Spirited Away: A bridge of the Fantastic and Realistic
Introduction
I choose Reider’s “Spirited Away: Film of the Fantastic and Evolving Japanese Folk Symbols” as my article because of my interest in the film. I first saw Spirited Away back in 2002, and, since then, I have come to recognize and think about the symbolism and storyline deeper. My database search began by searching for animation; however, animation is too broad of a topic to search through so I narrowed it down to “Studio Ghibli,” which has been one of my artistic inspirations for years. I stumbled on the article pertaining to Spirited Away specifically by chance after narrowing the formats of the articles to scholarly journals in English. I picked this article in particular because
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According to Tzvetan Todorov’s definition of the fantastic: the hesitation experienced by someone who only knows the laws of reality, confronting an otherworldly event, Spirited Away fits the definition due to the uncertainty felt by both the Chihiro and the audience. Thrown into the realm of the spirits, Chihiro’s every action could lead to something terrible happening to her, such as the constant threat to be turned into a pig herself. Not only does Spirited Away fit well with Todorov’s definition of the fantastic but Susan Napier definition as well: fantasy being a conscious removal from accepted reality. This conforms to pop culture understanding that fantasy is an escape from …show more content…
As can be guessed by his name, No Face wears a Noh mask, in which makes him unreadable; it doesn’t help that he doesn’t talk much until he seems to be driven crazy by the bathhouse. Noh masks have appeared in a numerous Japanese animations, such as InuYasha, and usually carry a negative connotation as they seemed to be cursed. No Face does not correlate with characters in Japanese tales, unlike most characters in Spirited Away, but he does relate to tatarigami, cursed spirit, in Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke (1997). He could have easily become an antagonistic character, but due to Chihiro’s intervention, he returns from his crazy state and finds his place, away from the bathhouse of course.
Spirited Away’s story shows that folk beliefs and customs continue to thrive within the modern, technological world. Miyazaki helps children understand the roots of their culture and Japanese tradition. Kamikushi, rather than held in a negative light, can be seen as a period of rest from the world for young people who are having trouble and afterwards, they are ready to start a new life. These ideals bridge the realistic world and that of the fantastic.
Lee Daniel’s Precious is a movie centered around Precious Jones, a 16-year-old overweight black girl living in Harlem, New York. The movie begins when she is in public school pregnant with her second child by her father. Because Precious is pregnant, the principle recommends an alternative school for her. At home, Precious is a servant to her mother, Mary, who is physically, emotionally, verbally, and sexually abusing her. Mary constantly tells Precious that she is not good enough and that no one will ever want her. At times of distress, Precious tends to dissociate and fantasize about another life where she is a blonde white girl. She wants to be famous and loved by all. Precious arrives at the alternative school hardly knowing how to read or write. She gets placed in a class of girls with a dedicated teacher, Ms. Rain. Ms. Rain asks each student to write in a journal every day, and she will write back to their letters. This is the first time in the movie when Precious feels very
The story begins in the ordinary world with Chihiro and her family moving to a new home. Chihiro is intimidated by the prospects of starting her life anew. Resulting in her being a whiny, selfish and fearful little girl. All of this changes when her and her parents visit an abandoned theme park and accidentally cross into the spirit world. This is where she meets Haku, outside of a bath house. The young boy informs her of their entry into the spirit world and tries to get her back to her world. But it is too late, in their gross ignorance her parents have already eaten from a feast intended for the spirits and they are turned into pigs as punishment. 10-year-old Chihiro now finds herself left alone in the spirit world. This is what Joseph Campbell calls “the call to adventure”. She’s been transported out of the ordinary world and is now responsible for saving her parents in this new and strange world. Chihiro is frightene...
I have chosen to review the film Boyhood written by Richard Linklater that took twelve years to film. In the movie Boyhood, it illustrates the life of a boy named Mason Jr. through the many stages of his childhood to adolescence to becoming an adult. The movie follows Mason Jr.’s life through his years of kindergarten, middle school, high school, and to college. Through these milestones in his life encounters society with socialization, culture and norms that are exhibited through his family, friends, and others. With factors of social classes, and gender that influence Mason Jr. as he grows and fits into the society that is formed. From the events and milestones in Boyhood, it is able to show human behaviour in society from our
In the silent film Broken Blossoms, the lighting, setting, and color change drastically. D.W. Griffith manipulates the mise-en-scene, altering the lighting, setting, and color change drastically not only connecting scenes but also to creating clear separations. The film breaks Cheng Huan’s first encounter with Lucy Burrows into three different colored segments: yellow, blue, and purple. These tints paired with other elements of mise-en-scene convey a seemingly dichotomous message regarding the nature of kindness and of their relationship.
Discoveries can be confronting when individuals leave their familiar worlds. However, venturing into the unknown can result in growth and transformation. The consequences of a discovery can lead an individual into discovering themselves and have a change of perspective of the world and society. Through Michael Gow’s play, Away, and Shaun Tan’s picture book, The Red Tree, both composers shape the meaning of discovery through characters’ isolation, as the manifestation of self-discovery is powerfully communicated through the utilisation of dramatic and visual techniques.
No Face is living in an unfortunate situation where he needs to constantly run away from people’s hostility towards him. People who encounter this central character “wish him to fall” and for “him to be gone.” Only but three other characters show empathy and compassion towards No Face—Padre Lou, the Canadian doctor and the owner of the beauty shop. Even his own family members are portrayed as distant or negligent to No Face. It also seems like he is disowned by his parents. In No Face, Junot Diaz, explores the effects on families and particularly boys and young men when absent fathers and therefore a lack of suitable role models, poverty and the potential for an apparent better life in the US, pervade their very existence. He copes with his lack of a relationship with his father by, not only lying about his whereabouts, pretending that he is in the US, but by creating a superhero in his imagination where he can right wrongs and is always "fighting evil." Not only was he harassed verbally, but he was also confronted by a group of boys who wanted to physically hurt him and “turn him into a girl.” He responded to these environments in a way that shows he is beyond fear and revenge. Instead of cursing or fighting back, he genuinely believed in a strength that lies within him. When No Face was being ambushed by a group of bullies, He proclaimed “STRENGTH” while the “fat boy” was
Satire criticises and makes fun of the norms of human society. It adds an intellectual humour along with the archetypes that is present in the story. In The Princess Bride, by William Goldman, satire is in a wide variety of parts in the story from the communication between others to the character themselves including the Spaniard, Inigo Montoya. The author portrays Inigo as a Spaniard who becomes a fencer to seek revenge on the six-fingered man for the murder of his father, Domingo Montoya and he becomes a henchman to the criminal Vizzini. He is a very caring man to people he cares about, but he can only act on vengeance since he truly loves his father. With his attention only on reprisal, it can blind him from achieving the results he wants and that can significantly affect his personality as he is driven by it. When he finds the six-fingered man, he prepares after many years of training with famous fencers and even has a saying that he plants in his brain so that it is the driven force of vengeance. He is the ‘evil figure with an ultimately good heart’ archetype as he is a part of Vizzini’s group with Fezzik, but he has a change in heart that he needs Westley’s help to storm the castle. Although Inigo is a prestigious fencer who only cares about revenge, the author plays with satirical devices that portray the faults and weaknesses of his characteristics while maintaining his status as the best swordsman in his generation.
This paper will explore what it is about anime that makes it so appealing to even a Western audience, creating an international fan base. Although manga can be traced to American origins, the comics that the Americans brought over have been intensely modified to create essentially a new form of media. Manga and anime have become a significant component of Japanese culture, and often times they integrate Japanese culture and society. Yet, regardless of its Japanese origin, anime is still viewed on the other side of the planet. The question then becomes what is it that makes it so appealing to a foreign audience? This paper will rely heavily on Susan Napier’s book, From Impressionism to Anime: Japan as Fantasy and Fan Cult in the Mind of the
“The Vow” is a movie that encases the turmoil and hardship associated with retrograde amnesia and the classic symptoms and steps associated with recovering and potentially regaining lost memory. Taking into account the information gained through multiple sources; such as, lecture of Mental Health, medical databases, and the personal experiences of Krickett Carpenter, the Vow provides both an accurate and inaccurate depiction of retrograde amnesia.
Society is a result of our interactions, and society guides our interactions. This all stems from social construction. Social construction conveys values, ideas and traditions. These values, ideals and traditions are created and become traditions that are then passed on. These traditions then come to be perceived as natural rather than cultural, which is often how media will display it and society unknowingly accepts.
Spirited Away, titled Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi in Japan, follows a young girl named Chihiro on an adventurous, yet threatening journey into a magical realm after her parents are turned into pigs. She forms relationships with people that will help her find her way back home such as Haku, Zeniba, and Mr. Kamaji. She also encounters those like Yubaba who try to make her time in the realm of spirits difficult. Spirited Away quickly became Japan’s highest grossing film of all time. It received many great reviews in every aspect of filmmaking. It won several awards, including A Golden Bear in 2002 at the Berlin International Film Festival, and an Academy Award in 2003 for Best Animated Film. Hayao Miyazaki, the film’s writer and director, strongly encourages Japanese culture and its survival. He believes that “surrounded by high technology and its flimsy devices, children are more and more losing their roots”(Reider). Hayao Miyazaki’s aim is to present not only an animated motion picture, but a work of art. He does so by using certain animation and film techniques, applying Japanese culture, and creating in depth characters, all of which highlight key symbols in the film.
1980. Warner Bros. Directed by Stanley Kubrick. Music by Wendy Carlos and Rcachel Elkind. Cinematography by John Alcott. Editing by Ray Lovejoy. With Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd.
Throughout Rosemary Jackson's work three significant points could me made about her definition of the fantastic. Jackson writes about the fantastic as a genre or mode, how it should be interpreted by the reader, and more specifically, what it embodies. According to Jackson, because the fantastic is not a literary category it can not be defined as a genre and should therefore be referred to as a mode placed between the marvelous and the uncanny. Referring to the fantastic as a "mode" helps and leans towards a definition of this type of literature. Typically, a mode is a constant and distinct manner of doing or thinking, if it is altered in any way the mode changes. Applying this idea to the fantastic implies that the fantastic itself is a mode, if it is altered it immediately becomes marvelous or uncanny, which leads to Jackson's definition. The fantastic is the grey area which lies between the marvelous and uncanny, it is located on either side of a principle axis and distorts one's image of what is real by challenging and disorientating the reader's perceptions. In fact, the fantastic has conditions which is must satisfy with respect to the reader. First the text must oblige the reader to consider the world of the characters as a world of living persons and to hesitate between a natural and supernatural explanation of the events described. Second, this hesitation may also be experienced by a character. Third, the reader must reject all poetic and mythical interpretations (Jackson 28). The fantastic uncanny leans towards explanations that can be explained by logic and rules of the world as we know it whereas the fantastic marvelous doesn't question the supernatural.
Anime or animation started in the early 20th century by Japanese filmmakers who experimented with animation techniques. Hayao Miyazaki, a director, animator, screenwriter, and illustrator of such animated films is the creator of Spirited Away. Spirited Away is a film about Chihiro, a young girl who upon moving to a new town becomes lost in the spirit world after her father takes a wrong turn on their way to their new house. Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited away illustrates not only the struggles Chihiro has to overcome in order to save her parents who turn into pigs upon eating the food of the spirit world, but there are also many instants in which the role of the economy have caused an impact on Chihiro’s journey. In particular bourgeoisie, proletariat, and the informal economy are three concepts that are useful tools in analyzing spirited away.
“Whenever someone hears the word ‘anime’ they immediately think of Japanese animation or in the very least Asian cartoons. Really, though the word ‘anime’ is derived form the word ‘animation’. And the definition of animation is the making of movies by filming a sequence of slightly varying drawings or models so that they appear to move and change when the sequence is shown.” (par. 1)