Spirited Away|Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi|The Mysterious Disappearance of Sen and Chihiro

Spirited Away

Is a 2001 Japanese animated fantasy-adventure film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki and produced by Studio Ghibli. The film tells the story of Chihiro Ogino, a sullen ten-year-old girl who, while moving to a new neighborhood, becomes trapped in an alternate reality that is inhabited by spirits and monsters. After her parents are transformed into pigs by the witch Yubaba, Chihiro takes a job working in Yubaba's bathhouse to find a way to free herself and her parents and escape back to the human world.

When released, Spirited Away became the most successful film in Japanese history, grossing over $274 million worldwide, and receiving critical acclaim. The film overtook Titanic (at the time the top grossing film worldwide) in the Japanese box office to become the highest-grossing film in Japanese history. It won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature at the 75th Academy Awards, the Golden Bear at

the 2002 Berlin International Film Festival (tied with Bloody Sunday) and is among the top ten in the BFI list of the 50 films you should see by the age of 14. In 2005, Spirited Away was voted the 8th greatest cartoon in Channel 4's 100 Greatest Cartoons poll behind The Simpsons, Tom and Jerry, South Park, Toy Story, Family Guy, Shrek and The Lion King.

Plot of the Story 

Chihiro Ogino, a 10-year-old girl, moves with her parents to a new town when they become lost and find what appears to be an abandoned amusement park. Chihiro's father insists on exploring it, and she and her mother reluctantly accompany him. Chihiro's parents sample the food at an unattended stall. After Chihiro wanders off and finds a grand bathhouse, a boy approaches and warns her to leave before nightfall. When Chihiro runs back to her parents, she finds they have been transformed into pigs, and the park starts to swarm with monsters.

She eventually learns from Haku, the boy she had met earlier, that her family has become trapped in the spirit world. He also reveals that he had known her since she was a child. Haku brings Chihiro to the bathhouse where he tells her to see Kamaji, a six-armed man who works the boiler room, to ask for a job. Rejecting Chihiro's request, Kamaji entrusts her to Lin, a bathhouse worker. Lin takes her to see Yubaba, the witch who runs the bathhouse. Denying Chihiro's request to work, Yubaba eventually allows her to work on the condition that her name is changed to Sen , the first character of Chihiro's name. Having been told from Haku that Yubaba controls her servants by taking their names, Chihiro is warned that if she forgets her real name, she will be trapped in the world forever.

While working as Lin's assistant, Sen allows a mysterious masked spirit to enter. Later, a "stink spirit" enters the bathhouse. Sen eventually cleans the stink spirit, revealing himself to be a spirit of a polluted river. In return for restoring his health, the river spirit bestows upon Sen an emetic dumpling.

Sen eventually realizes Haku is actually a dragon. Having been seriously injured his dragon form by a shikigami, Yubaba orders her servants to kill Haku, but is eventually rescued by Sen. The shikigami reveals herself to be Zeniba, Yubaba's twin sister. Zeniba informs Sen that Haku stole her gold seal on Yubaba's orders and transforms Boh, Yubaba's large baby son, into a mouse and her bird into a smaller bird, demanding the gold seal to be given back. Haku and Sen flee and fall into the boiler room again, where she feeds him part of the dumpling. Haku coughs up the gold seal and a black slug, which Sen crushes with her foot. Kamaji gives Sen train tickets to visit Zeniba and to beg her to lift the curse on the seal. Boh, in his mouse form, and the bird accompany her.

Meanwhile, the masked spirit Sen allowed into the bathhouse reveals himself as a monster called "No Face." No Face, who swallows one of the servants in order to speak, offers gold to the staff in exchange for large quantities of food. No Face continues to eat, causing it to grow to immense size, eventually swallowing several other employees. Later, Sen feeds No Face the remainder of the dumpling, causing him to regurgitate everything and everyone out. Restored to his prior inoffensive form, No Face also accompanies Sen to Zeniba's house.

Haku regains consciousness and learns that Sen has gone to see Zeniba. Yubaba, enraged by both the damage caused by No Face and Sen's departure, orders Sen's parents to be killed. Haku appears and warns Yubaba that something precious to her has been replaced, and she realizes that Boh has disappeared. Telling her that Boh is with Zeniba, Haku proposes should he return Boh, Yubaba will allow Sen and her parents to return the human world. However, Yubaba also insists that Sen has to take one final test.

Sen, Boh, and No Face arrive at Zeniba's house and find Zeniba to be friendly. Zeniba says Sen's love broke the seal's spell, and the slug Sen killed was the curse Yubaba had used to enslave Haku. Haku appears in his dragon form to pick up Sen and Boh, while No Face remains with Zeniba. Realizing that Sen once fell into the Kohaku River as a child, she guesses Haku is the spirit of the river who saved her, freeing Haku from Yubaba's spell.

Haku returns Boh to Yubaba, and Sen, now called Chihiro, is offered a final test to guess her parents from a group of pigs. She correctly answers that none of them are her parents. Haku leads her towards the entrance of the park and promises they will see each other again. Chihiro reunites with her parents, who do not recall their experiences, and the family depart from the park.

My Neighbors the Yamadas|Hōhokekyo Tonari no Yamada-kun

My Neighbors the Yamadas

Is an anime film directed by Isao Takahata and released by Studio Ghibli on July 17, 1999. The movie is a family comedy that is presented in a comic strip style which is unusual since all the other Studio Ghibli movies are presented in the traditional anime style of Studio Ghibli. Based on the yonkoma manga Nono-chan by Hisaichi Ishii, it was the first completely digital Studio Ghibli movie. Takahata wanted Yamada-kun to have the art style of watercolor pictures rather than cel pictures. To achieve that, the traditional paint-on-cel techniques were replaced with digital technology, making Yamada-kun the first Ghibli movie to have animation drawings painted entirely on computers. Despite decent reviews, the movie did not fare as well at the box office in Japan as other Studio Ghibli movies. It was released on DVD in America in August 2005, alongside another Takahata film, Pom Poko. Produced by Toshio Suzuki.My Neighbors the Yamadas received an Excellence Award for animation at the 1999 Japan Media Arts Festival.

Plot of the Story 

This film is about the daily lives of the Yamada family: Takashi and Matsuko (the father and mother), Shige (Matsuko's mother), Noboru (aged approximately 13, the son), Nonoko (aged approximately 5, the daughter), and Pochi (the family dog). It has a significantly different "feel" to it than the other Studio Ghibli films, not only because of its different style of animation, but also because it is not a contiguous plot, but rather a series of vignettes, each preceded by a title such as "Father as Role Model", "A Family Torn Apart" or "Patriarchal Supremacy Restored".

These vignettes cover such issues as losing a child in a department store, the relationships between father and son, or husband and wife, the wisdom of age, getting one's first girlfriend and many more. Each is presented with humour, presenting a very believable picture of family life which crosses cultural boundaries. The relationships between Matsuko, Takashi and Shige are particularly well observed, with Shige giving advice and proverbs to all the family members, and having a great strength of character which far outweighs Matsuko's. Takashi and Matsuko's relationship is often the focus of the episodes, their rivalries, such as arguing about who has control of the television, their frustrations and their difficulties, but the overriding theme is their love for one-another despite their flaws, and their desire to be the best parents possible for their children.

Tales from Earthsea| Gedo Senki|Ged's War Chronicles

Tales from Earthsea

 

 

 

Is a 2006 Japanese animated fantasy film directed by Gorō Miyazaki and produced by Studio Ghibli.

The film is based on a combination of plots and characters from the first four books of Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea series: A Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan, The Farthest Shore and Tehanu. The change of plot was "entirely different" according to the author Ursula K. Le Guin who told director Gorō Miyazaki, "It is not my book. It is your movie.

Plot of the Story

A war galley is caught in a storm at sea. The ship's weatherworker is distressed to realise he has lost the power to control the wind and waves, but is more so when he sees two dragons fighting above the clouds, one of which is killed by the other.

The King of Enlad, already troubled by tales of drought and pestilence in the land, receives news both of the strange omen at sea and of the disappearance of his son, Prince Arren. The King's wizard, Root, tells the tale of how dragons and men were once "one", until dragons chose freedom, and men chose possessions, and of his fears of how the land's plight is because of the weakening of the "balance". The King has little time to ponder on this before he is killed in a dark corridor by a young boy, who is revealed to be his son Arren. The prince steals his father's sword and flees the palace.

The action now moves to desert where Arren is pursued by wolves, and rescued by a wizard who turns out to be Ged or Sparrowhawk the Archmage. Arren accompanies Sparrowhawk and travels to the city of Hort Town. Arren goes to explore the town alone, suddenly becoming scared as if something is following him. As Arren runs away, he sees a young girl, Therru, fleeing from slavers from whom he then saves her, although he also shocks her with his indifference to her life and his own.

Later in the evening Arren is captured by the slavers but loses his sword as the head slaver believes it to be worthless junk. Arren is rescued by Sparrowhawk from the slavers, and they travel to a farm where Therru is looked after by a woman, Tenar, whom Sparrowhawk knows.

The head slaver ("Hare") reports back into a castle to Lord Cob, and almost pays with his life for the loss, until he tells Cob that Sparrowhawk freed the slaves. Cob orders him to bring Sparrowhawk to the castle. Sparrowhawk at the farm reveals that he is investigating the cause of the Balance being upset and leaves for Hort Town, in which he discovers the sword that Arren had is in a merchant shop. Sparrowhawk is then confronted by Hare, but transforms his face to disguise himself. When the slavers leave, he buys the sword.

Arren, at the retreat, reveals to Therru, who gradually accepted him, that he killed his father and that he is scared of the unknown presence following him. Later he leaves in secret. Tenar is captured by the slavers as bait to lure Sparrowhawk into the castle and leaves Therru behind tied to a post as a messenger. Arren is again pursued by the unknown presence and runs away, falling into a lake and falling unconscious underwater. Cob, who sees this, saves him and brings him to the castle, where he manipulates him, saying Sparrowhawk wants to use Arren to discover the secret of eternal life. Cob blackmails Arren to reveal his true name, Lebannen, to control him. Sparrowhawk, on the way back to the farm, encounters Therru, who freed herself, and gives her the sword, telling her to stay and give it to Arren if he returns. He goes to the castle to save Tenar but instead finds Arren, who tries to kill him, but fails. Sparrowhawk tells Arren that death is natural and that no one can live forever causing Arren to realize what he almost did, before being captured as his power is weakened within the stronghold of Cob's castle.

Therru sees a copy of Arren and follows him to the castle, where he reveals he is the light of Arren. He tells Therru his true name and says while he cannot go into the castle, he will be with her at all moments. Inside of the castle, Therru finds Arren, guilty and full of hopelessness, and brought hope back to him by saying his true name, breaking Cob's control over him. She also tells him her true name, Tehanu. Both go to rescue Sparrowhawk and Tenar from Cob who is about to throw them off a high tower. After fighting and scaring off Hare and the slave traders, the sword that Arren possesses unsheathes, revealing that this is due to its magical nature, and he cuts off Cob's hand, which flies away still holding his staff, rendering him unable to use magic. Cob becomes old due to the loss of the magic cast on himself. Cob, after reattaching his severed hand, captures Therru and flees to the highest tower on the castle, with Arren in hot pursuit. Cornered, Cob strangles Therru to death. However, she does not die, and instead becomes a dragon, thus killing Cob and rescuing Arren from the collapsing tower that Cob destroyed to prevent Arren from advancing.

Therru and Arren land at a field where Therru reforms as a human. Arren tells Therru he will leave for home to repent for his crime, but will come back to see her sometime.