WEBVTT - Weirdhouse Cinema: Spirited Away

0:00:00.480 --> 0:00:03.840
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

0:00:11.080 --> 0:00:13.960
<v Speaker 2>Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is Rob.

0:00:13.880 --> 0:00:17.200
<v Speaker 3>Lamb and I am Joe McCormick. And today on Weird

0:00:17.239 --> 0:00:19.320
<v Speaker 3>House we're going to be talking about the two thousand

0:00:19.360 --> 0:00:24.280
<v Speaker 3>and one Japanese animated fantasy film Spirited Away, directed by

0:00:24.320 --> 0:00:27.920
<v Speaker 3>Hayao Miyazaki. This week, I really wanted to talk about

0:00:27.960 --> 0:00:31.000
<v Speaker 3>a weird movie with a good soul, and I can

0:00:31.080 --> 0:00:34.680
<v Speaker 3>hardly think of a better example. This is not only

0:00:34.920 --> 0:00:37.760
<v Speaker 3>one of my favorite films we've covered on Weird House Cinema,

0:00:37.920 --> 0:00:39.640
<v Speaker 3>this has got to be one of my favorite films

0:00:39.680 --> 0:00:42.720
<v Speaker 3>of all time. I just came back to it for

0:00:42.760 --> 0:00:46.400
<v Speaker 3>the first time in many years this week, and I

0:00:46.479 --> 0:00:48.960
<v Speaker 3>knew I was going to love it on rewatch, but

0:00:49.080 --> 0:00:53.440
<v Speaker 3>I think I was not prepared still for just how

0:00:53.680 --> 0:00:58.160
<v Speaker 3>lovely and exciting and wonderful this movie is and basically every.

0:00:57.960 --> 0:01:00.400
<v Speaker 2>Way absolutely I mean this is this is one of

0:01:00.440 --> 0:01:03.240
<v Speaker 2>the all time greats. This is a film I've seen

0:01:03.680 --> 0:01:08.800
<v Speaker 2>multiple times over the years, and yesterday, late in the afternoon,

0:01:08.800 --> 0:01:11.240
<v Speaker 2>I asked my family's like, Hey, I've got to watch

0:01:11.240 --> 0:01:14.440
<v Speaker 2>spirit It Away again for work. Who wants to watch

0:01:14.440 --> 0:01:17.120
<v Speaker 2>it with me, and they were both on board, my

0:01:17.160 --> 0:01:18.920
<v Speaker 2>wife and my son, so we all just sat in

0:01:18.959 --> 0:01:21.360
<v Speaker 2>and sat in the living room and watched the film

0:01:21.760 --> 0:01:23.720
<v Speaker 2>all the way through again. And it's one of those

0:01:23.720 --> 0:01:25.679
<v Speaker 2>films where every time you watch it, yeah, you make

0:01:25.720 --> 0:01:30.720
<v Speaker 2>new discoveries. You find yourself re examining the things you

0:01:30.800 --> 0:01:33.039
<v Speaker 2>love about it and discovering new things to love about

0:01:33.080 --> 0:01:37.360
<v Speaker 2>it as well. And for a weird House Cinema purposes here,

0:01:37.640 --> 0:01:40.000
<v Speaker 2>this film is also notable for in a couple of ways.

0:01:40.000 --> 0:01:44.440
<v Speaker 2>It's our second Miyazaki film, following NAUSICAA, and it's only

0:01:44.480 --> 0:01:47.360
<v Speaker 2>the fourth film out of Let's see what have we done?

0:01:47.400 --> 0:01:50.000
<v Speaker 2>We've done I believe one hundred and eighty one pictures

0:01:50.000 --> 0:01:52.000
<v Speaker 2>on Weird House Cinema, And this is the only fourth

0:01:52.040 --> 0:01:54.920
<v Speaker 2>time we've looked at a film from the two thousands,

0:01:55.080 --> 0:01:58.320
<v Speaker 2>the early two thousands, the decade, the others being the

0:01:58.400 --> 0:02:00.800
<v Speaker 2>year two thousand Psycho Beach part that was one that

0:02:00.840 --> 0:02:04.040
<v Speaker 2>had Seth as a co host, and then we did

0:02:04.080 --> 0:02:06.440
<v Speaker 2>two thousand and one's Jason X in two thousand and fours,

0:02:06.480 --> 0:02:10.360
<v Speaker 2>the Chronicles of Riddick. What a selection, you know, It

0:02:10.440 --> 0:02:13.079
<v Speaker 2>is interesting how those other films I just mentioned. Those

0:02:13.120 --> 0:02:16.120
<v Speaker 2>are all very much in each film's own way, an

0:02:16.200 --> 0:02:20.480
<v Speaker 2>artifact of the time. Spirited Away is a film that

0:02:20.919 --> 0:02:23.480
<v Speaker 2>stands outside of time, though it does not feel like

0:02:23.560 --> 0:02:27.280
<v Speaker 2>something that exists just within the year two thousand and one.

0:02:28.200 --> 0:02:31.000
<v Speaker 2>It exists in all years, you know. It just takes

0:02:31.080 --> 0:02:31.880
<v Speaker 2>one of those films.

0:02:32.240 --> 0:02:36.640
<v Speaker 3>Yes, apart from the implied technology that we see on

0:02:36.720 --> 0:02:41.040
<v Speaker 3>display in some of the animation shots, this could have

0:02:41.160 --> 0:02:44.440
<v Speaker 3>been made any time in the history of color animated cinema.

0:02:44.480 --> 0:02:46.280
<v Speaker 3>It could have been from the seventies, it could have

0:02:46.280 --> 0:02:48.480
<v Speaker 3>been from this year. It really is out of time

0:02:48.520 --> 0:02:49.760
<v Speaker 3>in that way. Well, I don't know if it could

0:02:49.760 --> 0:02:53.160
<v Speaker 3>be from the seventies. We see some cars and technology

0:02:53.200 --> 0:02:55.440
<v Speaker 3>and stuff at the very beginning that, or maybe a

0:02:55.480 --> 0:02:58.160
<v Speaker 3>little beyond that. But really it is an out of

0:02:58.240 --> 0:03:02.280
<v Speaker 3>time kind of film. So sometimes on weird house Cinema

0:03:02.680 --> 0:03:06.520
<v Speaker 3>we like to pull out obscure gems from a dusty,

0:03:06.600 --> 0:03:09.760
<v Speaker 3>forgotten shelf on the video store. That obviously is not

0:03:09.880 --> 0:03:12.000
<v Speaker 3>the case here. Many of you probably know of this

0:03:12.120 --> 0:03:15.160
<v Speaker 3>movie already. Spirited Away was a big hit both in

0:03:15.240 --> 0:03:20.239
<v Speaker 3>Japan and internationally. You know, it was a box office success.

0:03:20.400 --> 0:03:23.120
<v Speaker 3>It won an Oscar for Best Animated feature at the

0:03:23.120 --> 0:03:26.959
<v Speaker 3>seventy fifth Academy Awards. Usually I don't pay a huge

0:03:27.000 --> 0:03:30.200
<v Speaker 3>amount of attention to award ceremonies, but in this case,

0:03:30.240 --> 0:03:32.560
<v Speaker 3>I'm glad to see the accolades going to something. I

0:03:32.560 --> 0:03:36.760
<v Speaker 3>think it is absolutely deserved, both as a story and

0:03:36.880 --> 0:03:42.000
<v Speaker 3>as an achievement in technical filmmaking. Spirited Away is just perfect.

0:03:42.000 --> 0:03:43.720
<v Speaker 3>It's the kind of object you just want to take

0:03:43.760 --> 0:03:48.120
<v Speaker 3>with you everywhere. It feels so weird and so wise

0:03:48.240 --> 0:03:50.840
<v Speaker 3>and so interesting and has such a good heart.

0:03:51.480 --> 0:03:55.920
<v Speaker 2>Absolutely yeah, I don't think it's very controversial to say

0:03:56.000 --> 0:04:02.080
<v Speaker 2>it absolutely deserved. That Oscar over the movie Ice Age.

0:04:01.200 --> 0:04:03.240
<v Speaker 3>And that's never seen that so I can't compare.

0:04:03.320 --> 0:04:06.800
<v Speaker 2>But not even any shame, you know, directed at the

0:04:06.800 --> 0:04:08.480
<v Speaker 2>makers of Ice Age. I'm sure the people who made

0:04:08.520 --> 0:04:11.680
<v Speaker 2>Ice Age are probably like, yeah, I mean yeah, Spirited

0:04:11.680 --> 0:04:14.960
<v Speaker 2>Away is a better film. Most most films are not

0:04:15.000 --> 0:04:17.760
<v Speaker 2>as good as Spirited Away. It's just on its own level.

0:04:18.480 --> 0:04:21.200
<v Speaker 2>So yeah, this is easily one of my favorite Miyazaki

0:04:21.200 --> 0:04:24.200
<v Speaker 2>films as well. It really has no faults in my opinion,

0:04:24.760 --> 0:04:27.159
<v Speaker 2>and to your point, has just such a pure heart.

0:04:27.480 --> 0:04:30.720
<v Speaker 2>I love all of Miyazaki's films and a number of

0:04:30.760 --> 0:04:33.839
<v Speaker 2>the films that I've seen in the studio Ghibli family

0:04:33.880 --> 0:04:37.000
<v Speaker 2>as well that he did not actually helm as a director.

0:04:37.600 --> 0:04:39.839
<v Speaker 2>But this one's a real gem. I hadn't watched it

0:04:39.839 --> 0:04:42.760
<v Speaker 2>in a few years. It's been very much on my mind, though,

0:04:42.800 --> 0:04:45.640
<v Speaker 2>since my family and I visited Ghibli Park in Japan

0:04:45.800 --> 0:04:50.680
<v Speaker 2>earlier this year, which is a location loaded with recreations

0:04:50.720 --> 0:04:54.880
<v Speaker 2>and exhibits related to this and other films from the

0:04:54.880 --> 0:04:59.440
<v Speaker 2>Ghibli canon. I highly recommend that experience for Ghibli fans.

0:04:59.440 --> 0:05:01.760
<v Speaker 2>If you happen to find yourself in Japan and can

0:05:01.800 --> 0:05:04.840
<v Speaker 2>set aside a day in Nagoya which will get you

0:05:04.880 --> 0:05:07.920
<v Speaker 2>close enough to take the train to the park, just

0:05:07.920 --> 0:05:09.080
<v Speaker 2>give those tickets in advance.

0:05:10.839 --> 0:05:14.640
<v Speaker 3>Now, there are so many fascinating ways that Spirited Away

0:05:14.880 --> 0:05:16.960
<v Speaker 3>stands out. I think maybe we'll save a lot of

0:05:16.960 --> 0:05:19.599
<v Speaker 3>those observations for the later part of the episode, where

0:05:19.600 --> 0:05:22.040
<v Speaker 3>we're just talking through the plot and we can bring

0:05:22.080 --> 0:05:24.680
<v Speaker 3>things up as they come up in the story. I

0:05:24.720 --> 0:05:26.680
<v Speaker 3>will say upfront that, of course, in this episode we

0:05:26.720 --> 0:05:28.680
<v Speaker 3>are going to talk about the plot from the beginning

0:05:28.760 --> 0:05:32.560
<v Speaker 3>to the end. And you know, we often give spoiler warnings,

0:05:32.640 --> 0:05:36.160
<v Speaker 3>especially for films where it feels like the surprises are

0:05:36.320 --> 0:05:40.520
<v Speaker 3>very exciting to experience firsthand. This case, I would really

0:05:40.600 --> 0:05:43.880
<v Speaker 3>emphasize if you've never seen Spirited Away and you want to,

0:05:44.040 --> 0:05:46.480
<v Speaker 3>this is one where I would say, please please watch

0:05:46.520 --> 0:05:49.080
<v Speaker 3>the movie before you listen to this and hear us

0:05:49.120 --> 0:05:52.160
<v Speaker 3>explain the whole plot. It is worth it, definitely to

0:05:52.800 --> 0:05:55.840
<v Speaker 3>just go in knowing nothing and experience it for yourself.

0:05:56.240 --> 0:05:59.280
<v Speaker 2>And if you have no experience with Miyazaki films, if

0:05:59.320 --> 0:06:02.080
<v Speaker 2>you have little or no experience with the Japanese animated

0:06:02.400 --> 0:06:06.160
<v Speaker 2>pictures or TV in general, I still think that Spirited

0:06:06.200 --> 0:06:09.719
<v Speaker 2>Away is a wonderful starting place for you. You know,

0:06:09.800 --> 0:06:12.080
<v Speaker 2>you don't You don't need to know anything else before

0:06:12.120 --> 0:06:14.640
<v Speaker 2>you go into this picture other than you just need

0:06:14.680 --> 0:06:17.479
<v Speaker 2>to be on board for the journey. All right, Let's

0:06:17.480 --> 0:06:18.720
<v Speaker 2>go ahead and throw in just a little bit of

0:06:18.760 --> 0:06:21.280
<v Speaker 2>trailer audio, probably not the whole trailer here, but maybe

0:06:21.320 --> 0:06:25.160
<v Speaker 2>just a taste so you can get some idea of

0:06:25.200 --> 0:06:26.520
<v Speaker 2>the audio involved here.

0:06:29.320 --> 0:06:31.720
<v Speaker 3>Honey, don't take a short cut, you always get us

0:06:31.800 --> 0:06:35.560
<v Speaker 3>lost from master filmmaker Hyao Miyazaki.

0:06:37.880 --> 0:06:38.560
<v Speaker 4>What is it?

0:06:39.080 --> 0:06:40.640
<v Speaker 3>Come on, let's go in. I want to see what's

0:06:40.680 --> 0:06:41.400
<v Speaker 3>on the other side.

0:06:41.600 --> 0:06:44.000
<v Speaker 1>Will hey, you.

0:06:48.560 --> 0:06:49.960
<v Speaker 2>Shouldn't be here, Get out.

0:06:49.960 --> 0:06:53.160
<v Speaker 3>Of here. Now leave before it gets dark. You've got

0:06:53.160 --> 0:06:53.960
<v Speaker 3>to get across the river.

0:06:54.040 --> 0:06:54.080
<v Speaker 1>Go.

0:06:54.279 --> 0:06:55.040
<v Speaker 3>I'll distract him.

0:07:07.400 --> 0:07:08.159
<v Speaker 2>Don't be afraid.

0:07:08.560 --> 0:07:09.560
<v Speaker 3>I'm master Haku.

0:07:11.000 --> 0:07:20.640
<v Speaker 2>I just want to help you, all right. Well, if

0:07:20.680 --> 0:07:23.960
<v Speaker 2>you want to go watch Spirited Away again or for

0:07:24.000 --> 0:07:26.040
<v Speaker 2>the first time before you proceed with this episode, we

0:07:26.120 --> 0:07:28.760
<v Speaker 2>encourage you to do so. It is available wherever you

0:07:28.800 --> 0:07:32.680
<v Speaker 2>get your studio Ghibli Films. I own this one on

0:07:32.800 --> 0:07:35.280
<v Speaker 2>DVD from back in the day, but we ended up

0:07:35.320 --> 0:07:39.400
<v Speaker 2>watching it on Max Streaming, which as of this recording anyway,

0:07:39.440 --> 0:07:42.840
<v Speaker 2>streams a number of Ghibli films in the States, maybe

0:07:42.920 --> 0:07:45.560
<v Speaker 2>all the major ones, but like you know, certainly all

0:07:45.560 --> 0:07:48.760
<v Speaker 2>the major Minyazaki films are on there. But if you

0:07:49.040 --> 0:07:52.600
<v Speaker 2>reside or are traveling internationally, you might find them streaming

0:07:52.640 --> 0:07:57.120
<v Speaker 2>elsewhere like Netflix, you know, crossover international boundary, and then

0:07:57.160 --> 0:08:00.480
<v Speaker 2>suddenly Netflix may have your studio Ghibli films. Just see

0:08:00.480 --> 0:08:01.360
<v Speaker 2>what's up when you're there.

0:08:01.400 --> 0:08:04.480
<v Speaker 3>I guess Google Results falsely told me I could stream

0:08:04.520 --> 0:08:06.840
<v Speaker 3>them on Netflix. Oh it's not the case.

0:08:07.240 --> 0:08:09.080
<v Speaker 2>Nope, not unless you I think maybe if you go

0:08:09.160 --> 0:08:12.760
<v Speaker 2>to Mexico you can, but or at least at one

0:08:12.800 --> 0:08:16.119
<v Speaker 2>point that was the case. Anyway, the shop Factory, DVD

0:08:16.200 --> 0:08:18.960
<v Speaker 2>and Blu Ray releases for this film are all pretty excellent,

0:08:19.080 --> 0:08:21.240
<v Speaker 2>So if you want to go physical media, definitely go

0:08:21.480 --> 0:08:27.160
<v Speaker 2>that direction. But also Miyazaki films are periodically re released

0:08:27.200 --> 0:08:29.880
<v Speaker 2>on the big screen pretty much every summer. I see

0:08:29.920 --> 0:08:33.240
<v Speaker 2>some opportunities to see a Miyazaki film on the big screen,

0:08:33.280 --> 0:08:35.120
<v Speaker 2>and I haven't done it for one of any of

0:08:35.160 --> 0:08:38.200
<v Speaker 2>the classic films yet, but I have gotten to see

0:08:38.480 --> 0:08:41.920
<v Speaker 2>at least two or three of his films when they

0:08:41.920 --> 0:08:45.000
<v Speaker 2>were initially released in theaters, and it's always a grand time.

0:08:52.720 --> 0:08:54.679
<v Speaker 2>All right, Let's talk about at least some of the

0:08:54.720 --> 0:08:58.800
<v Speaker 2>people involved here, As is always the case with any film,

0:08:58.800 --> 0:09:01.520
<v Speaker 2>but especially the big animated picture like this, So many

0:09:01.559 --> 0:09:04.559
<v Speaker 2>people's work went into making it. We cannot list everybody.

0:09:05.000 --> 0:09:07.240
<v Speaker 2>We're gonna list, you know, we're going to talk briefly

0:09:07.240 --> 0:09:09.400
<v Speaker 2>about the director. You know, we'll hit the music, and

0:09:09.400 --> 0:09:13.440
<v Speaker 2>we'll hit some of the vocal talent involved here. But yeah,

0:09:13.480 --> 0:09:17.040
<v Speaker 2>at the top, we have Io Miyazaki, director, writer, story

0:09:17.280 --> 0:09:21.319
<v Speaker 2>and storyboard artist, born nineteen forty one, the legendary Japanese

0:09:21.360 --> 0:09:23.880
<v Speaker 2>animator and filmmaker. We previously went into a lot of

0:09:23.960 --> 0:09:26.760
<v Speaker 2>detail on him in our Nasca episode, and we'll talk

0:09:26.840 --> 0:09:28.960
<v Speaker 2>a good bit more about him as we proceed here,

0:09:29.880 --> 0:09:32.559
<v Speaker 2>but I'd largely say, well, you know, for our purposes here,

0:09:32.679 --> 0:09:36.440
<v Speaker 2>refer back to that previous episode. But suffice to say,

0:09:36.720 --> 0:09:39.800
<v Speaker 2>towering figure not only in the realm of Japanese animation,

0:09:39.960 --> 0:09:44.280
<v Speaker 2>but global animation filmmaking. He's one of the great living storytellers,

0:09:44.320 --> 0:09:47.160
<v Speaker 2>and every single one of his films deserves a look

0:09:47.440 --> 0:09:52.559
<v Speaker 2>and speaks to a universal audience on themes of childhood, environmentalism,

0:09:52.840 --> 0:09:56.680
<v Speaker 2>the anti war movement, cross generational conflict, and so many

0:09:56.679 --> 0:09:59.520
<v Speaker 2>other themes that should resonate with all of us today

0:09:59.800 --> 0:10:04.319
<v Speaker 2>as much as any other day throughout his decades of filmmaking. Plus,

0:10:04.320 --> 0:10:08.679
<v Speaker 2>if you like Miyazaki, love fantastic creatures, feelings of wonder

0:10:08.760 --> 0:10:12.600
<v Speaker 2>and discovery, and of course action packed flight sequences, then

0:10:12.600 --> 0:10:14.319
<v Speaker 2>his work is absolutely for you.

0:10:14.920 --> 0:10:18.439
<v Speaker 3>He did love flying. All of his movies I can

0:10:18.480 --> 0:10:21.200
<v Speaker 3>think of. Is there a single one I've seen that

0:10:21.240 --> 0:10:24.079
<v Speaker 3>doesn't have a major flight element. I think they all do.

0:10:24.640 --> 0:10:27.200
<v Speaker 2>If there's not a direct flight element, there is a

0:10:27.280 --> 0:10:30.240
<v Speaker 2>scene that, like, like, I think captures a feeling of flight.

0:10:30.480 --> 0:10:34.680
<v Speaker 2>You know, in fact, at Ghiblie Park there, you know,

0:10:34.720 --> 0:10:37.400
<v Speaker 2>it's a full blown sort of theme park, and it

0:10:37.480 --> 0:10:39.920
<v Speaker 2>is a theme park. It's not as ride centric as

0:10:40.480 --> 0:10:42.760
<v Speaker 2>you know, something like six Flags. There's not six Flags

0:10:42.800 --> 0:10:46.480
<v Speaker 2>over Miyazaki or anything. But it has a number of

0:10:46.520 --> 0:10:49.360
<v Speaker 2>attractions and there's one little corner that has a scale

0:10:49.400 --> 0:10:53.000
<v Speaker 2>model shop because Miyazaki, of course famously a fan of

0:10:53.080 --> 0:10:57.280
<v Speaker 2>scale model building, especially when it comes to airplanes and

0:10:57.360 --> 0:11:00.680
<v Speaker 2>tanks of the World War II era. And so you

0:11:00.720 --> 0:11:03.600
<v Speaker 2>go into this little store as tiny and I'm like,

0:11:03.679 --> 0:11:07.960
<v Speaker 2>one wall it's you know, you know, Japanese made classic,

0:11:08.960 --> 0:11:11.040
<v Speaker 2>you know, World War two model kits, and then on

0:11:11.080 --> 0:11:15.160
<v Speaker 2>the other wall it's model kits of various robots, planes

0:11:15.240 --> 0:11:19.160
<v Speaker 2>and vehicles from Miyazaki movies, and it's it's really really nice.

0:11:19.520 --> 0:11:21.280
<v Speaker 2>It made me feel really good to go in there.

0:11:21.679 --> 0:11:24.080
<v Speaker 2>I bought something and then really cracked my head hard

0:11:24.160 --> 0:11:26.360
<v Speaker 2>as I was coming back out. I like having to

0:11:26.400 --> 0:11:30.440
<v Speaker 2>stoop through the doorframe because it and and I thought

0:11:30.480 --> 0:11:32.120
<v Speaker 2>of that as we watched this film, because there are

0:11:32.160 --> 0:11:35.520
<v Speaker 2>several scenes where our main character cracks her head on

0:11:35.640 --> 0:11:39.320
<v Speaker 2>something or she's going through a little doorway, and I

0:11:39.360 --> 0:11:41.800
<v Speaker 2>was like, yep, that's that was for me. The the

0:11:41.800 --> 0:11:43.240
<v Speaker 2>Ghibli park experience as.

0:11:43.080 --> 0:11:45.600
<v Speaker 3>Well, correct me if I'm wrong. But you're you're a

0:11:45.640 --> 0:11:48.880
<v Speaker 3>bit of a model airplane enthusiast yourself, aren't you? Or

0:11:49.000 --> 0:11:49.400
<v Speaker 3>are you not?

0:11:51.000 --> 0:11:54.320
<v Speaker 2>My dad was, I'm I've always been. That was his

0:11:54.920 --> 0:11:56.800
<v Speaker 2>level of scale modeling. He did a lot of planes

0:11:56.840 --> 0:11:59.120
<v Speaker 2>and tanks of the World War Two era. I'm more

0:11:59.120 --> 0:12:02.080
<v Speaker 2>of a like maybe a fantasy tank, Like I'll do

0:12:02.120 --> 0:12:04.440
<v Speaker 2>some Star Wars tanks here and there, or maybe I'll

0:12:04.640 --> 0:12:07.040
<v Speaker 2>be tempted to pick up a Warhammer tank or something,

0:12:07.080 --> 0:12:10.240
<v Speaker 2>But mostly it's like fantasy figures, dungeons and dragons and

0:12:10.280 --> 0:12:13.840
<v Speaker 2>so forth. But yeah, I like painting little dudes.

0:12:14.520 --> 0:12:17.480
<v Speaker 3>So I was looking a bit into the production process

0:12:17.520 --> 0:12:21.640
<v Speaker 3>behind Spirited Away, and one thing that really surprised me is,

0:12:22.200 --> 0:12:24.600
<v Speaker 3>I don't know, the final product of this movie feels

0:12:24.600 --> 0:12:30.320
<v Speaker 3>incredibly tight and polished and perfected. It is like it's

0:12:30.440 --> 0:12:33.200
<v Speaker 3>just it feels like somebody's life's work. You know that

0:12:33.240 --> 0:12:37.000
<v Speaker 3>they thought about this immensely, and immense consideration went into

0:12:37.040 --> 0:12:39.840
<v Speaker 3>making it a perfect project. But I was reading a

0:12:39.840 --> 0:12:43.280
<v Speaker 3>bit in a book by a scholar named Susan Napier

0:12:43.400 --> 0:12:46.800
<v Speaker 3>called Miyazaki World, a Life in Art from Yale University

0:12:46.840 --> 0:12:50.439
<v Speaker 3>Press twenty eighteen and that actually, behind the scenes there

0:12:50.480 --> 0:12:53.440
<v Speaker 3>was a good bit of chaos that led to this movie.

0:12:53.520 --> 0:12:58.400
<v Speaker 3>So before this movie came out, Miyazaki had released the

0:12:59.080 --> 0:13:02.120
<v Speaker 3>very successful film called Princess Mononoke, which maybe one day

0:13:02.120 --> 0:13:05.800
<v Speaker 3>we'll talk about on the podcast in its own episode.

0:13:06.040 --> 0:13:11.400
<v Speaker 3>But after this, Miyazaki apparently quit the studio, quit Studio

0:13:11.400 --> 0:13:15.360
<v Speaker 3>Ghibli in January of nineteen ninety eight. But then he

0:13:15.800 --> 0:13:20.640
<v Speaker 3>had a successor, somebody who, in Napier's words, was deemed

0:13:20.679 --> 0:13:27.200
<v Speaker 3>Miyazaki's heir apparent, named Yoshifumi Kondo, who died suddenly less

0:13:27.200 --> 0:13:30.840
<v Speaker 3>than a week after Miyazaki left the studio, And so

0:13:30.960 --> 0:13:35.040
<v Speaker 3>Miyazaki was then brought back in. And so Napier writes,

0:13:35.120 --> 0:13:37.800
<v Speaker 3>quote Spirited Away was thus born out of some turmoil

0:13:37.840 --> 0:13:41.440
<v Speaker 3>in the studio, which the movie sometimes chaotic structure seems

0:13:41.480 --> 0:13:44.280
<v Speaker 3>to reflect. And there are other parts in this book

0:13:44.640 --> 0:13:51.000
<v Speaker 3>that mention many people involved, saying that the chaotic, kind

0:13:51.000 --> 0:13:55.280
<v Speaker 3>of frantic running about atmosphere of the Bathhouse is in

0:13:55.320 --> 0:13:58.600
<v Speaker 3>many ways supposed to reflect the studio in which the

0:13:58.640 --> 0:13:59.840
<v Speaker 3>movie itself was made.

0:14:00.679 --> 0:14:03.000
<v Speaker 2>Oh wow, okay, I can imagine that, you know, because

0:14:03.000 --> 0:14:07.920
<v Speaker 2>the bath house, the onsen here is it is home

0:14:07.960 --> 0:14:09.839
<v Speaker 2>to a lot of chaos, but there's a lot of

0:14:10.640 --> 0:14:16.400
<v Speaker 2>very strategically minded management of that chaos. You know, we see,

0:14:16.600 --> 0:14:18.480
<v Speaker 2>we see a lot of effort going in to figure

0:14:18.480 --> 0:14:20.160
<v Speaker 2>out what what are we going to do about this

0:14:20.280 --> 0:14:23.760
<v Speaker 2>sudden change in our circumstances. Yeah, so I can see that.

0:14:24.240 --> 0:14:26.760
<v Speaker 3>There's another thing that comes up on that same frequency,

0:14:26.800 --> 0:14:31.320
<v Speaker 3>which is that Miyazaki had some tendency to uh to

0:14:31.440 --> 0:14:34.440
<v Speaker 3>sort of insert an avatar of himself or some kind

0:14:34.480 --> 0:14:38.880
<v Speaker 3>of self parody into his films, And so there's question

0:14:39.120 --> 0:14:41.960
<v Speaker 3>over who he was really thinking of or who should

0:14:42.040 --> 0:14:45.680
<v Speaker 3>be thought of as the Miyazaki parallel within the Bathhouse

0:14:45.680 --> 0:14:48.720
<v Speaker 3>of the movie. Is he the witch Hubaba running everything

0:14:48.800 --> 0:14:50.720
<v Speaker 3>with you know, with the kind of iron fist and

0:14:51.040 --> 0:14:54.760
<v Speaker 3>with these these chaotic enchantments, or is he Kamaji the

0:14:54.800 --> 0:14:57.360
<v Speaker 3>boiler man? Or is he you know, is he the

0:14:57.360 --> 0:14:58.000
<v Speaker 3>stink spirit?

0:14:58.080 --> 0:14:58.240
<v Speaker 4>You know?

0:14:58.280 --> 0:15:01.120
<v Speaker 3>Who knows, but they're there. I don't know. I thought

0:15:01.160 --> 0:15:03.720
<v Speaker 3>this was funny, the question of like, who is Miyazaki

0:15:03.840 --> 0:15:04.600
<v Speaker 3>in this movie?

0:15:04.840 --> 0:15:08.880
<v Speaker 2>I feel like he's Kamaji. I've also seen I've seen

0:15:08.880 --> 0:15:11.520
<v Speaker 2>in reference to interviews where people have asked him, Hey,

0:15:11.560 --> 0:15:14.800
<v Speaker 2>are you no face in this? And I think when

0:15:14.800 --> 0:15:16.960
<v Speaker 2>he's been asked about like what no face is or

0:15:16.960 --> 0:15:19.120
<v Speaker 2>what no face represents, He's always like, no faces.

0:15:19.160 --> 0:15:19.560
<v Speaker 3>No face.

0:15:19.920 --> 0:15:22.320
<v Speaker 2>Yes, some people are like no face, but I wasn't

0:15:22.320 --> 0:15:26.720
<v Speaker 2>thinking of anyone in particular. You mentioned Condo, by the way,

0:15:27.040 --> 0:15:30.080
<v Speaker 2>he had directed the highly successful nineteen ninety five film

0:15:30.080 --> 0:15:32.920
<v Speaker 2>Whisper of the Heart that was his first and sadly

0:15:32.960 --> 0:15:36.120
<v Speaker 2>only feature film as a director. That one is also

0:15:36.240 --> 0:15:39.160
<v Speaker 2>readily available wherever you get your ghibli films. It's a

0:15:39.200 --> 0:15:43.200
<v Speaker 2>sweet film with some fantastic elements to it, but it

0:15:43.280 --> 0:15:46.200
<v Speaker 2>is not in its entirety like an escape into a

0:15:46.200 --> 0:15:50.000
<v Speaker 2>fantasy realm. It has a great sort of fantasy sequence

0:15:50.000 --> 0:15:53.480
<v Speaker 2>in it, but it's a sweet film. I recommend it now.

0:15:53.600 --> 0:15:57.880
<v Speaker 2>When we talked about Nausica previously, that was the case

0:15:57.880 --> 0:16:00.720
<v Speaker 2>where we had the Japanese vocal talent and then two

0:16:00.720 --> 0:16:04.760
<v Speaker 2>different waves of English language vocal talent coming along and

0:16:04.800 --> 0:16:08.640
<v Speaker 2>doing the dub. In this case, we really only have,

0:16:09.160 --> 0:16:12.720
<v Speaker 2>for you know, the consideration of of English speaking audiences,

0:16:12.720 --> 0:16:14.640
<v Speaker 2>we really only have the two. We have the original

0:16:14.720 --> 0:16:18.520
<v Speaker 2>Japanese cast and then we have the Disney produced English

0:16:18.600 --> 0:16:21.000
<v Speaker 2>language cast. And not going to go through all of

0:16:21.000 --> 0:16:24.120
<v Speaker 2>these here, but I wanted to touch on some of them.

0:16:24.720 --> 0:16:29.080
<v Speaker 2>I have never watched a Miyazaki film with its original

0:16:29.200 --> 0:16:31.560
<v Speaker 2>Japanese language track. I was tempted to do it on

0:16:31.600 --> 0:16:33.480
<v Speaker 2>this one, and I might have done it if the

0:16:33.880 --> 0:16:36.800
<v Speaker 2>whole family wasn't coming on the journey with me. And

0:16:36.800 --> 0:16:38.680
<v Speaker 2>then I was like, well, like, we should just do

0:16:38.720 --> 0:16:40.440
<v Speaker 2>the dub. We all love the dub, and it's it's

0:16:40.520 --> 0:16:43.040
<v Speaker 2>it's a really well done English I can't speak to

0:16:43.080 --> 0:16:46.880
<v Speaker 2>the translation specifically, but it's a really there's some really

0:16:46.920 --> 0:16:50.320
<v Speaker 2>great vocal performances in it. And for my taste, if

0:16:50.360 --> 0:16:52.360
<v Speaker 2>I'm watching a Miyazaki film, I want to be able

0:16:52.400 --> 0:16:55.640
<v Speaker 2>to take in all of the sites and and that

0:16:55.720 --> 0:16:58.080
<v Speaker 2>works a little better for me. If I'm not reading, you.

0:16:58.040 --> 0:17:00.520
<v Speaker 3>Don't want your visual attention to vice I did reading

0:17:00.600 --> 0:17:01.320
<v Speaker 3>the subtitles.

0:17:01.400 --> 0:17:03.760
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah, But I do want to acknowledge that this

0:17:03.840 --> 0:17:07.080
<v Speaker 2>is an area where Miyazaki fans definitely all have their

0:17:07.080 --> 0:17:10.320
<v Speaker 2>own preferences, just talking about like English only fans here.

0:17:10.359 --> 0:17:14.399
<v Speaker 2>I know some prefer the subtitles, some prefer a dub.

0:17:15.359 --> 0:17:17.520
<v Speaker 2>It's just going to vary depending on what your tastes are.

0:17:17.600 --> 0:17:19.760
<v Speaker 2>So at some point I really need to dig in,

0:17:20.080 --> 0:17:23.919
<v Speaker 2>probably with something like Naska and do subtitles, so I

0:17:23.960 --> 0:17:24.840
<v Speaker 2>can absorb.

0:17:24.520 --> 0:17:27.320
<v Speaker 3>It that way as well. I also watched this movie

0:17:27.359 --> 0:17:30.240
<v Speaker 3>with the dub, and I don't know. I see the

0:17:30.600 --> 0:17:33.760
<v Speaker 3>appeal in general. I see the appeal of both approaches,

0:17:33.840 --> 0:17:36.439
<v Speaker 3>but in this case, like the experience of watching it

0:17:36.440 --> 0:17:38.800
<v Speaker 3>with the dub is so nice, I can't really imagine

0:17:38.800 --> 0:17:41.080
<v Speaker 3>it being improved. But who knows.

0:17:41.640 --> 0:17:43.280
<v Speaker 2>All right, so we're just going to take it through

0:17:43.560 --> 0:17:45.840
<v Speaker 2>a few of the main characters here to discuss the

0:17:45.920 --> 0:17:48.239
<v Speaker 2>vocal talent. First of all, we have our ten year

0:17:48.280 --> 0:17:53.120
<v Speaker 2>old protagonist. This is Shahiro, who also ends up going

0:17:53.119 --> 0:17:55.119
<v Speaker 2>by the name of Sin later on in the picture.

0:17:55.640 --> 0:18:00.520
<v Speaker 2>Voiced in the original Japanese version by Rumihiaji borneteen twenty seven,

0:18:00.720 --> 0:18:03.399
<v Speaker 2>who also voiced the mom in two thousand and Eight'sponio.

0:18:03.560 --> 0:18:06.600
<v Speaker 2>In the original Japanese language version. Now in the English

0:18:06.720 --> 0:18:10.760
<v Speaker 2>dub of Spirited Away, Chihiro is voiced by Devey Chase

0:18:10.960 --> 0:18:14.679
<v Speaker 2>born nineteen ninety. I don't believe Chase is currently active

0:18:14.680 --> 0:18:17.560
<v Speaker 2>in show business, but she has some pretty cool credits,

0:18:17.600 --> 0:18:21.679
<v Speaker 2>both in animation and live action. In addition to voicing Chehiro,

0:18:21.920 --> 0:18:24.400
<v Speaker 2>she also voiced Lelo in the two thousand and two

0:18:24.400 --> 0:18:27.960
<v Speaker 2>Disney film Lelo and Stitch. In live action, she played

0:18:27.960 --> 0:18:31.480
<v Speaker 2>Samantha Darko in both of the Donnie Darko films that's

0:18:31.480 --> 0:18:34.360
<v Speaker 2>two thousand and one and two thousand and nine, and

0:18:34.400 --> 0:18:37.720
<v Speaker 2>she played Samara in two thousand and two's The Ring,

0:18:38.119 --> 0:18:40.800
<v Speaker 2>in addition to being a cast member on HBO's Big Love.

0:18:41.240 --> 0:18:43.680
<v Speaker 3>That's the American remake of The Ring where.

0:18:43.600 --> 0:18:49.320
<v Speaker 2>Yes, yes, wow, she's definitely creepy in that quite yes,

0:18:49.920 --> 0:18:52.000
<v Speaker 2>she actually she does have some lines and they're like

0:18:52.040 --> 0:18:52.720
<v Speaker 2>watching these.

0:18:52.600 --> 0:18:56.080
<v Speaker 3>Old videotapes of her where she's like she's like, I

0:18:56.119 --> 0:18:58.159
<v Speaker 3>won't stop hurting people or something.

0:18:58.960 --> 0:19:02.720
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah, kind of in some ways. Yeah, a very

0:19:02.840 --> 0:19:06.320
<v Speaker 2>dark reflection of the character we have here, all right.

0:19:06.320 --> 0:19:09.840
<v Speaker 2>We also have the character Haku. Haku was voiced by me,

0:19:10.040 --> 0:19:14.800
<v Speaker 2>you know, in the original This actor was born nineteen

0:19:14.840 --> 0:19:20.120
<v Speaker 2>eighty eight, voiced here by Jason Marsden born nineteen seventy five,

0:19:20.600 --> 0:19:22.280
<v Speaker 2>who has done a fair amount of live action in

0:19:22.359 --> 0:19:25.359
<v Speaker 2>vocal performing over the years and produced and directed as well.

0:19:25.720 --> 0:19:28.440
<v Speaker 2>His TV credits include the likes of Boy Meets World,

0:19:28.560 --> 0:19:30.840
<v Speaker 2>Tales from the Crypt, and Star Trek The Next Generation.

0:19:31.400 --> 0:19:33.560
<v Speaker 2>But I also have to mention that he played Tommy

0:19:34.000 --> 0:19:37.479
<v Speaker 2>in nineteen eighty nine's Robot Jocks hold the first feature

0:19:37.520 --> 0:19:43.760
<v Speaker 2>film role. Wow, do you remember Tommy? I did not

0:19:43.920 --> 0:19:48.240
<v Speaker 2>remember Tommy. No idea, no idea who Tommy was. Was

0:19:48.280 --> 0:19:50.320
<v Speaker 2>there a child in Robot Jocks at all? I guess

0:19:50.359 --> 0:19:52.920
<v Speaker 2>there apparently was. Apparently was that there was a twelve

0:19:53.000 --> 0:19:55.720
<v Speaker 2>year old boy in it, and that's Tommy played by

0:19:56.080 --> 0:19:58.680
<v Speaker 2>Jason Marsden. Here, I'd have to go back and watch

0:19:58.720 --> 0:20:01.760
<v Speaker 2>it too. No exactly which role this was or Hallie

0:20:01.840 --> 0:20:02.959
<v Speaker 2>factored into the plot.

0:20:03.440 --> 0:20:06.560
<v Speaker 3>That is a heck of a one degree connection spirited

0:20:06.600 --> 0:20:08.040
<v Speaker 3>away to robot Jocks.

0:20:08.520 --> 0:20:10.480
<v Speaker 2>By the way, speaking of Robot Jocks, I want to

0:20:10.480 --> 0:20:12.720
<v Speaker 2>take you just a second to include a call out

0:20:12.720 --> 0:20:17.240
<v Speaker 2>to longtime listener Matt, who designed a mech based combat

0:20:17.320 --> 0:20:20.800
<v Speaker 2>card game called Iron Future. He sent me a copy

0:20:20.840 --> 0:20:22.760
<v Speaker 2>to try out with my son a couple of months back,

0:20:22.800 --> 0:20:24.720
<v Speaker 2>and to be clear, did not ask me to mention

0:20:24.800 --> 0:20:27.440
<v Speaker 2>it on the podcast or anything. But it is a

0:20:27.480 --> 0:20:32.560
<v Speaker 2>really fun casual combat card game for two players, and

0:20:32.720 --> 0:20:35.000
<v Speaker 2>I'm happy to mention it here. So if that sounds

0:20:35.080 --> 0:20:36.679
<v Speaker 2>like fun to you as well, go check it out

0:20:36.680 --> 0:20:40.280
<v Speaker 2>at ironfuturegame dot com. All right, up next, we have

0:20:40.359 --> 0:20:45.119
<v Speaker 2>the character Ubaba, voiced in the original by Mari Natsuki

0:20:45.200 --> 0:20:48.240
<v Speaker 2>born nineteen fifty two, a singer, dancer, and actress. In

0:20:48.280 --> 0:20:51.560
<v Speaker 2>the English dub, she is voiced by Susan Plachett, who

0:20:51.640 --> 0:20:53.760
<v Speaker 2>lived nineteen thirty seven through two thousand and eight, best

0:20:53.760 --> 0:20:56.560
<v Speaker 2>known for her role as Emily Hartley on the original

0:20:56.720 --> 0:21:00.000
<v Speaker 2>The Bob Newhart Show. Her other credits include nineteen sixty three,

0:21:00.080 --> 0:21:02.679
<v Speaker 2>He's the Birds in nineteen sixty eight's The Power.

0:21:03.359 --> 0:21:05.879
<v Speaker 3>Plachette is very good. In the English dub.

0:21:07.400 --> 0:21:10.719
<v Speaker 2>Now we mentioned Kamaji earlier, we'll get into him. He's

0:21:10.760 --> 0:21:13.879
<v Speaker 2>the boiler Master. That's kind of this. Oh, He's a

0:21:13.880 --> 0:21:18.560
<v Speaker 2>wonderfully strange being in his own right, voiced in the

0:21:18.600 --> 0:21:22.880
<v Speaker 2>original by Bunta Sugawara, who lived nineteen thirty three through

0:21:22.880 --> 0:21:27.439
<v Speaker 2>twenty fourteen. This actor also appeared in the Battles Without

0:21:27.440 --> 0:21:30.960
<v Speaker 2>Honor and Humanity film series and two thousand and five

0:21:31.040 --> 0:21:33.800
<v Speaker 2>is the Great Yukai War. I've seen that one, and

0:21:33.840 --> 0:21:38.200
<v Speaker 2>in the English dub, David Ogden Stiers does the voice.

0:21:38.320 --> 0:21:42.320
<v Speaker 2>He lived nineteen forty two through twenty eighteen, an actor

0:21:42.440 --> 0:21:45.640
<v Speaker 2>best known for his role as Charles Winchester. I think

0:21:45.640 --> 0:21:48.760
<v Speaker 2>it's major Charles Winchester on TV's Mash, and he also

0:21:48.960 --> 0:21:52.400
<v Speaker 2>did some vocal work on Lelo and Stitch. We also

0:21:52.480 --> 0:21:55.240
<v Speaker 2>have the character Lynn that is pivotal to the plot,

0:21:55.320 --> 0:21:59.200
<v Speaker 2>voiced by Yum Tamai in the original. She was born

0:21:59.240 --> 0:22:04.240
<v Speaker 2>nineteen seventy and then in the English dub, voice by

0:22:04.280 --> 0:22:08.439
<v Speaker 2>Broadway TV and film actress Susan Egan. Her credits include

0:22:08.520 --> 0:22:10.760
<v Speaker 2>Disney's Hercules. I believe she sings one of the key

0:22:10.800 --> 0:22:14.440
<v Speaker 2>songs in that one. She was on Steven Universe. Oh,

0:22:14.440 --> 0:22:17.200
<v Speaker 2>and she also provided some vocal talents for the English

0:22:17.240 --> 0:22:18.560
<v Speaker 2>dub of Porco Roso.

0:22:18.960 --> 0:22:22.399
<v Speaker 3>Oh nice, that's the one with the pig fighter pilot. Yeah.

0:22:22.520 --> 0:22:25.600
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, lots of flying action in that one. So that's

0:22:25.680 --> 0:22:27.639
<v Speaker 2>essentially it for the actors. But I will note that

0:22:27.680 --> 0:22:30.880
<v Speaker 2>the English dub also features the voices of Paul Iding.

0:22:31.720 --> 0:22:34.240
<v Speaker 2>This is a guy who you may not recognize the name,

0:22:34.240 --> 0:22:35.920
<v Speaker 2>but if you ever played any of those Metal Gear

0:22:35.960 --> 0:22:39.400
<v Speaker 2>Solid games like I did, he was the colonel that

0:22:39.600 --> 0:22:42.520
<v Speaker 2>was talking in your headphone the whole time and sometimes

0:22:42.520 --> 0:22:44.840
<v Speaker 2>saying I don't know, Snake, I think you've been playing

0:22:44.880 --> 0:22:46.960
<v Speaker 2>video games a little too long and you should maybe

0:22:46.960 --> 0:22:49.520
<v Speaker 2>go outside. And run around a bit. I forget which

0:22:49.560 --> 0:22:52.520
<v Speaker 2>one that was. If you played long enough, he would

0:22:52.520 --> 0:22:54.200
<v Speaker 2>give you that life advice, so.

0:22:54.200 --> 0:22:56.320
<v Speaker 3>You'd be like crawling around at the feet of an

0:22:56.440 --> 0:23:02.679
<v Speaker 3>enemy soldier and he'd suddenly like snake, watch out for yeah.

0:23:01.760 --> 0:23:04.520
<v Speaker 2>Or indeed he would be like snake, go touch some grass,

0:23:05.359 --> 0:23:06.960
<v Speaker 2>which was probably some good advice.

0:23:07.480 --> 0:23:10.440
<v Speaker 3>I've never finished a Metal Gear Solid game, but I

0:23:10.480 --> 0:23:14.680
<v Speaker 3>started playing Metal Gear Solid two years ago, and I

0:23:14.720 --> 0:23:18.399
<v Speaker 3>remember thinking, like, I am getting so many calls on

0:23:18.440 --> 0:23:21.959
<v Speaker 3>this radio. I cannot believe the volume of calls. It

0:23:22.000 --> 0:23:24.119
<v Speaker 3>was almost like spam at this point.

0:23:24.160 --> 0:23:26.800
<v Speaker 2>It really was. I also don't think I ever finished

0:23:26.800 --> 0:23:29.840
<v Speaker 2>one of them, but I always really enjoyed them before

0:23:29.920 --> 0:23:34.080
<v Speaker 2>it got too hard. Let's see, Oh yeah, Roger Bumpus

0:23:35.119 --> 0:23:37.520
<v Speaker 2>is in this. If you don't recognize his name, he's

0:23:37.520 --> 0:23:43.360
<v Speaker 2>the voice of Squidward SpongeBob SquarePants. Lauren Hawley does one

0:23:43.359 --> 0:23:46.760
<v Speaker 2>of the voices, and Michael Chicklis provides the voice of

0:23:46.840 --> 0:23:52.320
<v Speaker 2>Tahiro's father. So really, performance wise, a great overall English

0:23:52.400 --> 0:23:54.879
<v Speaker 2>language cast here. And of course, once more, we have

0:23:54.960 --> 0:24:00.000
<v Speaker 2>Joe Hasashi providing the music. Born nineteen fifty Japanese composer, musician,

0:24:00.480 --> 0:24:03.800
<v Speaker 2>noted for his work with Studio Ghibli and Miyazaki in particular.

0:24:04.240 --> 0:24:06.959
<v Speaker 2>He has scored I believe, all but one of Miyazaki's films,

0:24:08.200 --> 0:24:10.800
<v Speaker 2>and that one was nineteen seventy nine's Loop in the Third.

0:24:11.119 --> 0:24:15.240
<v Speaker 2>So to just go, he just goes with Miyazaki pictures.

0:24:15.280 --> 0:24:17.040
<v Speaker 2>I mean, it can find no fault there.

0:24:17.800 --> 0:24:22.879
<v Speaker 3>Miyazaki loves themes of wind, not just flying, but of

0:24:22.920 --> 0:24:27.800
<v Speaker 3>like breezes, blowing and wind lifting and moving objects. And

0:24:28.080 --> 0:24:32.320
<v Speaker 3>this score sounds like a wind. It's like the exciting parts,

0:24:32.320 --> 0:24:35.639
<v Speaker 3>it sounds like a rushing wind. In the contemplative parts,

0:24:35.640 --> 0:24:37.600
<v Speaker 3>it sounds like a gentle breeze. I don't know how

0:24:37.680 --> 0:24:40.080
<v Speaker 3>to explain that in sonic terms, but that is what

0:24:40.119 --> 0:24:40.960
<v Speaker 3>it makes me feel.

0:24:41.240 --> 0:24:43.520
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, and this is a film where we definitely have

0:24:43.600 --> 0:24:46.000
<v Speaker 2>some flying sequences, but we also have some scenes that

0:24:46.040 --> 0:24:49.159
<v Speaker 2>are not quite flying sequences that have the feel of flight,

0:24:49.720 --> 0:24:53.600
<v Speaker 2>the feel of surging through the air or being pulled

0:24:53.680 --> 0:24:57.920
<v Speaker 2>towards the object of your trajectory.

0:24:58.359 --> 0:25:00.600
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, there's some high speed, lowel to flight.

0:25:00.800 --> 0:25:08.600
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I'm off and inside.

0:25:12.720 --> 0:25:14.679
<v Speaker 3>All right, are we ready to talk about the plot.

0:25:15.080 --> 0:25:18.960
<v Speaker 3>Let's do it. Okay, last warning, once again, this is

0:25:19.000 --> 0:25:21.520
<v Speaker 3>one where I really really strongly recommend if you've never

0:25:21.520 --> 0:25:24.159
<v Speaker 3>seen it before, and you do plan on seeing it

0:25:24.160 --> 0:25:25.840
<v Speaker 3>at some point in your life, go ahead and watch

0:25:25.840 --> 0:25:28.439
<v Speaker 3>it before we talk about it. Please. So the story

0:25:28.440 --> 0:25:33.120
<v Speaker 3>begins with a road trip. Our protagonist is the ten

0:25:33.200 --> 0:25:36.280
<v Speaker 3>year old chi Hero, and she and her parents are

0:25:36.400 --> 0:25:39.000
<v Speaker 3>moving to a new house in a town out in

0:25:39.000 --> 0:25:43.040
<v Speaker 3>the country, far away from their old life. And chi

0:25:43.119 --> 0:25:46.919
<v Speaker 3>Hero is sulking because she has had to leave behind

0:25:46.960 --> 0:25:49.920
<v Speaker 3>her school and her friends, but her parents are trying

0:25:49.960 --> 0:25:52.280
<v Speaker 3>to They're trying to put on a happy face about it.

0:25:52.480 --> 0:25:54.840
<v Speaker 3>You get the sense that maybe her mother is not

0:25:55.400 --> 0:25:58.280
<v Speaker 3>one hundred percent thrilled about the move, but she's telling her,

0:25:58.320 --> 0:26:00.199
<v Speaker 3>you know, moving somewhere new can be fun and it's

0:26:00.240 --> 0:26:03.240
<v Speaker 3>an adventure. So they're trying to help her along with

0:26:03.640 --> 0:26:07.240
<v Speaker 3>her attitude. But che Hero does not believe this. She

0:26:07.320 --> 0:26:10.280
<v Speaker 3>spends her time in the car focused largely on a

0:26:10.280 --> 0:26:13.520
<v Speaker 3>goodbye letter from her best friend at school. So they're

0:26:13.600 --> 0:26:16.480
<v Speaker 3>driving through the country, they're passing by things. That they

0:26:16.480 --> 0:26:18.480
<v Speaker 3>pass by a building, they're like, oh, look, that's your

0:26:18.480 --> 0:26:23.000
<v Speaker 3>new school, and she's just like, yak, don't. And so

0:26:23.040 --> 0:26:25.440
<v Speaker 3>they're on their way to the new house to meet

0:26:25.480 --> 0:26:27.880
<v Speaker 3>the movers and get settled in. But on the way,

0:26:28.520 --> 0:26:31.160
<v Speaker 3>che Hero's father takes a wrong turn somewhere and they're

0:26:31.200 --> 0:26:35.160
<v Speaker 3>going up these winding mountain roads, and at some point

0:26:35.200 --> 0:26:39.200
<v Speaker 3>they find themselves driving down an unpaved road through a deep,

0:26:39.480 --> 0:26:43.680
<v Speaker 3>dark forest, and along the way they see shrines, these

0:26:43.760 --> 0:26:47.480
<v Speaker 3>little tiny box like houses in a sort of piled

0:26:47.480 --> 0:26:50.359
<v Speaker 3>in a jumble, and she heroes like, what are those?

0:26:50.480 --> 0:26:53.280
<v Speaker 3>And her mother tells her some people believe that spirits

0:26:53.359 --> 0:26:57.399
<v Speaker 3>live there, and they also while they're driving through the forest,

0:26:57.640 --> 0:27:01.280
<v Speaker 3>they see these round stone statues of these spirit beings

0:27:01.359 --> 0:27:03.480
<v Speaker 3>or comi that seem to be living in the forest.

0:27:04.000 --> 0:27:06.400
<v Speaker 3>She looks out and to be clear, they're not animated

0:27:06.480 --> 0:27:08.960
<v Speaker 3>or anything, or they're not alive or anything. At this point,

0:27:09.240 --> 0:27:13.520
<v Speaker 3>it's a totally mundane atmosphere. But as they drive through

0:27:13.520 --> 0:27:16.959
<v Speaker 3>the forest, the feeling of something kind of mysterious starts

0:27:17.000 --> 0:27:21.520
<v Speaker 3>to mount and the road ends at a tunnel, just

0:27:21.560 --> 0:27:25.359
<v Speaker 3>a wall and a tunnel, and she Hero's father parks

0:27:25.440 --> 0:27:28.000
<v Speaker 3>the car, gets out and wants to explore to see

0:27:28.000 --> 0:27:30.840
<v Speaker 3>where the tunnel leads. So I would say Chihiro at

0:27:30.840 --> 0:27:33.280
<v Speaker 3>this point is both annoyed and afraid. She doesn't want

0:27:33.320 --> 0:27:35.560
<v Speaker 3>to be here, She doesn't want to be moving. She

0:27:35.960 --> 0:27:38.760
<v Speaker 3>is frightened by the idea of going into this tunnel,

0:27:38.840 --> 0:27:42.240
<v Speaker 3>like just not interested at any level. But her parents

0:27:42.280 --> 0:27:44.439
<v Speaker 3>walk into the tunnel, and she's also afraid to be

0:27:44.520 --> 0:27:47.080
<v Speaker 3>left behind at the car, so she runs after them.

0:27:47.359 --> 0:27:51.360
<v Speaker 2>This is kind of an interesting turnaround if you compare

0:27:51.359 --> 0:27:56.000
<v Speaker 2>it to My neighbor Totoro, in which May and SASKI

0:27:57.040 --> 0:28:00.119
<v Speaker 2>are very adventurous and really want to get in there

0:28:00.240 --> 0:28:04.600
<v Speaker 2>and explore the mysteries. You know, to hero is a

0:28:04.600 --> 0:28:05.520
<v Speaker 2>lot more reserved.

0:28:06.040 --> 0:28:09.159
<v Speaker 3>Yes, yes, and you know that actually brought up a

0:28:09.200 --> 0:28:11.879
<v Speaker 3>point that I wanted to talk about. In a lot

0:28:11.920 --> 0:28:16.959
<v Speaker 3>of stories, like fantasy stories with child protagonists about children

0:28:17.119 --> 0:28:20.680
<v Speaker 3>escaping to or encountering a world of spirits and the imagination,

0:28:21.480 --> 0:28:25.000
<v Speaker 3>the young protagonist is presented either as somebody with an

0:28:25.040 --> 0:28:29.360
<v Speaker 3>adventurous spirit or like a day dreamer, a creative personality

0:28:29.640 --> 0:28:32.399
<v Speaker 3>who does not fit in with their peers and wants

0:28:32.600 --> 0:28:35.119
<v Speaker 3>to wants to seek refuge in a different world of

0:28:35.119 --> 0:28:39.000
<v Speaker 3>the imagination. Think of time bandits or the never Ending Story,

0:28:39.080 --> 0:28:42.920
<v Speaker 3>et cetera, et cetera very common dynamic. I think this

0:28:43.000 --> 0:28:45.640
<v Speaker 3>seems to me to not be the case at all

0:28:45.720 --> 0:28:48.479
<v Speaker 3>with chi Hero, and I still think she's a wonderful character,

0:28:48.520 --> 0:28:51.800
<v Speaker 3>but a different kind than this other familiar type of

0:28:52.360 --> 0:28:56.480
<v Speaker 3>childhood fantasy protagonist. She is initially not presented as a

0:28:56.560 --> 0:28:59.520
<v Speaker 3>dreamer who wishes to escape from the humdrum life of

0:28:59.720 --> 0:29:03.760
<v Speaker 3>her social environment. She's shown feeling frustration with her parents,

0:29:03.840 --> 0:29:07.440
<v Speaker 3>but she explicitly misses her school and her friends, and

0:29:07.480 --> 0:29:10.480
<v Speaker 3>there's no indication that she's dissatisfied with living in the

0:29:10.560 --> 0:29:13.600
<v Speaker 3>mundane world. So it's a different kind of character and

0:29:13.680 --> 0:29:17.360
<v Speaker 3>a different kind of relationship between that character and the

0:29:17.440 --> 0:29:20.840
<v Speaker 3>fantasy that's about to unfold. Shihiro is not looking for

0:29:20.920 --> 0:29:25.080
<v Speaker 3>a magical adventure. Instead, she is forced to adapt when

0:29:25.120 --> 0:29:27.640
<v Speaker 3>the adventure is unavoidable. Yeah.

0:29:27.680 --> 0:29:31.360
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, she's dealing with more than enough already. She doesn't

0:29:31.400 --> 0:29:36.280
<v Speaker 2>really want to take a potentially scary side trip into

0:29:36.280 --> 0:29:36.800
<v Speaker 2>the other.

0:29:36.680 --> 0:29:41.200
<v Speaker 3>World anyway, So she follows her parents into the tunnel,

0:29:41.760 --> 0:29:44.280
<v Speaker 3>and they emerge in what seems like at first the

0:29:44.600 --> 0:29:47.560
<v Speaker 3>waiting area of a long abandoned train station. There are

0:29:47.600 --> 0:29:51.160
<v Speaker 3>these benches and it just seems like disused and nobody's

0:29:51.200 --> 0:29:53.640
<v Speaker 3>around and that's kind of odd, And then they come

0:29:53.680 --> 0:29:57.680
<v Speaker 3>out the other side into the open again and find

0:29:58.000 --> 0:30:02.360
<v Speaker 3>weird empty buildings in vendor stalls, a courtyard with a

0:30:02.360 --> 0:30:06.400
<v Speaker 3>clock tower, all nestled in a landscape of these gorgeous

0:30:06.520 --> 0:30:10.400
<v Speaker 3>green rolling hills, and the father concludes, I know what

0:30:10.440 --> 0:30:13.880
<v Speaker 3>this is. This is an abandoned amusement park. He says.

0:30:13.880 --> 0:30:16.080
<v Speaker 3>They built places like this. I think, he says, in

0:30:16.120 --> 0:30:19.120
<v Speaker 3>the early nineties, but then there was an economic recession

0:30:19.280 --> 0:30:21.720
<v Speaker 3>and they all went out of business, and they've found

0:30:21.800 --> 0:30:24.080
<v Speaker 3>one that nobody goes to anymore. It's just empty.

0:30:24.480 --> 0:30:27.840
<v Speaker 2>You know, I mentioned cross generational conflict. I think tension

0:30:27.880 --> 0:30:30.000
<v Speaker 2>would have been a better word choice for me, and

0:30:30.040 --> 0:30:31.760
<v Speaker 2>I feel like we get a reference to that here

0:30:31.800 --> 0:30:36.880
<v Speaker 2>a bit. You know, we're mentioning this big economic shift,

0:30:37.280 --> 0:30:40.960
<v Speaker 2>real life economic shift in Japan, and here we do

0:30:41.040 --> 0:30:44.760
<v Speaker 2>see very different attitudes between the parents and the child,

0:30:44.880 --> 0:30:47.000
<v Speaker 2>you know, and we'll see some more of this here

0:30:47.040 --> 0:30:51.200
<v Speaker 2>as well, where her dad especially is like, hey, let's

0:30:51.200 --> 0:30:54.120
<v Speaker 2>just check it in. There's no reason not to go

0:30:54.160 --> 0:30:55.960
<v Speaker 2>in and try this out. Let's do it. And she's

0:30:56.000 --> 0:30:58.440
<v Speaker 2>a lot more reserved. She's a good kid, she's a

0:30:58.520 --> 0:31:01.440
<v Speaker 2>rule follower. She has different and expectations about how things

0:31:01.520 --> 0:31:02.160
<v Speaker 2>might turn out.

0:31:02.440 --> 0:31:05.960
<v Speaker 3>That's right. So Chihiro's parents start exploring this other world

0:31:06.040 --> 0:31:08.280
<v Speaker 3>at the opposite end of the tunnel, and che Hero

0:31:08.440 --> 0:31:10.920
<v Speaker 3>has to follow them. And I want to say that

0:31:11.560 --> 0:31:17.080
<v Speaker 3>I think there is an absolutely enchanting feeling of gradually

0:31:17.240 --> 0:31:20.320
<v Speaker 3>moving from the mundane to the strange in the first

0:31:20.360 --> 0:31:24.040
<v Speaker 3>few minutes of the film, passing through a literal tunnel,

0:31:24.280 --> 0:31:28.400
<v Speaker 3>and yet the transition is subtle. There's nothing explicitly magical.

0:31:28.520 --> 0:31:32.240
<v Speaker 3>Yet it's just a strange environment that you wouldn't expect

0:31:32.280 --> 0:31:37.120
<v Speaker 3>to find here. What's going on and the kind of

0:31:37.240 --> 0:31:41.520
<v Speaker 3>tension that it creates is so pleasing. I don't know

0:31:41.560 --> 0:31:43.760
<v Speaker 3>if I even have the vocabulary for this, but you know,

0:31:43.920 --> 0:31:47.520
<v Speaker 3>they're just there are different ways that a situation in

0:31:47.560 --> 0:31:51.560
<v Speaker 3>a movie or in a story generally can be unexplained

0:31:51.640 --> 0:31:55.320
<v Speaker 3>or mysterious, and for some reason, some of those mysteries

0:31:55.400 --> 0:31:58.320
<v Speaker 3>or unexplained situations are more pleasing than others. And this

0:31:58.400 --> 0:32:00.920
<v Speaker 3>is like a ten out of ten. It's just something

0:32:01.000 --> 0:32:02.920
<v Speaker 3>is unusual, I don't know what's going on, and it

0:32:02.960 --> 0:32:04.320
<v Speaker 3>feels the best it can.

0:32:04.760 --> 0:32:08.720
<v Speaker 2>The pacing is also just so terrific. Here. I've seen

0:32:08.760 --> 0:32:11.440
<v Speaker 2>and I imagine we've watched for weird how cinema films

0:32:11.480 --> 0:32:16.480
<v Speaker 2>where the initial real world portion of the film before

0:32:16.480 --> 0:32:20.440
<v Speaker 2>we descend into the other world is either too fast

0:32:20.840 --> 0:32:23.880
<v Speaker 2>or it's too slow. Either the movie just really wants

0:32:23.880 --> 0:32:26.520
<v Speaker 2>to ram you in there, or we're just waiting, We're

0:32:26.560 --> 0:32:28.560
<v Speaker 2>just begging for the movie to get to the fantasy.

0:32:28.840 --> 0:32:32.000
<v Speaker 2>And here I feel like Minazaki manages just the right

0:32:32.080 --> 0:32:34.720
<v Speaker 2>pace where we learn everything we need to know about

0:32:34.760 --> 0:32:39.800
<v Speaker 2>the real world circumstances and where the characters fit in there,

0:32:40.320 --> 0:32:45.200
<v Speaker 2>but really waste no time at all transitioning us into

0:32:45.240 --> 0:32:47.440
<v Speaker 2>that other world at just the right pace.

0:32:47.920 --> 0:32:51.320
<v Speaker 3>Yeah. So the characters are wandering around the streets of

0:32:51.360 --> 0:32:55.600
<v Speaker 3>this seemingly empty village. They're going through these vendor stalls again,

0:32:55.640 --> 0:32:59.880
<v Speaker 3>they're all empty, but Shahiro's father smells something. He smells food,

0:33:00.360 --> 0:33:03.680
<v Speaker 3>and everybody's hungry, so they follow the smell and they

0:33:03.680 --> 0:33:07.160
<v Speaker 3>come across a tent full of delicious looking foods in

0:33:07.280 --> 0:33:11.040
<v Speaker 3>hot steamer baskets and serving platters lined up for the taking.

0:33:11.240 --> 0:33:14.120
<v Speaker 3>Once again, they do a great job here of making

0:33:14.200 --> 0:33:17.720
<v Speaker 3>animated food really look delicious. I was watching this and

0:33:17.760 --> 0:33:19.240
<v Speaker 3>I was like, y, give me some of that.

0:33:19.880 --> 0:33:23.600
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. When we went to Ghibli Park, they had a

0:33:23.680 --> 0:33:27.960
<v Speaker 2>whole section built out. It was just devoted to the

0:33:28.000 --> 0:33:33.280
<v Speaker 2>presentation of food in Miyazaki films, with examples of just

0:33:33.320 --> 0:33:36.040
<v Speaker 2>how much attention goes into the presentation of the food,

0:33:36.680 --> 0:33:38.640
<v Speaker 2>and also some like I think they had some models

0:33:38.640 --> 0:33:41.000
<v Speaker 2>and some you know, physical representations of what the food

0:33:41.000 --> 0:33:44.120
<v Speaker 2>would look like in real life. And I was talking

0:33:44.120 --> 0:33:45.680
<v Speaker 2>about this with my wife and she said, oh, yeah,

0:33:45.680 --> 0:33:48.200
<v Speaker 2>there are people on Instagram whose whole thing is just

0:33:49.160 --> 0:33:53.120
<v Speaker 2>cooking up little recipes that look like food from a

0:33:53.160 --> 0:33:54.120
<v Speaker 2>Miyazaki film.

0:33:54.440 --> 0:33:58.200
<v Speaker 3>That's funny, and it's especially funny given what actually happens

0:33:58.240 --> 0:34:01.960
<v Speaker 3>when you eat his food. So Chi hero's father calls

0:34:02.000 --> 0:34:05.720
<v Speaker 3>out to the vendor, but nobody answers the food sitting there.

0:34:05.720 --> 0:34:08.480
<v Speaker 3>It's steaming hot, it looks really good, but there's nobody here.

0:34:08.800 --> 0:34:13.000
<v Speaker 3>Kitchen looks empty. So father and mother are very hungry,

0:34:13.520 --> 0:34:15.360
<v Speaker 3>and they just say, you know what, we can just

0:34:15.400 --> 0:34:18.280
<v Speaker 3>dig in because we can pay the person who runs

0:34:18.280 --> 0:34:20.200
<v Speaker 3>the stall whenever they come back. Surely they'll be back

0:34:20.239 --> 0:34:20.800
<v Speaker 3>in a minute.

0:34:20.920 --> 0:34:22.960
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it's like, Daddy's got a credit card. Don't worry,

0:34:22.960 --> 0:34:24.600
<v Speaker 2>dig in, honey, grab some soup bunts.

0:34:24.920 --> 0:34:27.840
<v Speaker 3>Yes, And so they just start shoveling the food, but

0:34:28.040 --> 0:34:31.799
<v Speaker 3>Chihiro doesn't trust it. Mom and Dad are eating, but

0:34:31.920 --> 0:34:34.800
<v Speaker 3>she something feels wrong to her. She's kind of afraid

0:34:35.080 --> 0:34:37.839
<v Speaker 3>and she thinks we're not supposed to do this, so

0:34:38.040 --> 0:34:40.560
<v Speaker 3>she doesn't eat the food and wanders off on her own.

0:34:41.840 --> 0:34:44.400
<v Speaker 3>Now she sees a number of things. She goes up

0:34:44.400 --> 0:34:49.399
<v Speaker 3>this big stone staircase and sees sees some kind of landmarks,

0:34:49.400 --> 0:34:53.640
<v Speaker 3>interesting looking buildings, but eventually comes across the bathhouse, the

0:34:54.239 --> 0:34:58.200
<v Speaker 3>central location of the rest of the movie, which is

0:34:58.239 --> 0:35:02.360
<v Speaker 3>an enormous complex, almost like a castle, which will we

0:35:02.400 --> 0:35:06.160
<v Speaker 3>will later learn is a hospitality service that is a

0:35:06.239 --> 0:35:10.319
<v Speaker 3>Japanese style bathhouse, but instead of serving human clients, it

0:35:10.400 --> 0:35:12.719
<v Speaker 3>is for kami. It is for the spirits.

0:35:13.400 --> 0:35:15.440
<v Speaker 2>And this is where we really begin to ramp up

0:35:15.480 --> 0:35:20.239
<v Speaker 2>the tension, and the tension does not release for I mean,

0:35:20.280 --> 0:35:22.000
<v Speaker 2>it doesn't let up for a very long.

0:35:21.840 --> 0:35:24.200
<v Speaker 3>Time, that's right. So we don't know yet that it's

0:35:24.239 --> 0:35:27.120
<v Speaker 3>a bathhouse for spirits. It's just this giant building. It's

0:35:27.160 --> 0:35:29.680
<v Speaker 3>reached by crossing a bridge over a deep ravine with

0:35:29.719 --> 0:35:33.800
<v Speaker 3>a river below. I think Chihiro, I believe, just wanders

0:35:33.840 --> 0:35:37.240
<v Speaker 3>out onto the bridge, but then suddenly realizes there's somebody

0:35:37.280 --> 0:35:40.200
<v Speaker 3>standing there next to her, and she meets a boy

0:35:40.480 --> 0:35:46.280
<v Speaker 3>named Haku, who appears human, But Haku introduces sudden urgency.

0:35:46.760 --> 0:35:49.400
<v Speaker 3>He's like, che hero, you should not be here. You

0:35:49.480 --> 0:35:52.000
<v Speaker 3>need to leave immediately. The sun is about to set,

0:35:52.200 --> 0:35:54.040
<v Speaker 3>and you've got to get back where you came from

0:35:54.040 --> 0:35:58.520
<v Speaker 3>before dark. So Chihiro runs back to meet her parents

0:35:58.600 --> 0:36:02.520
<v Speaker 3>at the food vendors doll, but discovers in a horrifying

0:36:02.560 --> 0:36:05.960
<v Speaker 3>revelation that they are not her parents anymore. They have

0:36:06.040 --> 0:36:11.600
<v Speaker 3>been magically transformed into pigs, presumably by eating cursed food.

0:36:12.440 --> 0:36:15.200
<v Speaker 3>They no longer seem to recognize her or know who

0:36:15.280 --> 0:36:19.000
<v Speaker 3>they are. They're just hogs at the trough, now disgustingly

0:36:19.040 --> 0:36:22.320
<v Speaker 3>smashing through serving dishes and piles of food and rooting

0:36:22.360 --> 0:36:23.320
<v Speaker 3>around in the mess.

0:36:23.560 --> 0:36:25.799
<v Speaker 2>And then a frog starts slapping them around with a

0:36:25.840 --> 0:36:32.440
<v Speaker 2>fly swatter. Yes, it's legitimately terrifying, to the point that

0:36:33.120 --> 0:36:35.520
<v Speaker 2>we tried to show our son this movie when he

0:36:35.560 --> 0:36:39.000
<v Speaker 2>was a little too young for it. I guess we'd forgotten.

0:36:39.040 --> 0:36:40.759
<v Speaker 2>You know, we've watched it as adults, we had not

0:36:41.000 --> 0:36:44.960
<v Speaker 2>really watched it as children. You know, it's in mind.

0:36:45.120 --> 0:36:47.279
<v Speaker 2>So when we initially showed it to him. This was

0:36:47.320 --> 0:36:49.160
<v Speaker 2>the point where he just could not take it. He's like,

0:36:49.200 --> 0:36:52.080
<v Speaker 2>I can't watch this, you know, and got upset, and

0:36:52.080 --> 0:36:53.680
<v Speaker 2>we're like, okay, we'll have to come back to this

0:36:53.719 --> 0:36:57.280
<v Speaker 2>one later. So bear that in mind with this picture.

0:36:57.320 --> 0:37:01.240
<v Speaker 2>It's tremendous. It's definitely were kids of a certain age.

0:37:01.280 --> 0:37:03.759
<v Speaker 2>But if your if your kid's you know, super young,

0:37:04.000 --> 0:37:06.720
<v Speaker 2>then you know it's it's more time for my neighbor totoro,

0:37:07.000 --> 0:37:10.200
<v Speaker 2>which is terrific for all ages as well, but definitely

0:37:10.280 --> 0:37:11.720
<v Speaker 2>has a little kids in mind.

0:37:12.080 --> 0:37:15.600
<v Speaker 3>Yeah. So Chihiro runs away in terror and tries to

0:37:15.719 --> 0:37:18.319
<v Speaker 3>escape back in the direction she she came from, but

0:37:18.400 --> 0:37:22.200
<v Speaker 3>discovers now that her way home is blocked. A field

0:37:22.360 --> 0:37:24.720
<v Speaker 3>that they had crossed in order to reach the village

0:37:24.760 --> 0:37:28.200
<v Speaker 3>is now flooded with water. It's a river now, and

0:37:28.360 --> 0:37:32.080
<v Speaker 3>she watches as a ferry crosses the water, glowing with lamplight,

0:37:32.760 --> 0:37:36.080
<v Speaker 3>and as the ferry reaches her side of the new river,

0:37:36.560 --> 0:37:40.520
<v Speaker 3>sort of the landing, the disembarking ramp comes down, and

0:37:41.120 --> 0:37:45.680
<v Speaker 3>weird spirit beings begin to unload and file into the village,

0:37:45.760 --> 0:37:49.920
<v Speaker 3>all toward the bathhouse. So we don't see all of

0:37:49.960 --> 0:37:52.040
<v Speaker 3>their forms yet, I think, uh, I think a lot

0:37:52.080 --> 0:37:53.880
<v Speaker 3>of these spirits are at this point sort of covered

0:37:53.880 --> 0:37:57.160
<v Speaker 3>in masks and cloaks, so we don't we don't see

0:37:57.200 --> 0:38:01.960
<v Speaker 3>exactly what they are. But Chihiro is frightened and despairing,

0:38:02.160 --> 0:38:05.040
<v Speaker 3>especially when she discovers that she is beginning to turn

0:38:05.280 --> 0:38:08.880
<v Speaker 3>transparent her she can look through her own hands and arms.

0:38:09.560 --> 0:38:14.279
<v Speaker 3>But she does get some help. Haku reappears and tells her, hey,

0:38:14.440 --> 0:38:16.520
<v Speaker 3>you need to eat this small piece of food. He

0:38:16.600 --> 0:38:19.399
<v Speaker 3>promises it will not turn her into a pig, and

0:38:19.480 --> 0:38:22.080
<v Speaker 3>he explains that she's got to eat some food from

0:38:22.080 --> 0:38:25.600
<v Speaker 3>this world or she's going to vanish. So Haku is

0:38:25.640 --> 0:38:30.120
<v Speaker 3>not only helpful to Chehro, but he somehow seems to

0:38:30.320 --> 0:38:33.160
<v Speaker 3>know her. He knows her name without her telling him,

0:38:33.520 --> 0:38:36.680
<v Speaker 3>he knows about her parents, and he explains that he

0:38:36.760 --> 0:38:38.960
<v Speaker 3>has known her from a long time ago, but we

0:38:39.000 --> 0:38:42.319
<v Speaker 3>don't know how, and in fact, it seems maybe he

0:38:42.400 --> 0:38:45.440
<v Speaker 3>doesn't know how he knows her. But there is also

0:38:45.520 --> 0:38:48.279
<v Speaker 3>a form of danger established here, so time is of

0:38:48.320 --> 0:38:51.720
<v Speaker 3>the there's no time to really hash everything out. Haku

0:38:52.120 --> 0:38:56.640
<v Speaker 3>hides Chihiro from the gaze of a giant magical bird

0:38:56.760 --> 0:39:00.319
<v Speaker 3>with a human face, which is circling menacingly over the

0:39:00.360 --> 0:39:04.280
<v Speaker 3>head as if looking for her, and Haku tells Chehro

0:39:04.480 --> 0:39:07.200
<v Speaker 3>that she is in danger. If they find her, it's

0:39:07.239 --> 0:39:09.319
<v Speaker 3>not going to be good for her. So the only

0:39:09.360 --> 0:39:12.640
<v Speaker 3>way she can protect herself and save her parents potentially

0:39:13.160 --> 0:39:17.319
<v Speaker 3>is to get a job at the bathhouse. They will,

0:39:17.320 --> 0:39:19.240
<v Speaker 3>he says, They're going to try to turn you away,

0:39:19.680 --> 0:39:22.239
<v Speaker 3>but you cannot take no for an answer. You have

0:39:22.320 --> 0:39:24.359
<v Speaker 3>to go ask for a job and don't leave until

0:39:24.360 --> 0:39:25.640
<v Speaker 3>you get one. Yeah.

0:39:25.760 --> 0:39:29.440
<v Speaker 2>Again, the tension is just is just so excellent here

0:39:29.520 --> 0:39:34.239
<v Speaker 2>and already, like the first challenge to hero is one

0:39:34.560 --> 0:39:37.080
<v Speaker 2>of inner strength, like this is. I think it's one

0:39:37.080 --> 0:39:38.480
<v Speaker 2>of the great things about this film. This is not

0:39:38.520 --> 0:39:42.680
<v Speaker 2>a film where our hero engages in physical battles with

0:39:43.280 --> 0:39:47.560
<v Speaker 2>monsters and fantasy creatures. Her challenges are largely one of

0:39:47.600 --> 0:39:52.800
<v Speaker 2>will and inner strength and challenges to her moral compass.

0:39:53.360 --> 0:39:55.040
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, and she is a rock. You know.

0:39:55.120 --> 0:39:56.960
<v Speaker 2>When we first meet her, she seems maybe, you know,

0:39:57.000 --> 0:40:00.360
<v Speaker 2>she's moody and maybe a little self obsessed, you know,

0:40:00.560 --> 0:40:02.560
<v Speaker 2>but not in ways that are inappropriate for a ten

0:40:02.600 --> 0:40:05.880
<v Speaker 2>year old child. But as the movie unrolls here we

0:40:05.960 --> 0:40:08.359
<v Speaker 2>really get to see how strong she really is.

0:40:09.040 --> 0:40:11.719
<v Speaker 3>We discover it as she discovers it about herself.

0:40:11.840 --> 0:40:22.320
<v Speaker 4>Yeah.

0:40:22.400 --> 0:40:26.160
<v Speaker 3>So the place that Haku sendsch Hero to ask for

0:40:26.239 --> 0:40:30.640
<v Speaker 3>a job is the boiler room. Which everything in this

0:40:30.760 --> 0:40:32.680
<v Speaker 3>movie is great, but this is one of my favorite

0:40:32.680 --> 0:40:35.680
<v Speaker 3>parts of the whole film. So he sends her down

0:40:35.719 --> 0:40:41.719
<v Speaker 3>this very dangerous looking staircase along the side of the bathhouse,

0:40:41.920 --> 0:40:46.680
<v Speaker 3>hanging over the ravine. There is some slapstick here as well.

0:40:46.960 --> 0:40:49.160
<v Speaker 2>And it's yeah, and it's so well executed. This is

0:40:49.520 --> 0:40:51.759
<v Speaker 2>one of the things that I really noticed on this

0:40:51.840 --> 0:40:55.120
<v Speaker 2>rewatch is that you have, you know, this great built

0:40:55.200 --> 0:40:59.560
<v Speaker 2>up tension, and that allows some excellent space for humor.

0:41:00.120 --> 0:41:02.319
<v Speaker 2>There are numerous parts in the film that are just

0:41:02.880 --> 0:41:06.040
<v Speaker 2>tremendously funny, and this is one of those moments where she's,

0:41:06.080 --> 0:41:07.719
<v Speaker 2>you know, she's trying to be really careful and then

0:41:07.719 --> 0:41:11.360
<v Speaker 2>she gets scared and just runs down the side of

0:41:11.360 --> 0:41:14.400
<v Speaker 2>the building and like smacks into a wall, very slapstick style,

0:41:14.480 --> 0:41:18.960
<v Speaker 2>but you know, it's all the more humorous for being

0:41:19.360 --> 0:41:21.479
<v Speaker 2>the punctuation on the end of all of this built

0:41:21.520 --> 0:41:22.000
<v Speaker 2>up tension.

0:41:22.320 --> 0:41:25.120
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, that's right. But she finally makes it down to

0:41:25.440 --> 0:41:28.520
<v Speaker 3>the boiler room. So it's a room deep underneath the

0:41:28.560 --> 0:41:33.320
<v Speaker 3>bath house. Where a multi armed monster man named Kamagi

0:41:34.000 --> 0:41:38.880
<v Speaker 3>operates a vast furnace powered by coal to heat water

0:41:39.120 --> 0:41:43.400
<v Speaker 3>for the baths and then mixes potions and herbal infusions

0:41:43.400 --> 0:41:47.400
<v Speaker 3>into the water before it is piped up into you know,

0:41:47.480 --> 0:41:49.800
<v Speaker 3>piped up through a sort of thing inside the wall

0:41:50.280 --> 0:41:53.880
<v Speaker 3>to reach the baths for the guests. Rob, do you

0:41:53.920 --> 0:41:57.120
<v Speaker 3>have any descriptive thoughts Aboutkamaji. He's a wonderful character.

0:41:57.239 --> 0:41:58.240
<v Speaker 2>Oh yeah, he's awesome.

0:41:58.280 --> 0:41:58.440
<v Speaker 4>You know.

0:41:58.480 --> 0:42:00.800
<v Speaker 2>He has this big, bushy what I would think of

0:42:00.880 --> 0:42:04.040
<v Speaker 2>is like an anime style mustache, you know, some of

0:42:04.040 --> 0:42:06.040
<v Speaker 2>this kind of facial hair that you really only see

0:42:06.040 --> 0:42:10.120
<v Speaker 2>in animation. But then you multiple limbs. What they each

0:42:10.200 --> 0:42:14.799
<v Speaker 2>have I think three fingers, you know, and he's just

0:42:14.960 --> 0:42:20.760
<v Speaker 2>constantly when he's working, he's constantly in motion, fetching little tags,

0:42:20.800 --> 0:42:25.560
<v Speaker 2>fetching ingredients for the water, occasionally reaching back and getting

0:42:25.600 --> 0:42:28.480
<v Speaker 2>what I assume is a picture of tea and drinking

0:42:28.520 --> 0:42:30.000
<v Speaker 2>directly from the spout.

0:42:30.440 --> 0:42:32.280
<v Speaker 3>It just puts the spout in his mouth.

0:42:33.200 --> 0:42:36.960
<v Speaker 2>When he has little black sunglasses over his eyes.

0:42:37.280 --> 0:42:40.120
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, he does, you know, except for the sunglasses. In

0:42:40.160 --> 0:42:42.520
<v Speaker 3>a way, he kind of reminds me of Lord Yupa

0:42:42.640 --> 0:42:44.480
<v Speaker 3>with the big bushy mustache.

0:42:44.560 --> 0:42:47.680
<v Speaker 2>Yeah yeah, yeah, the facial hair for sure, and you know,

0:42:47.920 --> 0:42:51.160
<v Speaker 2>kind of the role here, like he's the you know,

0:42:51.239 --> 0:42:53.840
<v Speaker 2>rough around the edges character that it is going to

0:42:53.960 --> 0:42:58.080
<v Speaker 2>end up being, you know, very very benevolent and very

0:42:58.120 --> 0:42:59.400
<v Speaker 2>helpful to our protagonist.

0:43:00.840 --> 0:43:03.440
<v Speaker 3>But he is not working alone down here, because so

0:43:03.480 --> 0:43:06.840
<v Speaker 3>while he's cranking all the levers and operating the furnace

0:43:06.880 --> 0:43:10.520
<v Speaker 3>and then also grinding up the spices and the herbs

0:43:10.520 --> 0:43:15.799
<v Speaker 3>for the infusions of the bathwater, also down below him

0:43:16.320 --> 0:43:20.560
<v Speaker 3>there are these little black creatures, the soot sprites, that

0:43:20.600 --> 0:43:24.600
<v Speaker 3>are carrying coal and tossing it into the oven. And

0:43:25.160 --> 0:43:29.319
<v Speaker 3>these soot sprites are so cute, and I noticed from

0:43:29.320 --> 0:43:32.080
<v Speaker 3>a there's a note in the Napier book that these

0:43:32.120 --> 0:43:36.240
<v Speaker 3>are actually a recurring character type. They're a little monster

0:43:36.360 --> 0:43:39.479
<v Speaker 3>that was invented for my neighbor Todoro, and they're showing

0:43:39.560 --> 0:43:41.200
<v Speaker 3>up again here, that's right.

0:43:41.320 --> 0:43:44.680
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah, they're in the house that the family moves

0:43:44.719 --> 0:43:46.800
<v Speaker 2>to in the country in my neighbor Toto.

0:43:47.520 --> 0:43:51.720
<v Speaker 3>But here they have a job, that's right though. It's funny.

0:43:52.239 --> 0:43:56.280
<v Speaker 3>So they're enchanted pieces of soot and it's so wonderfully

0:43:56.320 --> 0:44:00.239
<v Speaker 3>animated the way they approach the sort of the mouth

0:44:00.320 --> 0:44:02.480
<v Speaker 3>of the furnace and they throw the coal in, and

0:44:02.520 --> 0:44:05.120
<v Speaker 3>then these gusts of hot air that come out of

0:44:05.160 --> 0:44:07.480
<v Speaker 3>the mouth of the furnace whenever it opens just sort

0:44:07.520 --> 0:44:10.640
<v Speaker 3>of blow them back off of this ledge to where

0:44:10.640 --> 0:44:12.919
<v Speaker 3>they came from so that they can retrieve another piece

0:44:12.960 --> 0:44:16.319
<v Speaker 3>of coal and walk forward again. But as I said,

0:44:16.320 --> 0:44:18.600
<v Speaker 3>the scene is so cute. One of these little sprites

0:44:19.520 --> 0:44:21.440
<v Speaker 3>picks up a piece of coal that's too heavy and

0:44:21.560 --> 0:44:24.680
<v Speaker 3>drops it on itself, and she hero picks up the

0:44:24.719 --> 0:44:27.359
<v Speaker 3>piece of coal from on top of the sprite and

0:44:27.440 --> 0:44:31.920
<v Speaker 3>she struggles with it at first. It's heavy, but Kamaji

0:44:32.080 --> 0:44:34.239
<v Speaker 3>is like, well, you picked it up, so you know,

0:44:35.080 --> 0:44:38.480
<v Speaker 3>carry on with what you started. So she takes it

0:44:38.520 --> 0:44:40.719
<v Speaker 3>to the mouth of the furnace manages to throw it in,

0:44:41.000 --> 0:44:42.839
<v Speaker 3>and when the soot sprites see her do that, they

0:44:42.880 --> 0:44:47.719
<v Speaker 3>all drop their cold pieces on themselves. It's so good, yeah,

0:44:47.960 --> 0:44:51.120
<v Speaker 3>but they start gathering around her feet like they think

0:44:51.160 --> 0:44:54.919
<v Speaker 3>she's some kind of goddess, you know, they like pile

0:44:55.040 --> 0:44:59.960
<v Speaker 3>up on her shoes and it's it's adorable. But anyway,

0:45:00.120 --> 0:45:04.040
<v Speaker 3>a Chehro is persistent about asking for a job, so

0:45:04.160 --> 0:45:08.600
<v Speaker 3>Kamaji is like okay, And so we meet another character

0:45:08.719 --> 0:45:12.759
<v Speaker 3>named Lynn, who is a bathhouse worker who is cynical

0:45:12.800 --> 0:45:16.239
<v Speaker 3>and brusque with Chee Hero at first, but later softens

0:45:16.320 --> 0:45:19.480
<v Speaker 3>and becomes her main mentor and helper within the bathhouse.

0:45:20.560 --> 0:45:23.480
<v Speaker 3>But when Lynn comes in to deliver some food to Kamachi,

0:45:24.400 --> 0:45:28.080
<v Speaker 3>Kamachi is like, Hey, you know this girl here is

0:45:28.120 --> 0:45:30.360
<v Speaker 3>asking for a job. You should take her up to

0:45:30.520 --> 0:45:34.719
<v Speaker 3>you Baba. Now you Baba is the big boss of

0:45:34.760 --> 0:45:38.160
<v Speaker 3>this establishment, the witch who lives at the top floor

0:45:38.400 --> 0:45:41.920
<v Speaker 3>of the bathhouse for spirits, and so Lynn is not

0:45:42.040 --> 0:45:44.839
<v Speaker 3>excited about this mission at first, but she she does

0:45:44.880 --> 0:45:46.840
<v Speaker 3>try to help is she takes che Hero up in

0:45:46.880 --> 0:45:51.480
<v Speaker 3>a series of elevator rides. One great weird encounter is

0:45:51.480 --> 0:45:55.279
<v Speaker 3>with this gigantic thing called the Radish Spirit, which gets

0:45:55.320 --> 0:45:57.799
<v Speaker 3>onto sort of like wanders around after them and gets

0:45:57.800 --> 0:46:01.960
<v Speaker 3>on an elevator with them, and as we go up

0:46:01.960 --> 0:46:04.239
<v Speaker 3>we get to see the different levels of the bathhouse

0:46:04.320 --> 0:46:07.640
<v Speaker 3>with its many strange clients, the spirits and the creatures

0:46:07.680 --> 0:46:09.759
<v Speaker 3>and so forth. But they make their way up to

0:46:09.840 --> 0:46:12.840
<v Speaker 3>the top floor before we get to you Ubaba. Anything

0:46:12.840 --> 0:46:14.160
<v Speaker 3>you want to talk about on the way.

0:46:14.040 --> 0:46:17.360
<v Speaker 2>Rob Oh, I mean the bath House or the Hansen

0:46:17.480 --> 0:46:20.920
<v Speaker 2>Here is such a fabulous world, and perhaps it reads

0:46:20.920 --> 0:46:23.680
<v Speaker 2>as slightly more fabulous if you're not familiar with like

0:46:23.800 --> 0:46:28.520
<v Speaker 2>Japanese bathhouse traditions or various other international bathhouse traditions. But

0:46:29.320 --> 0:46:31.520
<v Speaker 2>even if you are, like, it's just stuffed with such

0:46:31.520 --> 0:46:35.799
<v Speaker 2>a wild crew. I mean, it's staffed in large part

0:46:35.920 --> 0:46:39.359
<v Speaker 2>by magical beings, and then it caters to an even

0:46:39.480 --> 0:46:44.160
<v Speaker 2>wider range of creatures spirits, yo kai and deities. I

0:46:44.200 --> 0:46:49.000
<v Speaker 2>just have so many favorites that keep reappearing. They're the ducklings, spirits,

0:46:49.040 --> 0:46:53.040
<v Speaker 2>the yes Oi sama, and they make me smile every

0:46:53.040 --> 0:46:55.440
<v Speaker 2>time we even just get a quick glimpse of them

0:46:55.440 --> 0:46:56.200
<v Speaker 2>in the background.

0:46:56.680 --> 0:47:00.279
<v Speaker 3>I would almost say that the many different characters needed

0:47:00.360 --> 0:47:03.359
<v Speaker 3>the bath House are like on a sliding scale of

0:47:03.480 --> 0:47:07.440
<v Speaker 3>Uncanny Valley similarity to humans, Like Lynn just looks like

0:47:07.440 --> 0:47:10.879
<v Speaker 3>a human, right, but you have other things that look

0:47:11.120 --> 0:47:15.000
<v Speaker 3>vaguely human but their proportions are weird. And then you

0:47:15.080 --> 0:47:17.880
<v Speaker 3>have other things like the ducks that are like ducks

0:47:17.880 --> 0:47:20.000
<v Speaker 3>but with kind of human faces. And then you've got

0:47:20.040 --> 0:47:22.040
<v Speaker 3>just like you've got the no face and stuff that's

0:47:22.120 --> 0:47:25.440
<v Speaker 3>not very human at all. But I like, oh so

0:47:25.480 --> 0:47:28.040
<v Speaker 3>in the middle, You've got these frog men who are

0:47:28.160 --> 0:47:32.320
<v Speaker 3>sort of all of the administrator roles within the bath house,

0:47:32.400 --> 0:47:36.480
<v Speaker 3>and they are would you say? They are uniformly portrayed

0:47:36.520 --> 0:47:39.840
<v Speaker 3>as kind of kind of mean and greedy, but I

0:47:39.840 --> 0:47:41.319
<v Speaker 3>don't know. In the end, they kind of are won

0:47:41.400 --> 0:47:42.800
<v Speaker 3>over by Chia heroespunk.

0:47:43.200 --> 0:47:48.000
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah, absolutely. You mentioned the Radish Spirit already or

0:47:48.480 --> 0:47:51.960
<v Speaker 2>Oshiro Sama. This one is apparently based on a folkloreic

0:47:52.040 --> 0:47:55.680
<v Speaker 2>household spirit and here in the film takes the form

0:47:55.719 --> 0:47:58.719
<v Speaker 2>of a great walrus like Radish man with I believe

0:47:58.719 --> 0:48:00.439
<v Speaker 2>it's supposed to be like a bowl on his head,

0:48:00.760 --> 0:48:04.439
<v Speaker 2>but that's the way I've always read it. But yeah,

0:48:04.440 --> 0:48:06.680
<v Speaker 2>A big fan of this guy. And when my family

0:48:06.760 --> 0:48:09.200
<v Speaker 2>and I visited Ghibli Park, I had to grab a

0:48:09.239 --> 0:48:13.879
<v Speaker 2>photo with this absolute superstar. Included a photograph here for you, Joe,

0:48:13.880 --> 0:48:15.400
<v Speaker 2>if you want to see me standing next to the

0:48:15.480 --> 0:48:16.120
<v Speaker 2>Ratish Spirit.

0:48:16.360 --> 0:48:19.800
<v Speaker 3>Wait, is that a statue or somebody in a costume? Neither?

0:48:19.920 --> 0:48:23.640
<v Speaker 2>It is the real Radish Spirit And I'll put I'll

0:48:23.640 --> 0:48:25.239
<v Speaker 2>make sure I put this one on our Instagram. If

0:48:25.239 --> 0:48:26.759
<v Speaker 2>you want to see this photo, I'll put it up

0:48:26.800 --> 0:48:29.759
<v Speaker 2>at STBYM podcast on Instagram.

0:48:30.040 --> 0:48:30.360
<v Speaker 3>Nice.

0:48:31.280 --> 0:48:34.759
<v Speaker 2>Oh, but let's see. Yeah, I just love all the

0:48:34.760 --> 0:48:37.759
<v Speaker 2>spirits that we see here, but Ratish spirit is my favorite.

0:48:38.200 --> 0:48:40.480
<v Speaker 3>So from here we go on to meet you Baba,

0:48:40.560 --> 0:48:45.120
<v Speaker 3>who is a powerful and frightening witch who runs the establishment.

0:48:45.640 --> 0:48:50.400
<v Speaker 3>She's portrayed as treacherous and envious and greedy. She collects

0:48:50.560 --> 0:48:54.480
<v Speaker 3>jewels and examines her riches with great relish, but she

0:48:54.520 --> 0:48:57.120
<v Speaker 3>also shows flashes of a softer, or at least more

0:48:57.160 --> 0:49:01.000
<v Speaker 3>comical side in the fact that she dotes upon her son,

0:49:01.160 --> 0:49:05.000
<v Speaker 3>who is a giant, destructive baby named bo Oh.

0:49:05.080 --> 0:49:07.080
<v Speaker 2>I love this baby, you know. I was just talking

0:49:07.120 --> 0:49:09.000
<v Speaker 2>to my wife about this is like this week especially,

0:49:09.040 --> 0:49:10.800
<v Speaker 2>I just want to be this character. I want to

0:49:10.800 --> 0:49:13.839
<v Speaker 2>be a giant baby that crawls under a mountain of

0:49:13.880 --> 0:49:19.439
<v Speaker 2>pillows and then you know, refuses to leave. Yeah, but yeah,

0:49:19.480 --> 0:49:23.040
<v Speaker 2>it's just such a weird cruise she's got. Because you

0:49:23.120 --> 0:49:26.000
<v Speaker 2>got the baby, You've got the three heads rolling around.

0:49:26.280 --> 0:49:29.680
<v Speaker 3>What's the deal with the heads? The bouncing green heads

0:49:29.680 --> 0:49:32.680
<v Speaker 3>that look kind of look oh, I don't know, like

0:49:32.760 --> 0:49:34.080
<v Speaker 3>any masks a little bit.

0:49:34.600 --> 0:49:37.279
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I've digged it, dug into it a little bit,

0:49:37.280 --> 0:49:39.560
<v Speaker 2>and I could not find a clear answer on what

0:49:39.760 --> 0:49:42.520
<v Speaker 2>exactly they are. Other than because I mean, I think

0:49:42.560 --> 0:49:45.279
<v Speaker 2>in this film you do see a mix of Miyazaki

0:49:45.400 --> 0:49:51.160
<v Speaker 2>drawling on Japanese folklore and legend, drawing on international folklore

0:49:51.160 --> 0:49:54.200
<v Speaker 2>and legend, but also just coming up with wild ideas.

0:49:54.239 --> 0:49:58.160
<v Speaker 2>So I'm I'm still unclear exactly where the heads fall

0:49:58.280 --> 0:50:01.680
<v Speaker 2>in here. But then you also have her strange harpie

0:50:01.800 --> 0:50:04.920
<v Speaker 2>like familiar. Who else do we have? We have somebody

0:50:04.920 --> 0:50:07.239
<v Speaker 2>else here in the mix too, right? Oh wait, we

0:50:07.320 --> 0:50:08.879
<v Speaker 2>have another character that's coming in a bed.

0:50:09.080 --> 0:50:11.399
<v Speaker 3>Yes, we'll come back. Are you thinking of the foot lamp?

0:50:12.280 --> 0:50:14.320
<v Speaker 2>Oh, yes, there's a foot lamp too. Yes it is.

0:50:15.560 --> 0:50:18.080
<v Speaker 2>You never know what's gonna show up in this picture.

0:50:18.320 --> 0:50:20.440
<v Speaker 3>But the footlamp doesn't work for you, Baba.

0:50:20.719 --> 0:50:24.800
<v Speaker 2>They show up later independent independent contractor.

0:50:24.840 --> 0:50:27.520
<v Speaker 3>So che Hero's like, hey, I'm here for a job,

0:50:27.719 --> 0:50:32.080
<v Speaker 3>and Ubaba threatens. Chehiro tries to refuse her request, but

0:50:32.239 --> 0:50:35.600
<v Speaker 3>it turns out that this this terrifying witch actually is

0:50:35.640 --> 0:50:38.640
<v Speaker 3>bound by some rules of her own. She is bound

0:50:38.680 --> 0:50:41.160
<v Speaker 3>by a magical oath she took at some point that

0:50:41.239 --> 0:50:45.239
<v Speaker 3>she must give a job to anyone who asks. So uh,

0:50:45.480 --> 0:50:49.239
<v Speaker 3>che Hero, through her persistence, forces her to offer her

0:50:49.239 --> 0:50:52.799
<v Speaker 3>a contract, and che Hero signs the contract to work

0:50:52.840 --> 0:50:56.640
<v Speaker 3>for you Baba. So now che Hero is protected against

0:50:56.640 --> 0:51:00.359
<v Speaker 3>you Baba's whims to an extent, though Ubaba and still

0:51:00.400 --> 0:51:03.480
<v Speaker 3>be a pretty nasty boss to work for. Except it

0:51:03.480 --> 0:51:06.640
<v Speaker 3>gets even worse. Whoops. When she Hero signs her name

0:51:06.680 --> 0:51:10.640
<v Speaker 3>on the page of this magical contract, the witch lifts

0:51:10.680 --> 0:51:13.560
<v Speaker 3>away the writing for most her signatures, so like the

0:51:14.239 --> 0:51:18.279
<v Speaker 3>writing magically comes up off the page, and Ubaba is

0:51:18.320 --> 0:51:22.320
<v Speaker 3>able to steal Chi Hero's name, telling her that now

0:51:22.440 --> 0:51:26.200
<v Speaker 3>she will be known only as Sen And we will

0:51:26.280 --> 0:51:29.600
<v Speaker 3>later learn that Eubaba does this to everyone who works

0:51:29.600 --> 0:51:32.520
<v Speaker 3>for her, she steals their name. So she did the

0:51:32.560 --> 0:51:35.680
<v Speaker 3>same thing to Haku. We don't know what his original

0:51:35.800 --> 0:51:39.480
<v Speaker 3>name was, at least not until later, but now Haku

0:51:39.600 --> 0:51:42.560
<v Speaker 3>serves as Eubaba's second in command and sort of her

0:51:42.960 --> 0:51:48.120
<v Speaker 3>her commando, her like special Missions guy. Haku has forgotten

0:51:48.239 --> 0:51:51.600
<v Speaker 3>what his real name was, and it turns out if

0:51:51.640 --> 0:51:55.880
<v Speaker 3>you forget your original name, you can never escape Eubaba's spell.

0:51:56.520 --> 0:51:59.400
<v Speaker 3>And there is a day I think they're shown the

0:51:59.400 --> 0:52:02.960
<v Speaker 3>next morning going out and Sin is talking to Haku

0:52:03.480 --> 0:52:06.400
<v Speaker 3>and she's forgotten what her name was, but Haku helps

0:52:06.440 --> 0:52:08.560
<v Speaker 3>her he can remind her because he knows her name,

0:52:08.880 --> 0:52:11.320
<v Speaker 3>and also she can keep it in mind because Haku

0:52:11.440 --> 0:52:15.000
<v Speaker 3>returns her belongings to her, which includes the note from

0:52:15.040 --> 0:52:17.480
<v Speaker 3>her friend at school which she was reading in the

0:52:17.520 --> 0:52:20.719
<v Speaker 3>car earlier that says Chihiro w it. So she keeps

0:52:20.760 --> 0:52:23.960
<v Speaker 3>the notes dashed away in secret. And I like something

0:52:23.960 --> 0:52:28.040
<v Speaker 3>about this little detail that's like, you know, part she's

0:52:28.080 --> 0:52:31.000
<v Speaker 3>able to keep something of the place where she came from.

0:52:31.480 --> 0:52:34.480
<v Speaker 3>It's not one of these stories about going to another

0:52:34.520 --> 0:52:38.640
<v Speaker 3>world or a fantasy world that is a rejection of

0:52:38.719 --> 0:52:42.040
<v Speaker 3>the mundane world or the world you came from. An

0:52:42.080 --> 0:52:45.879
<v Speaker 3>important part of her surviving this whole experience is her

0:52:45.880 --> 0:52:48.319
<v Speaker 3>note from her friend that reminds her of her name.

0:52:48.800 --> 0:52:51.560
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. Yeah, it's a very sweet, sweet moment. I think

0:52:51.560 --> 0:52:53.600
<v Speaker 2>it's one of the great things about Spirited Away is

0:52:53.640 --> 0:52:56.080
<v Speaker 2>you have these big scenes that definitely stick with you,

0:52:56.080 --> 0:53:00.560
<v Speaker 2>you know, fantastic sequences, and then these very small moments

0:53:01.080 --> 0:53:11.200
<v Speaker 2>that have oversized heart to them.

0:53:11.640 --> 0:53:15.880
<v Speaker 3>So Sen understands that she must now become an ideal

0:53:16.080 --> 0:53:19.000
<v Speaker 3>worker in you Baba's bathhouse or she has no hope

0:53:19.000 --> 0:53:23.080
<v Speaker 3>of ever escaping and rescuing her parents from their magical transformation.

0:53:23.760 --> 0:53:26.839
<v Speaker 3>It's sort of not established exactly how she will save them,

0:53:27.200 --> 0:53:29.359
<v Speaker 3>but in order to have any chance of saving them,

0:53:29.360 --> 0:53:31.839
<v Speaker 3>she's got to do a good job at work. And

0:53:31.880 --> 0:53:34.600
<v Speaker 3>in the background there is this looming threat that they could,

0:53:34.760 --> 0:53:37.760
<v Speaker 3>at some point in pig form, be turned into bacon,

0:53:37.920 --> 0:53:42.720
<v Speaker 3>and eton is mentioned by the frog men sometimes. Now

0:53:43.160 --> 0:53:47.560
<v Speaker 3>Sen has help from Kamaji and especially from Lynn in

0:53:47.760 --> 0:53:51.400
<v Speaker 3>learning how to do everything at the bathhouse, but most

0:53:51.440 --> 0:53:54.000
<v Speaker 3>of the people who work there, again, this odd collection

0:53:54.120 --> 0:53:56.879
<v Speaker 3>of kind of serving ladies and frog like men, are

0:53:57.360 --> 0:54:00.440
<v Speaker 3>mean and unhelpful to her, and they mock her and

0:54:00.440 --> 0:54:03.319
<v Speaker 3>and give her difficult jobs out of spite. Now there

0:54:03.360 --> 0:54:05.440
<v Speaker 3>is a scene I wanted to talk about because it

0:54:05.600 --> 0:54:08.160
<v Speaker 3>establishes an important sort of b plot that runs for

0:54:08.160 --> 0:54:11.839
<v Speaker 3>a while and then becomes an a plot. And it's

0:54:11.920 --> 0:54:15.520
<v Speaker 3>the scene where she first meets No Face. I think

0:54:15.560 --> 0:54:18.720
<v Speaker 3>we've seen No Face already at one point where while

0:54:18.760 --> 0:54:22.760
<v Speaker 3>she was while Haku was sneaking her into the bathhouse earlier,

0:54:22.800 --> 0:54:24.480
<v Speaker 3>like the scene where she has to hold her breath

0:54:24.480 --> 0:54:27.279
<v Speaker 3>and go across the bridge, I believe No Face is

0:54:27.360 --> 0:54:29.799
<v Speaker 3>just standing there, hovering on the bridge and watching her.

0:54:30.239 --> 0:54:33.759
<v Speaker 3>But at some point we have an actual encounter. So

0:54:33.920 --> 0:54:37.480
<v Speaker 3>while Sin is working. She at one point opens a

0:54:37.600 --> 0:54:40.560
<v Speaker 3>kind of sliding door to a garden outside and she

0:54:40.640 --> 0:54:44.080
<v Speaker 3>sees this strange creature unlike any of the others really

0:54:44.160 --> 0:54:48.520
<v Speaker 3>standing outside the bathhouse in the rain. It is shadowy, dark,

0:54:48.840 --> 0:54:53.160
<v Speaker 3>it's a kind of translucent mound with a white mask

0:54:53.280 --> 0:54:57.160
<v Speaker 3>for a face, and Sen being polite, leaves the door

0:54:57.200 --> 0:54:59.440
<v Speaker 3>open and invites the creature to come in out of

0:54:59.480 --> 0:55:02.439
<v Speaker 3>the rain, and it does. More will come of this,

0:55:03.160 --> 0:55:05.120
<v Speaker 3>But then we get to one of the big turning

0:55:05.200 --> 0:55:07.560
<v Speaker 3>points in the movie, which is that Sin is working.

0:55:07.640 --> 0:55:10.240
<v Speaker 3>She's she's trying to help U with all the tasks

0:55:10.280 --> 0:55:13.920
<v Speaker 3>at the bathhouse, and suddenly the bath house receives an

0:55:13.960 --> 0:55:19.480
<v Speaker 3>extremely difficult client, which is the Stink Spirit. Rob How

0:55:19.480 --> 0:55:22.080
<v Speaker 3>would you introduce the Stink Spirit scene?

0:55:22.280 --> 0:55:25.800
<v Speaker 2>Oh, just you know, they see him and eventually smell

0:55:25.880 --> 0:55:31.040
<v Speaker 2>him coming from a ways off. Just this this blob,

0:55:31.239 --> 0:55:35.799
<v Speaker 2>this sludge monster that's I think has some you know,

0:55:35.840 --> 0:55:38.800
<v Speaker 2>you can compare it to various other sort of pollution

0:55:39.040 --> 0:55:46.080
<v Speaker 2>based blob creatures from from other cinematic visions, perhaps even

0:55:46.120 --> 0:55:49.960
<v Speaker 2>to one of Godzilla's adversaries, who is We talked about

0:55:50.000 --> 0:55:51.080
<v Speaker 2>this one on Weird House.

0:55:51.880 --> 0:55:52.360
<v Speaker 4>Oh.

0:55:52.400 --> 0:55:55.480
<v Speaker 3>Hold, on a second oh JJ, just chimed in to

0:55:55.560 --> 0:55:58.000
<v Speaker 3>remind us that it's hetero. That's the one we watched,

0:55:58.040 --> 0:55:59.680
<v Speaker 3>isn't it. It's the smog Monster.

0:56:00.120 --> 0:56:03.360
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, so some hetero vibes here to this again, just

0:56:03.480 --> 0:56:07.560
<v Speaker 2>this sludgy blob creature that is slowly making its stinky

0:56:07.600 --> 0:56:11.440
<v Speaker 2>way to the bathhouse, and they're just all like in tear, like, oh,

0:56:11.480 --> 0:56:13.480
<v Speaker 2>we've got to we've got to get the we've got

0:56:13.520 --> 0:56:15.160
<v Speaker 2>to get the big tub ready for this.

0:56:15.080 --> 0:56:19.120
<v Speaker 3>Guy, right uh. And and it's hilarious the way they're

0:56:19.160 --> 0:56:21.680
<v Speaker 3>all like trying to turn him away as he's like

0:56:21.719 --> 0:56:24.279
<v Speaker 3>he's coming across the bridge into the bathhouse and all

0:56:24.280 --> 0:56:26.840
<v Speaker 3>these frogmen are in front of him being like we're closed,

0:56:26.880 --> 0:56:31.600
<v Speaker 3>and we're closed, yeh. But he just kind of slimes

0:56:31.640 --> 0:56:36.279
<v Speaker 3>his way in and and they, of course they're trying

0:56:36.320 --> 0:56:39.239
<v Speaker 3>to give che Hero all of the worst jobs. So yeah,

0:56:39.280 --> 0:56:43.160
<v Speaker 3>they're like, you've got to wash him. Fortunately, che Hero

0:56:43.280 --> 0:56:46.279
<v Speaker 3>has a little bit of magical help. So in order

0:56:46.320 --> 0:56:50.320
<v Speaker 3>to wash this this filthy beast, sin has to get

0:56:50.560 --> 0:56:54.960
<v Speaker 3>special water with the use of bath tokens, which are

0:56:55.000 --> 0:56:59.440
<v Speaker 3>normally handed out by the frogman boss of the main staff.

0:56:59.800 --> 0:57:01.719
<v Speaker 3>And these bath tokens or I guess a kind of

0:57:01.760 --> 0:57:04.359
<v Speaker 3>like internal currency. You've got to use them and get

0:57:04.360 --> 0:57:06.560
<v Speaker 3>them with permission, and then use them, send them down

0:57:06.600 --> 0:57:10.160
<v Speaker 3>to Camachi and he'll send up your powerful herbal infusions

0:57:10.160 --> 0:57:14.000
<v Speaker 3>of hot bathwater to clean off all the filth. So

0:57:14.480 --> 0:57:18.160
<v Speaker 3>the foreman, who is holding on to all these tries

0:57:18.200 --> 0:57:20.080
<v Speaker 3>to refuse to help you hero. He's like, you can't

0:57:20.080 --> 0:57:23.000
<v Speaker 3>have any bath tokens. But then the no Face creature

0:57:23.240 --> 0:57:27.320
<v Speaker 3>whom Sin earlier invited into the building, witnesses this interaction,

0:57:28.120 --> 0:57:30.520
<v Speaker 3>and then he steals a bath token for her, and

0:57:30.560 --> 0:57:33.560
<v Speaker 3>then later shows up with lots of bath tokens, just

0:57:33.800 --> 0:57:37.040
<v Speaker 3>tons of them for Sin, more than she needed. And

0:57:37.080 --> 0:57:40.040
<v Speaker 3>so Sin is able to use these that she got

0:57:40.040 --> 0:57:42.520
<v Speaker 3>from the no Face to clean up the stink spirit.

0:57:42.560 --> 0:57:45.800
<v Speaker 3>And while she's cleaning it up and dousing it with

0:57:45.840 --> 0:57:48.919
<v Speaker 3>all of this urban fuse hot water, she discovers there

0:57:49.000 --> 0:57:52.840
<v Speaker 3>is quote a thorn in its side, which looks strangely

0:57:53.120 --> 0:57:56.680
<v Speaker 3>like a man made object, and so she starts pulling

0:57:56.720 --> 0:58:01.120
<v Speaker 3>on it and realizes that it is not a thorn,

0:58:01.360 --> 0:58:05.560
<v Speaker 3>It is the handle of a bicycle, handlebar of a bicycle,

0:58:06.000 --> 0:58:08.960
<v Speaker 3>and so they start pulling on it. Youbaba realizes what's

0:58:09.000 --> 0:58:12.600
<v Speaker 3>going on, and she organizes all of the people in

0:58:12.640 --> 0:58:16.080
<v Speaker 3>the bathouse together to like pull on everything together, and

0:58:16.120 --> 0:58:19.120
<v Speaker 3>it ends up all coming out like a giant hairball

0:58:19.240 --> 0:58:23.680
<v Speaker 3>clog out of a drain, except it's just trash, revealing

0:58:23.880 --> 0:58:27.240
<v Speaker 3>that this was not a stink spirit after all, but

0:58:27.760 --> 0:58:31.600
<v Speaker 3>a river spirit, the dragon shaped spirit of a river

0:58:31.760 --> 0:58:35.640
<v Speaker 3>that had been choked with pollution and garbage. It's full

0:58:35.680 --> 0:58:42.400
<v Speaker 3>of old bicycles, tires out takeout containers, toilets, just pieces

0:58:42.400 --> 0:58:47.600
<v Speaker 3>of machinery, pieces of construction, you know, building stuff, and

0:58:47.680 --> 0:58:51.120
<v Speaker 3>just household trash, forming a mountain that comes out of

0:58:51.160 --> 0:58:53.840
<v Speaker 3>the side of it and then leaves behind the clean

0:58:54.000 --> 0:58:55.400
<v Speaker 3>water spirit in its wake.

0:58:56.040 --> 0:58:59.320
<v Speaker 2>Oh yeah, And I've read that Niyazaki was inspired in

0:58:59.400 --> 0:59:02.000
<v Speaker 2>this part based on a river cleanup he was involved

0:59:02.040 --> 0:59:05.120
<v Speaker 2>in where they found a bicycle and some stuff. But oh,

0:59:05.160 --> 0:59:07.920
<v Speaker 2>I mean, it's everything about the sequence is tremendous, all

0:59:07.920 --> 0:59:11.160
<v Speaker 2>of the big fantasy elements like wading through the sludge

0:59:11.160 --> 0:59:13.720
<v Speaker 2>and all. But I have to say I was really

0:59:13.760 --> 0:59:17.360
<v Speaker 2>impressed this on this viewing with the sequence where we

0:59:17.400 --> 0:59:23.840
<v Speaker 2>see Sin's hands underwater trying to tie the knot around

0:59:23.840 --> 0:59:25.880
<v Speaker 2>the bicycle handle so they can all pull it out

0:59:25.920 --> 0:59:29.760
<v Speaker 2>and like it slips twice before is it who is

0:59:29.800 --> 0:59:35.160
<v Speaker 2>it that helps her? Well, they help her, but eventually

0:59:35.200 --> 0:59:39.840
<v Speaker 2>on the third try, the not is a success. But

0:59:40.240 --> 0:59:43.560
<v Speaker 2>there's something about the way that they just so realistically

0:59:43.600 --> 0:59:47.280
<v Speaker 2>animate that rope slipping and not quite nodding. You can

0:59:47.360 --> 0:59:49.840
<v Speaker 2>just feel it in your bones, like it is one

0:59:49.920 --> 0:59:53.400
<v Speaker 2>hundred percent real. And I mean those kind of touches

0:59:53.480 --> 0:59:56.640
<v Speaker 2>are I think essential in live action filmmaking as well,

0:59:56.840 --> 0:59:59.080
<v Speaker 2>you know, because they allow us to connect with it

0:59:59.120 --> 1:00:01.560
<v Speaker 2>with what's happening on the screen in a real way.

1:00:01.840 --> 1:00:03.840
<v Speaker 2>But you know, all the more important in a film

1:00:03.840 --> 1:00:07.080
<v Speaker 2>of animated fantasy ground us with those little moments that

1:00:07.120 --> 1:00:10.520
<v Speaker 2>we can feel and then overwhelm us with those visions

1:00:10.520 --> 1:00:11.440
<v Speaker 2>of the fantastic.

1:00:12.040 --> 1:00:16.800
<v Speaker 3>It's actually full of excellent little physical tactle details like

1:00:16.840 --> 1:00:21.920
<v Speaker 3>that zooming in farther than you would expect a movie

1:00:21.960 --> 1:00:25.040
<v Speaker 3>of this kind, too, to show little ways that you know,

1:00:25.080 --> 1:00:27.520
<v Speaker 3>maybe your foot doesn't catch on the stair right the

1:00:27.520 --> 1:00:30.720
<v Speaker 3>first time and you take another step, or yeah, yeah,

1:00:30.760 --> 1:00:33.200
<v Speaker 3>the hand of trying to grasp something and needing to

1:00:33.240 --> 1:00:35.560
<v Speaker 3>readjust there's a lot of that in this film.

1:00:36.120 --> 1:00:39.640
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, one thing you see in a lot of Miyazaki

1:00:39.640 --> 1:00:43.560
<v Speaker 2>films is a lot of attention paid to how children move,

1:00:43.880 --> 1:00:46.200
<v Speaker 2>how young people move, and we definitely see that with

1:00:46.280 --> 1:00:48.240
<v Speaker 2>your hero, like the way that she moves around a

1:00:48.280 --> 1:00:51.240
<v Speaker 2>little awkwardly at times. She's always bumping her head and

1:00:51.320 --> 1:00:54.720
<v Speaker 2>falling down and you know, dramatic fashion, and it's just

1:00:54.760 --> 1:00:55.640
<v Speaker 2>so well executed.

1:00:56.000 --> 1:00:58.800
<v Speaker 3>So Sen did good here, She did a real good job.

1:00:58.840 --> 1:01:03.680
<v Speaker 3>She's doing great at work. But next we come to

1:01:04.120 --> 1:01:08.680
<v Speaker 3>Haku the Dragon and the scene of sin versus Eubaba's creatures.

1:01:08.920 --> 1:01:12.560
<v Speaker 3>So there's a scene eventually where Sen sees a white

1:01:12.800 --> 1:01:15.760
<v Speaker 3>dragon flying out over the water as she's looking out

1:01:15.760 --> 1:01:18.560
<v Speaker 3>the window over the side of the bathhouse, and she

1:01:18.760 --> 1:01:23.440
<v Speaker 3>realizes that the dragon is Haku. Haku has been a

1:01:23.520 --> 1:01:27.200
<v Speaker 3>boy before this, but now she sees him in dragon form,

1:01:27.640 --> 1:01:30.000
<v Speaker 3>and Haku is in trouble. He's being attacked by a

1:01:30.040 --> 1:01:35.360
<v Speaker 3>swarm of these enchanted paper birds and greatly injured. Hako

1:01:35.800 --> 1:01:38.960
<v Speaker 3>crashes into Eubaba's residence in the in the upper part

1:01:38.960 --> 1:01:43.240
<v Speaker 3>of the bathhouse, and Sen rushes to help him. Somewhere

1:01:43.280 --> 1:01:46.760
<v Speaker 3>Here along the way, I think she eavesdrops and learns

1:01:46.800 --> 1:01:49.680
<v Speaker 3>that Ubaba sent him out on a special mission, and

1:01:49.760 --> 1:01:53.520
<v Speaker 3>this mission is how he became injured. Ubaba expects Haku

1:01:53.560 --> 1:01:56.040
<v Speaker 3>will die, and she doesn't seem all that bothered about it.

1:01:56.480 --> 1:02:00.440
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, she's like, I'll hop you that sane happens.

1:02:00.960 --> 1:02:06.000
<v Speaker 3>So Sin sneaks into Eubaba's apartment to help Haku, but

1:02:06.240 --> 1:02:11.640
<v Speaker 3>ends up meeting Bo, the Giant Baby, Ebaba's son, and

1:02:12.640 --> 1:02:16.360
<v Speaker 3>we learn when we actually hear Bo talking and interacting

1:02:16.400 --> 1:02:20.320
<v Speaker 3>with Chihiro or with Sin. Here there's clearly some kind

1:02:20.360 --> 1:02:26.400
<v Speaker 3>of unhealthy lock on Bo's maturation, both magical and psychological,

1:02:26.920 --> 1:02:29.800
<v Speaker 3>Like the way he talks and his body don't really

1:02:29.880 --> 1:02:33.280
<v Speaker 3>like match upright, and he's kind of paranoid, Like he's

1:02:33.320 --> 1:02:36.640
<v Speaker 3>a paranoid pathological brat. There's a lot of play with

1:02:36.680 --> 1:02:38.280
<v Speaker 3>me now where I will crush.

1:02:37.960 --> 1:02:41.320
<v Speaker 2>You yeah, or I will break your arm. Yeah, that's

1:02:41.360 --> 1:02:43.160
<v Speaker 2>like the big baby is terrifying here.

1:02:43.440 --> 1:02:47.479
<v Speaker 3>Yeah. So Sin gets away from Bo temporarily, and while

1:02:47.520 --> 1:02:50.760
<v Speaker 3>trying to help Haku, Sin meets a witch who looks

1:02:50.800 --> 1:02:53.680
<v Speaker 3>exactly like you Baba. But here is a big reveal.

1:02:54.360 --> 1:02:58.200
<v Speaker 3>This is not you Baba, this is you Baba's twin sister, Zeniba,

1:02:58.320 --> 1:03:01.800
<v Speaker 3>who they're at odds. You know, they don't get along,

1:03:02.560 --> 1:03:05.640
<v Speaker 3>and it turns out that you Baba sent Haku to

1:03:05.800 --> 1:03:09.600
<v Speaker 3>steal a special magical item from her sister to steal

1:03:09.680 --> 1:03:13.560
<v Speaker 3>it from Zeneba. It was a golden seal, and unfortunately

1:03:13.640 --> 1:03:17.160
<v Speaker 3>for Haku, this magical golden seal was cursed, and she

1:03:17.280 --> 1:03:19.560
<v Speaker 3>says the fact that Haku stole it is what is

1:03:19.600 --> 1:03:24.120
<v Speaker 3>now killing him. Now. While in you Baba's house, Zaneba

1:03:24.160 --> 1:03:28.760
<v Speaker 3>happens to just play some pranks, including transforming e Baba's

1:03:29.000 --> 1:03:33.400
<v Speaker 3>son Bo the Giant Baby into a mouse, transforming the

1:03:33.480 --> 1:03:36.880
<v Speaker 3>weird jump the three green jumping heads into a fake

1:03:37.040 --> 1:03:39.640
<v Speaker 3>version of Bo the baby, so now there's a thing

1:03:39.680 --> 1:03:42.880
<v Speaker 3>that looks like the baby but is actually these three heads,

1:03:43.320 --> 1:03:46.800
<v Speaker 3>and transforming you Baba's demon bird Minion into a fly.

1:03:47.440 --> 1:03:47.640
<v Speaker 2>Yes.

1:03:49.000 --> 1:03:52.040
<v Speaker 3>Now, At some point here, Zaniba gets gets banished by

1:03:52.120 --> 1:03:57.280
<v Speaker 3>having her little paper avatar damaged. But they but Sin

1:03:57.520 --> 1:03:59.760
<v Speaker 3>and Haku end up falling through a pit in the

1:03:59.760 --> 1:04:02.600
<v Speaker 3>floor or and crashing down into Camaggi's domain in the

1:04:02.640 --> 1:04:06.800
<v Speaker 3>boiler room, where Sen decides to give Haku half of

1:04:07.040 --> 1:04:09.480
<v Speaker 3>Oh did did I even mention that the river spirit

1:04:10.000 --> 1:04:14.560
<v Speaker 3>gave Sen a magic dumpling in reward for helping him?

1:04:14.680 --> 1:04:18.200
<v Speaker 2>Oh yeah, yeah, this becomes important.

1:04:18.520 --> 1:04:21.479
<v Speaker 3>So she has this important magic dumpling. She gives half

1:04:21.480 --> 1:04:24.240
<v Speaker 3>of it to Haku and closes his mouth over it

1:04:24.280 --> 1:04:26.880
<v Speaker 3>forces him to eat it, and this makes Haku vomit

1:04:27.040 --> 1:04:30.280
<v Speaker 3>up the cursed golden seal, but also this kind of

1:04:30.400 --> 1:04:33.919
<v Speaker 3>horrible mud slug, the physical embodiment of the curse, which

1:04:33.960 --> 1:04:38.320
<v Speaker 3>Sin then stomps on. Meanwhile, there's some trouble in the

1:04:38.320 --> 1:04:41.440
<v Speaker 3>bath house because remember that no face monster. It is

1:04:41.480 --> 1:04:44.640
<v Speaker 3>getting up to no good. It has It has started

1:04:44.680 --> 1:04:47.840
<v Speaker 3>going around offering things to people, like it can make

1:04:47.880 --> 1:04:51.600
<v Speaker 3>stuff appear in its hands that looks like gold, Like

1:04:51.640 --> 1:04:53.880
<v Speaker 3>it just got a big pile of gold in its hand.

1:04:53.920 --> 1:04:56.920
<v Speaker 3>It's like, you want some. It actually doesn't talk at

1:04:56.920 --> 1:04:59.800
<v Speaker 3>first in its natural form. All it really seems to

1:04:59.800 --> 1:05:04.480
<v Speaker 3>say is like uh uh huh, And it'll offer gold

1:05:04.520 --> 1:05:06.920
<v Speaker 3>to people and the people are like, yeah, yeah, give

1:05:06.920 --> 1:05:08.640
<v Speaker 3>me that gold. But then yeah, I don't know.

1:05:08.680 --> 1:05:12.160
<v Speaker 2>It starts eating people like it eats a frog guy,

1:05:12.520 --> 1:05:16.000
<v Speaker 2>eats a frog guy, and as and as it's offering

1:05:16.000 --> 1:05:18.480
<v Speaker 2>gold to the other workers in the bathhouse, they're all

1:05:18.520 --> 1:05:21.080
<v Speaker 2>frantically saying like, oh yeah, let's feed this guy as

1:05:21.160 --> 1:05:23.520
<v Speaker 2>much as we can. He's giving us tips. We want tips,

1:05:24.040 --> 1:05:26.640
<v Speaker 2>so they're all fighting for the tips from the whale,

1:05:26.640 --> 1:05:30.439
<v Speaker 2>the big customer, and along the way it gets more

1:05:30.480 --> 1:05:33.440
<v Speaker 2>and more destructive as it gets bigger and bigger and

1:05:33.600 --> 1:05:37.160
<v Speaker 2>eats some more workers. Yeah, there's some strong horror vibes

1:05:37.200 --> 1:05:38.880
<v Speaker 2>to a lot of this, because, yeah, we have this

1:05:38.960 --> 1:05:44.240
<v Speaker 2>shape shifting monster that keeps eating servants and in doing so,

1:05:44.680 --> 1:05:48.800
<v Speaker 2>like stealing their voice or even aspects of their personality. Yes,

1:05:49.640 --> 1:05:51.920
<v Speaker 2>because otherwise, Yeah, no Face just makes these little kind

1:05:51.960 --> 1:05:56.320
<v Speaker 2>of like it kind of sounds. I was no Face

1:05:56.360 --> 1:05:59.000
<v Speaker 2>for Halloween one year, so I got to like do

1:05:59.160 --> 1:06:02.400
<v Speaker 2>those noises whilst we were out triggered treating this year,

1:06:02.440 --> 1:06:04.600
<v Speaker 2>I was, how by the way from how.

1:06:06.000 --> 1:06:08.840
<v Speaker 3>You know, I was wondering why the no Face seems

1:06:08.840 --> 1:06:13.240
<v Speaker 3>the most interested in sin, because it's like asking for her,

1:06:13.760 --> 1:06:16.000
<v Speaker 3>you know, It's like, I don't want any of you want.

1:06:16.040 --> 1:06:18.840
<v Speaker 3>I want sin brings sin to me. And it seems

1:06:18.920 --> 1:06:21.480
<v Speaker 3>that maybe it's because she's the one who led it

1:06:21.520 --> 1:06:25.280
<v Speaker 3>into the bathhouse, but also it seems that she's unique

1:06:25.360 --> 1:06:27.680
<v Speaker 3>in that she's the only person who's not interested in

1:06:27.720 --> 1:06:30.640
<v Speaker 3>the gold that it makes. It keeps making the gold

1:06:30.680 --> 1:06:33.120
<v Speaker 3>and trying to give it to people, and they're all like, gimme, gimme, gimmy,

1:06:33.560 --> 1:06:35.840
<v Speaker 3>and it wants to give gold to sin, but she's

1:06:35.920 --> 1:06:38.960
<v Speaker 3>just not interested. She's just like, no, thanks, I thank you,

1:06:39.000 --> 1:06:40.200
<v Speaker 3>but I don't want any.

1:06:40.240 --> 1:06:44.600
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, she's incorruptible when it comes to these temptations. And yeah,

1:06:44.640 --> 1:06:47.480
<v Speaker 2>No Face is very fascinating because on one hand, you know,

1:06:47.600 --> 1:06:50.280
<v Speaker 2>very much a hungry ghost sort of a scenario, like

1:06:50.720 --> 1:06:53.560
<v Speaker 2>it's you know, its natural form is one of kind

1:06:53.600 --> 1:06:57.080
<v Speaker 2>of hollowness and is very transparent, just has this mask

1:06:58.080 --> 1:07:00.240
<v Speaker 2>that seems to you know, serve as its face. Then

1:07:00.280 --> 1:07:02.200
<v Speaker 2>as it eats, we see its mouth more, we see

1:07:02.200 --> 1:07:05.000
<v Speaker 2>its great lolling tongue. So it's, you know, it's a

1:07:05.000 --> 1:07:08.600
<v Speaker 2>creature of vast appetite, but it's not just food at once.

1:07:09.040 --> 1:07:12.920
<v Speaker 2>And I've seen Yazaki discuss this in some translated interviews

1:07:12.920 --> 1:07:16.680
<v Speaker 2>where he's talking about like it also needs to absorb

1:07:17.520 --> 1:07:20.600
<v Speaker 2>other people, like certainly in the sense that it's eating people,

1:07:20.640 --> 1:07:23.800
<v Speaker 2>but also like is in no face, truly has no face,

1:07:23.880 --> 1:07:28.480
<v Speaker 2>no identity, and it must take identity from others. So

1:07:28.840 --> 1:07:33.880
<v Speaker 2>it's it's it's it's a weird monster to try and unravel.

1:07:33.640 --> 1:07:36.600
<v Speaker 3>That's right, And it just keeps becoming more and more threatening.

1:07:36.640 --> 1:07:40.080
<v Speaker 3>Eventually Sin comes to it to try to fix what's

1:07:40.120 --> 1:07:43.080
<v Speaker 3>going on, but by this point it's just a rampaging monster.

1:07:43.240 --> 1:07:45.960
<v Speaker 3>It's trying to it's trying to eat everything. It's threatening

1:07:46.000 --> 1:07:49.600
<v Speaker 3>her also, and so Sin ends up feeding this monster

1:07:49.800 --> 1:07:53.240
<v Speaker 3>the other half of the river Spirit's dumpling, causing it

1:07:53.280 --> 1:07:57.720
<v Speaker 3>to start vomiting up evil black sludge and shrinking in size.

1:07:58.080 --> 1:07:59.760
<v Speaker 3>Was this part of your costume, Rob.

1:07:59.720 --> 1:08:04.440
<v Speaker 2>No, luckily not. But it is such a fantastic sequence.

1:08:04.520 --> 1:08:08.200
<v Speaker 2>There's a lot of rampaging through the onsen here. Love it,

1:08:08.400 --> 1:08:08.640
<v Speaker 2>love it?

1:08:08.720 --> 1:08:09.320
<v Speaker 4>Yeah? Yeah.

1:08:09.440 --> 1:08:13.080
<v Speaker 3>So it's running all over the place, chasing Sin, smashing

1:08:13.120 --> 1:08:15.640
<v Speaker 3>everything everywhere it goes, and it keeps chasing her, but

1:08:15.720 --> 1:08:19.280
<v Speaker 3>she tries to lead it outside where strangely, I mean,

1:08:19.320 --> 1:08:21.920
<v Speaker 3>it's losing mass as it goes, because it keeps vomiting,

1:08:21.960 --> 1:08:23.960
<v Speaker 3>and it does vomit up. Some of the people to it,

1:08:24.040 --> 1:08:25.759
<v Speaker 3>eight or the frogmen and stuff.

1:08:25.840 --> 1:08:27.759
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, they're all okay, everybody's fine.

1:08:28.000 --> 1:08:31.479
<v Speaker 3>But as it gets outside, she leads it outside where

1:08:31.600 --> 1:08:33.920
<v Speaker 3>for some reason it seems to calm down and kind

1:08:33.920 --> 1:08:37.599
<v Speaker 3>of lose its violent temper. And we never get a

1:08:37.600 --> 1:08:42.120
<v Speaker 3>full explanation of this, but sin into its something about it.

1:08:42.160 --> 1:08:45.920
<v Speaker 3>She's like, it's not bad. The bathhouse makes it crazy,

1:08:46.720 --> 1:08:49.680
<v Speaker 3>and so it raises the interesting idea that this is

1:08:49.760 --> 1:08:54.080
<v Speaker 3>not a monster in not a monster in principle. It's

1:08:54.080 --> 1:08:57.520
<v Speaker 3>not a monster in its own world. It only becomes

1:08:57.560 --> 1:09:00.599
<v Speaker 3>a monster when it enters a place it does not belong.

1:09:01.200 --> 1:09:03.959
<v Speaker 2>That's right, Like it's a There are no bad spirits.

1:09:04.000 --> 1:09:06.519
<v Speaker 2>There are just spirits that are misaligned. There are spirits

1:09:06.520 --> 1:09:10.160
<v Speaker 2>out of place or that you know, something has happened

1:09:10.240 --> 1:09:13.200
<v Speaker 2>to set them on the wrong course, such as we

1:09:13.240 --> 1:09:17.840
<v Speaker 2>saw with the river spirit earlier. So yeah, it's another

1:09:17.920 --> 1:09:21.280
<v Speaker 2>part of the great heart of this picture. No evil spirits,

1:09:21.400 --> 1:09:23.280
<v Speaker 2>just misaligned spirits.

1:09:23.760 --> 1:09:26.840
<v Speaker 3>So we start leading up to the climax where Sen

1:09:27.000 --> 1:09:30.840
<v Speaker 3>realizes that she needs to she needs to take a

1:09:30.960 --> 1:09:34.760
<v Speaker 3>train to a place called Swamp Bottom, and there's a

1:09:34.800 --> 1:09:37.599
<v Speaker 3>reason for this. She thinks that she can help things

1:09:37.640 --> 1:09:40.960
<v Speaker 3>if she takes the golden seal that Hakousto back to

1:09:41.120 --> 1:09:44.479
<v Speaker 3>Zeniba and apologize for the theft. If she does that,

1:09:44.840 --> 1:09:48.160
<v Speaker 3>she thinks things can be patched over, and to do

1:09:48.200 --> 1:09:50.200
<v Speaker 3>this she's going to have to take a train. We

1:09:50.240 --> 1:09:52.640
<v Speaker 3>see a train coming and going throughout the world of

1:09:52.760 --> 1:09:56.799
<v Speaker 3>Spirited Away. It's beautiful and strange in that the place

1:09:56.840 --> 1:09:59.519
<v Speaker 3>it cuts through is flooded with water, so it's just

1:09:59.560 --> 1:10:03.120
<v Speaker 3>a train on top of the water. And she's told,

1:10:03.160 --> 1:10:05.080
<v Speaker 3>I think, by Kamaji that she'll have to go to

1:10:05.120 --> 1:10:09.679
<v Speaker 3>a place called Swamp Bottom, where Zeniba lives. So after

1:10:09.880 --> 1:10:12.320
<v Speaker 3>she leads the No Face monster outside, this is the

1:10:12.320 --> 1:10:14.519
<v Speaker 3>next place she's going to go. She's been given a

1:10:15.040 --> 1:10:18.080
<v Speaker 3>series of tickets for the train as a gift by Camaji.

1:10:19.320 --> 1:10:21.840
<v Speaker 3>And it's interesting the way that the train is kind

1:10:21.840 --> 1:10:24.800
<v Speaker 3>of looked on with envy by the other bathhouse workers,

1:10:24.920 --> 1:10:27.800
<v Speaker 3>Like there's this idea among many of them that if

1:10:27.840 --> 1:10:30.080
<v Speaker 3>they had enough money one day, they would buy a

1:10:30.120 --> 1:10:33.160
<v Speaker 3>ticket on the train and go somewhere far away again

1:10:33.160 --> 1:10:36.799
<v Speaker 3>a kind of inversion of the escape to a fantasy

1:10:36.840 --> 1:10:40.840
<v Speaker 3>world plot. The workers here they dream of going elsewhere

1:10:41.720 --> 1:10:44.960
<v Speaker 3>on the train. Sin Actually she doesn't go by herself.

1:10:45.120 --> 1:10:49.080
<v Speaker 3>She is followed by a retinue. She's followed by No

1:10:49.240 --> 1:10:54.559
<v Speaker 3>Face reverted to its original non threatening form, and by

1:10:54.560 --> 1:10:57.840
<v Speaker 3>the mouse form of Bo the giant baby, remember, was

1:10:57.880 --> 1:11:01.080
<v Speaker 3>transformed by Zeniba into a little else and the fly

1:11:01.280 --> 1:11:06.280
<v Speaker 3>form of you Baba's evil bird. So I like that

1:11:06.400 --> 1:11:10.160
<v Speaker 3>all of her companions on this journey are beings that

1:11:10.320 --> 1:11:15.320
<v Speaker 3>in some other form were monstrous, dangerous and mint her harm,

1:11:15.760 --> 1:11:18.599
<v Speaker 3>but now they're informs which are none of those things

1:11:19.200 --> 1:11:23.400
<v Speaker 3>and seem mainly motivated by curiosity about sin and about

1:11:23.439 --> 1:11:24.400
<v Speaker 3>what she's going to do.

1:11:25.040 --> 1:11:26.000
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, that's true.

1:11:26.080 --> 1:11:26.679
<v Speaker 4>That's true.

1:11:27.560 --> 1:11:29.320
<v Speaker 2>Oh and by the way, that the train they're on,

1:11:29.360 --> 1:11:31.960
<v Speaker 2>there was a build out of this at Ghibli Park,

1:11:32.160 --> 1:11:34.479
<v Speaker 2>And I also have a photo here that I'll show you, Joe,

1:11:35.360 --> 1:11:37.840
<v Speaker 2>where you can see me and my son sitting on

1:11:37.880 --> 1:11:40.759
<v Speaker 2>either side of No Face on the train and you

1:11:40.560 --> 1:11:43.120
<v Speaker 2>can see through the windows there you see the flooded

1:11:43.640 --> 1:11:47.439
<v Speaker 2>landscape that it's traversing. It's gorgeous and it is just

1:11:47.560 --> 1:11:49.320
<v Speaker 2>like in the movie where Yeah, she sits on the

1:11:49.320 --> 1:11:51.320
<v Speaker 2>train and No Face just sits down next to her

1:11:51.360 --> 1:11:54.439
<v Speaker 2>on the red cushioned bench. Yeah, very you know, meek

1:11:54.560 --> 1:11:56.240
<v Speaker 2>and peaceful.

1:11:56.840 --> 1:11:59.080
<v Speaker 3>Now, one thing about this journey that the characters have

1:11:59.200 --> 1:12:02.240
<v Speaker 3>discussed is that there is no guarantee of return because

1:12:02.280 --> 1:12:06.479
<v Speaker 3>the ticket gifted by Camaji is to take the train

1:12:06.600 --> 1:12:09.080
<v Speaker 3>to this place, but it's a one way trip. How

1:12:09.120 --> 1:12:12.800
<v Speaker 3>will they get back, that's unclear, But they eventually get

1:12:12.840 --> 1:12:15.920
<v Speaker 3>to swamp bottom and they get off the train under

1:12:15.960 --> 1:12:20.640
<v Speaker 3>the platform. She's still being followed by her formerly monstrous companions,

1:12:21.240 --> 1:12:24.280
<v Speaker 3>and there's a wonderful encounter on the way to the

1:12:24.280 --> 1:12:27.559
<v Speaker 3>witch Zaniba's house, which is the foot lamp. How would

1:12:27.600 --> 1:12:29.000
<v Speaker 3>you describe this rob.

1:12:29.200 --> 1:12:33.519
<v Speaker 2>I mean, there's there's strong Yokai sensibilities to this thing's designed.

1:12:33.560 --> 1:12:35.639
<v Speaker 2>It's kind of hopping along on one leg. It reminds

1:12:35.680 --> 1:12:39.920
<v Speaker 2>me actually a lot of the lamp from the Pixar logo,

1:12:40.040 --> 1:12:42.400
<v Speaker 2>you know, the way it's kind of like hopping about

1:12:42.439 --> 1:12:43.320
<v Speaker 2>as if on one leg.

1:12:44.000 --> 1:12:47.519
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, that's a good comparison. But eventually our characters here

1:12:47.560 --> 1:12:51.519
<v Speaker 3>do make it to Zaniba's house, where there is there

1:12:51.560 --> 1:12:56.040
<v Speaker 3>is sort of a reconciliation and a discovery of information.

1:12:56.280 --> 1:12:57.799
<v Speaker 3>So what do we learn in this scene?

1:12:58.600 --> 1:13:00.600
<v Speaker 2>Let's see, this is the scene where we learn a

1:13:00.600 --> 1:13:03.280
<v Speaker 2>little bit more about the slug, right, Yeah, in the

1:13:03.280 --> 1:13:06.439
<v Speaker 2>inner workings of the curses that are in play here. Now.

1:13:06.439 --> 1:13:08.479
<v Speaker 3>Actually, I'm trying to remember what it is in the scene.

1:13:08.520 --> 1:13:11.280
<v Speaker 3>Is it the case that we learned that Haku was

1:13:11.360 --> 1:13:16.320
<v Speaker 3>being controlled by Ubaba through the slug, that she made

1:13:16.400 --> 1:13:19.160
<v Speaker 3>him barf up by giving him the dumpling and he's

1:13:19.200 --> 1:13:23.000
<v Speaker 3>now free of that, yes, But also Zeniba has as

1:13:23.040 --> 1:13:26.240
<v Speaker 3>a magical item for Sin as well. It's a magical

1:13:26.360 --> 1:13:31.719
<v Speaker 3>hair band, yes, yeah, And so there's that, and then

1:13:32.200 --> 1:13:36.080
<v Speaker 3>there's a reunion with the restored Haku, who in dragon

1:13:36.160 --> 1:13:39.439
<v Speaker 3>form is carrying Sin back to the bathhouse. Later, so

1:13:39.560 --> 1:13:42.880
<v Speaker 3>they've resolved like how she'll get home and hopefully rescue

1:13:42.920 --> 1:13:46.080
<v Speaker 3>her parents. But on the way there's a big revelation.

1:13:46.400 --> 1:13:49.599
<v Speaker 3>Remember there's been this mystery the whole time. How did

1:13:49.680 --> 1:13:54.000
<v Speaker 3>Haku know Chihiro from before? How did he already know

1:13:54.120 --> 1:13:56.679
<v Speaker 3>her name? And how was he familiar with her before

1:13:56.680 --> 1:14:00.000
<v Speaker 3>she arrived. She has a memory, and we've seen flats

1:14:00.439 --> 1:14:03.120
<v Speaker 3>of this memory sort of dotted throughout the story of

1:14:03.160 --> 1:14:07.919
<v Speaker 3>her falling into the water, being underwater and seeing something,

1:14:08.080 --> 1:14:11.000
<v Speaker 3>seeing a kind of friendly face. We learned that once

1:14:11.160 --> 1:14:14.479
<v Speaker 3>as a child she fell into a river. It was

1:14:14.600 --> 1:14:18.040
<v Speaker 3>the Cohaku River, and I think she said, what was

1:14:18.080 --> 1:14:19.920
<v Speaker 3>she was trying to do? She was trying to reach

1:14:19.960 --> 1:14:21.439
<v Speaker 3>in from the bank for something.

1:14:22.200 --> 1:14:24.280
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah, I believe so. And then we get these

1:14:24.600 --> 1:14:28.120
<v Speaker 2>these sequences underwater. They are, in an interesting way, kind

1:14:28.160 --> 1:14:32.240
<v Speaker 2>of a sign of things to come with Ponyo later on,

1:14:32.280 --> 1:14:34.080
<v Speaker 2>which is going to be very concerned with a lot

1:14:34.080 --> 1:14:37.400
<v Speaker 2>of underwater action and surging waters and so forth.

1:14:37.920 --> 1:14:41.200
<v Speaker 3>So she fell into the water of the Coohaku River

1:14:41.479 --> 1:14:45.040
<v Speaker 3>and she thought she would drown, but she didn't drown. Instead,

1:14:45.520 --> 1:14:48.799
<v Speaker 3>she was carried gently to the bank. And it turns

1:14:48.840 --> 1:14:52.879
<v Speaker 3>out that's where she knows Haku from. Haku was a spirit,

1:14:53.200 --> 1:14:56.720
<v Speaker 3>was a being in the river that helped her to

1:14:56.920 --> 1:15:01.120
<v Speaker 3>the bank, And Haku was originally like the stink spirit

1:15:01.160 --> 1:15:05.000
<v Speaker 3>from earlier, a river spirit, a dragon formed river spirit,

1:15:05.360 --> 1:15:09.360
<v Speaker 3>and his real name is the Cohaku River. Remembering his

1:15:09.520 --> 1:15:12.680
<v Speaker 3>real name, Haku can now potentially be free of you

1:15:12.840 --> 1:15:16.680
<v Speaker 3>Baba's magic. Now when they get back, there's there's sort

1:15:16.680 --> 1:15:19.320
<v Speaker 3>of an epilogue where Ubaba says that Sin has to

1:15:19.400 --> 1:15:22.680
<v Speaker 3>pass one final test before she and her parents can

1:15:22.760 --> 1:15:25.280
<v Speaker 3>go free, and I like that. At this point, Sin

1:15:25.400 --> 1:15:28.160
<v Speaker 3>has completely won over the people at the bathhouse, like

1:15:28.520 --> 1:15:32.679
<v Speaker 3>they're all like bad form, bad form. Sin's like, okay,

1:15:32.680 --> 1:15:35.760
<v Speaker 3>I'll do I'll do the test. And the test is

1:15:36.240 --> 1:15:38.760
<v Speaker 3>there's a lineup of pigs and she's supposed to from

1:15:38.800 --> 1:15:41.360
<v Speaker 3>this lineup of pigs pick out, okay, which ones are

1:15:41.400 --> 1:15:45.439
<v Speaker 3>your parents? And Sin accepts the challenge and correctly guesses

1:15:45.600 --> 1:15:48.120
<v Speaker 3>that none of them are her parents. It was a trick,

1:15:48.280 --> 1:15:52.400
<v Speaker 3>trick question, but she she outsmarts it, and thus the

1:15:52.439 --> 1:15:55.920
<v Speaker 3>magic is broken. Sin is chi hero once again and

1:15:55.960 --> 1:15:57.040
<v Speaker 3>she can return home.

1:15:57.600 --> 1:16:00.639
<v Speaker 2>All of her coworkers celebrate. They are all know again

1:16:00.920 --> 1:16:03.080
<v Speaker 2>she's completely won them over, so they're cheering her on

1:16:03.200 --> 1:16:03.760
<v Speaker 2>the whole way.

1:16:04.840 --> 1:16:06.000
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, just a.

1:16:06.000 --> 1:16:09.160
<v Speaker 2>Sweet ending, though we're not quite to the complete ending yet,

1:16:09.160 --> 1:16:12.479
<v Speaker 2>but a sweet resolve of what's going on in the

1:16:12.479 --> 1:16:14.200
<v Speaker 2>fantasy realm here, that's right.

1:16:14.240 --> 1:16:18.360
<v Speaker 3>So she has her goodbyes with Haku, and she's told

1:16:18.400 --> 1:16:20.559
<v Speaker 3>that her parents will be restored back at the tunnel

1:16:20.560 --> 1:16:23.120
<v Speaker 3>where they first entered the spirit world. She goes back

1:16:23.160 --> 1:16:25.599
<v Speaker 3>to meet them, and indeed they are safe and sound again,

1:16:26.120 --> 1:16:29.080
<v Speaker 3>and she returns to the mundane world with her parents.

1:16:29.280 --> 1:16:34.280
<v Speaker 3>And now I think having a more balanced attitude about life.

1:16:34.360 --> 1:16:38.599
<v Speaker 3>I mean, it's kind of interesting that I don't know

1:16:38.840 --> 1:16:42.040
<v Speaker 3>unless I'm missing something. It's not a movie where the

1:16:42.160 --> 1:16:47.400
<v Speaker 3>character learned one specific moral like I thought X, but

1:16:47.479 --> 1:16:52.240
<v Speaker 3>it's actually the opposite. It's why she's just more mature

1:16:52.360 --> 1:16:54.720
<v Speaker 3>in many different ways, in ways that are hard to

1:16:54.720 --> 1:16:57.799
<v Speaker 3>pin down, rather than being like a single semantic lesson

1:16:57.880 --> 1:16:58.519
<v Speaker 3>of the plot.

1:16:58.720 --> 1:16:58.960
<v Speaker 4>You know.

1:16:59.520 --> 1:17:04.360
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it's like in the real world something clicked, you know,

1:17:04.760 --> 1:17:07.200
<v Speaker 2>and there was this change in her, and then we

1:17:07.240 --> 1:17:12.000
<v Speaker 2>see that click expanded out into this fantasy adventure here, like,

1:17:12.320 --> 1:17:14.920
<v Speaker 2>you know, a change that may have you know, many

1:17:15.000 --> 1:17:17.559
<v Speaker 2>different working parts, but is kind of hard to really

1:17:17.560 --> 1:17:21.080
<v Speaker 2>put your finger on. Well that here is is brought

1:17:21.120 --> 1:17:23.719
<v Speaker 2>to us through the lens of fantasy. Yeah, so she's

1:17:24.120 --> 1:17:27.080
<v Speaker 2>she's changed, but not in some like simplistic way where

1:17:27.120 --> 1:17:30.599
<v Speaker 2>it's like, oh, I realized that the magic being wasn't magic,

1:17:30.600 --> 1:17:32.360
<v Speaker 2>the magic was in me the whole time or anything

1:17:32.400 --> 1:17:34.960
<v Speaker 2>like that, you know. Yeah, but she is she is

1:17:35.000 --> 1:17:37.640
<v Speaker 2>different now, she's a little more mature and she she

1:17:37.760 --> 1:17:40.439
<v Speaker 2>is she's ready for this to go through, with this

1:17:40.520 --> 1:17:42.280
<v Speaker 2>change that's occurring in her real life.

1:17:42.760 --> 1:17:46.120
<v Speaker 3>But I also like that the return to the mundane

1:17:46.120 --> 1:17:49.599
<v Speaker 3>world is not and it was all a dream ending. Yeah,

1:17:49.680 --> 1:17:52.280
<v Speaker 3>you know, it's not like a reset on. You can

1:17:52.520 --> 1:17:57.360
<v Speaker 3>view everything that came before as purely metaphorical. There if

1:17:57.400 --> 1:17:59.960
<v Speaker 3>you do view it as metaphorical, part of the metaphor

1:18:00.120 --> 1:18:03.679
<v Speaker 3>or is that something of the magic world is real

1:18:03.800 --> 1:18:08.680
<v Speaker 3>and follows you home. Because when she's changed by her experiences,

1:18:09.040 --> 1:18:11.000
<v Speaker 3>and she goes back out of the tunnel and she

1:18:11.040 --> 1:18:13.559
<v Speaker 3>and her parents find the car again, and you might think,

1:18:13.600 --> 1:18:15.080
<v Speaker 3>if it was the more kind of it was all

1:18:15.120 --> 1:18:18.080
<v Speaker 3>a dream ending, everything would be just as they left it,

1:18:18.120 --> 1:18:20.479
<v Speaker 3>and they would just drive home. But instead they get

1:18:20.479 --> 1:18:22.759
<v Speaker 3>to the car and it's like covered in leaves and brush,

1:18:22.800 --> 1:18:25.240
<v Speaker 3>and her parents are like, wow, it's all dusty inside.

1:18:25.280 --> 1:18:28.000
<v Speaker 3>So clearly they've been gone a long time. And not

1:18:28.080 --> 1:18:31.439
<v Speaker 3>only that, but chi Hero has an artifact from the

1:18:31.479 --> 1:18:34.280
<v Speaker 3>magic world with her, the hairband that Zeneba gave her.

1:18:34.840 --> 1:18:38.200
<v Speaker 2>Ah. As we were watching this, my wife did comment,

1:18:38.240 --> 1:18:39.680
<v Speaker 2>She's like, oh, yeah, there's no way mom and dad

1:18:39.680 --> 1:18:43.559
<v Speaker 2>aren't fired from their jobs at this point, Like it's

1:18:43.560 --> 1:18:48.080
<v Speaker 2>then what weeks? Yeah again, through all these changes to

1:18:48.160 --> 1:18:52.400
<v Speaker 2>Hero perseveres and the ending is super sweet. It's like

1:18:52.479 --> 1:18:56.880
<v Speaker 2>victory is achieved not through violence but through sheer strength

1:18:56.960 --> 1:19:01.000
<v Speaker 2>of character, you know. And yeah, it's just a nice ending.

1:19:01.040 --> 1:19:04.479
<v Speaker 2>It's a film that definitely has its has tension, has

1:19:04.520 --> 1:19:07.720
<v Speaker 2>a little bit of fear, you know. It's it's it is,

1:19:08.040 --> 1:19:10.679
<v Speaker 2>in its own way, a roller coaster ride, but such

1:19:10.680 --> 1:19:13.000
<v Speaker 2>a sweet landing here at the close of the picture.

1:19:13.680 --> 1:19:16.759
<v Speaker 3>I love the balance found in the narrative of movies

1:19:16.800 --> 1:19:20.360
<v Speaker 3>like this and like NAUSICAA where like it's a movie

1:19:20.360 --> 1:19:24.519
<v Speaker 3>that feels very moral but not moralizing, you know. Instead,

1:19:24.640 --> 1:19:27.600
<v Speaker 3>there like there is a good sense of right and

1:19:27.640 --> 1:19:29.759
<v Speaker 3>wrong at the heart of it. But it's not preachy

1:19:29.920 --> 1:19:32.640
<v Speaker 3>or anything. It's it's just it's just kind of like

1:19:32.760 --> 1:19:36.160
<v Speaker 3>telling a story. In a similar sense there is. I

1:19:36.200 --> 1:19:38.200
<v Speaker 3>love the way like you say that the characters are

1:19:38.240 --> 1:19:42.639
<v Speaker 3>able to to find victory without violence, mostly that they're

1:19:42.680 --> 1:19:47.200
<v Speaker 3>not fighters. They don't they don't use violence even really

1:19:47.240 --> 1:19:52.520
<v Speaker 3>in defense much. They instead they try to find compromises

1:19:52.560 --> 1:19:56.320
<v Speaker 3>and solutions mentally and and and uh, you know, find

1:19:56.320 --> 1:19:58.920
<v Speaker 3>their way around problems. And yet at the same time

1:19:58.960 --> 1:20:03.000
<v Speaker 3>it doesn't feel un realistic about like ignoring the reality

1:20:03.000 --> 1:20:07.040
<v Speaker 3>of threats. It's just such a great storytelling sensibility and

1:20:07.800 --> 1:20:09.200
<v Speaker 3>the perfect art to match it.

1:20:09.880 --> 1:20:12.320
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I mean, in a way, it's a Miyazaki film

1:20:12.360 --> 1:20:14.280
<v Speaker 2>like this is it's like a it's like looking at

1:20:14.280 --> 1:20:17.040
<v Speaker 2>a zen garden or something. You know, it's like, just

1:20:17.200 --> 1:20:19.920
<v Speaker 2>like what is it telling you? What is the vibe

1:20:20.080 --> 1:20:22.559
<v Speaker 2>that it is delivering? What is the message? Well, like

1:20:22.600 --> 1:20:24.639
<v Speaker 2>the message is in the structure, you know, you kind

1:20:24.680 --> 1:20:28.559
<v Speaker 2>of look at it, contemplate it and absorb it. You know,

1:20:29.680 --> 1:20:34.200
<v Speaker 2>it's just yeah, so well executed, entertaining. But indeed it

1:20:34.280 --> 1:20:36.599
<v Speaker 2>does give you a lot to think about afterwards, if

1:20:36.600 --> 1:20:37.960
<v Speaker 2>you want to go there, if you want to just

1:20:38.080 --> 1:20:40.519
<v Speaker 2>enjoy it as a ride, it delivers that as well.

1:20:40.560 --> 1:20:42.360
<v Speaker 2>And I think that's one of the reasons that a

1:20:42.360 --> 1:20:47.720
<v Speaker 2>film like this it achieves a real lasting place in

1:20:47.880 --> 1:20:52.080
<v Speaker 2>your heart, because, like a lot of great films, every

1:20:52.120 --> 1:20:54.560
<v Speaker 2>time you see it it says something to you a

1:20:54.600 --> 1:20:57.559
<v Speaker 2>little differently, like it speaks to you at different ages

1:20:58.439 --> 1:21:03.559
<v Speaker 2>and during different challengees and in different celebrations as well. Yeah,

1:21:03.600 --> 1:21:05.200
<v Speaker 2>just a great picture overall.

1:21:05.800 --> 1:21:06.360
<v Speaker 3>Well said.

1:21:06.760 --> 1:21:09.000
<v Speaker 2>So that's what we have to say about Spirited Away,

1:21:09.040 --> 1:21:11.200
<v Speaker 2>But we'd love to hear what you have to say

1:21:11.200 --> 1:21:14.920
<v Speaker 2>about Spirited Away or other Miyazaki films. You can write

1:21:14.920 --> 1:21:17.240
<v Speaker 2>into us. We'd love to hear from you about this

1:21:18.200 --> 1:21:20.240
<v Speaker 2>as well as any other film we've talked about on

1:21:20.280 --> 1:21:22.639
<v Speaker 2>the show, or if you have recommendations for the future.

1:21:23.479 --> 1:21:24.960
<v Speaker 2>If you want to see a complete list of all

1:21:25.000 --> 1:21:27.400
<v Speaker 2>the films we've covered over the years, we have a

1:21:27.400 --> 1:21:29.599
<v Speaker 2>great list going over at letterbox dot com.

1:21:29.600 --> 1:21:30.240
<v Speaker 3>This L E. T.

1:21:30.240 --> 1:21:32.360
<v Speaker 2>T E R. B o x D dot com. I

1:21:32.360 --> 1:21:34.720
<v Speaker 2>feel like most film fans know about this website at

1:21:34.720 --> 1:21:38.360
<v Speaker 2>this point. I think I saw John Carpenter on Instagram

1:21:39.000 --> 1:21:41.320
<v Speaker 2>recently say what is a letterbox? So, like, you know,

1:21:41.320 --> 1:21:44.559
<v Speaker 2>it's like everybody is on some level aware of it

1:21:44.600 --> 1:21:47.439
<v Speaker 2>now and getting in on how fun it can be

1:21:47.560 --> 1:21:51.679
<v Speaker 2>a great way to organize your your two C lists

1:21:51.720 --> 1:21:54.760
<v Speaker 2>as well as lists of favorite films. Yeah, anyway, we're

1:21:54.760 --> 1:21:57.480
<v Speaker 2>on there as weird House Again. If you're on Instagram,

1:21:57.520 --> 1:22:00.680
<v Speaker 2>look us up at st b ym podcast. We'll keep

1:22:00.720 --> 1:22:02.759
<v Speaker 2>you abreast of what's going on with Weird House Cinema

1:22:02.800 --> 1:22:03.559
<v Speaker 2>there as well.

1:22:03.960 --> 1:22:06.440
<v Speaker 3>Also a great place to find funny reviews.

1:22:07.040 --> 1:22:10.800
<v Speaker 2>Funny, some funny, some not funny, but there are some.

1:22:10.960 --> 1:22:13.479
<v Speaker 2>There are some real hands on there and also some

1:22:13.520 --> 1:22:17.440
<v Speaker 2>real insightful reviews. You'll also find, i think some unofficial

1:22:17.600 --> 1:22:20.840
<v Speaker 2>uploads of like famous film reviews. I'm not going to

1:22:20.960 --> 1:22:23.160
<v Speaker 2>name any names but because I don't want them taken

1:22:23.240 --> 1:22:26.559
<v Speaker 2>down because I really like reading them there. But you'll

1:22:26.560 --> 1:22:28.519
<v Speaker 2>find some some of those reviews there as well.

1:22:29.000 --> 1:22:32.799
<v Speaker 3>Huge thanks as always to our excellent audio producer JJ Posway.

1:22:33.160 --> 1:22:34.760
<v Speaker 3>If you would like to get in touch with us

1:22:34.760 --> 1:22:37.160
<v Speaker 3>with feedback on this episode or any other. To suggest

1:22:37.200 --> 1:22:39.280
<v Speaker 3>a topic for the future, or just to say hello,

1:22:39.400 --> 1:22:41.960
<v Speaker 3>you can email us at contact at stuff to Blow

1:22:41.960 --> 1:22:49.320
<v Speaker 3>your Mind dot com.

1:22:49.439 --> 1:22:52.400
<v Speaker 1>Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For

1:22:52.479 --> 1:22:55.240
<v Speaker 1>more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,

1:22:55.400 --> 1:22:58.600
<v Speaker 1>Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.