(10.30) When first released in 2001, this movie grossed over $289 million worldwide, becoming the most successful film in Japanese history. In America, Japanese film director, producer, screenwriter, animator, author, and manga artist, Hayao Miyazaki, already had a devoted following, but ‘Spirited Away’ brought him to a much wider audience, winning the ‘Best Animated Feature’ Oscar.
But that was seventeen years ago — many fans have never seen this animation icon in a theater. Here’s your chance. Three screenings are on tap at Providence Place Cinema: two dubbed and one with subtitles.
Starting Sunday, Studio Ghibli Fest 2018 presents ‘Spirited Away’ for three days only. The film is not rated and the running time is 125 minutes.
Wandering through an abandoned carnival site, ten-year-old Chihiro is separated from her parents and stumbles into a dream-like spirit world where she is put to work in a bathhouse for the gods, a place where all kinds of nonhuman beings come to refresh, relax and recharge. Here she encounters a vast menagerie of impossibly inventive characters — shape-shifting phantoms and spirits, some friendly, some less so — and must find the inner strength to outsmart her captors and return to her family. Combining Japanese mythology with Through the Looking Glass-type whimsy, Spirited Away cemented Miyazaki’s reputation as an icon of inspired animation and wondrous, lyrical storytelling.
1pm, Sunday, October 28 (dubbed)
7pm, Monday, October 29 (subtitled)
7pm, Tuesday, October 30 (dubbed)
From Wiki:
In 2016, it was voted the fourth best film of the 21st century as picked by 177 film critics from around the world, making it the highest ranking animated film on the list. It was also named the second “Best Film of the 21st Century So Far” in 2017 by the New York Times.
Providence Place Cinema, the downtown mall, (directions)