theories about what these movies might represent, when they are just very Japanese. There are themes for sure and obvious messages about overconsumption and greed. But they are more about animism. For me the bit that sticks in my mind about spirited away is the part with the empty train going through the water and it just feels so lonely. I can't describe it very well, but I can't think of another depiction of that feeling.
- Dracophoenix 4y ago
  > A big thing with Japanese folk tales that is a bit of a jump for people with a European perspective is that they have no moral lesson. I would argue that's not the case as there are plenty of morally naturalistic European works (e.g. Alice in Wonderland, upon which Spirited Away, among other anime, is based) just as there are plenty of morally didactic Japanese works. The movie may not be as blatant as an Aesop. It's certainly layered with subtext, but it's also a much simpler picture than most make it out to be. There is a lesson, and it's one given in the form of a command by Hakku towards the film's end: "Leave...and don't look back." Chihiro's (and the audience's) lesson is to move forward in life, just as she's done up to that point. If you recall, the movie begins in media res as Chihiro is being driven away from her soon-to-be-former hometown. She looks sullen as she fidgets in the back of her father's SUV while clutching a bouquet implied to have been recieved from a friend or wellwisher in an attempt to hold on to the past. Despite being on the road for at most a few hours, she already misses whomever and whatever she and her parents were leaving behind. She's clearly frustrated by what seems to be an unneeded change in her life. Throughout the movie, she faces one resentful change of circumstance after another. A change almost always inflicted upon her by an authority figure. As she develops a greater sense of agency, she takes it upon herself to change her own circumstances, and eventually the circumstances of almost every character she comes across including said authority figures. The point of the movie is that things will change whether it's for the worse or the better, and you can either be swept by the river of events that is life or set your own terms and act accordingly. That's not to say that the latter choice will always bear desirable fruit, especially without a prepared plan. Such a choice can horribly backfire even with planning and preparation. Nevertheless, one should refrain from abdicating one's will in the pursuit of a goal. Instead, one should, inasmuch as one can, choose and direct the path that will take one forward.

est31 4y ago

I first saw Spirited Away when I was ten years old or so, and then watched it a bunch of times until I was 16 or so. Many years later, last year when I was in my mid twenties, I rewatched it and it was such a totally different experience. I think in the time between, I've developed a much better appreciation for the beauty of a lot of the scenery in the movie: even the day later I still had the flower garden scene before my eyes, even if it's so short itself. It just gives and gives and gives, it is so amazing. I think I lacked that appreciation when I was a kid. I also realized how much my fear of losing my parents has changed. When you are a little kid who loves and is so dependent on his parents, this is the worst catastrophy that can happen to you, and instills such fear. It strikes so different years later when you are a proper adult who has moved out and I only realized that once I actually rewatched it. It is a movie about the first job, the first love, about independence, about travel, about human's destruction of nature, about japanese religion, and many more things. It is such an amazing beautiful movie. In our field of work you can find many fans of japan's cultural exports, and that's fine, but I was never really deeply into most of it. But Studio Ghibli stuff is just so amazing, I am a great fan (plus Your Name).

louthy 4y ago

What I love about these types of Japanese art is how the magic and the surreal become normalised in a way that western films rarely go anywhere near. I'm not a big anime fan by any stretch of the imagination, but films like Spirited Away and my personal favourite: Tekkonkinkreet just blow my mind with the sheer creative breadth of the vision. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfQjc2hs34Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfQjc2hs34Y

have_faith 4y ago
Tekkonkinkreet is great! it's surreal and over the top but somehow still very grounded. Some other awesome experimental animes that I think are worth watching are Redline, which has some amazing animation during car races on alien planets, and Dead Leaves, which is a classic escape from jail plot on steroids. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2t26m_Q6ENo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2t26m_Q6ENo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvDMzmcbNkE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvDMzmcbNkE

UI_at_80x24 4y ago

I've never watched it but have heard about it repeated throughout the years. My Granddaughter is 7 years old, would this be acceptable for her to watch?

cloverich 4y ago
It depends greatly on your and their approach; Id check with parents. I generally show my kids everything and try to coach them away from being afraid, but that might seriously bother other parents.
bjelkeman-again 4y ago
I think so
mmmmmbop 4y ago
Yes, but IMO there's depth to it that she might be able to understand and appreciate more once she's around 10 years old. Another really good Studio Ghibli film with a lot of charm but a bit less depth is My Neighbor Totoro, which might be an even better fit for a seven-year-old.
- UI_at_80x24 4y ago
  Thank-you for the replies. I'll shelve this for a few more years.
joshspankit 4y ago
There are some scenes which can be challenging depending on her temperament: The smackdown of the pigs in the opening scenes, the bloody dragon as it’s chased by a flock of paper, the overwhelming presence of the witch, and of course no face when it starts gobbling people up. I’ve seen a couple kids get visibly shaken while watching Spirited Away, and others who are just peacefully enthralled. It all depends on the kid.
seanc 4y ago
As mentioned Spirited Away could be hit or miss at that age, but you can't go wrong with My Neighbor Totoro. It's got some emotionally intense sequences, but they pay off well in the end.

autoexec 4y ago

> Then again, it’s a strange time to consider the staying power of animation, given that HBO Max just unceremoniously erased 36 animated shows from its platform. Did they tho? The NPR article this article links to does say they dropped 36 shows, but they include live action shows such as "Ellen's Next Great Designer" as well as animated titles. Animation looks to be the bulk of it at least, but that'd be a weird mistake considering the author directly linked to an article that would have pointed out the error. > Instead, I’m left with the old ephemeral feeling, anxious about something I may never see again. no need to feel anxious about never seeing Infinity Train again. There are DVDs for at least the first two seasons and it's available online via less than official channels which is always nice, but who knows for how long that'll stay true. If you depend on someone else's service for content, there's a good chance you're going to eventually lose access to something you really care about. Having a copy (physical or otherwise) that you control and can backup is a good idea for the media that matters most to you. Sadly, far too many animated series have never gotten a release on physical media. Disney is especially bad about this, and I suspect it's entirely to help drive up Disney+ subscriptions. Just one more way streaming is bad for consumers.

Namari 4y ago

This one is interesting because when you see it as a kid you see the magic and all and when as an adult you see the geisha world behind the story

aasasd 4y ago

I heard that the bathhouse directly mirrors establishments that doubled as brothels—specifically in Japanese cultural details that aren't decipherable by an average Westerner or even an average weeaboo. Of course, as a Westerner I have no idea if this is true. A rewatch is still in the queue, so I haven't yet seen if this revelation affects the experience.

peteforde 4y ago

Reading this essay gave me the opportunity to realize that while I see (and subscribe to) streaming sites as a convenience, the presence of any given title on streaming services has literally zero impact on whether I am able to watch it. Over the past 25 years, the binary NNTP feeds became FTP servers became bittorrent search engines. And of course, that's additive; NNTP is still alive and well, and I'd guess that most people reading this have that one friend with the half petabyte of every movie made in the past 100 years if your login credentials still work. People reliably seem to upload 1080p cuts of literally every show just minutes after it airs to BT. So yeah, while I usually go the legit and lazy route, if someone says "hey, did you ever see Person of Interest? how about Dollhouse?" it never even crosses my mind that I might have to hope some streaming platform picks it up. The idea that the author clearly perceives an artificial scarcity is fascinating. It's like... should someone tell her?

krupan 4y ago
Easynews, if you are wondering what this NNTP thing is. Amazingly fast downloads of just about anything you can imagine. Protip: Go to the preferences and change the settings to reduce your chances of getting all porn in your search results.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

slim 4y ago

it's the best Miyazaki

LVB 4y ago

I didn’t notice mentioned in the article or comments here, but “Studio Ghibli Fest” has been running in Regal cinemas this year and there are still a few movies left (Howl’s Moving Castle, Spirted Away). We’ve pre-purchased tickets; it is a great opportunity for my kids to see some of these on the big screen. https://www.regmovies.com/static/en/us/promotions/studio-ghibli-fest https://www.regmovies.com/static/en/us/promotions/studio-ghi...