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Spirited Away
Series: BFI Film Classics
Ratings/reviews counts are updated frequently.
Check link for latest rating. ( 146 ratings, 20 reviews)
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Format: Paperback / softback
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Spirited Away
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?
Ideal for fans of animation, Japanese culture, film studies students, and those interested in Miyazaki’s work or the art of animated cinema.
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Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and
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feedback is welcome!
Description
Spirited Away, directed by the veteran anime film-maker Hayao Miyazaki, is Japan's most successful film, and one of the top-grossing 'foreign language' films ever released. Set in modern Japan, the film is a wildly imaginative fantasy, at once personal and universal. It tells the story of a listless little girl, Chihiro, who stumbles into a magical world where gods relax in a palatial bathhouse, where there are giant babies and hard-working soot sprites, and where a train runs across the sea.
Andrew Osmond's insightful study describes how Miyazaki directed Spirited Away with a degree of creative control undreamt of in most popular cinema, using the film's delightful, freewheeling visual ideas to explore issues ranging from personal agency and responsibility to what Miyazaki sees as the lamentable state of modern Japan. Osmond unpacks the film's visual language, which many Western (and some Japanese) audiences find both beautiful and bewildering. He traces connections between Spirited Away and Miyazaki's prior body of work, arguing that Spirited Away uses the cartoon medium to create a compellingly immersive drawn world.
This edition includes a new foreword by the author in which he considers the world of animated cinema post-Spirited Away, considering its influence on films ranging from del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth to Pixar's Inside Out.
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Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?
The book offers a poetic and insightful examination worthy of the film, helping clear up complexities for Western and Japanese audiences alike. It is praised as a must-read companion that fluidly unpacks the film’s rich visual language and thematic depth, earning commendation from sources such as Ain't It Cool News, The Animation Anomaly, and Time Out London.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781838719524
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 28 May 2020
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: BFI Publishing
Edition: 2nd edition
Illustration: 60 colour illus
Audience: Professional and scholarly
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 8.0mm
Width: 134.0mm
Height: 188.0mm
Weight: 200g
Pages: 128
About the Author
Andrew Osmond is a journalist and critic based in Berkshire, UK. He is the author of Satoshi Kon: The Illusionist (2009); 100 Animated Feature Films (BFI Publishing, 2010) and Ghost in the Shell (2017).
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