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Speaker 1: Hey, Welcome to Weird House Cinema rewind. This is Rob

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Speaker 1: Lamb and today we are re airing our episode from

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Speaker 1: just last year. This published eleven eight, twenty twenty four.

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Speaker 1: It is our discussion of Miyazaki's two thousand and one

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Speaker 1: fantasy classic Spirited Away.

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Speaker 2: Enjoy Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production

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Speaker 2: of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 1: Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema.

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Speaker 3: This is Rob Lamb and I am Joe McCormick. And

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Speaker 3: today on Weird House we're going to be talking about

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Speaker 3: the two thousand and one Japanese animated fantasy film Spirited Away,

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Speaker 3: directed by Hiau Miyazaki. This week, I really wanted to

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Speaker 3: talk about a weird movie with a good soul, and

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Speaker 3: I can hardly think of a better example. This is

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Speaker 3: not only one of my favorite films we've covered on

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Speaker 3: Weird House Cinema, this has got to be one of

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Speaker 3: my favorite films of all time. I just came back

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Speaker 3: to it for the first time in many years this week,

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Speaker 3: and I knew I was going to love it on rewatch,

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Speaker 3: but I think I was not prepared still for just

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Speaker 3: how lovely and exciting and wonderful this movie is. And

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Speaker 3: basically every way.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely. I mean, this is one of the all time greats.

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Speaker 1: This is a film I've seen multiple times over the years,

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Speaker 1: and yesterday, late in the afternoon, I asked my family's like, hey,

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Speaker 1: I've got to watch Spirit It Away again for work.

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Speaker 1: Who wants to watch it with me? And they were

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Speaker 1: both on board, my wife and my son. So we

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Speaker 1: all just sat in and sat in the living room

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Speaker 1: and watched the film all the way through again. And

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Speaker 1: it's one of those films where every time you watch it, yeah,

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Speaker 1: you make new discoveries. You find yourself re examining the

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Speaker 1: things you love about it and discovering new things to

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Speaker 1: love about it as well. And for a weird House

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Speaker 1: cinema purposes here, this film is also notable for in

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Speaker 1: a couple of ways. It's our second Miyazaki film, following NAUSICAA,

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Speaker 1: and it's only the fourth film out of Let's see

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Speaker 1: what have we done? We've done I believe one hundred

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Speaker 1: and eighty one pictures on Weird House Cinema and this

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Speaker 1: is the only fourth time we've looked at a film

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Speaker 1: from the two thousands, the early two thousands, the decade,

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Speaker 1: the others being the year two thousand Psycho Beach Party.

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Speaker 1: That was one that had Seth as a co host,

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Speaker 1: and then we did two thousand and one's Jason X

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Speaker 1: in two thousand and fours, the Chronicles of Riddick.

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Speaker 3: What a selection, you know.

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Speaker 1: It is interesting how those other films I just mentioned,

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Speaker 1: those are all very much in each film's own way,

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Speaker 1: an artifact of the time. Spirited Away is a film

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Speaker 1: that stands outside of time, though it does not feel

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Speaker 1: like something that exists just within the year two thousand

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Speaker 1: and one. It exists in all years, you know. It

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Speaker 1: just takes one of those films.

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Speaker 3: Yes, apart from the implied technology that we see on

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Speaker 3: display in some of the animation shots, this could have

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Speaker 3: been made any time in the history of color animated cinema.

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Speaker 3: It could have been from the seventies, It could have

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Speaker 3: been from this year. It really is out of time

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Speaker 3: in that way. Well, I don't know if it could

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Speaker 3: be from the seventies. We see some cars and technology

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Speaker 3: and stuff at the very beginning that, or maybe a

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Speaker 3: little beyond that. But really it is an out of

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Speaker 3: time kind of film. So sometimes on weird House Cinema

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Speaker 3: we like to pull out obscure gems from a dusty,

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Speaker 3: forgotten shelf on the video store. That obviously is not

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Speaker 3: the case here. Many of you probably know of this

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Speaker 3: movie already. Spirited Away was a big hit both in

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Speaker 3: Japan and internationally. You know, it was a box office success.

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Speaker 3: It won an Oscar for Best Animated Feature at the

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Speaker 3: seventy fifth Academy Awards. Usually I don't pay a huge

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Speaker 3: amount of attention to award ceremonies, but in this case,

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Speaker 3: I'm glad to see the accolades going to something. I

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Speaker 3: think it is absolutely deserved, both as a story and

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Speaker 3: as an achievement in technical filmmaking. Spirited Away is just perfect.

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Speaker 3: It's the kind of object you just want to take

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Speaker 3: with you everywhere. It feels so weird and so wise

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Speaker 3: and so interesting and has such a good heart.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely yeah, I don't think it's very controversial to say

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Speaker 1: it absolutely deserved that Oscar over the movie Ice Age.

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Speaker 3: And I've never seen that, so I can't compare.

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Speaker 1: But not even any shame, you know, directed at the

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Speaker 1: makers of Ice Age. I'm sure the people who made

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Speaker 1: Ice Age are probably like, yeah, I mean yeah, Spirited

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Speaker 1: Away is a better films. Most films are not as

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Speaker 1: good as Spirited Away, it's just on its own level.

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Speaker 1: So yeah, this is easily one of my favorite Miyazaki

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Speaker 1: films as well. It really has no faults in my opinion,

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Speaker 1: and to your point, has just such a pure heart.

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Speaker 1: I love all of Miyazaki's films and a number of

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Speaker 1: the films that I've seen in the studio Ghibli family

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Speaker 1: as well that he did not actually helm as a director,

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Speaker 1: But this one's a real gem. I hadn't watched it

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Speaker 1: in a few years. It's been very much on my

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Speaker 1: mind though, since my family and I visited Ghibli Park

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Speaker 1: in Japan earlier this year, which is a location loaded

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Speaker 1: with recreations and exhibits related to this and other films

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Speaker 1: from the Ghibli canon. I highly recommend that experience for

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Speaker 1: Ghibli fans if you happen to find yourself in Japan

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Speaker 1: and can set aside a day in Nagoya which will

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Speaker 1: get you close enough to take the train to the park,

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Speaker 1: just give those tickets in advance.

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Speaker 3: Now, there are so many fascinating ways that Spirited Away

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Speaker 3: stands out. I think maybe we'll save a lot of

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Speaker 3: those observations for the later part of the episode, where

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Speaker 3: we're just talking through the plot, and we can bring

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Speaker 3: things up as they come up in the story. I

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Speaker 3: will say upfront that, of course, in this episode we

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Speaker 3: are going to talk about the plot from the beginning

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Speaker 3: to the end. And you know, we often give spoiler warnings,

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Speaker 3: especially for films where it feels like the surprises are

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Speaker 3: very exciting to experience firsthand. This case, I would really

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Speaker 3: emphasize if you've never seen Spirited Away and you want to,

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Speaker 3: this is one where I would say, please please watch

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Speaker 3: the movie before you listen to this and hear us

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Speaker 3: explain the whole lot. It is worth it, definitely to

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Speaker 3: just go in knowing nothing and experience it for yourself.

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Speaker 1: And if you have no experience with Miyazaki films, if

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Speaker 1: you have little or no experience with the Japanese animated

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Speaker 1: pictures or TV in general, I still think that Spirited

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Speaker 1: Away is a wonderful starting place for you. You don't

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Speaker 1: need to know anything else before you go into this

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Speaker 1: picture other than you just need to be on board

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Speaker 1: for the journey. All right, Let's go ahead and throw

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Speaker 1: in just a little bit of trailer audio, probably not

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Speaker 1: the whole trailer here, but maybe just a taste so

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Speaker 1: you can get some idea of the audio involved.

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Speaker 2: Here, Honey, don't take a short cut. You always get us.

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Speaker 1: Lost from master filmmaker Ao Miyazaki.

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Speaker 3: What is it? Come on, let's go in. I want

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Speaker 3: to see what's on the other side. Will you go?

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Speaker 2: Hey, you.

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Speaker 1: Shouldn't be here.

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Speaker 3: Get out of here, now, leave before it gets dark.

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Speaker 3: You've got to get across the river. Go I'll distract him.

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Speaker 1: Don't be afraid. I'm master Haku. I just want to

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Speaker 1: help you, all right. Well, if you want to go

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Speaker 1: watch Spirited Away again or for the first time before

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Speaker 1: you proceed with this episode, we encourage you to do so.

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Speaker 1: It is available wherever you get your studio Ghibli Films.

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Speaker 1: I own this one on DVD from in the day,

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Speaker 1: but we ended up watching it on Max Streaming, which

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Speaker 1: as of this recording anyway, streams a number of Ghibli

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Speaker 1: films in the States, maybe all the major ones, but

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Speaker 1: like you know, certainly all the major Mimyazaki films are

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Speaker 1: on there. But if you reside or are traveling internationally,

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Speaker 1: you might find them streaming elsewhere like Netflix, you know,

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Speaker 1: crossover international boundary, and then suddenly Netflix may have your

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Speaker 1: studio Ghibli Films. Just see what's up when you're there.

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Speaker 3: I guess Google Results falsely told me I could stream

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Speaker 3: them on Netflix. Oh it's not the case.

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Speaker 1: No, no, not unless you I think maybe if you

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Speaker 1: go to Mexico you can, but or at least at

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Speaker 1: one point that was the case. Anyway, the Shop Factory,

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Speaker 1: DVD and Blu Ray releases for this film are all

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Speaker 1: pretty excellent, So if you want to go physical media,

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Speaker 1: definitely go that direction. But also, Miyazaki films are periodically

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Speaker 1: re released on the big screen pretty much every summer.

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Speaker 1: I see some opportunities to see a Miyazaki film on

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Speaker 1: the big screen, and I haven't done it for one

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Speaker 1: of any of the classic films yet, but I have

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Speaker 1: gotten to see at least two or three of his

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Speaker 1: films when they were initially released in theaters. And it's

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Speaker 1: always a grand time. All right, Let's talk about at

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Speaker 1: least some of the people involved here, As is always

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Speaker 1: the case with any film, but especially the big animated

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Speaker 1: picture like this, So many people's work went into making it.

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Speaker 1: We cannot list everybody. We're gonna list, you know, we're

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Speaker 1: going to talk briefly about the director. You know, we'll

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Speaker 1: hit the music and we'll hit some of the vocal

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Speaker 1: talent involved here. But yeah, at the top we have

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Speaker 1: Io Miyazaki, director, writer, story and storyboard artist born nineteen

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Speaker 1: forty one, the legendary Japanese animator and filmmaker. We previously

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Speaker 1: went into a lot of detail on him in our

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Speaker 1: Nasca episode, and we'll talk a good bit more about

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Speaker 1: him as we proceed here, but I'd largely say, well,

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Speaker 1: you know, for our purposes here, refer back to that

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Speaker 1: previous episode, but suffice to say, towering figure not only

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Speaker 1: in the realm of Japanese animation, but global animation filmmaking.

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Speaker 1: He's one of the great living storytellers, and every single

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Speaker 1: one of his films deserves a look and speaks to

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Speaker 1: a universal audience on themes of childhood, environmentalism, the anti

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Speaker 1: war movement, cross generational conflict, and so many other themes

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Speaker 1: that should resonate with all of us today as much

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Speaker 1: as any other day throughout his decades of filmmaking. Plus,

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Speaker 1: if you like Miyazaki, love fantastic creatures, feelings of wonder

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Speaker 1: and discovery, and of course action packed flight sequences, then

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Speaker 1: his work is absolutely for you.

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Speaker 3: He did love flying. All of his movies I can

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Speaker 3: think of. Is there a single one I've seen that

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Speaker 3: doesn't have a major flight element. I think they all do.

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Speaker 1: If there's not a direct flight element, there is a

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Speaker 1: scene that like I think captures a feeling of flight,

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Speaker 1: you know. Yeah. In fact, at Gibli Park there, you know,

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Speaker 1: it's it's a full blown sort of theme park, and

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Speaker 1: it is a theme park. It's not as ride centric

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Speaker 1: as you know, something like six Flags. There's not six

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Speaker 1: Flags over Miyazaki or anything, but it has a number

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Speaker 1: of attractions. And there's one little corner that has a

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Speaker 1: scale model shop because Miyazaki of course famously a fan

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Speaker 1: of scale model building, especially when it comes to airplanes

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Speaker 1: and tanks of the World War II era. And so

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Speaker 1: you go into this little store as tiny and I'm like,

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Speaker 1: one wall it's you know, you know, Japanese made classic

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Speaker 1: you know, World War two model kits, and then on

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Speaker 1: the other wall it's model kits of various robots, planes

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Speaker 1: and vehicles from Miyazaki movies. And it's it's really really nice.

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Speaker 1: It made me feel really good to go in there.

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Speaker 1: I bought something and then really cracked my head hard

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Speaker 1: as I was coming back out. I like having to

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Speaker 1: stoop through the doorframe because it, and and I thought

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Speaker 1: of that as we watched this film, because there are

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Speaker 1: several scenes where our main character cracks her head on

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Speaker 1: something or she's going through a little doorway, and I

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Speaker 1: was like, yep, that's that was for me the Ghibli

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Speaker 1: Park experience as well.

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Speaker 3: Correct me if I'm wrong. But you're a bit of

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Speaker 3: a model airplane enthusiast yourself, aren't you? Or are you not?

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Speaker 1: My dad was, I've always been. That was his level

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Speaker 1: of scale modeling. He did a lot of planes and

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Speaker 1: tanks of the World War two era. I'm more of

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Speaker 1: like maybe a fantasy tank, Like I'll do some Star

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Speaker 1: Wars tanks here and there, or maybe I'll be tempted

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Speaker 1: to pick up a Warhammer tank or something, but mostly

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Speaker 1: it's like fantasy figures, dungeons and dragons and so forth.

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Speaker 1: But yeah, I like painting little little dudes.

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Speaker 3: So I was looking a bit into the production process

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Speaker 3: behind Spirited Away, and one thing that really surprised me is,

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Speaker 3: I don't know, the final product of this movie feels

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Speaker 3: incredibly tight and polished and perfected. It is like there,

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Speaker 3: It's just it feels like somebody's life's work, you know

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Speaker 3: that they thought about this immensely and immense consideration went

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Speaker 3: into making it a perfect project. But I was reading

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Speaker 3: a bit in a book by a scholar named Susan

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Speaker 3: Napier called Miyazaki World, a Life in Art from Yale

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Speaker 3: University Press twenty eighteen that actually, behind the scenes, there

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Speaker 3: was a good bit of chaos that led to this movie.

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Speaker 3: So before this movie came out, Miyazaki had released the

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Speaker 3: very successful film called Princess Mononoke, which maybe one day

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Speaker 3: we'll talk about on the podcast in its own episode.

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Speaker 3: But after this, Miyazaki apparently quit the studio, quit Studio

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Speaker 3: Ghibli in January of nineteen ninety eight. But then he

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Speaker 3: had a successor, somebody who, in Napier's words, was deemed

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Speaker 3: Miyazaki's heir apparent, named Yoshifumi Kondo, who died suddenly less

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Speaker 3: than a week after Miyazaki left the studio, And so

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Speaker 3: Miyazaki was then brought back in. And so Napier writes,

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Speaker 3: quote Spirited Away was thus born out of some turmoil

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Speaker 3: in the studio, which the movie sometimes chaotic structure seems

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Speaker 3: to reflect. And there are other parts in this book

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Speaker 3: that mention many people involved, saying that the chaotic kind

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Speaker 3: of frantic running about. Atmosphere of the bath House is

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Speaker 3: in many ways supposed to reflect the studio in which

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Speaker 3: the movie itself was made.

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Speaker 1: Oh wow, okay, I can imagine that, you know, because

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Speaker 1: the bath House, the onsen here is it is home

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Speaker 1: to a lot of chaos, but there's a lot of

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Speaker 1: very strategically minded management of that chaos. You know, we see,

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Speaker 1: we see a lot of effort going in to figure

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Speaker 1: out what are we going to do about this sudden

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Speaker 1: change in our circumstances. Yeah, so I can see that.

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Speaker 3: There's another thing that comes up on that same frequency,

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Speaker 3: which is that Miyazaki had some tendency to sort of

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Speaker 3: insert an avatar of himself for some kind of self

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Speaker 3: parody into his films, And so there's question over who

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Speaker 3: he was really thinking of or who should be thought

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Speaker 3: of as the Miyazaki parallel within the Bathhouse of the movie.

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Speaker 3: Is he the witch Yubaba running everything with you know,

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Speaker 3: with the kind of iron fist and with these these

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Speaker 3: chaotic enchantments, or is he Kamaji the boiler man? Or

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Speaker 3: is he you know, is he the stink spirit? You know?

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Speaker 3: Who knows? But they're they're I don't know. I thought

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Speaker 3: this was funny. The question of like, who is Miyazaki

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Speaker 3: in this movie?

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Speaker 1: I feel like he's Kamaji. I've also seen I've seen

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Speaker 1: reference to interviews where people have asked him, Hey, are

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Speaker 1: you no face in this? And I think when he's

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Speaker 1: been asked about like what no face is or what

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Speaker 1: no face represents, He's always like, no faces, no face. Yes,

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Speaker 1: some people are like no face, but I wasn't thinking

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Speaker 1: of anyone in particular. You mentioned Condo by the way,

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Speaker 1: he had directed the highly successful nineteen ninety five film

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Speaker 1: Whisper of the Heart that was his first and sadly

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Speaker 1: only feature film as a director. That one is also

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Speaker 1: readily available wherever you get your Ghibli films. It's a

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Speaker 1: sweet film with some fantastic elements to it, but it

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Speaker 1: is not in its entirety like an escape into a

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Speaker 1: fantasy realm. It has a great like sort of fantasy

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Speaker 1: sequence in it, but it's a sweet film. I recommend

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Speaker 1: it now. When we talked about NAUSICAA previously, that was

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Speaker 1: the case where we had the Japanese vocal talent and

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Speaker 1: then two different waves of English language vocal talent coming

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Speaker 1: along and doing the dub. In this case, we really

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Speaker 1: only have for the consideration of English speaking audiences, we

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Speaker 1: really only have the two. We have the original Japanese

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Speaker 1: cast and then we have the Disney produced English language cast.

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Speaker 1: And not going to go through all of these here,

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Speaker 1: but I wanted to touch on some of them. I

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Speaker 1: have never watched a Miyazaki film with its original Japanese

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Speaker 1: language track. I was tempted to do it on this one,

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Speaker 1: and I might have done it if the family, a

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Speaker 1: whole family wasn't coming on the journey with me. And

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Speaker 1: then I was like, well, we should just do the dub.

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Speaker 1: We all love the dub and it's a really well

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Speaker 1: done English I can't speak to the translation specifically, but

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Speaker 1: it's a really there's some really great vocal performances in it.

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Speaker 1: And for my taste, if I'm watching a Miyazaki film,

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Speaker 1: I want to be able to take in all of

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Speaker 1: the sites, and that works a little better for me

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Speaker 1: if I'm not reading.

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Speaker 3: You don't want your visual attention divided reading the subtitles.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, But I do want to acknowledge that this

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Speaker 1: is an area where Miyazaki fans definitely all have their

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Speaker 1: own preferences. Just talking about like English only fans here.

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Speaker 1: I know, some prefer the subtitles, some prefer a dub.

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Speaker 1: It's just going to vary depending on what your tastes are,

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Speaker 1: So at some point I really need to dig in,

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Speaker 1: probably with something like NAUSICAA and do subtitles so I

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Speaker 1: can absorb it that way as well.

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Speaker 3: I also watched this movie with the dub, and I

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Speaker 3: don't know. I see the appeal in general. I see

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Speaker 3: the appeal of both approaches, but in this case, the

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Speaker 3: experience of watching it with the dub is so nice.

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Speaker 3: I can't really imagine it being improved.

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Speaker 1: Who knows, all right, So we're just going to take

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Speaker 1: it through a few of the main characters here to

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Speaker 1: discuss the vocal talent. First of all, we have our

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Speaker 1: ten year old protagonist. This is Shahiro, who also ends

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Speaker 1: up going by the name of Sin later on in

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Speaker 1: the picture, voiced in the original Japanese version by Rumihiraji

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Speaker 1: born nineteen eighty seven, who also voiced the mom in

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Speaker 1: two thousand and eight Sponio in the original Japanese language version.

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Speaker 1: Now in the English dub of Spirited Away, Chihiro is

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Speaker 1: voiced by Devey Chase born nineteen ninety I don't believe

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Speaker 1: Chase is currently active in show business, but she has

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Speaker 1: some pretty cool credits, both in animation and live action.

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Speaker 1: In addition to voicing Chihiro, she also voiced Lelo in

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Speaker 1: the two thousand and two Disney film Lelo and Stitch.

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Speaker 1: In live action, she played Samantha Darko in both of

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Speaker 1: the Donnie Darko films That's two thousand and one and

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Speaker 1: two thousand and nine, and she played Samara in two

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Speaker 1: thousand and two's The Ring, in addition to being a

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Speaker 1: cast member on HBO's Big Love.

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Speaker 3: That's the American remake of The Ring.

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Speaker 1: Where yes, yes, she's definitely creepy in that quite yes.

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Speaker 3: She actually she does have some lines and they're like

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Speaker 3: watching these old videotapes of her where she's like she's like,

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Speaker 3: I won't stop hurting people or something.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, kind of in some ways, Yeah, a very

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Speaker 1: dark reflection of the character. We have here, all right,

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Speaker 1: we also have the character Haku. Haku was voiced by

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Speaker 1: May you Know in the original. This actor was born

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Speaker 1: nineteen eighty eight, voiced here by Jason Marsden born nineteen

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Speaker 1: seventy five, who has done a fair amount of live

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Speaker 1: action in vocal performing over the years, and produced and

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Speaker 1: directed as well. His TV credits include the likes of

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Speaker 1: Boy Meets World, Tales from the Crypt, and Star Trek

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Speaker 1: The Next Generation. But I also have to mention that

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Speaker 1: he played Tommy in nineteen eighty nine's Robot Jocks hold

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Speaker 1: first feature film role. Wow, do you remember Tommy? I

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Speaker 1: did not remember Tommy.

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Speaker 3: No idea, no idea who Tommy was.

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Speaker 1: Was there a child in Robot Jocks at all? I

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Speaker 1: guess there apparently was. Apparently was that there was a

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Speaker 1: twelve year old boy in it, and that's Tommy played

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Speaker 1: by Jason Marsden. Here. I'd have to go back and

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Speaker 1: watch it too know exactly which role this was or

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Speaker 1: Hallie factored into the plot.

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Speaker 3: That is a heck of a one degree connection spirited

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Speaker 3: away to Robot Jocks.

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Speaker 1: By the way, speaking of Robot Jocks, I want to

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Speaker 1: take it just a second to include a call out

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Speaker 1: to longtime listener Matt who designed a mech based combat

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Speaker 1: card game called Iron Future. He sent me a copy

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Speaker 1: to try out with my son a couple of months back,

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Speaker 1: and to be clear, did not ask me to mention

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Speaker 1: it on the podcast or anything. But it is a

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Speaker 1: really fun casual combat card game for two players, and

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Speaker 1: I'm happy to mention it. So if that sounds like

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Speaker 1: fun to you as well, go check it out at

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Speaker 1: ironfuturegame dot com. All right, up next, we have the

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Speaker 1: character Yubaba, voiced in the original by Mari Natsuki born

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Speaker 1: nineteen fifty two, a singer, dancer, and actress. In the

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Speaker 1: English dub, she is voiced by Susan Plachette, who lived

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Speaker 1: nineteen thirty seven through two thousand and eight, best known

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Speaker 1: for her role as Emily Hartley on the original The

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Speaker 1: Bob Newhart Show. Her other credits include nineteen sixty threes

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Speaker 1: The Birds and nineteen sixty eight's The Power.

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Speaker 3: Plashette is very good in the English dub.

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Speaker 1: Now we mentioned Kamaji earlier, we'll get into him. He's

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Speaker 1: the boiler Master. That's kind of this. Oh, he's a

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Speaker 1: wonderfully strange being in his own right, voiced in the

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Speaker 1: original by Bunto Sugawara, who lived nineteen thirty three through

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Speaker 1: twenty fourteen. This actor also appeared in the Battles Without

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Speaker 1: Honor and Humanity film series and two thousand and five's

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Speaker 1: The Great Yukai War. I've seen that one, and in

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Speaker 1: the English dub, David Ogden Stiers does the voice. He

396
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Speaker 1: lived nineteen forty two through twenty eighteen, an actor best

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Speaker 1: known for his role as Charles Winchester. I think it's

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Speaker 1: major Charles Winchester on TV's Mash and he also did

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Speaker 1: some vocal work on Leelo and Stitch. We also have

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Speaker 1: the character Lynn that is pivotal to the plot, voiced

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Speaker 1: by Hume Tomai in the original She was born nineteen

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Speaker 1: seventy seven, and then in the English dub, voice by

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Speaker 1: Broadway TV and film actress Susan Egan. Her credits include

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Speaker 1: Disney's Hercules. I believe she sings one of the key

405
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Speaker 1: songs in that one. She was on Steven Universe. Oh,

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Speaker 1: and she also provided some vocal talents for the English

407
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Speaker 1: dub of Porco Rosso.

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Speaker 3: Oh nice, that's the one with the pig fighter pilot. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, lots of flying action in that one. So that's

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Speaker 1: essentially it for the actors. But I will note that

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Speaker 1: the English dub also features the voices of Paul Iding.

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Speaker 1: This is a guy who you may not recognize the name,

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Speaker 1: but if you ever played any of those Metal Gear

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Speaker 1: Solid games like I did, he was the colonel that

415
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Speaker 1: was talking in your headphone the whole time and sometimes saying,

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Speaker 1: I don't know, Snake, I think you've been playing video

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Speaker 1: games a little too long, and you should maybe go

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Speaker 1: outside and run around a bit. I forget which one

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Speaker 1: that was, but if you played long enough, he would

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Speaker 1: give you that life advice.

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Speaker 3: So you'd be like crawling around at the feet of

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Speaker 3: an enemy soldier and he'd suddenly like, Snake, watch out for.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, or indeed he would be like Snake, go touch

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Speaker 1: some grass, which was probably some good advice.

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Speaker 3: I've never finished a Metal Gear Solid game, but I

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Speaker 3: started playing Metal Gear Solid two years ago, and I

427
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Speaker 3: remember thinking, like, I am getting so many calls on

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Speaker 3: this radio. I cannot believe the volume of calls. It

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Speaker 3: was almost like spam at this point.

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Speaker 1: It really was. I also don't think I ever finished

431
00:23:53,040 --> 00:23:56,000
Speaker 1: one of them, but I always really enjoyed them before

432
00:23:56,160 --> 00:24:00,280
Speaker 1: it got too hard. Let's see. Oh yeah, Roger Bumpus

433
00:24:01,359 --> 00:24:03,760
Speaker 1: is in this. If you don't recognize his name, he's

434
00:24:03,760 --> 00:24:09,600
Speaker 1: the voice of Squidward SpongeBob SquarePants. Lauren Hawley does one

435
00:24:09,600 --> 00:24:13,000
Speaker 1: of the voices, and Michael Chiklis provides the voice of

436
00:24:13,080 --> 00:24:18,560
Speaker 1: Tahiro's father, so really performance wise, a great overall English

437
00:24:18,640 --> 00:24:21,119
Speaker 1: language cast here, and of course once more, we have

438
00:24:21,200 --> 00:24:25,800
Speaker 1: Joe Hisashi providing the music. Born nineteen fifty Japanese composer,

439
00:24:25,920 --> 00:24:29,400
Speaker 1: musician noted for his work with Studio Ghibli and Miyazaki

440
00:24:29,400 --> 00:24:32,040
Speaker 1: in particular, he has scored I believe, all but one

441
00:24:32,040 --> 00:24:36,120
Speaker 1: of Miyazaki's films, and that one was nineteen seventy Nine's

442
00:24:36,160 --> 00:24:39,800
Speaker 1: a Loop in the third. So to just go he

443
00:24:39,920 --> 00:24:42,600
Speaker 1: just goes with Miyazaki pictures. I mean it can find

444
00:24:42,600 --> 00:24:43,280
Speaker 1: no fault there.

445
00:24:44,040 --> 00:24:49,119
Speaker 3: Miyazaki loves themes of wind, not just flying, but of

446
00:24:49,160 --> 00:24:54,000
Speaker 3: like breezes, blowing and wind lifting like moving objects. And

447
00:24:54,320 --> 00:24:57,720
Speaker 3: this score sounds like a wind. It's in like the

448
00:24:57,760 --> 00:25:00,679
Speaker 3: exciting parts, it sounds like a rushing win and in

449
00:25:00,720 --> 00:25:03,399
Speaker 3: the contemplative parts it sounds like a gentle breeze. I

450
00:25:03,400 --> 00:25:05,719
Speaker 3: don't know how to explain that in sonic terms, but

451
00:25:05,760 --> 00:25:07,200
Speaker 3: that is what it makes me feel.

452
00:25:07,480 --> 00:25:09,760
Speaker 1: Yeah, and this is a film where we definitely have

453
00:25:09,800 --> 00:25:12,240
Speaker 1: some flying sequences, but we also have some scenes that

454
00:25:12,280 --> 00:25:15,399
Speaker 1: are not quite flying sequences that have the feel of flight,

455
00:25:15,960 --> 00:25:19,840
Speaker 1: the feel of surging through the air or being pulled

456
00:25:19,920 --> 00:25:24,160
Speaker 1: towards the object of your trajectory.

457
00:25:24,600 --> 00:25:26,800
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's some high speed, low altitude flight.

458
00:25:27,040 --> 00:25:30,600
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, I'm off and inside.

459
00:25:38,960 --> 00:25:40,879
Speaker 3: All right, are we ready to talk about the plot?

460
00:25:41,320 --> 00:25:41,840
Speaker 1: Let's do it.

461
00:25:42,200 --> 00:25:45,719
Speaker 3: Okay, last warning once again, this is one where I

462
00:25:45,760 --> 00:25:48,439
Speaker 3: really really strongly recommend if you've never seen it before,

463
00:25:48,920 --> 00:25:50,880
Speaker 3: and you do plan on seeing it at some point

464
00:25:50,880 --> 00:25:52,520
Speaker 3: in your life, go ahead and watch it before we

465
00:25:52,520 --> 00:25:55,879
Speaker 3: talk about it. Please. So the story begins with a

466
00:25:56,040 --> 00:26:00,840
Speaker 3: road trip. Our protagonist is the ten year old and

467
00:26:01,240 --> 00:26:04,119
Speaker 3: she and her parents are moving to a new house

468
00:26:04,280 --> 00:26:07,120
Speaker 3: in a town out in the country, far away from

469
00:26:07,119 --> 00:26:11,479
Speaker 3: their old life. And chi Hero is sulking because she

470
00:26:11,640 --> 00:26:14,680
Speaker 3: has had to leave behind her school and her friends.

471
00:26:15,119 --> 00:26:17,240
Speaker 3: But her parents are trying to They're trying to put

472
00:26:17,280 --> 00:26:19,359
Speaker 3: on a happy face about it. You get the sense

473
00:26:19,400 --> 00:26:23,040
Speaker 3: that maybe her mother is not one hundred percent thrilled

474
00:26:23,080 --> 00:26:25,119
Speaker 3: about the move, but she's telling her, you know, moving

475
00:26:25,160 --> 00:26:28,280
Speaker 3: somewhere new can be fun, it's an adventure, so they're

476
00:26:28,320 --> 00:26:31,440
Speaker 3: trying to help her along with her attitude. But che

477
00:26:31,440 --> 00:26:34,359
Speaker 3: Hero does not believe this. She spends her time in

478
00:26:34,400 --> 00:26:37,679
Speaker 3: the car focused largely on a goodbye letter from her

479
00:26:37,720 --> 00:26:40,959
Speaker 3: best friend at school. So they're driving through the country,

480
00:26:41,000 --> 00:26:43,520
Speaker 3: they're passing by things that they pass by a building,

481
00:26:43,520 --> 00:26:45,800
Speaker 3: they're like, oh, look, that's your new school, and she's

482
00:26:45,880 --> 00:26:50,160
Speaker 3: just like, yak, don't. And so they're on their way

483
00:26:50,359 --> 00:26:52,520
Speaker 3: to the new house to meet the movers and get

484
00:26:52,600 --> 00:26:55,880
Speaker 3: settled in. But on the way, che Hero's father takes

485
00:26:55,920 --> 00:26:58,639
Speaker 3: a wrong turn somewhere and they're going up these winding

486
00:26:59,080 --> 00:27:02,840
Speaker 3: mountain roads, and at some point they find themselves driving

487
00:27:02,920 --> 00:27:07,520
Speaker 3: down an unpaved road through a deep, dark forest, and

488
00:27:07,640 --> 00:27:11,280
Speaker 3: along the way they see shrines, these little tiny box

489
00:27:11,480 --> 00:27:14,440
Speaker 3: like houses in a sort of piled in a jumble,

490
00:27:14,920 --> 00:27:17,400
Speaker 3: and she heroes like, what are those? And her mother

491
00:27:17,480 --> 00:27:21,280
Speaker 3: tells her some people believe that spirits live there, and

492
00:27:21,600 --> 00:27:24,240
Speaker 3: they also while they're driving through the forest, they see

493
00:27:24,280 --> 00:27:28,000
Speaker 3: these round stone statues of these spirit beings or kami

494
00:27:28,160 --> 00:27:30,720
Speaker 3: that seem to be living in the forest. She looks

495
00:27:30,720 --> 00:27:33,119
Speaker 3: out and to be clear, they're not animated or anything,

496
00:27:33,280 --> 00:27:35,640
Speaker 3: or they're not alive or anything. At this point, it's

497
00:27:35,680 --> 00:27:40,240
Speaker 3: a totally mundane atmosphere. But as they drive through the forest,

498
00:27:40,400 --> 00:27:43,680
Speaker 3: the feeling of something kind of mysterious starts to mount

499
00:27:44,359 --> 00:27:48,359
Speaker 3: and the road ends at a tunnel, just a wall

500
00:27:48,640 --> 00:27:52,040
Speaker 3: and a tunnel, and ch Hero's father parks the car,

501
00:27:52,359 --> 00:27:54,480
Speaker 3: gets out and wants to explore to see where the

502
00:27:54,520 --> 00:27:57,440
Speaker 3: tunnel leads. So I would say Chihiro at this point

503
00:27:57,480 --> 00:27:59,960
Speaker 3: is both annoyed and afraid. She doesn't want to be here,

504
00:28:00,119 --> 00:28:03,400
Speaker 3: She doesn't want to be moving. She is frightened by

505
00:28:03,400 --> 00:28:05,600
Speaker 3: the idea of going into this tunnel, like just not

506
00:28:05,760 --> 00:28:09,439
Speaker 3: interested at any level. But her parents walk into the tunnel,

507
00:28:09,480 --> 00:28:11,760
Speaker 3: and she's also afraid to be left behind at the car,

508
00:28:11,920 --> 00:28:13,280
Speaker 3: so she runs after them.

509
00:28:13,600 --> 00:28:17,600
Speaker 1: This is kind of an interesting turnaround if you compare

510
00:28:17,600 --> 00:28:22,159
Speaker 1: it to My neighbor Totoro, in which May and sask

511
00:28:23,720 --> 00:28:26,400
Speaker 1: are very adventurous and really want to get in there

512
00:28:26,440 --> 00:28:30,800
Speaker 1: and explore the mysteries. You know, to Hero is a

513
00:28:30,840 --> 00:28:31,760
Speaker 1: lot more reserved.

514
00:28:32,280 --> 00:28:35,399
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, and you know that actually brought up a

515
00:28:35,440 --> 00:28:38,120
Speaker 3: point that I wanted to talk about. In a lot

516
00:28:38,160 --> 00:28:43,200
Speaker 3: of stories, like fantasy stories with child protagonists about children

517
00:28:43,360 --> 00:28:46,920
Speaker 3: escaping to or encountering a world of spirits and the imagination,

518
00:28:47,720 --> 00:28:51,239
Speaker 3: the young protagonist is presented either as somebody with an

519
00:28:51,320 --> 00:28:55,600
Speaker 3: adventurous spirit or like a day dreamer, a creative personality

520
00:28:55,840 --> 00:28:59,400
Speaker 3: who does not fit in with their peers and wants

521
00:28:59,440 --> 00:29:02,080
Speaker 3: to seek reft huge in a different world of the imagination.

522
00:29:02,640 --> 00:29:05,800
Speaker 3: Think of time bandits or the never ending Story, et cetera,

523
00:29:05,880 --> 00:29:09,800
Speaker 3: et cetera, very common dynamic. I think this seems to

524
00:29:09,840 --> 00:29:12,520
Speaker 3: me to not be the case at all with Chihiro,

525
00:29:12,680 --> 00:29:15,000
Speaker 3: and I still think she's a wonderful character, but a

526
00:29:15,040 --> 00:29:20,080
Speaker 3: different kind than this other familiar type of childhood fantasy protagonist.

527
00:29:20,480 --> 00:29:23,760
Speaker 3: She is initially not presented as a dreamer who wishes

528
00:29:23,800 --> 00:29:27,040
Speaker 3: to escape from the humdrum life of in her social environment.

529
00:29:27,520 --> 00:29:31,240
Speaker 3: She's shown feeling frustration with her parents, but she explicitly

530
00:29:31,320 --> 00:29:34,680
Speaker 3: misses her school and her friends, and there's no indication

531
00:29:34,800 --> 00:29:38,080
Speaker 3: that she's dissatisfied with living in the mundane world. So

532
00:29:38,240 --> 00:29:40,560
Speaker 3: it's a different kind of character and a different kind

533
00:29:40,560 --> 00:29:44,680
Speaker 3: of relationship between that character and the fantasy that's about

534
00:29:44,720 --> 00:29:49,160
Speaker 3: to unfold. Chihro is not looking for a magical adventure. Instead,

535
00:29:49,240 --> 00:29:52,840
Speaker 3: she is forced to adapt when the adventure is unavoidable.

536
00:29:53,680 --> 00:29:57,239
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, she's dealing with more than enough already. She

537
00:29:57,280 --> 00:30:01,640
Speaker 1: doesn't really want to take a potentially gary side trip

538
00:30:02,240 --> 00:30:03,040
Speaker 1: into the other.

539
00:30:02,920 --> 00:30:07,440
Speaker 3: World anyway, so she follows her parents into the tunnel

540
00:30:08,000 --> 00:30:10,520
Speaker 3: and they emerge in what seems like at first, the

541
00:30:10,840 --> 00:30:13,800
Speaker 3: waiting area of a long abandoned train station. There are

542
00:30:13,840 --> 00:30:17,800
Speaker 3: these benches and it just seems like disused and nobody's around,

543
00:30:18,320 --> 00:30:20,040
Speaker 3: and that's kind of odd. And then they come out

544
00:30:20,080 --> 00:30:24,600
Speaker 3: the other side into the open again and find weird

545
00:30:24,880 --> 00:30:29,360
Speaker 3: empty buildings and vendor stalls, a courtyard with a clock tower,

546
00:30:29,800 --> 00:30:34,160
Speaker 3: all nestled in a landscape of these gorgeous green rolling hills,

547
00:30:34,800 --> 00:30:37,440
Speaker 3: and the father concludes, I know what this is. This

548
00:30:37,520 --> 00:30:40,960
Speaker 3: is an abandoned amusement park. He says. They built places

549
00:30:41,000 --> 00:30:43,360
Speaker 3: like this. I think, he says, in the early nineties,

550
00:30:43,640 --> 00:30:46,040
Speaker 3: but then there was an economic recession and they all

551
00:30:46,040 --> 00:30:48,800
Speaker 3: went out of business, and they've found one that nobody

552
00:30:48,880 --> 00:30:50,320
Speaker 3: goes to anymore. It's just empty.

553
00:30:50,720 --> 00:30:54,120
Speaker 1: You know, I mentioned cross generational conflict. I think tension

554
00:30:54,120 --> 00:30:56,240
Speaker 1: would have been a better word choice for me, and

555
00:30:56,280 --> 00:30:58,000
Speaker 1: I feel like we get a reference to that here

556
00:30:58,040 --> 00:31:03,120
Speaker 1: a bit. You know, we're mentioning this big economic shift,

557
00:31:03,520 --> 00:31:07,200
Speaker 1: real life economic shift in Japan, and here we do

558
00:31:07,280 --> 00:31:11,000
Speaker 1: see very different attitudes between the parents and the child,

559
00:31:11,120 --> 00:31:13,240
Speaker 1: you know, and we'll see some more of this here

560
00:31:13,280 --> 00:31:17,440
Speaker 1: as well, where her dad especially is like, hey, let's

561
00:31:17,440 --> 00:31:20,360
Speaker 1: just check it in there's no reason not to go

562
00:31:20,400 --> 00:31:22,200
Speaker 1: in and try this out. Let's do it. And she's

563
00:31:22,240 --> 00:31:24,680
Speaker 1: a lot more reserved. She's a good kid, she's a

564
00:31:24,720 --> 00:31:27,920
Speaker 1: rule follower, she has different expectations about how things might

565
00:31:27,960 --> 00:31:28,400
Speaker 1: turn out.

566
00:31:28,680 --> 00:31:32,200
Speaker 3: That's right. So Chihiro's parents start exploring this other world

567
00:31:32,280 --> 00:31:34,840
Speaker 3: at the opposite end of the tunnel, and Chihiro has

568
00:31:34,880 --> 00:31:37,920
Speaker 3: to follow them. And I want to say that I

569
00:31:37,920 --> 00:31:43,880
Speaker 3: think there is an absolutely enchanting feeling of gradually moving

570
00:31:44,000 --> 00:31:46,800
Speaker 3: from the mundane to the strange in the first few

571
00:31:46,840 --> 00:31:50,600
Speaker 3: minutes of the film, passing through a literal tunnel, and

572
00:31:50,680 --> 00:31:55,000
Speaker 3: yet the transition is subtle, there's nothing explicitly magical. Yet

573
00:31:55,080 --> 00:31:58,560
Speaker 3: it's just a strange environment that you wouldn't expect to

574
00:31:58,640 --> 00:32:03,880
Speaker 3: find here. What's going on and the kind of tension

575
00:32:03,920 --> 00:32:07,920
Speaker 3: that it creates is so pleasing. I don't know if

576
00:32:07,960 --> 00:32:10,000
Speaker 3: I even have the vocabulary for this, but you know,

577
00:32:10,160 --> 00:32:13,760
Speaker 3: they're just there are different ways that a situation in

578
00:32:13,800 --> 00:32:17,800
Speaker 3: a movie or in a story generally can be unexplained

579
00:32:17,880 --> 00:32:21,560
Speaker 3: or mysterious, and for some reason, some of those mysteries

580
00:32:21,640 --> 00:32:24,560
Speaker 3: or unexplained situations are more pleasing than others. And this

581
00:32:24,640 --> 00:32:27,160
Speaker 3: is like a ten out of ten it's just something

582
00:32:27,240 --> 00:32:29,160
Speaker 3: is unusual. I don't know what's going on, and it

583
00:32:29,160 --> 00:32:30,520
Speaker 3: feels the best it can.

584
00:32:31,000 --> 00:32:34,960
Speaker 1: The pacing is also just so terrific here. I've seen,

585
00:32:35,000 --> 00:32:37,680
Speaker 1: and I imagine we've watched for weird how cinema films

586
00:32:37,720 --> 00:32:42,720
Speaker 1: where the initial real world portion of the film before

587
00:32:42,720 --> 00:32:46,680
Speaker 1: we descend into the other world is either too fast

588
00:32:47,080 --> 00:32:50,080
Speaker 1: or it's too slow. Either the movie just really wants

589
00:32:50,120 --> 00:32:52,760
Speaker 1: to ram you in there, or we're just waiting, we're

590
00:32:52,800 --> 00:32:54,800
Speaker 1: just begging for the movie to get to the fantasy.

591
00:32:55,080 --> 00:32:57,920
Speaker 1: And in here, I feel like Minazaki manages just the

592
00:32:58,000 --> 00:33:00,680
Speaker 1: right pace where we learn everything we need to know

593
00:33:00,720 --> 00:33:05,560
Speaker 1: about the real world circumstances and where the characters fit

594
00:33:05,600 --> 00:33:10,000
Speaker 1: in there, but really waste no time at all transitioning

595
00:33:10,080 --> 00:33:13,680
Speaker 1: us into that other world at just the right pace.

596
00:33:14,160 --> 00:33:17,560
Speaker 3: Yeah. So the characters are wandering around the streets of

597
00:33:17,600 --> 00:33:21,840
Speaker 3: this seemingly empty village. They're going through these vendor stalls again,

598
00:33:21,880 --> 00:33:26,120
Speaker 3: they're all empty, but Shahiro's father smells something. He smells food,

599
00:33:26,640 --> 00:33:29,920
Speaker 3: and everybody's hungry, so they follow the smell and they

600
00:33:29,920 --> 00:33:33,440
Speaker 3: come across a tent full of delicious looking foods in

601
00:33:33,480 --> 00:33:37,280
Speaker 3: hot steamer baskets and serving platters lined up for the taking.

602
00:33:37,480 --> 00:33:40,360
Speaker 3: Once again, they do a great job here of making

603
00:33:40,440 --> 00:33:43,960
Speaker 3: animated food really look delicious. I was watching this and

604
00:33:44,000 --> 00:33:45,520
Speaker 3: I was like, y, give me some of that.

605
00:33:46,120 --> 00:33:49,800
Speaker 1: Yeah. When we went to Ghibli Park, they had a

606
00:33:49,880 --> 00:33:54,200
Speaker 1: whole section built out. It was just devoted to the

607
00:33:54,240 --> 00:33:59,520
Speaker 1: presentation of food in Miyazaki films, with examples of just

608
00:33:59,560 --> 00:34:02,280
Speaker 1: how much tension goes into the presentation of the food,

609
00:34:02,920 --> 00:34:04,880
Speaker 1: and also some like I think they had some models

610
00:34:04,880 --> 00:34:07,240
Speaker 1: and some you know, physical representations of what the food

611
00:34:07,240 --> 00:34:10,360
Speaker 1: would look like in real life. And I was talking

612
00:34:10,360 --> 00:34:11,879
Speaker 1: about this with my wife and she said, oh, yeah,

613
00:34:11,920 --> 00:34:14,440
Speaker 1: there are people on Instagram whose whole thing is just

614
00:34:15,400 --> 00:34:19,360
Speaker 1: cooking up little recipes that look like food from a

615
00:34:19,400 --> 00:34:20,320
Speaker 1: Miyazaki film.

616
00:34:20,680 --> 00:34:24,440
Speaker 3: That's funny, and it's especially funny given what actually happens

617
00:34:24,480 --> 00:34:28,200
Speaker 3: when you eat his food. So Chi hero's father calls

618
00:34:28,239 --> 00:34:31,960
Speaker 3: out to the vendor, but nobody answers the food sitting there.

619
00:34:31,960 --> 00:34:34,720
Speaker 3: It's steaming hot, it looks really good, but there's nobody here.

620
00:34:35,040 --> 00:34:39,240
Speaker 3: Kitchen looks empty. So father and mother are very hungry

621
00:34:39,760 --> 00:34:41,600
Speaker 3: and they just say, you know what, we can just

622
00:34:41,640 --> 00:34:44,520
Speaker 3: dig in because we can pay the person who runs

623
00:34:44,520 --> 00:34:46,440
Speaker 3: the stall whenever they come back. Surely they'll be back

624
00:34:46,480 --> 00:34:47,239
Speaker 3: in a minute.

625
00:34:47,320 --> 00:34:49,799
Speaker 1: It's like, Daddy's got a credit card. Don't worry, dig in, honey,

626
00:34:49,880 --> 00:34:50,840
Speaker 1: grab some soup bunts.

627
00:34:51,160 --> 00:34:54,120
Speaker 3: Yes, And so they just start shoveling the food, but

628
00:34:54,280 --> 00:34:58,040
Speaker 3: Chihiro doesn't trust it. Mom and dad are eating, but

629
00:34:58,160 --> 00:35:01,040
Speaker 3: she something feels wrong to her. She's kind of afraid,

630
00:35:01,320 --> 00:35:04,120
Speaker 3: and she thinks we're not supposed to do this, so

631
00:35:04,280 --> 00:35:06,799
Speaker 3: she doesn't eat the food and wanders off on her own.

632
00:35:08,080 --> 00:35:10,640
Speaker 3: Now she sees a number of things. She goes up

633
00:35:10,640 --> 00:35:15,600
Speaker 3: this big stone staircase and see some kind of landmarks,

634
00:35:15,640 --> 00:35:19,880
Speaker 3: interesting looking buildings, but eventually comes across the bathhouse, the

635
00:35:20,480 --> 00:35:24,439
Speaker 3: central location of the rest of the movie, which is

636
00:35:24,480 --> 00:35:28,600
Speaker 3: an enormous complex, almost like a castle, which will we

637
00:35:28,640 --> 00:35:32,400
Speaker 3: will later learn is a hospitality service that is a

638
00:35:32,480 --> 00:35:36,560
Speaker 3: Japanese style bathhouse, but instead of serving human clients, it

639
00:35:36,640 --> 00:35:38,960
Speaker 3: is for kami. It is for the spirits.

640
00:35:39,640 --> 00:35:41,680
Speaker 1: And this is where we really begin to ramp up

641
00:35:41,719 --> 00:35:46,480
Speaker 1: the tension, and the tension does not release for I mean,

642
00:35:46,520 --> 00:35:48,240
Speaker 1: it doesn't let up for a very long.

643
00:35:48,080 --> 00:35:50,440
Speaker 3: Time, that's right. So we don't know yet that it's

644
00:35:50,480 --> 00:35:53,359
Speaker 3: a bathhouse for spirits. It's just this giant building. It's

645
00:35:53,400 --> 00:35:55,920
Speaker 3: reached by crossing a bridge over a deep ravine with

646
00:35:55,960 --> 00:36:00,000
Speaker 3: a river below. I think. Chihiro, I believe, just wanders

647
00:36:00,080 --> 00:36:03,480
Speaker 3: out onto the bridge, but then suddenly realizes there's somebody

648
00:36:03,520 --> 00:36:06,440
Speaker 3: standing there next to her, and she meets a boy

649
00:36:06,719 --> 00:36:12,520
Speaker 3: named Haku, who appears human. But Haku introduces sudden urgency.

650
00:36:13,000 --> 00:36:15,919
Speaker 3: He's like, Chehro, you should not be here. You need

651
00:36:15,920 --> 00:36:18,560
Speaker 3: to leave immediately. The sun is about to set, and

652
00:36:18,600 --> 00:36:20,920
Speaker 3: you've got to get back where you came from before dark.

653
00:36:22,440 --> 00:36:25,200
Speaker 3: So Chihiro runs back to meet her parents at the

654
00:36:25,560 --> 00:36:30,239
Speaker 3: food vendorstall, but discovers in a horrifying revelation that they

655
00:36:30,239 --> 00:36:34,040
Speaker 3: are not her parents anymore. They have been magically transformed

656
00:36:34,160 --> 00:36:39,320
Speaker 3: into pigs, presumably by eating cursed food. They no longer

657
00:36:39,320 --> 00:36:42,600
Speaker 3: seem to recognize her or know who they are. They're

658
00:36:42,640 --> 00:36:46,440
Speaker 3: just hogs at the trough, now disgustingly smashing through serving

659
00:36:46,480 --> 00:36:49,520
Speaker 3: dishes and piles of food and rooting around in the mess.

660
00:36:49,800 --> 00:36:52,000
Speaker 1: And then a frog starts slapping them around with a

661
00:36:52,080 --> 00:36:58,680
Speaker 1: fly swatter. Yes, it's legitimately terrifying, to the point that

662
00:36:59,320 --> 00:37:01,719
Speaker 1: we tried to show our son this movie when he

663
00:37:01,800 --> 00:37:05,240
Speaker 1: was a little too young for it. I guess we'd forgotten,

664
00:37:05,280 --> 00:37:07,000
Speaker 1: you know, we'd watched it as adults, we had not

665
00:37:07,239 --> 00:37:11,200
Speaker 1: really watched it as children. You know, it's in mind.

666
00:37:11,360 --> 00:37:13,520
Speaker 1: So when we initially showed it to him, this was

667
00:37:13,560 --> 00:37:15,400
Speaker 1: the point where he just could not take it. He's like,

668
00:37:15,440 --> 00:37:18,319
Speaker 1: I can't watch this, you know, and got upset, and

669
00:37:18,320 --> 00:37:19,920
Speaker 1: we're like, okay, we'll have to come back to this

670
00:37:19,960 --> 00:37:23,520
Speaker 1: one later. So bear that in mind with this picture.

671
00:37:23,560 --> 00:37:27,480
Speaker 1: It's tremendous. It's definitely four kids of a certain age.

672
00:37:27,520 --> 00:37:30,920
Speaker 1: But if your kid's you know, super young, then you

673
00:37:30,920 --> 00:37:33,479
Speaker 1: know it's it's more time for my neighbor Totoro, which

674
00:37:33,520 --> 00:37:36,719
Speaker 1: is terrific for all ages as well, but definitely has

675
00:37:36,880 --> 00:37:37,960
Speaker 1: a little kids in mind.

676
00:37:38,320 --> 00:37:41,840
Speaker 3: Yeah. So Chihiro runs away in terror and tries to

677
00:37:41,960 --> 00:37:45,160
Speaker 3: escape back in the direction she came from, but discovers

678
00:37:45,200 --> 00:37:48,719
Speaker 3: now that her way home is blocked. A field that

679
00:37:48,760 --> 00:37:51,080
Speaker 3: they had crossed in order to reach the village is

680
00:37:51,120 --> 00:37:54,680
Speaker 3: now flooded with water. It's a river now, and she

681
00:37:54,800 --> 00:37:58,360
Speaker 3: watches as a ferry crosses the water, glowing with lamplight,

682
00:37:59,000 --> 00:38:02,320
Speaker 3: and as the fairy reaches her side of the new river,

683
00:38:02,800 --> 00:38:06,759
Speaker 3: sort of the landing the disembarking ramp comes down, and

684
00:38:07,360 --> 00:38:11,920
Speaker 3: weird spirit beings begin to unload and file into the village,

685
00:38:12,000 --> 00:38:16,160
Speaker 3: all toward the bathhouse. So we don't see all of

686
00:38:16,200 --> 00:38:18,400
Speaker 3: their forms yet. I think I think a lot of

687
00:38:18,400 --> 00:38:20,200
Speaker 3: these spirits are at this point sort of covered in

688
00:38:20,360 --> 00:38:24,279
Speaker 3: masks and cloaks, so we don't see exactly what they are.

689
00:38:25,280 --> 00:38:29,120
Speaker 3: But che Hero is frightened and despairing, especially when she

690
00:38:29,239 --> 00:38:33,040
Speaker 3: discovers that she is beginning to turn transparent she can

691
00:38:33,120 --> 00:38:36,440
Speaker 3: like look through her own hands and arms. But she

692
00:38:36,600 --> 00:38:40,520
Speaker 3: does get some help. Hakou reappears and it tells her, hey,

693
00:38:40,680 --> 00:38:42,759
Speaker 3: you need to eat this small piece of food. He

694
00:38:42,840 --> 00:38:45,640
Speaker 3: promises it will not turn her into a pig, and

695
00:38:45,719 --> 00:38:48,319
Speaker 3: he explains that she's got to eat some food from

696
00:38:48,320 --> 00:38:51,839
Speaker 3: this world or she's going to vanish. So Haku is

697
00:38:51,880 --> 00:38:56,120
Speaker 3: not only helpful to che Hero, but he somehow seems

698
00:38:56,239 --> 00:38:59,120
Speaker 3: to know her. He knows her name without her telling

699
00:38:59,200 --> 00:39:03,160
Speaker 3: him about her parents, and he explains that he has

700
00:39:03,280 --> 00:39:05,479
Speaker 3: known her from a long time ago, but we don't

701
00:39:05,520 --> 00:39:08,960
Speaker 3: know how, and in fact, it seems maybe he doesn't

702
00:39:09,000 --> 00:39:11,920
Speaker 3: know how he knows her. But there is also a

703
00:39:11,920 --> 00:39:14,600
Speaker 3: form of danger established here, so time is of the

704
00:39:14,840 --> 00:39:18,760
Speaker 3: there's no time to really hash everything out. Haku hides

705
00:39:18,840 --> 00:39:23,080
Speaker 3: Chihiro from the gaze of a giant, magical bird with

706
00:39:23,120 --> 00:39:26,880
Speaker 3: a human face, which is circling menacingly over the head

707
00:39:26,920 --> 00:39:30,799
Speaker 3: as if looking for her, and Haku tells Chehro that

708
00:39:30,880 --> 00:39:33,560
Speaker 3: she is in danger. If they find her, it's not

709
00:39:33,680 --> 00:39:35,799
Speaker 3: going to be good for her. So the only way

710
00:39:35,840 --> 00:39:39,520
Speaker 3: she can protect herself and save her parents potentially is

711
00:39:39,600 --> 00:39:43,879
Speaker 3: to get a job at the bathhouse. They will, he says,

712
00:39:43,920 --> 00:39:46,400
Speaker 3: They're going to try to turn you away, but you

713
00:39:46,520 --> 00:39:48,759
Speaker 3: cannot take no for an answer. You have to go

714
00:39:48,840 --> 00:39:51,120
Speaker 3: ask for a job and don't leave until you get one.

715
00:39:51,600 --> 00:39:55,280
Speaker 1: Yeah. Again, the tension is just is just so excellent

716
00:39:55,360 --> 00:39:58,960
Speaker 1: here and already, like the first challenge to j hero

717
00:39:59,560 --> 00:40:02,920
Speaker 1: is is one of inner strength, like this is. I

718
00:40:02,920 --> 00:40:04,399
Speaker 1: think it's one of the great things about this film.

719
00:40:04,440 --> 00:40:07,319
Speaker 1: This is not a film where our hero engages in

720
00:40:07,360 --> 00:40:12,879
Speaker 1: physical battles with monsters and fantasy creatures. Her challenges are

721
00:40:12,960 --> 00:40:18,040
Speaker 1: largely one of will and inner strength and challenges to

722
00:40:18,080 --> 00:40:21,279
Speaker 1: her moral compass. Yeah, and she is a rock. You know,

723
00:40:21,360 --> 00:40:23,200
Speaker 1: when we first meet her, she seems maybe you know,

724
00:40:23,239 --> 00:40:26,600
Speaker 1: she's moody and maybe a little self obsessed or you know,

725
00:40:26,800 --> 00:40:28,799
Speaker 1: but not in ways that are inappropriate for a ten

726
00:40:28,840 --> 00:40:32,120
Speaker 1: year old child. But as the movie enrolls here we

727
00:40:32,200 --> 00:40:34,600
Speaker 1: really get to see how strong she really is.

728
00:40:35,280 --> 00:40:37,960
Speaker 3: We discover it as she discovers it about herself.

729
00:40:38,080 --> 00:40:48,600
Speaker 4: Yeah.

730
00:40:48,640 --> 00:40:52,239
Speaker 3: So the place that Haku sends to Hero to ask

731
00:40:52,320 --> 00:40:56,799
Speaker 3: for a job is the boiler room. Which everything in

732
00:40:56,800 --> 00:40:58,440
Speaker 3: this movie is great, but this is one of my

733
00:40:58,520 --> 00:41:01,680
Speaker 3: favorite parts of the whole film. So he sends her

734
00:41:01,719 --> 00:41:06,759
Speaker 3: down this very dangerous looking staircase along the side of

735
00:41:06,840 --> 00:41:12,040
Speaker 3: the bathhouse, hanging over the ravine. There is some slapstick

736
00:41:12,040 --> 00:41:12,920
Speaker 3: here as well.

737
00:41:13,200 --> 00:41:15,359
Speaker 1: And it's yeah, and it's so well executed. This is

738
00:41:15,480 --> 00:41:17,600
Speaker 1: this is one of the things that I really noticed

739
00:41:17,680 --> 00:41:20,759
Speaker 1: on this rewatch is that you have, you know, this

740
00:41:20,840 --> 00:41:24,600
Speaker 1: great built up tension and that allows some excellent space

741
00:41:25,200 --> 00:41:28,200
Speaker 1: for humor. There are numerous parts in the film that

742
00:41:28,239 --> 00:41:31,439
Speaker 1: are just tremendously funny, and this is one of those

743
00:41:31,480 --> 00:41:33,279
Speaker 1: moments where she's, you know, she's trying to be really

744
00:41:33,320 --> 00:41:37,120
Speaker 1: careful and then she gets scared and just runs down

745
00:41:37,160 --> 00:41:39,400
Speaker 1: the side of the building and like smacks into a wall,

746
00:41:39,520 --> 00:41:43,600
Speaker 1: very slapstick style, but you know, it's all the more

747
00:41:43,719 --> 00:41:47,239
Speaker 1: humorous for being the punctuation on the end of all

748
00:41:47,280 --> 00:41:48,240
Speaker 1: of this built up tension.

749
00:41:48,560 --> 00:41:51,360
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right. But she finally makes it down to

750
00:41:51,680 --> 00:41:54,759
Speaker 3: the boiler room. So it's a room deep underneath the

751
00:41:54,760 --> 00:42:00,839
Speaker 3: bathhouse where a multi armed monster man named Camagie operates

752
00:42:00,880 --> 00:42:05,520
Speaker 3: a vast furnace powered by coal to heat water for

753
00:42:05,640 --> 00:42:09,920
Speaker 3: the baths and then mixes potions and herbal infusions into

754
00:42:09,920 --> 00:42:13,640
Speaker 3: the water before it is piped up into you know,

755
00:42:13,719 --> 00:42:16,000
Speaker 3: piped up through a sort of thing inside the wall

756
00:42:16,520 --> 00:42:20,120
Speaker 3: to reach the baths for the guests. Rob, do you

757
00:42:20,160 --> 00:42:23,360
Speaker 3: have any descriptive thoughts Aboutkamaji. He's wonderful character.

758
00:42:23,480 --> 00:42:25,399
Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, he's awesome. You know. He has this big,

759
00:42:25,440 --> 00:42:27,760
Speaker 1: bushy what I would think of is like an anime

760
00:42:27,880 --> 00:42:30,960
Speaker 1: style mustache, you know, some of this kind of facial

761
00:42:31,000 --> 00:42:34,399
Speaker 1: hair that you really only see in animation. But then yeah,

762
00:42:34,520 --> 00:42:37,880
Speaker 1: multiple limbs, what they each have I think three fingers,

763
00:42:39,680 --> 00:42:42,839
Speaker 1: you know, and he's just constantly when he's working, he's

764
00:42:42,880 --> 00:42:49,760
Speaker 1: constantly in motion, fetching little tags, fetching ingredients for the water,

765
00:42:50,120 --> 00:42:53,319
Speaker 1: occasionally reaching back and getting what I assume is a

766
00:42:53,360 --> 00:42:56,279
Speaker 1: picture of tea and drinking directly from the spout.

767
00:42:56,680 --> 00:42:58,839
Speaker 3: It just puts the spout in his mouth.

768
00:42:59,440 --> 00:43:02,920
Speaker 1: When he has little black sunglasses over his eyes.

769
00:43:03,560 --> 00:43:06,360
Speaker 3: Yeah, he does, you know, except for the sunglasses. In

770
00:43:06,400 --> 00:43:08,800
Speaker 3: a way, he kind of reminds me of lord Yupa

771
00:43:08,880 --> 00:43:10,719
Speaker 3: with the big bushy mustache.

772
00:43:10,800 --> 00:43:13,920
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, the facial hair for sure. And you know,

773
00:43:14,160 --> 00:43:17,400
Speaker 1: kind of the role here, like he's the you know,

774
00:43:17,480 --> 00:43:20,080
Speaker 1: rough around the edges character that it is going to

775
00:43:20,200 --> 00:43:24,319
Speaker 1: end up being, you know, very very benevolent and very

776
00:43:24,320 --> 00:43:25,640
Speaker 1: helpful to our protagonist.

777
00:43:27,040 --> 00:43:29,680
Speaker 3: But he is not working alone down here, because so

778
00:43:29,719 --> 00:43:33,040
Speaker 3: while he's cranking all the levers and operating the furnace

779
00:43:33,120 --> 00:43:36,760
Speaker 3: and then also grinding up the spices and the herbs

780
00:43:36,760 --> 00:43:42,040
Speaker 3: for the infusions of the bathwater, also down below him

781
00:43:42,520 --> 00:43:46,759
Speaker 3: there are these little black creatures, the soot sprites, that

782
00:43:46,840 --> 00:43:50,839
Speaker 3: are carrying coal and tossing it into the oven. And

783
00:43:51,400 --> 00:43:55,560
Speaker 3: these soot sprites are so cute. And I noticed from

784
00:43:55,560 --> 00:43:58,320
Speaker 3: a there's a note in the Napier book that these

785
00:43:58,360 --> 00:44:02,480
Speaker 3: are actually a recurring character type. They're a little monster

786
00:44:02,560 --> 00:44:05,760
Speaker 3: that was invented for my neighbor Totoro, and they're showing

787
00:44:05,800 --> 00:44:06,760
Speaker 3: up again here.

788
00:44:07,040 --> 00:44:10,160
Speaker 1: That's right. Yeah, Yeah, they're in the house that the

789
00:44:10,200 --> 00:44:13,040
Speaker 1: family moves to in the country. In my neighbor Toto.

790
00:44:13,760 --> 00:44:14,440
Speaker 1: But here they have.

791
00:44:14,400 --> 00:44:19,520
Speaker 3: A job that's right, though it's funny. So they're enchanted

792
00:44:19,719 --> 00:44:23,440
Speaker 3: pieces of soot, and it's so wonderfully animated the way

793
00:44:23,280 --> 00:44:27,360
Speaker 3: they approach the sort of the mouth of the furnace

794
00:44:27,400 --> 00:44:30,000
Speaker 3: and they throw the coal in, and then these gusts

795
00:44:30,000 --> 00:44:31,759
Speaker 3: of hot air that come out of the mouth of

796
00:44:31,760 --> 00:44:34,560
Speaker 3: the furnace whenever it opens just sort of blow them

797
00:44:34,640 --> 00:44:37,640
Speaker 3: back off of this ledge to where they came from

798
00:44:37,680 --> 00:44:39,680
Speaker 3: so that they can retrieve another piece of coal and

799
00:44:40,080 --> 00:44:43,040
Speaker 3: walk forward again. But as I said, the scene is

800
00:44:43,080 --> 00:44:46,239
Speaker 3: so cute. One of these little sprites picks up a

801
00:44:46,239 --> 00:44:48,960
Speaker 3: piece of coal that's too heavy and drops it on itself,

802
00:44:49,600 --> 00:44:51,919
Speaker 3: and she hero picks up the piece of coal from

803
00:44:52,040 --> 00:44:54,840
Speaker 3: on top of the sprite and she struggles with it

804
00:44:54,880 --> 00:44:59,200
Speaker 3: at first it's heavy, but Kamaji is like, well you

805
00:44:59,280 --> 00:45:02,640
Speaker 3: picked it up, you know, carry on with what you started.

806
00:45:03,040 --> 00:45:05,880
Speaker 3: So she takes it to the mouth of the furnace

807
00:45:05,920 --> 00:45:08,200
Speaker 3: manages to throw it in, and when the soot sprites

808
00:45:08,239 --> 00:45:10,600
Speaker 3: see her do that, they all drop their cold pieces

809
00:45:10,640 --> 00:45:15,200
Speaker 3: on themselves. It's so good, yeah, but they they start

810
00:45:15,520 --> 00:45:18,000
Speaker 3: gathering around her feet like they think she's some kind

811
00:45:18,040 --> 00:45:21,400
Speaker 3: of goddess. You know they they they like pile up

812
00:45:21,400 --> 00:45:26,839
Speaker 3: on her shoes and it's it's adorable. But anyway, chi

813
00:45:26,920 --> 00:45:30,920
Speaker 3: Hero is persistent about asking for a job, so Kamaji

814
00:45:31,040 --> 00:45:35,880
Speaker 3: is like, okay, And so we meet another character named Lynn,

815
00:45:36,000 --> 00:45:39,680
Speaker 3: who is a bathhouse worker who is cynical and brusque

816
00:45:39,680 --> 00:45:43,040
Speaker 3: with Chee Hero at first, but later softens and becomes

817
00:45:43,080 --> 00:45:46,880
Speaker 3: her main mentor and help her within the bathhouse. But

818
00:45:47,040 --> 00:45:49,720
Speaker 3: when Lynn comes in to deliver some food to Kamachi,

819
00:45:50,640 --> 00:45:54,320
Speaker 3: Kamachi is like, hey, you know, this girl here is

820
00:45:54,360 --> 00:45:56,600
Speaker 3: asking for a job. You should take her up to

821
00:45:56,760 --> 00:46:00,960
Speaker 3: you Baba. Now you Baba is the big boss of

822
00:46:01,000 --> 00:46:04,440
Speaker 3: this establishment, the witch who lives at the top floor

823
00:46:04,640 --> 00:46:08,200
Speaker 3: of the bathhouse for spirits, and so Lynn is not

824
00:46:08,280 --> 00:46:11,319
Speaker 3: excited about this mission at first, but she does try

825
00:46:11,360 --> 00:46:13,359
Speaker 3: to help is she takes to Hero up in a

826
00:46:13,400 --> 00:46:17,839
Speaker 3: series of elevator rides. One great weird encounter is with

827
00:46:17,880 --> 00:46:21,799
Speaker 3: this gigantic thing called the Radish Spirit, which gets onto

828
00:46:21,800 --> 00:46:24,040
Speaker 3: it sort of like wanders around after them and gets

829
00:46:24,040 --> 00:46:27,840
Speaker 3: on an elevator with them, but they and as we

830
00:46:27,880 --> 00:46:29,840
Speaker 3: go up, we get to see the different levels of

831
00:46:29,880 --> 00:46:33,279
Speaker 3: the bathhouse with its many strange clients, the spirits and

832
00:46:33,280 --> 00:46:35,719
Speaker 3: the creatures and so forth. But they make their way

833
00:46:35,800 --> 00:46:38,680
Speaker 3: up to the top floor before we get to you, Baba,

834
00:46:38,760 --> 00:46:40,680
Speaker 3: anything you want to talk about on the way, rob.

835
00:46:40,840 --> 00:46:43,959
Speaker 1: Oh, I mean the bath house or the Hansen Here

836
00:46:44,200 --> 00:46:47,279
Speaker 1: is such a fabulous world, and perhaps it reads as

837
00:46:47,320 --> 00:46:50,480
Speaker 1: slightly more fabulous if you're not familiar with like Japanese

838
00:46:50,520 --> 00:46:55,759
Speaker 1: bathhouse traditions or various other international bathhouse traditions. But even

839
00:46:55,800 --> 00:46:59,720
Speaker 1: if you are, like, it's just stuffed with such a

840
00:46:59,760 --> 00:47:02,319
Speaker 1: why crew. I mean, it's staffed in large part by

841
00:47:02,360 --> 00:47:06,120
Speaker 1: magical beings, and then it caters to an even wider

842
00:47:06,239 --> 00:47:10,560
Speaker 1: range of creature spirits, yo kai and deities. I just

843
00:47:10,560 --> 00:47:15,239
Speaker 1: have so many favorites that keep reappearing. They're the duckling spirits,

844
00:47:15,280 --> 00:47:19,000
Speaker 1: the yes O Tori sama, and they make me smile

845
00:47:19,040 --> 00:47:21,520
Speaker 1: every time we even just get a quick glimpse of

846
00:47:21,520 --> 00:47:22,440
Speaker 1: them in the background.

847
00:47:22,920 --> 00:47:26,200
Speaker 3: I would almost say that the many different characters we

848
00:47:26,280 --> 00:47:28,680
Speaker 3: meet at the bath house are like on a sliding

849
00:47:28,800 --> 00:47:33,279
Speaker 3: scale of uncanny Valley similarity to humans, Like Lynn just

850
00:47:33,320 --> 00:47:36,680
Speaker 3: looks like a human, right, but you have other things

851
00:47:36,719 --> 00:47:40,960
Speaker 3: that look vaguely human, but their proportions are weird. And

852
00:47:41,000 --> 00:47:43,480
Speaker 3: then you have other things like the ducks that are

853
00:47:43,520 --> 00:47:45,799
Speaker 3: like ducks but with kind of human faces, and then

854
00:47:45,880 --> 00:47:47,759
Speaker 3: you've got just like you've got the no face and

855
00:47:47,800 --> 00:47:51,200
Speaker 3: stuff that's not very human at all. But I like, Oh,

856
00:47:51,560 --> 00:47:53,959
Speaker 3: so in the middle, you've got these frog men who

857
00:47:54,080 --> 00:47:57,880
Speaker 3: are sort of all of the administrator roles within the

858
00:47:57,920 --> 00:48:01,319
Speaker 3: bath house, and they are would you say, they are

859
00:48:01,440 --> 00:48:05,320
Speaker 3: uniformly portrayed as kind of kind of mean and greedy,

860
00:48:05,440 --> 00:48:07,239
Speaker 3: but I don't know, in the end, they kind of

861
00:48:07,239 --> 00:48:09,040
Speaker 3: are won over by Chia hero spunk.

862
00:48:09,440 --> 00:48:14,239
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. You mentioned the Radish Spirit already or

863
00:48:14,719 --> 00:48:18,239
Speaker 1: Oshiro Sama. This one is apparently based on a folkloric

864
00:48:18,280 --> 00:48:21,919
Speaker 1: household spirit and here in the film takes the form

865
00:48:21,960 --> 00:48:24,959
Speaker 1: of a great walrus like Radish man with I believe

866
00:48:24,960 --> 00:48:26,680
Speaker 1: it's supposed to be like a bowl on his head,

867
00:48:27,000 --> 00:48:30,680
Speaker 1: for that's the way I've always read it. But yeah,

868
00:48:30,680 --> 00:48:32,960
Speaker 1: A big fan of this guy, and when my family

869
00:48:33,000 --> 00:48:35,440
Speaker 1: and I visited Ghibli Park, I had to grab a

870
00:48:35,480 --> 00:48:40,080
Speaker 1: photo with this absolute superstar. Included a photograph here for you, Joe,

871
00:48:40,120 --> 00:48:41,640
Speaker 1: if you want to see me standing next to the

872
00:48:41,719 --> 00:48:42,360
Speaker 1: Radish Spirit.

873
00:48:42,600 --> 00:48:45,320
Speaker 3: Wait, is that a statue or somebody in a costume?

874
00:48:45,760 --> 00:48:49,680
Speaker 1: Neither it is the real Radish Spirit, and I'll put

875
00:48:49,719 --> 00:48:51,320
Speaker 1: I'll make sure I put this one on our Instagram.

876
00:48:51,360 --> 00:48:52,840
Speaker 1: If you want to see this photo, I'll put it

877
00:48:52,920 --> 00:48:59,919
Speaker 1: up at STBYM podcast on Instagram. Nice. Oh, but let's see. Yeah.

878
00:49:00,360 --> 00:49:02,080
Speaker 1: I just love all the spirits that we see here,

879
00:49:02,320 --> 00:49:04,000
Speaker 1: but Radish Spirit is my favorite.

880
00:49:04,440 --> 00:49:06,680
Speaker 3: So from here we go on to meet you Baba,

881
00:49:06,800 --> 00:49:11,359
Speaker 3: who is a powerful and frightening witch who runs the establishment.

882
00:49:11,880 --> 00:49:16,640
Speaker 3: She's portrayed as treacherous and envious and greedy. She collects

883
00:49:16,800 --> 00:49:20,719
Speaker 3: jewels and examines her riches with great relish, but she

884
00:49:20,760 --> 00:49:23,359
Speaker 3: also shows flashes of a softer, or at least more

885
00:49:23,400 --> 00:49:27,200
Speaker 3: comical side in the fact that she dotes upon her son,

886
00:49:27,400 --> 00:49:31,239
Speaker 3: who is a giant, destructive baby named bo Oh.

887
00:49:31,320 --> 00:49:33,319
Speaker 1: I love this baby, you know, I was just talking

888
00:49:33,360 --> 00:49:35,240
Speaker 1: to my wife about this. It's like this week especially,

889
00:49:35,280 --> 00:49:37,040
Speaker 1: I just want to be this character. I want to

890
00:49:37,040 --> 00:49:40,080
Speaker 1: be a giant baby that crawls under a mountain of

891
00:49:40,120 --> 00:49:45,680
Speaker 1: pillows and then you know, refuses to leave. Yeah. But yeah,

892
00:49:45,719 --> 00:49:49,279
Speaker 1: it's just such a weird cruise she's got because you

893
00:49:49,360 --> 00:49:52,280
Speaker 1: got the baby, You've got the three heads rolling around.

894
00:49:52,520 --> 00:49:55,920
Speaker 3: What's the deal with the heads? The bouncing green heads

895
00:49:55,920 --> 00:49:58,920
Speaker 3: that look kind of look oh, I don't know, like

896
00:49:59,000 --> 00:50:00,399
Speaker 3: any masks a little bit.

897
00:50:00,840 --> 00:50:03,520
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've digged it, dug into it a little bit,

898
00:50:03,520 --> 00:50:05,799
Speaker 1: and I could not find a clear answer on what

899
00:50:06,000 --> 00:50:08,759
Speaker 1: exactly they are other than because I mean, I think

900
00:50:08,800 --> 00:50:11,520
Speaker 1: in this film you do see a mix of Miyazaki

901
00:50:11,640 --> 00:50:17,400
Speaker 1: drawling on Japanese folklore and legend, drawing on international folklore

902
00:50:17,400 --> 00:50:20,440
Speaker 1: and legend, but also just coming up with wild ideas.

903
00:50:20,480 --> 00:50:24,399
Speaker 1: So I'm I'm still unclear exactly where the heads fall

904
00:50:24,480 --> 00:50:27,920
Speaker 1: in here. But then you also have her strange harpie

905
00:50:28,000 --> 00:50:31,160
Speaker 1: like familiar. Who else do we have? We have somebody

906
00:50:31,160 --> 00:50:33,480
Speaker 1: else here in the mix too, right? Oh wait, we

907
00:50:33,520 --> 00:50:35,080
Speaker 1: have another character that's coming into bed.

908
00:50:35,320 --> 00:50:37,040
Speaker 3: Yes, we'll come back to Are you thinking of the

909
00:50:37,080 --> 00:50:37,640
Speaker 3: foot lamp?

910
00:50:38,520 --> 00:50:41,880
Speaker 1: Oh, yes, there's a foot lamp too. Yes, it's you

911
00:50:42,040 --> 00:50:44,320
Speaker 1: never know what's going to show up in this picture.

912
00:50:44,560 --> 00:50:46,320
Speaker 3: But the footlamp doesn't work for you, Boba.

913
00:50:46,960 --> 00:50:50,560
Speaker 1: They show up later independent independent contractor.

914
00:50:51,080 --> 00:50:54,240
Speaker 3: So Chihiro's like, hey, I'm here for a job, and

915
00:50:54,560 --> 00:50:58,560
Speaker 3: Ubaba threatens. Chahiro tries to refuse her request, but it

916
00:50:58,640 --> 00:51:02,200
Speaker 3: turns out that this, this terrifying witch actually is bound

917
00:51:02,200 --> 00:51:05,080
Speaker 3: by some rules of her own. She is bound by

918
00:51:05,120 --> 00:51:07,560
Speaker 3: a magical oath she took at some point that she

919
00:51:07,719 --> 00:51:12,120
Speaker 3: must give a job to anyone who asks, so chi Hero,

920
00:51:12,280 --> 00:51:16,319
Speaker 3: through her persistence, forces her to offer her a contract,

921
00:51:16,760 --> 00:51:19,840
Speaker 3: and che Hero signs the contract to work for you Baba.

922
00:51:20,280 --> 00:51:24,400
Speaker 3: So now chi Hero is protected against you Baba's whims

923
00:51:24,480 --> 00:51:27,040
Speaker 3: to an extent, though Ubaba can still be a pretty

924
00:51:27,080 --> 00:51:31,200
Speaker 3: nasty boss to work for. Except it gets even worse. Whoops.

925
00:51:31,200 --> 00:51:33,560
Speaker 3: When chi Hero signs her name on the page of

926
00:51:33,600 --> 00:51:38,160
Speaker 3: this magical contract, the witch lifts away the writing form

927
00:51:38,200 --> 00:51:42,160
Speaker 3: most her signatures, so like the writing magically comes up

928
00:51:42,200 --> 00:51:45,759
Speaker 3: off the page and Ubaba is able to steal chi

929
00:51:45,880 --> 00:51:49,439
Speaker 3: Hero's name, telling her that now she will be known

930
00:51:49,520 --> 00:51:54,160
Speaker 3: only as Sen And we will later learn that Eubaba

931
00:51:54,239 --> 00:51:57,080
Speaker 3: does this to everyone who works for her, she steals

932
00:51:57,160 --> 00:51:59,719
Speaker 3: their name. So she did the same thing to Ha,

933
00:52:00,080 --> 00:52:03,359
Speaker 3: who we don't know what his original name was, at

934
00:52:03,480 --> 00:52:06,520
Speaker 3: least not until later. But now Haku serves as you

935
00:52:06,600 --> 00:52:09,880
Speaker 3: Baba's second in command and sort of her her commando.

936
00:52:10,040 --> 00:52:14,920
Speaker 3: Her like Special Missions Guy, Haku has forgotten what his

937
00:52:15,080 --> 00:52:18,560
Speaker 3: real name was, and it turns out if you forget

938
00:52:18,600 --> 00:52:22,120
Speaker 3: your original name, you can never escape you Baba's spell,

939
00:52:22,760 --> 00:52:25,520
Speaker 3: and there there is a day I think they're shown

940
00:52:25,560 --> 00:52:28,799
Speaker 3: the next morning going out and Sin is talking to

941
00:52:28,840 --> 00:52:32,120
Speaker 3: Haku and she's forgotten what her name was, but Haku

942
00:52:32,360 --> 00:52:34,799
Speaker 3: helps her. He can remind her because he knows her name,

943
00:52:35,120 --> 00:52:37,520
Speaker 3: and also she can keep it in mind because Haku

944
00:52:37,680 --> 00:52:41,239
Speaker 3: returns her belongings to her, which includes the note from

945
00:52:41,280 --> 00:52:43,719
Speaker 3: her friend at school which she was reading in the

946
00:52:43,760 --> 00:52:46,959
Speaker 3: car earlier that says Chihiro on it. So she keeps

947
00:52:47,000 --> 00:52:50,200
Speaker 3: the notes dashed away in secret. And I like something

948
00:52:50,200 --> 00:52:54,279
Speaker 3: about this little detail that's like, you know, part she's

949
00:52:54,320 --> 00:52:57,280
Speaker 3: able to keep something of the place where she came from.

950
00:52:57,719 --> 00:53:00,400
Speaker 3: It's not one of these story stories about going to

951
00:53:00,440 --> 00:53:04,480
Speaker 3: another world or a fantasy world that is a rejection

952
00:53:04,719 --> 00:53:07,560
Speaker 3: of the mundane world or the world you came from.

953
00:53:08,120 --> 00:53:11,719
Speaker 3: An important part of her surviving this whole experience is

954
00:53:11,960 --> 00:53:14,520
Speaker 3: her note from her friend that reminds her of her name.

955
00:53:15,040 --> 00:53:17,759
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, it's a very sweet, sweet moment. I think

956
00:53:17,800 --> 00:53:19,840
Speaker 1: it's one of the great things about Spirited Away is

957
00:53:19,880 --> 00:53:22,319
Speaker 1: you have these big scenes that definitely stick with you,

958
00:53:22,320 --> 00:53:26,760
Speaker 1: you know, fantastic sequences, and then these very small moments

959
00:53:27,320 --> 00:53:45,360
Speaker 1: that have oversized heart to them.

960
00:53:37,880 --> 00:53:42,080
Speaker 3: So Sen understands that she must now become an ideal

961
00:53:42,320 --> 00:53:45,240
Speaker 3: worker in you Baba's bathhouse or she has no hope

962
00:53:45,239 --> 00:53:49,319
Speaker 3: of ever escaping and rescuing her parents from their magical transformation.

963
00:53:49,480 --> 00:53:53,040
Speaker 3: It's sort of not established exactly how she will save them,

964
00:53:53,440 --> 00:53:55,600
Speaker 3: but in order to have any chance of saving them,

965
00:53:55,600 --> 00:53:58,080
Speaker 3: she's got to do a good job at work. And

966
00:53:58,120 --> 00:54:00,800
Speaker 3: in the background there is this looming threat that they could,

967
00:54:01,000 --> 00:54:04,000
Speaker 3: at some point in pig form, be turned into bacon,

968
00:54:04,160 --> 00:54:08,919
Speaker 3: and it is mentioned by the frog men sometimes. Now

969
00:54:09,400 --> 00:54:13,799
Speaker 3: Sen has help from Kamaji and especially from Lynn in

970
00:54:14,000 --> 00:54:17,640
Speaker 3: learning how to do everything at the bathhouse, but most

971
00:54:17,680 --> 00:54:20,240
Speaker 3: of the people who work there, again, this odd collection

972
00:54:20,360 --> 00:54:23,120
Speaker 3: of kind of serving ladies and frog like men, are

973
00:54:23,600 --> 00:54:25,920
Speaker 3: mean and unhelpful to her, and they mock her and

974
00:54:26,840 --> 00:54:29,680
Speaker 3: give her difficult jobs out of spite. Now there is

975
00:54:29,719 --> 00:54:32,480
Speaker 3: a scene I wanted to talk about because it establishes

976
00:54:32,520 --> 00:54:34,480
Speaker 3: an important sort of b plot that runs for a

977
00:54:34,480 --> 00:54:38,279
Speaker 3: while and then becomes an a plot. And it's the

978
00:54:38,280 --> 00:54:42,080
Speaker 3: scene where she first meets No Face. I think we've

979
00:54:42,120 --> 00:54:45,120
Speaker 3: seen No Face already at one point where while she

980
00:54:45,320 --> 00:54:49,000
Speaker 3: was while Haku was sneaking her into the bath house, earlier,

981
00:54:49,040 --> 00:54:50,720
Speaker 3: like the scene where she has to hold her breath

982
00:54:50,719 --> 00:54:53,520
Speaker 3: and go across the bridge. I believe no face is

983
00:54:53,560 --> 00:54:56,040
Speaker 3: just standing there, hovering on the bridge and watching her.

984
00:54:56,480 --> 00:55:00,440
Speaker 3: But at some point we have an actual encounter. While

985
00:55:00,520 --> 00:55:03,960
Speaker 3: Sin is working. She at one point opens a kind

986
00:55:03,960 --> 00:55:07,200
Speaker 3: of sliding door to a garden outside and she sees

987
00:55:07,280 --> 00:55:10,840
Speaker 3: this strange creature unlike any of the others really standing

988
00:55:10,840 --> 00:55:14,720
Speaker 3: outside the bathhouse in the rain. It is shadowy, dark,

989
00:55:15,080 --> 00:55:19,400
Speaker 3: It's a kind of translucent mound with a white mask

990
00:55:19,520 --> 00:55:23,359
Speaker 3: for a face, and Sin, being polite, leaves the door

991
00:55:23,400 --> 00:55:25,680
Speaker 3: open and invites the creature to come in out of

992
00:55:25,719 --> 00:55:28,680
Speaker 3: the rain, and it does. More will come of this,

993
00:55:29,400 --> 00:55:31,360
Speaker 3: But then we get to one of the big turning

994
00:55:31,440 --> 00:55:33,800
Speaker 3: points in the movie, which is that Sin is working.

995
00:55:33,880 --> 00:55:36,600
Speaker 3: She's trying to help out with all the tasks at

996
00:55:36,640 --> 00:55:42,000
Speaker 3: the bathhouse, and suddenly the bathhouse receives an extremely difficult client,

997
00:55:42,480 --> 00:55:46,520
Speaker 3: which is the Stink Spirit. Rob how would you introduce

998
00:55:46,560 --> 00:55:48,320
Speaker 3: the stink Spirit scene?

999
00:55:48,520 --> 00:55:52,040
Speaker 1: Oh, just you know, they see him and eventually smell

1000
00:55:52,120 --> 00:55:57,520
Speaker 1: him coming from a ways off. Just this blob, this

1001
00:55:57,680 --> 00:56:02,120
Speaker 1: sludge monster that's I think has some you know, you

1002
00:56:02,160 --> 00:56:05,640
Speaker 1: can compare it to various other sort of pollution based

1003
00:56:05,719 --> 00:56:12,319
Speaker 1: blob creatures from from from other cinematic visions, perhaps even

1004
00:56:12,360 --> 00:56:15,960
Speaker 1: to one of Godzilla's adversaries. Who is that We talked

1005
00:56:16,000 --> 00:56:17,320
Speaker 1: about this one on Weird House.

1006
00:56:18,120 --> 00:56:21,600
Speaker 3: Oh hold on a second, Oh JJ just chimed in

1007
00:56:21,640 --> 00:56:24,240
Speaker 3: to remind us that it's Hetera. That's the song we watched,

1008
00:56:24,280 --> 00:56:25,920
Speaker 3: isn't it. It's the smog Monster.

1009
00:56:26,320 --> 00:56:29,600
Speaker 1: Yeah, so some hetero vibes here to this again, just

1010
00:56:29,680 --> 00:56:33,800
Speaker 1: this sludgy blob creature that is slowly making it stinky

1011
00:56:33,840 --> 00:56:37,680
Speaker 1: way to the bathhouse and they're just all like in tear, like, oh,

1012
00:56:37,719 --> 00:56:39,719
Speaker 1: we've got to we've got to get the we've got

1013
00:56:39,760 --> 00:56:41,800
Speaker 1: to get the big tub ready for this guy.

1014
00:56:42,440 --> 00:56:46,000
Speaker 3: Right, And it's hilarious the way they're all like trying

1015
00:56:46,000 --> 00:56:48,800
Speaker 3: to turn him away as he's like he's coming across

1016
00:56:48,840 --> 00:56:51,400
Speaker 3: the bridge into the bathhouse and all these frogmen are

1017
00:56:51,400 --> 00:56:54,000
Speaker 3: in front of him being like we're closed and we're closed,

1018
00:56:55,800 --> 00:57:00,560
Speaker 3: but he just kind of slimes his way in. Yeah,

1019
00:57:00,000 --> 00:57:03,200
Speaker 3: and they, of course they're trying to give che Hero

1020
00:57:03,400 --> 00:57:06,440
Speaker 3: all of the worst jobs, so yeah, they're like, you've

1021
00:57:06,480 --> 00:57:09,959
Speaker 3: got to wash him. Fortunately, chi Hero has a little

1022
00:57:09,960 --> 00:57:13,200
Speaker 3: bit of magical help, so in order to wash this

1023
00:57:13,960 --> 00:57:18,800
Speaker 3: filthy beast. Sin has to get special water with the

1024
00:57:18,920 --> 00:57:22,439
Speaker 3: use of bath tokens, which are normally handed out by

1025
00:57:22,920 --> 00:57:26,800
Speaker 3: the Frogman, boss of the main staff. And these bath

1026
00:57:26,800 --> 00:57:29,280
Speaker 3: tokens are, I guess, a kind of like internal currency.

1027
00:57:29,360 --> 00:57:31,400
Speaker 3: You've got to use them and get them with permission

1028
00:57:31,440 --> 00:57:33,920
Speaker 3: and then use them, send them down to Camachi and

1029
00:57:34,000 --> 00:57:37,320
Speaker 3: he'll send up your powerful herbal infusions of hot bathwater

1030
00:57:37,440 --> 00:57:42,240
Speaker 3: to clean off all the filth. So the foreman, who

1031
00:57:42,560 --> 00:57:45,040
Speaker 3: is holding on to all these tries to refuse to

1032
00:57:45,080 --> 00:57:47,360
Speaker 3: help che Hero. He's like, you can't have any bath tokens.

1033
00:57:47,680 --> 00:57:51,280
Speaker 3: But then the no Face creature whom Sin earlier invited

1034
00:57:51,360 --> 00:57:55,360
Speaker 3: into the building, witnesses this interaction, and then he steals

1035
00:57:55,400 --> 00:57:57,840
Speaker 3: a bath token for her, and then later shows up

1036
00:57:57,880 --> 00:58:01,160
Speaker 3: with lots of bath tokens, tons of them for Sin,

1037
00:58:01,640 --> 00:58:04,360
Speaker 3: more than she needed. And so Sin is able to

1038
00:58:04,480 --> 00:58:07,520
Speaker 3: use these that she got from the no Face to

1039
00:58:07,600 --> 00:58:10,000
Speaker 3: clean up the stink spirit. And while she's cleaning it

1040
00:58:10,080 --> 00:58:13,160
Speaker 3: up and dousing it with all of this urban fuse

1041
00:58:13,200 --> 00:58:16,400
Speaker 3: hot water, she discovers there is quote a thorn in

1042
00:58:16,440 --> 00:58:21,080
Speaker 3: its side, which looks strangely like a man made object,

1043
00:58:21,480 --> 00:58:25,320
Speaker 3: and so she starts pulling on it and realizes that

1044
00:58:25,520 --> 00:58:29,520
Speaker 3: it is not a thorn, it is the handle of

1045
00:58:29,560 --> 00:58:33,040
Speaker 3: a bicycle, handlebar of a bicycle, and so they start

1046
00:58:33,080 --> 00:58:36,720
Speaker 3: pulling on it. Youbaba realizes what's going on, and she

1047
00:58:37,080 --> 00:58:40,000
Speaker 3: organizes all of the people in the bathhouse together to

1048
00:58:40,120 --> 00:58:43,200
Speaker 3: like pull on everything together, and it ends up all

1049
00:58:43,240 --> 00:58:46,560
Speaker 3: coming out like a giant hairball clag out of a drain,

1050
00:58:46,760 --> 00:58:51,280
Speaker 3: except it's just trash, revealing that this was not a

1051
00:58:51,360 --> 00:58:56,400
Speaker 3: stink spirit after all, but a river spirit, the dragon

1052
00:58:56,480 --> 00:58:59,400
Speaker 3: shaped spirit of a river that had been choked with

1053
00:58:59,520 --> 00:59:05,400
Speaker 3: pollution and garbage. It's full of old bicycles, tires out

1054
00:59:05,600 --> 00:59:10,680
Speaker 3: takeout containers, toilets, just pieces of machinery, pieces of construction,

1055
00:59:11,880 --> 00:59:15,920
Speaker 3: you know, building stuff, and just household trash, forming a

1056
00:59:16,080 --> 00:59:18,360
Speaker 3: mountain that comes out of the side of it and

1057
00:59:18,400 --> 00:59:21,640
Speaker 3: then leaves behind the clean water spirit in its wake.

1058
00:59:22,280 --> 00:59:25,600
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, and I've read that Nyazaki was inspired in

1059
00:59:25,640 --> 00:59:28,240
Speaker 1: this part based on a river cleanup he was involved

1060
00:59:28,280 --> 00:59:31,360
Speaker 1: in where they found a bicycle and some stuff. But oh,

1061
00:59:31,440 --> 00:59:34,160
Speaker 1: I mean, it's everything about the sequence is tremendous, All

1062
00:59:34,160 --> 00:59:37,360
Speaker 1: of the big fantasy elements like wading through the sludge

1063
00:59:37,400 --> 00:59:39,960
Speaker 1: and all. But I have to say, I was really

1064
00:59:39,960 --> 00:59:43,600
Speaker 1: impressed this on this viewing, with the sequence where we

1065
00:59:43,640 --> 00:59:50,040
Speaker 1: see Sin's hands underwater trying to tie the knot around

1066
00:59:50,080 --> 00:59:52,120
Speaker 1: the bicycle handle so they can all pull it out,

1067
00:59:52,160 --> 00:59:56,120
Speaker 1: and like it slips twice before it who is it

1068
00:59:56,120 --> 00:59:56,760
Speaker 1: that helps her?

1069
00:59:58,320 --> 00:59:59,480
Speaker 3: Well?

1070
00:59:59,120 --> 01:00:03,040
Speaker 1: It help yeah, But eventually on the third try not

1071
01:00:04,200 --> 01:00:08,360
Speaker 1: is a success. But there's something about the way that

1072
01:00:08,400 --> 01:00:11,600
Speaker 1: they just so realistically animate that rope slipping and not

1073
01:00:11,720 --> 01:00:14,920
Speaker 1: quite nodding. You can just feel it in your bones,

1074
01:00:15,040 --> 01:00:18,320
Speaker 1: like it is one hundred percent real. And I mean

1075
01:00:18,520 --> 01:00:21,560
Speaker 1: those kind of touches are I think essential in live

1076
01:00:21,600 --> 01:00:24,280
Speaker 1: action filmmaking as well, you know, because they allow us

1077
01:00:24,280 --> 01:00:26,920
Speaker 1: to connect with it with what's happening on the screen

1078
01:00:27,040 --> 01:00:29,080
Speaker 1: in a real way. But you know, all the more

1079
01:00:29,120 --> 01:00:32,400
Speaker 1: important in a film of animated fantasy ground us with

1080
01:00:32,440 --> 01:00:34,880
Speaker 1: those little moments that we can feel and then overwhelm

1081
01:00:34,960 --> 01:00:37,680
Speaker 1: us with those visions of the fantastic.

1082
01:00:38,280 --> 01:00:43,040
Speaker 3: It's actually full of excellent little physical tactle details like

1083
01:00:43,080 --> 01:00:48,160
Speaker 3: that zooming in farther than you would expect a movie

1084
01:00:48,200 --> 01:00:51,280
Speaker 3: of this kind, too, to show little ways that you know,

1085
01:00:51,320 --> 01:00:53,760
Speaker 3: maybe your foot doesn't catch on the stair right the

1086
01:00:53,760 --> 01:00:57,000
Speaker 3: first time, and you take another step or yeah, yeah,

1087
01:00:57,000 --> 01:00:59,440
Speaker 3: the hand to trying to grasp something and needing to

1088
01:00:59,480 --> 01:01:02,080
Speaker 3: Readjust there's a lot of that in this film.

1089
01:01:02,360 --> 01:01:05,880
Speaker 1: Yeah. One thing you see in a lot of Miyazaki

1090
01:01:05,880 --> 01:01:09,800
Speaker 1: films is a lot of attention paid to how children move,

1091
01:01:10,120 --> 01:01:12,920
Speaker 1: how young people move, and we definitely see that with Shahro,

1092
01:01:13,160 --> 01:01:15,240
Speaker 1: like the way that she moves around a little awkwardly

1093
01:01:15,280 --> 01:01:18,280
Speaker 1: at times. She's always bumping her head and falling down

1094
01:01:18,400 --> 01:01:21,880
Speaker 1: and you know, dramatic fashion, and it's just so well executed.

1095
01:01:22,240 --> 01:01:25,040
Speaker 3: So Sen did good here, She did a real good job.

1096
01:01:25,080 --> 01:01:29,920
Speaker 3: She's doing great at work. But next we come to

1097
01:01:30,360 --> 01:01:34,920
Speaker 3: Haku the Dragon and the scene of sin versus Ubaba's creatures.

1098
01:01:35,160 --> 01:01:38,800
Speaker 3: So there's a scene eventually where Sen sees a white

1099
01:01:39,040 --> 01:01:42,000
Speaker 3: dragon flying out over the water as she's looking out

1100
01:01:42,000 --> 01:01:44,800
Speaker 3: the window over the side of the bathhouse, and she

1101
01:01:45,000 --> 01:01:49,680
Speaker 3: realizes that the dragon is Haku. Haku has been a

1102
01:01:49,760 --> 01:01:53,520
Speaker 3: boy before this, but now she sees him in dragon form,

1103
01:01:53,880 --> 01:01:56,240
Speaker 3: and Haku is in trouble. He's being attacked by a

1104
01:01:56,280 --> 01:02:01,280
Speaker 3: swarm of these enchanted paper birds, and a greatly injured

1105
01:02:01,320 --> 01:02:05,000
Speaker 3: Haku crashes into Eubaba's residence in the in the upper

1106
01:02:05,000 --> 01:02:08,520
Speaker 3: part of the bathhouse, and Sen rushes to help him.

1107
01:02:08,960 --> 01:02:12,560
Speaker 3: Somewhere here along the way, I think she eavesdrops and

1108
01:02:12,640 --> 01:02:15,400
Speaker 3: learns that Ubaba sent him out on a special mission,

1109
01:02:15,840 --> 01:02:19,320
Speaker 3: and this mission is how he became injured. Ubaba expects

1110
01:02:19,400 --> 01:02:21,840
Speaker 3: Haku will die, and she doesn't seem all that bothered

1111
01:02:21,880 --> 01:02:22,280
Speaker 3: about it.

1112
01:02:22,720 --> 01:02:24,320
Speaker 1: Yeah, She's like, I'll hope you that Sin.

1113
01:02:26,040 --> 01:02:32,040
Speaker 3: It happens. So Sen sneaks into Eubaba's apartment to help Haku,

1114
01:02:32,160 --> 01:02:36,600
Speaker 3: but ends up meeting Bo, the Giant Baby, Ebaba's son,

1115
01:02:37,760 --> 01:02:41,960
Speaker 3: and we learn when we actually hear Bo talking and

1116
01:02:42,040 --> 01:02:46,240
Speaker 3: interacting with Chihiro or with Sen. Here, there's clearly some

1117
01:02:46,320 --> 01:02:52,640
Speaker 3: kind of unhealthy lock on Bo's maturation, both magical and psychological,

1118
01:02:53,160 --> 01:02:56,040
Speaker 3: Like the way he talks and his body don't really

1119
01:02:56,120 --> 01:02:59,520
Speaker 3: like match upright, and he's kind of paranoid, Like he's

1120
01:02:59,520 --> 01:03:02,840
Speaker 3: a paranoid pathological brat. There's a lot of play with

1121
01:03:02,920 --> 01:03:04,520
Speaker 3: me now where I will crush.

1122
01:03:04,200 --> 01:03:06,840
Speaker 1: You, yeah, or I will break your arm and yeah,

1123
01:03:06,960 --> 01:03:09,400
Speaker 1: that's like the big baby is terrifying here.

1124
01:03:09,680 --> 01:03:13,720
Speaker 3: Yeah. So Sin gets away from Bo temporarily, and while

1125
01:03:13,720 --> 01:03:17,000
Speaker 3: trying to help Haku, Sin meets a witch who looks

1126
01:03:17,040 --> 01:03:19,920
Speaker 3: exactly like you Baba. But here is a big reveal.

1127
01:03:20,600 --> 01:03:22,960
Speaker 3: This is not you Baba, this is u Baba's twin

1128
01:03:23,160 --> 01:03:27,360
Speaker 3: sister Zeniba. Who uh. They're at odds, you know, they

1129
01:03:27,360 --> 01:03:30,600
Speaker 3: don't get along. And it turns out that you Baba

1130
01:03:30,960 --> 01:03:35,360
Speaker 3: sent Haku to steal a special magical item from her sister,

1131
01:03:35,480 --> 01:03:38,320
Speaker 3: to steal it from Zeneba. It was a golden seal,

1132
01:03:38,800 --> 01:03:42,800
Speaker 3: and unfortunately for Haku, this magical golden seal was cursed,

1133
01:03:42,960 --> 01:03:45,440
Speaker 3: and she says the fact that Haku stole it is

1134
01:03:45,480 --> 01:03:49,560
Speaker 3: what is now killing him. Now. While in e Baba's house,

1135
01:03:49,880 --> 01:03:54,440
Speaker 3: Zeneba happens to just play some pranks, including transforming you

1136
01:03:54,560 --> 01:03:59,439
Speaker 3: Baba's son Bo the Giant Baby into a mouse, transforming

1137
01:03:59,520 --> 01:04:02,600
Speaker 3: the weird to jump the three green jumping heads into

1138
01:04:02,640 --> 01:04:05,600
Speaker 3: a fake version of Bo the Baby, so now there's

1139
01:04:05,600 --> 01:04:08,280
Speaker 3: the thing that looks like the baby but is actually

1140
01:04:08,320 --> 01:04:12,360
Speaker 3: these three heads, and transforming you Baba's demon bird Minion

1141
01:04:12,480 --> 01:04:13,040
Speaker 3: into a fly.

1142
01:04:13,680 --> 01:04:13,880
Speaker 1: Yes.

1143
01:04:15,240 --> 01:04:18,320
Speaker 3: Now, at some point here, Zeniba gets gets banished by

1144
01:04:18,360 --> 01:04:23,480
Speaker 3: having her little paper avatar damaged. But the but Sen

1145
01:04:23,760 --> 01:04:26,080
Speaker 3: and Haku end up falling through a pit in the

1146
01:04:26,080 --> 01:04:29,520
Speaker 3: floor and crashing down into Camagi's domain in the boiler room,

1147
01:04:30,000 --> 01:04:33,680
Speaker 3: where Sen decides to give Haku half of Oh did

1148
01:04:33,720 --> 01:04:36,520
Speaker 3: I did I even mention that the river spirit gave

1149
01:04:36,880 --> 01:04:40,800
Speaker 3: Sen a magic dumpling in reward for helping him?

1150
01:04:40,920 --> 01:04:43,760
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, this becomes important because.

1151
01:04:44,760 --> 01:04:47,720
Speaker 3: So she has this important magic dumpling. She gives half

1152
01:04:47,720 --> 01:04:50,480
Speaker 3: of it to Haku and closes his mouth over it,

1153
01:04:50,520 --> 01:04:53,080
Speaker 3: forces him to eat it, and this makes Haku vomit

1154
01:04:53,280 --> 01:04:56,560
Speaker 3: up the cursed golden seal, but also this kind of

1155
01:04:56,640 --> 01:05:00,360
Speaker 3: horrible mud slug, the physical embodiment of the curse sin

1156
01:05:00,480 --> 01:05:04,800
Speaker 3: then stomps on. Meanwhile, there's some trouble in the bath

1157
01:05:04,880 --> 01:05:08,000
Speaker 3: house because remember that no face monster. It is getting

1158
01:05:08,080 --> 01:05:12,160
Speaker 3: up to no good. It has started going around offering

1159
01:05:12,280 --> 01:05:15,200
Speaker 3: things to people, like it can make stuff appear in

1160
01:05:15,240 --> 01:05:18,400
Speaker 3: its hands that looks like gold, Like it just got

1161
01:05:18,440 --> 01:05:20,480
Speaker 3: a big pile of gold in its hand. It's like,

1162
01:05:20,800 --> 01:05:23,560
Speaker 3: you want some. It actually doesn't talk at first in

1163
01:05:23,640 --> 01:05:26,480
Speaker 3: its natural form. All it really seems to say is

1164
01:05:26,520 --> 01:05:31,200
Speaker 3: like uh uh huh, And it'll offer gold to people

1165
01:05:31,280 --> 01:05:33,720
Speaker 3: and the people are like, yeah, yeah, give me that gold.

1166
01:05:33,800 --> 01:05:36,440
Speaker 3: But then I don't know. It starts eating people like

1167
01:05:36,480 --> 01:05:41,439
Speaker 3: it eats a frog guy, eats a frog guys and

1168
01:05:41,480 --> 01:05:44,040
Speaker 3: as it's offering gold to the other workers in the bathhouse.

1169
01:05:44,160 --> 01:05:46,960
Speaker 3: They're all frantically saying like, oh, yeah, let's feed this

1170
01:05:47,040 --> 01:05:49,000
Speaker 3: guy as much as we can. He's giving us tips.

1171
01:05:49,040 --> 01:05:51,880
Speaker 3: We want tips, So they're all fighting for the tips

1172
01:05:51,920 --> 01:05:55,880
Speaker 3: from the whale, the big customer. And along the way

1173
01:05:56,000 --> 01:05:58,760
Speaker 3: it gets more and more destructive as it gets bigger

1174
01:05:58,760 --> 01:06:01,080
Speaker 3: and bigger and some more workers.

1175
01:06:01,480 --> 01:06:04,880
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's some strong horror vibes to a lot of this, because, yeah,

1176
01:06:04,880 --> 01:06:09,080
Speaker 1: we have this shape shifting monster that keeps eating servants

1177
01:06:09,560 --> 01:06:12,919
Speaker 1: and in doing so, like stealing their voice or even

1178
01:06:12,960 --> 01:06:17,240
Speaker 1: aspects of their personality. Yes, because otherwise, Yeah, no Face

1179
01:06:17,320 --> 01:06:21,280
Speaker 1: just makes these little kind of like this kind of sounds.

1180
01:06:21,840 --> 01:06:23,880
Speaker 1: I was no Face for Halloween one year, so I

1181
01:06:23,920 --> 01:06:27,680
Speaker 1: got to like do those noises whilst we were out

1182
01:06:27,680 --> 01:06:30,720
Speaker 1: triggered treating this year, I was how by the way from.

1183
01:06:30,520 --> 01:06:34,680
Speaker 3: How you know, I was wondering why the no Face

1184
01:06:34,720 --> 01:06:39,080
Speaker 3: seems the most interested in Sin, because it's like asking

1185
01:06:39,120 --> 01:06:41,640
Speaker 3: for her, you know, It's like, I don't want any

1186
01:06:41,680 --> 01:06:43,560
Speaker 3: of you want. I want Sin bring Sin to me.

1187
01:06:44,280 --> 01:06:47,240
Speaker 3: And it seems that maybe it's because she's the one

1188
01:06:47,240 --> 01:06:49,800
Speaker 3: who led it into the bathhouse, but also it seems

1189
01:06:49,920 --> 01:06:53,080
Speaker 3: that she's unique in that she's the only person who's

1190
01:06:53,120 --> 01:06:56,040
Speaker 3: not interested in the gold that it makes. It keeps

1191
01:06:56,120 --> 01:06:58,000
Speaker 3: making the gold and trying to give it to people,

1192
01:06:58,040 --> 01:07:00,680
Speaker 3: and they're all like, gimme, gimme, gimmy, and it wants

1193
01:07:00,720 --> 01:07:03,080
Speaker 3: to give gold to sin, but she's just not interested.

1194
01:07:03,120 --> 01:07:05,760
Speaker 3: She's just like, no, thanks, thank you, but I don't

1195
01:07:05,760 --> 01:07:06,160
Speaker 3: want any.

1196
01:07:06,480 --> 01:07:10,840
Speaker 1: Yeah, she's incorruptible when it comes to these temptations. And yeah,

1197
01:07:10,880 --> 01:07:13,720
Speaker 1: No Face is very fascinating because on one hand, you know,

1198
01:07:13,840 --> 01:07:16,520
Speaker 1: very much a hungry ghost sort of a scenario, like

1199
01:07:16,960 --> 01:07:19,800
Speaker 1: it's you know, its natural form is one of kind

1200
01:07:19,840 --> 01:07:23,320
Speaker 1: of hollowness and is very transparent, just has this mask

1201
01:07:24,320 --> 01:07:26,280
Speaker 1: that seems to you know, serve as its face. But

1202
01:07:26,320 --> 01:07:28,200
Speaker 1: then as it eats, we see its mouth more, we

1203
01:07:28,240 --> 01:07:31,160
Speaker 1: see its great lolling tongue. So it's, you know, it's

1204
01:07:31,160 --> 01:07:34,320
Speaker 1: a creature of vast appetite, but it's not just food

1205
01:07:34,360 --> 01:07:38,240
Speaker 1: at once. And I've seen Miyazaki discuss this in some

1206
01:07:38,240 --> 01:07:41,640
Speaker 1: translated interviews where he's talking about like it also it

1207
01:07:41,760 --> 01:07:45,960
Speaker 1: needs to absorb other people, like certainly in the sense

1208
01:07:46,000 --> 01:07:48,440
Speaker 1: that it's eating people, but also like, is in No

1209
01:07:48,520 --> 01:07:51,840
Speaker 1: Face truly has no face, no identity, and it must

1210
01:07:51,880 --> 01:07:57,040
Speaker 1: take identity from others. So it's it's it's a weird

1211
01:07:57,160 --> 01:08:00,040
Speaker 1: monster to try and unravel.

1212
01:08:00,240 --> 01:08:02,840
Speaker 3: Right, and it just keeps becoming more and more threatening.

1213
01:08:02,880 --> 01:08:06,320
Speaker 3: Eventually Sin comes to it to try to fix what's

1214
01:08:06,360 --> 01:08:09,360
Speaker 3: going on, but by this point it's just a rampaging monster.

1215
01:08:09,480 --> 01:08:13,400
Speaker 3: It's trying to eat everything. It's threatening her also, and

1216
01:08:13,440 --> 01:08:16,880
Speaker 3: so Sin ends up feeding this monster the other half

1217
01:08:16,920 --> 01:08:20,599
Speaker 3: of the river Spirit's dumpling, causing it to start vomiting

1218
01:08:20,720 --> 01:08:24,519
Speaker 3: up evil black sludge and shrinking in size. Was this

1219
01:08:24,600 --> 01:08:26,000
Speaker 3: part of your costume, Rob.

1220
01:08:26,040 --> 01:08:30,679
Speaker 1: No, luckily not. But it is such a fantastic sequence.

1221
01:08:30,720 --> 01:08:34,439
Speaker 1: There's a lot of rampaging through the onsen here. Love it,

1222
01:08:34,640 --> 01:08:35,280
Speaker 1: love it? Yeah?

1223
01:08:35,360 --> 01:08:35,559
Speaker 4: Yeah.

1224
01:08:35,680 --> 01:08:39,320
Speaker 3: So it's running all over the place, chasing Sin, smashing

1225
01:08:39,320 --> 01:08:41,880
Speaker 3: everything everywhere it goes, and it keeps chasing her, but

1226
01:08:41,960 --> 01:08:45,519
Speaker 3: she tries to lead it outside, where strangely, I mean,

1227
01:08:45,560 --> 01:08:48,160
Speaker 3: it's losing mass as it goes because it keeps vomiting,

1228
01:08:48,200 --> 01:08:50,040
Speaker 3: and it does vomit up some of the people to

1229
01:08:50,120 --> 01:08:52,000
Speaker 3: it ate, or the frogmen and stuff.

1230
01:08:52,080 --> 01:08:53,960
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're all okay, everybody's fine.

1231
01:08:54,240 --> 01:08:57,759
Speaker 3: But as it gets outside, she leads it outside where

1232
01:08:57,840 --> 01:09:00,200
Speaker 3: for some reason it seems to calm down and kind

1233
01:09:00,200 --> 01:09:03,800
Speaker 3: of lose its violent temper. And we never get a

1234
01:09:03,840 --> 01:09:07,920
Speaker 3: full explanation of this, but Sen into it, something about it.

1235
01:09:08,400 --> 01:09:12,160
Speaker 3: She's like, it's not bad. The bathhouse makes it crazy,

1236
01:09:12,960 --> 01:09:15,960
Speaker 3: and so it raises the interesting idea that this is

1237
01:09:16,000 --> 01:09:20,320
Speaker 3: not a monster in not a monster in principle. It's

1238
01:09:20,320 --> 01:09:23,760
Speaker 3: not a monster in its own world. It only becomes

1239
01:09:23,800 --> 01:09:26,839
Speaker 3: a monster when it enters a place it does not belong.

1240
01:09:27,439 --> 01:09:30,200
Speaker 1: That's right, Like it's a There are no bad spirits.

1241
01:09:30,240 --> 01:09:32,759
Speaker 1: There are just spirits that are misaligned. There are spirits

1242
01:09:32,760 --> 01:09:36,400
Speaker 1: out of place or that you know, something has happened

1243
01:09:36,479 --> 01:09:39,439
Speaker 1: to set them on the wrong course, such as we

1244
01:09:39,479 --> 01:09:44,080
Speaker 1: saw with the River Spirit earlier. So yeah, it's another

1245
01:09:44,160 --> 01:09:47,479
Speaker 1: part of the great heart of this picture. No evil spirits,

1246
01:09:47,640 --> 01:09:49,520
Speaker 1: just misaligned spirits.

1247
01:09:50,000 --> 01:09:53,080
Speaker 3: So we start leading up to the climax where Sen

1248
01:09:53,200 --> 01:09:57,080
Speaker 3: realizes that she needs to she needs to take a

1249
01:09:57,200 --> 01:10:01,000
Speaker 3: train to a place called swamp Boy, and there's a

1250
01:10:01,040 --> 01:10:03,840
Speaker 3: reason for this. She thinks that she can help things

1251
01:10:03,880 --> 01:10:07,080
Speaker 3: if she takes the golden seal that Hakus stole back

1252
01:10:07,120 --> 01:10:10,720
Speaker 3: to Zeniba and apologize for the theft. If she does that,

1253
01:10:11,080 --> 01:10:14,599
Speaker 3: she thinks things can be patched over, and to do this,

1254
01:10:14,720 --> 01:10:16,679
Speaker 3: she's going to have to take a train. We see

1255
01:10:16,680 --> 01:10:19,759
Speaker 3: a train coming and going throughout the world of Spirited Away.

1256
01:10:20,360 --> 01:10:23,559
Speaker 3: It's beautiful and strange in that the place it cuts

1257
01:10:23,600 --> 01:10:26,240
Speaker 3: through is flooded with water, so it's just a train

1258
01:10:26,360 --> 01:10:29,800
Speaker 3: on top of the water. And she's told, I think,

1259
01:10:29,840 --> 01:10:31,679
Speaker 3: by Kamaji that she'll have to go to a place

1260
01:10:31,680 --> 01:10:36,840
Speaker 3: called swamp Bottom, where's Aniba lives. So after she leads

1261
01:10:36,880 --> 01:10:39,040
Speaker 3: the No Face monster outside, this is the next place

1262
01:10:39,040 --> 01:10:41,760
Speaker 3: she's going to go. She's been given a series of

1263
01:10:41,760 --> 01:10:45,640
Speaker 3: tickets for the train as a gift by Camaji. And

1264
01:10:45,680 --> 01:10:48,200
Speaker 3: it's interesting the way that the train is kind of

1265
01:10:48,200 --> 01:10:51,280
Speaker 3: looked on with envy by the other bathhouse workers, Like

1266
01:10:51,840 --> 01:10:54,200
Speaker 3: there's this idea among many of them that if they

1267
01:10:54,280 --> 01:10:56,679
Speaker 3: had enough money one day, they would buy a ticket

1268
01:10:56,720 --> 01:10:59,479
Speaker 3: on the train and go somewhere far away. Again. It

1269
01:10:59,560 --> 01:11:04,280
Speaker 3: kind of inversion of the escape to a fantasy world plot.

1270
01:11:04,600 --> 01:11:08,679
Speaker 3: The workers here they dream of going elsewhere on the train.

1271
01:11:09,000 --> 01:11:12,360
Speaker 3: Sin Actually she doesn't go by herself. She is followed

1272
01:11:12,840 --> 01:11:16,760
Speaker 3: by a retinue. She's followed by No Face reverted to

1273
01:11:17,000 --> 01:11:21,759
Speaker 3: its original non threatening form, and by the mouse form

1274
01:11:21,960 --> 01:11:25,559
Speaker 3: of bo the giant baby, remember, was transformed by Zeneba

1275
01:11:25,600 --> 01:11:28,200
Speaker 3: into a little mouse, and the fly form of you

1276
01:11:28,280 --> 01:11:33,400
Speaker 3: Baba's evil bird. So I like that all of her

1277
01:11:33,400 --> 01:11:37,400
Speaker 3: companions on this journey are beings that in some other

1278
01:11:37,600 --> 01:11:42,479
Speaker 3: form were monstrous, dangerous and mint her harm. But now

1279
01:11:42,520 --> 01:11:46,080
Speaker 3: they're informs which are none of those things and seem

1280
01:11:46,200 --> 01:11:50,040
Speaker 3: mainly motivated by curiosity about sin and about what she's

1281
01:11:50,080 --> 01:11:50,639
Speaker 3: going to do.

1282
01:11:51,280 --> 01:11:54,599
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's true. That's true. Oh and by the way,

1283
01:11:54,720 --> 01:11:56,400
Speaker 1: that the train they're on, there was a build out

1284
01:11:56,439 --> 01:11:59,240
Speaker 1: of this at Ghibli Park, And I also have a

1285
01:11:59,240 --> 01:12:02,160
Speaker 1: photo here that I'll show you, Joe, where you can

1286
01:12:02,200 --> 01:12:04,720
Speaker 1: see me and my son sitting on either side of

1287
01:12:04,760 --> 01:12:07,439
Speaker 1: No Face on the train and you can see through

1288
01:12:07,439 --> 01:12:11,280
Speaker 1: the windows there you see the flooded landscape that it's traversing.

1289
01:12:11,640 --> 01:12:14,439
Speaker 3: It's gorgeous and it is just like in the movie

1290
01:12:14,479 --> 01:12:16,360
Speaker 3: where Yeah, she sits on the train and No Face

1291
01:12:16,439 --> 01:12:18,719
Speaker 3: just sits down next to her on the red cushion bench.

1292
01:12:19,280 --> 01:12:22,479
Speaker 1: M Yeah, very you know, meek and and peaceful.

1293
01:12:23,080 --> 01:12:25,320
Speaker 3: Now, one thing about this journey that the characters have

1294
01:12:25,439 --> 01:12:28,479
Speaker 3: discussed is that there is no guarantee of return because

1295
01:12:28,520 --> 01:12:32,719
Speaker 3: the ticket gifted by Camaji is to take the train

1296
01:12:32,840 --> 01:12:35,320
Speaker 3: to this place, but it's a one way trip. How

1297
01:12:35,360 --> 01:12:39,040
Speaker 3: will they get back, that's unclear, But they eventually get

1298
01:12:39,080 --> 01:12:42,160
Speaker 3: to Swamp Bottom and they get off the train under

1299
01:12:42,200 --> 01:12:46,880
Speaker 3: the platform. She's still being followed by her formerly monstrous companions,

1300
01:12:47,439 --> 01:12:50,519
Speaker 3: and there's a wonderful encounter on the way to the

1301
01:12:50,520 --> 01:12:53,840
Speaker 3: witch Zinniba's house, which is the foot lamp. How would

1302
01:12:53,840 --> 01:12:55,240
Speaker 3: you describe this rob.

1303
01:12:55,439 --> 01:12:59,320
Speaker 1: I mean, there's there's strong Yokai sensibilities to this thing's

1304
01:12:59,360 --> 01:13:02,000
Speaker 1: design of hopping along on one leg. It reminds me

1305
01:13:02,040 --> 01:13:06,160
Speaker 1: actually a lot of the lamp from the Pixar logo,

1306
01:13:06,280 --> 01:13:08,639
Speaker 1: you know, the way it's kind of like hopping about

1307
01:13:08,680 --> 01:13:09,559
Speaker 1: as if on one leg.

1308
01:13:10,240 --> 01:13:13,559
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a good comparison. But eventually this our characters

1309
01:13:13,560 --> 01:13:17,040
Speaker 3: here do make it to Zaneva's house, where there is

1310
01:13:17,600 --> 01:13:22,280
Speaker 3: there is sort of a reconciliation and a discovery of information.

1311
01:13:22,520 --> 01:13:24,040
Speaker 3: So what do we learn in this scene?

1312
01:13:24,840 --> 01:13:26,840
Speaker 1: Let's see, this is the scene where we learn a

1313
01:13:26,840 --> 01:13:29,519
Speaker 1: little bit more about the slug right, Yeah, in the

1314
01:13:29,520 --> 01:13:32,680
Speaker 1: inner workings of the curses that are in play here now.

1315
01:13:32,680 --> 01:13:34,719
Speaker 3: Actually, I'm trying to remember what it is in the scene.

1316
01:13:34,760 --> 01:13:37,519
Speaker 3: Is it the case that we learned that Haku was

1317
01:13:37,600 --> 01:13:42,559
Speaker 3: being controlled by Ubaba through the slug that she made

1318
01:13:42,640 --> 01:13:45,439
Speaker 3: him barf up by giving him the dumpling, and he's

1319
01:13:45,439 --> 01:13:49,240
Speaker 3: now free of that. Yes, But also Zeniba has as

1320
01:13:49,280 --> 01:13:52,479
Speaker 3: a magical item for Sin as well. It's a magical

1321
01:13:52,600 --> 01:13:57,960
Speaker 3: hair band, yes, yeah, And so there's that, and then

1322
01:13:58,439 --> 01:14:02,320
Speaker 3: there's a reunion with the restored Haku, who in dragon

1323
01:14:02,400 --> 01:14:05,680
Speaker 3: form is carrying Sin back to the bathhouse. Later, so

1324
01:14:05,800 --> 01:14:09,120
Speaker 3: they've resolved like how she'll get home and hopefully rescue

1325
01:14:09,160 --> 01:14:12,320
Speaker 3: her parents. But on the way there is a big revelation.

1326
01:14:12,600 --> 01:14:15,840
Speaker 3: Remember there's been this mystery the whole time. How did

1327
01:14:15,920 --> 01:14:20,240
Speaker 3: Haku know Chihiro from before? How did he already know

1328
01:14:20,360 --> 01:14:22,920
Speaker 3: her name? And how was he familiar with her before

1329
01:14:22,920 --> 01:14:26,600
Speaker 3: she arrived. She has a memory, and we've seen flashes

1330
01:14:26,640 --> 01:14:29,360
Speaker 3: of this memory sort of dotted throughout the story of

1331
01:14:29,400 --> 01:14:34,160
Speaker 3: her falling into the water, being underwater and seeing something,

1332
01:14:34,320 --> 01:14:37,240
Speaker 3: seeing a kind of friendly face. We learned that once

1333
01:14:37,400 --> 01:14:40,680
Speaker 3: as a child she fell into a river. It was

1334
01:14:40,800 --> 01:14:44,280
Speaker 3: the Kohaku River, and I think she said, what was

1335
01:14:44,320 --> 01:14:46,160
Speaker 3: she was trying to do? She was trying to reach

1336
01:14:46,200 --> 01:14:47,679
Speaker 3: in from the bank for something.

1337
01:14:48,439 --> 01:14:50,519
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I believe so, and then we get these

1338
01:14:50,840 --> 01:14:54,479
Speaker 1: these sequences underwater. They are an interesting way kind of

1339
01:14:55,640 --> 01:14:58,479
Speaker 1: a sign of things to come with Ponyo later on,

1340
01:14:58,520 --> 01:15:00,320
Speaker 1: which is going to be very concerned with a lot

1341
01:15:00,320 --> 01:15:03,639
Speaker 1: of underwater action and surging waters and so forth.

1342
01:15:04,160 --> 01:15:07,400
Speaker 3: So she fell into the water of the Coohaku River,

1343
01:15:07,720 --> 01:15:11,280
Speaker 3: and she thought she would drown, but she didn't drown. Instead,

1344
01:15:11,760 --> 01:15:15,040
Speaker 3: she was carried gently to the bank. And it turns

1345
01:15:15,080 --> 01:15:19,120
Speaker 3: out that's where she knows Haku from. Haku was a spirit,

1346
01:15:19,400 --> 01:15:22,920
Speaker 3: was a being in the river that helped her to

1347
01:15:23,160 --> 01:15:27,360
Speaker 3: the bank, And Haku was originally like the stink spirit

1348
01:15:27,400 --> 01:15:31,240
Speaker 3: from earlier, a river spirit, a dragon formed river spirit,

1349
01:15:31,600 --> 01:15:35,600
Speaker 3: and his real name is the Cohaku River. Remembering his

1350
01:15:35,720 --> 01:15:39,880
Speaker 3: real name, Haku can now potentially be free of Eubaba's magic.

1351
01:15:41,000 --> 01:15:43,160
Speaker 3: Now when they get back, there's there's sort of an

1352
01:15:43,160 --> 01:15:46,360
Speaker 3: epilogue where Ubaba says that Sin has to pass one

1353
01:15:46,439 --> 01:15:49,479
Speaker 3: final test before she and her parents can go free.

1354
01:15:49,760 --> 01:15:52,400
Speaker 3: And I like that at this point, Sin has completely

1355
01:15:52,479 --> 01:15:55,160
Speaker 3: won over the people at the bathhouse, like they're all

1356
01:15:55,200 --> 01:15:59,240
Speaker 3: like bad form, bad form. Sin's like, okay, I'll do

1357
01:15:59,320 --> 01:16:02,800
Speaker 3: I'll do the test. And the test is there's a

1358
01:16:02,840 --> 01:16:05,559
Speaker 3: lineup of pigs, and she's supposed to from this lineup

1359
01:16:05,560 --> 01:16:08,240
Speaker 3: of pigs pick out, okay, which ones are your parents?

1360
01:16:08,760 --> 01:16:12,439
Speaker 3: And Sin accepts the challenge and correctly guesses that none

1361
01:16:12,520 --> 01:16:15,240
Speaker 3: of them are her parents. It was a trick, trick question,

1362
01:16:15,400 --> 01:16:19,599
Speaker 3: but she outsmarts it, and thus the magic is broken.

1363
01:16:19,960 --> 01:16:23,280
Speaker 3: Sin is chi hero once again, and she can return home.

1364
01:16:23,840 --> 01:16:26,880
Speaker 1: All of her coworkers celebrate. They are all you know again,

1365
01:16:27,160 --> 01:16:29,320
Speaker 1: She's completely won them over, so they're cheering her on

1366
01:16:29,400 --> 01:16:33,680
Speaker 1: the whole way. Yeah, just a sweet ending, though we're

1367
01:16:33,720 --> 01:16:36,400
Speaker 1: not quite to the complete ending yet, but a sweet

1368
01:16:36,720 --> 01:16:38,360
Speaker 1: resolve of what's.

1369
01:16:38,160 --> 01:16:40,639
Speaker 3: Going on in the fantasy realm here, that's right. So

1370
01:16:40,760 --> 01:16:44,599
Speaker 3: she has her goodbyes with haku uh and she's told

1371
01:16:44,640 --> 01:16:46,799
Speaker 3: that her parents will be restored back at the tunnel

1372
01:16:46,800 --> 01:16:49,360
Speaker 3: where they first entered the spirit world. She goes back

1373
01:16:49,400 --> 01:16:51,840
Speaker 3: to meet them, and indeed they are safe and sound again,

1374
01:16:52,360 --> 01:16:55,320
Speaker 3: and she returns to the mundane world with her parents,

1375
01:16:55,520 --> 01:17:00,519
Speaker 3: and now I think having a more balanced attitude a life.

1376
01:17:00,600 --> 01:17:04,840
Speaker 3: I mean, it's kind of interesting that I don't know

1377
01:17:05,080 --> 01:17:08,280
Speaker 3: unless I'm missing something. It's not a movie where the

1378
01:17:08,400 --> 01:17:13,640
Speaker 3: character learned one specific moral like I thought X, But

1379
01:17:13,720 --> 01:17:18,479
Speaker 3: it's actually the opposite. It's why she's just more mature

1380
01:17:18,600 --> 01:17:20,960
Speaker 3: in many different ways, in ways that are hard to

1381
01:17:20,960 --> 01:17:24,040
Speaker 3: pin down, rather than being like a single semantic lesson

1382
01:17:24,120 --> 01:17:25,200
Speaker 3: of the plot. You know.

1383
01:17:25,760 --> 01:17:30,599
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like in the real world something clicked, you know,

1384
01:17:31,000 --> 01:17:33,439
Speaker 1: and there was this change in her, and then we

1385
01:17:33,479 --> 01:17:38,240
Speaker 1: see that click expanded out into this fantasy adventure here, like,

1386
01:17:38,560 --> 01:17:41,200
Speaker 1: you know, a change that may have you know, many

1387
01:17:41,240 --> 01:17:43,560
Speaker 1: different working parts, but it is kind of hard to

1388
01:17:43,600 --> 01:17:46,960
Speaker 1: really put your finger on, well that here is is

1389
01:17:47,000 --> 01:17:49,920
Speaker 1: brought to us through the lens of fantasy. Yeah, so's

1390
01:17:50,360 --> 01:17:53,320
Speaker 1: she's changed, but not in some like simplistic way where

1391
01:17:53,360 --> 01:17:56,840
Speaker 1: it's like, oh, I realized that the magic being wasn't magic,

1392
01:17:56,840 --> 01:17:58,599
Speaker 1: the magic was in me the whole time, or anything

1393
01:17:58,640 --> 01:18:01,200
Speaker 1: like that, you know. Yeah, but she is she is

1394
01:18:01,240 --> 01:18:04,120
Speaker 1: different now, she's a little more mature, and she is

1395
01:18:04,439 --> 01:18:07,040
Speaker 1: she's ready for this to go through, with this change

1396
01:18:07,080 --> 01:18:08,599
Speaker 1: that's occurring in her real life.

1397
01:18:09,000 --> 01:18:12,360
Speaker 3: But I also like that the return to the mundane

1398
01:18:12,360 --> 01:18:15,880
Speaker 3: world is not and it was all a dream ending. Yeah,

1399
01:18:15,920 --> 01:18:18,519
Speaker 3: you know, it's not like a reset on. You can

1400
01:18:18,760 --> 01:18:23,599
Speaker 3: view everything that came before as purely metaphorical there if

1401
01:18:23,640 --> 01:18:26,360
Speaker 3: you do view it as metaphorical. Part of the metaphor

1402
01:18:26,600 --> 01:18:30,200
Speaker 3: is that something of the magic world is real and

1403
01:18:30,240 --> 01:18:34,160
Speaker 3: follows you home, because when she she's changed by her

1404
01:18:34,200 --> 01:18:37,080
Speaker 3: experiences and she goes back out of the tunnel and

1405
01:18:37,120 --> 01:18:39,360
Speaker 3: she and her parents find the car again, and you

1406
01:18:39,439 --> 01:18:41,040
Speaker 3: might think, if it was the more kind of it

1407
01:18:41,080 --> 01:18:43,760
Speaker 3: was all a dream ending, everything would be just as

1408
01:18:43,800 --> 01:18:46,000
Speaker 3: they left it, and they would just drive home. But

1409
01:18:46,040 --> 01:18:47,840
Speaker 3: instead they get to the car and it's like covered

1410
01:18:47,840 --> 01:18:50,280
Speaker 3: in leaves and brush, and her parents are like, wow,

1411
01:18:50,320 --> 01:18:52,680
Speaker 3: it's all dusty inside. So clearly they've been gone a

1412
01:18:52,720 --> 01:18:56,439
Speaker 3: long time. And not only that, but chi Hero has

1413
01:18:56,560 --> 01:18:58,920
Speaker 3: has an artifact from the magic world with her, the

1414
01:18:58,960 --> 01:19:00,559
Speaker 3: hairband that Zenebe gave her.

1415
01:19:01,040 --> 01:19:05,040
Speaker 1: As we were watching this, my wife did comment, She's like, oh, yeah,

1416
01:19:05,040 --> 01:19:06,680
Speaker 1: there's no way mom and dad aren't fired from their

1417
01:19:06,760 --> 01:19:12,639
Speaker 1: jobs at this point. Like it's then what weeks? Yeah again,

1418
01:19:12,680 --> 01:19:17,120
Speaker 1: through all these changes to Hero perseveres and the ending

1419
01:19:17,680 --> 01:19:20,680
Speaker 1: is super sweet. It's like victory is achieved not through

1420
01:19:20,840 --> 01:19:25,679
Speaker 1: violence but through sheer strength of character, you know, And yeah,

1421
01:19:25,680 --> 01:19:27,800
Speaker 1: it's it's just a nice ending. It's a film that

1422
01:19:27,840 --> 01:19:31,160
Speaker 1: definitely has its has tension. It has a little bit

1423
01:19:31,160 --> 01:19:34,519
Speaker 1: of fear. You know, it's it's it is, in its

1424
01:19:34,560 --> 01:19:37,320
Speaker 1: own way, a roller coaster ride, but such a sweet

1425
01:19:37,360 --> 01:19:39,240
Speaker 1: landing here at the close of the picture.

1426
01:19:39,920 --> 01:19:43,000
Speaker 3: I love the balance found in the narrative of movies

1427
01:19:43,040 --> 01:19:46,599
Speaker 3: like this and like NAUSICAA where like it's a movie

1428
01:19:46,600 --> 01:19:50,759
Speaker 3: that feels very moral but not moralizing, you know. Instead

1429
01:19:50,840 --> 01:19:53,840
Speaker 3: there like there is a good sense of right and

1430
01:19:53,880 --> 01:19:56,000
Speaker 3: wrong at the heart of it. But it's not preachy

1431
01:19:56,120 --> 01:19:58,880
Speaker 3: or anything. It's it's just it's just kind of like

1432
01:19:59,000 --> 01:20:02,400
Speaker 3: telling a story. In a similar sense there is. I

1433
01:20:02,439 --> 01:20:04,439
Speaker 3: love the way, like you say that the characters are

1434
01:20:04,479 --> 01:20:08,880
Speaker 3: able to to find victory without violence, mostly that they're

1435
01:20:08,920 --> 01:20:13,439
Speaker 3: not fighters. They don't they don't use violence even really

1436
01:20:13,479 --> 01:20:18,760
Speaker 3: in defense much. They Instead they try to find compromises

1437
01:20:18,800 --> 01:20:22,720
Speaker 3: and solutions mentally and and and you know, find their

1438
01:20:22,720 --> 01:20:25,240
Speaker 3: way around problems. And yet at the same time it

1439
01:20:25,280 --> 01:20:29,879
Speaker 3: doesn't feel unrealistic about like ignoring the reality of threats.

1440
01:20:30,360 --> 01:20:34,559
Speaker 3: It's just such a great storytelling sensibility and the perfect

1441
01:20:34,680 --> 01:20:35,400
Speaker 3: art to match it.

1442
01:20:36,120 --> 01:20:38,680
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, in a way it's Miyazaki film like

1443
01:20:38,720 --> 01:20:40,640
Speaker 1: this is it's like a it's like looking at a

1444
01:20:40,720 --> 01:20:43,519
Speaker 1: zen garden or something. You know, It's like just like,

1445
01:20:43,600 --> 01:20:46,439
Speaker 1: what is it telling you? What is the vibe that

1446
01:20:46,520 --> 01:20:48,920
Speaker 1: it is delivering? What is the message? Well, like the

1447
01:20:48,960 --> 01:20:51,000
Speaker 1: message is in the structure, you know, you kind of

1448
01:20:51,360 --> 01:20:54,800
Speaker 1: look at it, contemplate it and absorb it. You know.

1449
01:20:55,920 --> 01:21:00,720
Speaker 1: It's just yeah, so well executed, entertaining, but indeed does

1450
01:21:00,760 --> 01:21:02,920
Speaker 1: give you a lot to think about afterwards, if you

1451
01:21:02,960 --> 01:21:04,519
Speaker 1: want to go there, if you want to just enjoy

1452
01:21:04,560 --> 01:21:06,880
Speaker 1: it as a ride, it delivers that as well. And

1453
01:21:06,920 --> 01:21:08,880
Speaker 1: I think that's one of the reasons that a film

1454
01:21:08,960 --> 01:21:15,280
Speaker 1: like this it achieves a real lasting place in your heart, because,

1455
01:21:16,240 --> 01:21:19,680
Speaker 1: like a lot of great films, every time you see it,

1456
01:21:19,680 --> 01:21:21,880
Speaker 1: it says something to you a little differently, like it

1457
01:21:22,240 --> 01:21:26,600
Speaker 1: speaks to you at different ages and during different challenges

1458
01:21:27,040 --> 01:21:30,439
Speaker 1: and in different celebrations as well. Yeah, just a great

1459
01:21:30,520 --> 01:21:31,439
Speaker 1: picture overall.

1460
01:21:32,040 --> 01:21:32,599
Speaker 3: Well said.

1461
01:21:33,000 --> 01:21:35,240
Speaker 1: So that's what we have to say about Spirited Away.

1462
01:21:35,280 --> 01:21:37,439
Speaker 1: But we'd love to hear what you have to say

1463
01:21:37,439 --> 01:21:41,120
Speaker 1: about Spirited Away or other Miyazaki films. You can write

1464
01:21:41,160 --> 01:21:43,479
Speaker 1: into us. We'd love to hear from you about this

1465
01:21:44,479 --> 01:21:46,479
Speaker 1: as well as any other film we've talked about on

1466
01:21:46,479 --> 01:21:48,919
Speaker 1: the show, or if you have recommendations for the future,

1467
01:21:49,720 --> 01:21:51,240
Speaker 1: if you want to see a complete list of all

1468
01:21:51,240 --> 01:21:53,640
Speaker 1: the films we've covered over the years. We have a

1469
01:21:53,640 --> 01:21:56,120
Speaker 1: great list going over at letterbox dot com. This's L

1470
01:21:56,200 --> 01:21:58,479
Speaker 1: E T T E R B O x D dot com.

1471
01:21:58,520 --> 01:22:00,960
Speaker 1: I feel like most film fans know this website at

1472
01:22:00,960 --> 01:22:04,560
Speaker 1: this point. I think I saw John Carpenter on Instagram

1473
01:22:05,240 --> 01:22:07,559
Speaker 1: recently say what is a letterbox? So, like, you know,

1474
01:22:07,560 --> 01:22:10,800
Speaker 1: it's like everybody is on some level aware of it

1475
01:22:10,840 --> 01:22:13,680
Speaker 1: now and getting in on how fun it can be

1476
01:22:13,800 --> 01:22:17,919
Speaker 1: a great way to organize your your two C lists

1477
01:22:17,960 --> 01:22:20,960
Speaker 1: as well as lists of favorite films. Yeah, anyway, we're

1478
01:22:21,000 --> 01:22:23,679
Speaker 1: on there as weird House again. If you're on Instagram,

1479
01:22:23,760 --> 01:22:26,920
Speaker 1: look us up at st b ym podcast. We'll keep

1480
01:22:26,960 --> 01:22:29,000
Speaker 1: you abreast of what's going on with Weird House Cinema

1481
01:22:29,040 --> 01:22:29,800
Speaker 1: there as well.

1482
01:22:30,200 --> 01:22:32,680
Speaker 3: Also a great place to find funny reviews.

1483
01:22:33,280 --> 01:22:37,040
Speaker 1: Funny, some funny, some not funny, but there are some.

1484
01:22:37,200 --> 01:22:39,599
Speaker 1: There are some some real hands on there and also

1485
01:22:39,640 --> 01:22:42,880
Speaker 1: some real insightful reviews. You'll also find i think some

1486
01:22:43,040 --> 01:22:47,000
Speaker 1: unofficial uploads of like famous film reviews. I'm not going

1487
01:22:47,040 --> 01:22:49,160
Speaker 1: to name any names but because I don't want them

1488
01:22:49,200 --> 01:22:51,400
Speaker 1: taken down because I really like reading them there. But

1489
01:22:52,560 --> 01:22:54,760
Speaker 1: you'll find some some of those reviews there as well.

1490
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Speaker 3: Huge thanks as always to our excellent audio producer, JJ Posway.

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Speaker 3: If you would like to get in touch with us

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Speaker 3: with feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest

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Speaker 3: a topic for the future, or just to say hello,

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Speaker 3: you can email us at contact at stuff to Blow

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Speaker 3: your Mind dot com.

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Speaker 2: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For

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Speaker 2: more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,

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Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.