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Miyazaki's 'Spirited Away' Wins Best Animated Picture
DavidBrown writes "Moments ago, Hayao Miyazaki won the Best Animated Picture award for 'Spirited Away.' It's about time."
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Just curious, how long was this one in the preview que (or whatever) before it got posted to Slashdot?
Posting as directed.
I showed this movie to my whole family. Great flick and I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys watching fantasy. The story is very good-hearted and the plot and fantasy aspects are amazing.
Some would compare it to Harry Potter, but really it's much more... intellectual.
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Let's see now if Disney makes good on its promise to re-release Spirited Away to theatres with equal backing as Lilo and Stich was given.
I assume that you realize this was not posted because an 'Oscar' is relevant to Slashdot, but because Sprited Away IS.
was the BEST movie that i saw in a long time. It had a wonderful story that appealed to adults and children. The cinematography was excellent as well. It too bad americans still make a distinction between animated movies and live action ones.
The war with islam is a war on the beast
The war on terror is a war for peace
this is a very deserved Oscar! :P
the movie deserves it, Miyazaki deserves it and anime deserves it.
this is a good thing for anime
p.s. and the other movies all sucked compared to this
Smile... tomorrow will be worse.
But then again, Disney and Dreamworks put forth anything *that* good or *that* original.
Spirited away had originality and a nice fuzzy feeling with it too, with a sense of wonder too.
And it's gonna change the way the critics view anime from now on, too. I wonder if maybe they'll do "Best anime film..." Nah...
This is a Good Thing[tm] but I'd say its victory is mostly due to the extremely unremarkable American animated features this year. When an anime movie wins best foreign language move wake me up.
p.s. does "Harry Potter" not count for anything because it was a UK production?
It's exactly the details that make it wonderful.
As Kirosawa used to say...
Q: What's the message of your movie?
Kirosawa: If I could answer that, I would have printed it on a card and held it up in front of the camera.
See this movie. It's art, and it's very finely crafted. Truly a masterpiece.
The government has a defect: it's potentially democratic. Corporations have no defect: they're pure tyrannies. -Chomsky
I had to drag and con my 4 kids into seeing this film. They'd never heard of it, or seen ads or anything and they really did not want to go, nor did my partner. In the end we went (I used a pointed stick :-) and they all absolutely loved it and went and told all their friends by which time they movie was pulled from all local cinemas. My daughter (10) especially loved the movie, as did my partner. Wonderful stuff!
pithy comment
So let's get this straight. Spirited Away wins the Oscar, yet Disney didn't market this movie worth sh*t! I'm in a top 15 media market and all the ass clowns at Disney do is put it in a couple art houses.
Well deserved -- I'm not an anime fan (and I'm not young) but I loved this movie. It was more surreal and fantastical than I expected and that was a very welcome surprise.
Maybe I speak for myself, but I found this superior to the previous "most popular anime flick in the mainstream," Princess Mononoke. That movie was also great, but like other anime movies I've seen, the plot was thin, long and wandering, which I think are qualities that turn off most (western) audiences. For some reason I didn't think that Spirited Away suffered from the same problem.
Disney bought the USA rights to Miyazaki's work, so that they could control it. By under-hyping the USA releases, Disney at least breaks even, while at the same time preventing Miyazaki's work from becoming more popular than theirs.
If this anime got at least half the marketing of the crappiest Disney release...
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Which of these you prefer most will depend entirely one your taste, I think. One of the great things about Miyazaki is that he has a great range - all his stuff isn't the same like so many others.
I prefer Kiki's Delivery Service the best, and Spirited Away next, then Princess Mononoke. I haven't yet seen the others, but I've got some of his comics, like Nausicaa and some others.
It's so great that his work is finally coming out on Region 1 DVDs soon. Yay!
My favourite line in Kiki:
"Helloooo, Kitty!"
- Gigi
...though bear with slow response, as Nausicaa.net is already pretty well experiencing the Slashdot effect. My traffic-shaping rules are helping the site hold its own, but you may have to tolerate sluggish reply at the moment. :)
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--Rachel
I take it back! Did you hear what Michael Moore said about Bush on TV? Someone write THAT up! Totally went off on "President" Bush.
Props to him, not for berating bushes actions.. but for standing up in what he believes in. We should all follow his example.. doing what we believe in... do it to whatever extent we can. Cut through the bullshit.
--
"I'm not bright. Big words confuse me. But Wanda loves me and that should be enough for you." - Cosmo
My Japanese wife collects all of Miyazaki's movies. Spirited Away definitely deserved to win. If you enjoyed this one I highly recommend seeing his other movies as well. Interestingly, Spirited Away and Totoro (one of my all-time favourites) are the only ones I've seen either in English or subtitled, and I don't understand Japanese, but it hasn't detracted at all from my enjoyment of these movies. Basically, I just read an English summary of the movie on the Internet and then go enjoy. "Princess Mononoke" is incredible (but gory - not for young children) and you don't have to understand Japanese to enjoy it un-subtitled. "Castle In The Sky" is also great and is so vivid in it's animation you can "see" the words and intentions of the characters.
Any parents among you should introduce your child to "My Neighbour Totoro". This is by far my most favourite animated film ever and my 3 year-old daughter's as well. The magic in Miyazaki's story telling is just incredible.
Supposedly, someone at Disney claimed that they had already set aside a much larger advertising budget similar to that Lilo and Stitch got for a S.A. rerelease if it won the Oscars. Traditionally, films that win the Oscar take on new legs and get wider release after that: for instance, Life is Beautiful. The details are somewhere in the Nausicaa.net archives; I lack the time to dig them up now.
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
While I used to enjoy the Oscars, I think they are quickly losing their relevance. Ever since Titanic won all sorts of awards back in 1997 it's been more or less evident that the Oscars are little more than a popularity contest. If this ceremony were held two months ago, which movie would have walked away with the awards? My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Here we have another underdog, Chicago, which Miramax sent out on limited release to generate lots of positive buzz, and has since carefully expanded the number of locations in which it is playing. Chicago gets fabulous word of mouth and ends up walking away with Best Picture. Fine, so lots of the voters like this movie and musicals are making a comeback. But best costume design? Best editing? The movie may be good, but certainly it doesn't deserve these. Of the hundreds of movies released last year, and of the few dozen which were truly good, does one movie deserve to win these coveted awards just because it's popular right now?
When movies start picking up several oscars, it's just a sign of that movie's popularity at the moment. The voters get all carried away with one movie and it ends up sweeping the whole show. Ridiculous.
Ok, perhaps I'm just jaded because of the movies that *didn't* win, like Two Towers for Best Editing or Episode II for Best Costume, Sound, Editing, or something. But I agree, (in order to keep this post on-topic), Spirited Away was definitely the best animated feature of the year. But what about the rest? Treasure Island, anyone?
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True, it's finely crafted. Nearly everything Miyazaki has ever done is. But I wouldn't put it in the masterpiece category. It certainly isn't his best work IMO. I'd put Laputa: Castle in the Sky or My Neighbor Totoro above it. Of course, you know, IMO, YMMV, and all that.
You had me at "dicks fuck assholes".
It's too bad that I cannot find any *serious* comments about Spirited Away even here at Slashdot. It's not a simple animation film for children. Nor is it a fun movie for mature adults either.
The main point of the movie is how Western civilization *devastated* the Japanese people, especially in the form of capitalism. One funny (and tragic) reality addressed by the director is that Japanese are totally ignorant of the fact that they have lost their Japanese identity adopting capitalism and that the western people enslaved (I hate to use this word) Japanese people under the hierarchical structure of capitalism.
Notice that this film is overpainted with Japanese cultural artifacts everywhere. However, only Yubaba shows characteristics typical in the Western people. A big nose, flurry dress, and her big room with carpet and bonfire, to name a few. Her room is located on the very *top* of the building, dominating all other Japanese workers.
Haku symbolizes Japanese people who strived to learn the power from the Western civilization. He wanted to learn the *magic* from Yubaba, but what he actually experienced was that he had to lose his own name in order to do that. How Yubaba enslaved Haku? Haku himself had to *sign a contract* which forced him to *lose* his name.
So, what happened? The japanese lost their souls. The poor people who lost their identities do not have any virtues in their life other than to get more gold to be rich. The remaining value created from their priceless labor is *stored* as a form of gems in Yubaba's safe.
Why does Yubaba have a twin sister? It symbolizes director's view that the Western culture became a mutant from its origin. The _good_ western culture is the other twin Yubaba. Notice that Yubaba's sister also lives in a totally western environment. A small cottage, hand-cooked cake, tea, and so on. She, the original tradition of the western culture, is a person with bright rationaility.
Then what must Japanese do in order to destroy this terrible structure created by the evil Yubaba? Do they have to organize a revolution? Do they have to kill Yubaba?
Miyazaki Hayao's message is superior to that. Chihiro succeeds in finding and sympathizing with the common values appreciated both by Japanese people and Yubaba's sister. She symbolizes the young, future Japanese generations. From the sympathy and understanding of the *rational* Yubaba's twin sister, she proceeds on to the next stage of mutual understandings. She wakes up Haku, and he realizes his Japanese identity. After Chihiro came back to Yubaba, Yubaba is no longer her boss. She calls her name as "Oba-tsang", not as "Yubaba-sama", which can be translated into "grandmother" and "my boss Yubaba". She peacefully disarms Yubaba with her Japanese identity.
Overall, "Spirited Away" should be a movie that many Western people will get angry with (or be ashamed with); however, the great point of this movie is that it shows a way to solve this conflict peacefully, especially with the language of *rationality*, a concept which Western people are so accustomed to. It suggests a way that leads to the mutual understandings and the world peace. Here lies the greateness of this movie.
So, please, take this animation seriously. Although Yubaba's sister totally became friends with Chihiro, Yubaba refused to understand Chihiro to the end of the movie. The reason Yubaba released Chihiro and her parents is only because her contract with Yubaba became void. She is still ignorant of the terrible mistakes she inflicted on the Japanese people. I do not like to see Western people watching this movie continue to repeat this foolish mistake of Yubaba's in real world. Just by trying to remember Yubaba's twin sister, you will be able to sympathize _at least_ with the japanese people.
This film has so much charm and grace. I can only hope now, just maybe, a subtitled version will be show in Austin.
It has been a long time since I saw a subtitled anime on the big screen.
It is important to mention that, whilst Ghibli accepted the award, nobody came to the ceremony to collect their Oscar.
Miyazaki is a well documented Marxist (look at Mirai Shounen Conan and the book it is based upon, The Incredible Tide, for proof), so I doubt he would attend an awards ceremony at a heart of American capitalism. Not to mention that he is hugely anti-war anyway.
Whilst he very much deserves the award, there are other more poltical agendas at work here.
Cacophanus
http://cacophanus.net/
As someone who shares much of Michael Moore's politics, I think of him the way that more intelligent conservatives think of Rush Limbaugh - sometimes funny and informative, but not really rigorous and at times dishonest. More of a cheerleader than an analyst.
I got a laugh out of Moore.. guy is kind of tactless but very brave I think.
But Brody.. wow. A summary for those who missed it:
Brody gets up on stage, looking completely floored. He says he didn't write a speech because whenever he did for any award in the past, he didn't win. He goes on for a while, flustered as hell, then he mentions they're already flashing the "Time's up" at him, but he's just getting started on his thank yous, to his parents, to the filmmakers, etc.
Now he's WAY over max time, and they cut into his speech with the ceremony music, you know, the "OK, we're done being polite and subtle, get OFF THE STAGE NOW" music, and this is where things got REALLY interesting. He looks up and says, "Just a second. Just one more second" The music continues, uncaring. But Brody's determined, he knows he can do no wrong in this particular instant of time and space. "I mean it. Turn that stuff OFF!" he says.. and the music actually STOPS. I was cheering. Lopsided grin, "I've just got one shot at this."
Then, in a very emotional voice on the edge of breaking, he talks about how making The Pianist made him aware of the horrors of war, and how, whatever you believe in, God or Allah or anyone, he hopes for everyone to get home safe, and for a quick end to the conflict.
He got a deafening, standing ovation, and for the next 10 minutes or so, the Oscars were... different. The power of his words had tremendously affected everyone. It was evident that Dustin Hoffman, who was presenting a clip of The Pianist for Best Picture immediately after Brody, was having some trouble continuing his speech.
Bravo Brody. Guy deserved a second Oscar on the spot.
"Mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices, is to some extent present in every electron." -Freeman Dyson