Kiki's Delivery Service
Apr. 27th, 2010 23:32![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
starladyKiki's Delivery Service | Majo no takkyubin. Dir. Miyazaki Hayao: Studio Ghibli, 1989.
This is the last of the major Studio Ghibli films that I hadn't seen--the only Ghibli films I haven't, in point of fact, are the minor Umi ga kikoeru and Omohide poroporo, (For the record, we don't talk about Gedo senki around here.)
In some ways this movie is the most flight-obsessed of all the Ghibli movies, though of course this is arguable; flight is a central motif in Ghibli, maybe the central motif. I really do enjoy the way Ghibli presents flying, too, and girls' relation to it; in this movie in particular the gender divide is stark, as Tombo notes when he wishes that he had been born into a witch family so that he could fly naturally, rather than only with the aid of ungainly technology. Indeed, Kiki's ontological ease with flying, and the fact that it's her talent and her livelihood, makes the disappearance of her powers of magic and flight all the more wrenching, and the climax all the better; she has found herself again, and won a place in her town's heart doing it. ("Look, up in the sky! That's not a bird, it's a girl! No, it's Kiki!")
In some ways too this movie also seems to be the most female-centric of the Ghibli corpus: Kiki derives her powers from her mother, it's the female baker Osono who gives Kiki her room, Kiki's customers are almost all women, and it's the painter Ursula who helps Kiki deal with her depression when she does lose her power. Even Jiji, a male cat, is voiced by a woman in the Japanese version (as is standard in Japanese animation)--and in the Japanese version Kiki does not regain the ability to talk to him, significantly. Despite Miyazaki putting Kiki on the back of Tombo's bike in that one scene, I really did enjoy the movie's presentation of one girl's struggle to find her independence, and her eventual success at it.
This is the last of the major Studio Ghibli films that I hadn't seen--the only Ghibli films I haven't, in point of fact, are the minor Umi ga kikoeru and Omohide poroporo, (For the record, we don't talk about Gedo senki around here.)
In some ways this movie is the most flight-obsessed of all the Ghibli movies, though of course this is arguable; flight is a central motif in Ghibli, maybe the central motif. I really do enjoy the way Ghibli presents flying, too, and girls' relation to it; in this movie in particular the gender divide is stark, as Tombo notes when he wishes that he had been born into a witch family so that he could fly naturally, rather than only with the aid of ungainly technology. Indeed, Kiki's ontological ease with flying, and the fact that it's her talent and her livelihood, makes the disappearance of her powers of magic and flight all the more wrenching, and the climax all the better; she has found herself again, and won a place in her town's heart doing it. ("Look, up in the sky! That's not a bird, it's a girl! No, it's Kiki!")
In some ways too this movie also seems to be the most female-centric of the Ghibli corpus: Kiki derives her powers from her mother, it's the female baker Osono who gives Kiki her room, Kiki's customers are almost all women, and it's the painter Ursula who helps Kiki deal with her depression when she does lose her power. Even Jiji, a male cat, is voiced by a woman in the Japanese version (as is standard in Japanese animation)--and in the Japanese version Kiki does not regain the ability to talk to him, significantly. Despite Miyazaki putting Kiki on the back of Tombo's bike in that one scene, I really did enjoy the movie's presentation of one girl's struggle to find her independence, and her eventual success at it.
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(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-28 05:17 (UTC)I like to watch Kiki's Delivery Service when I'm feeling homesick - it makes me feel more like I can handle being on my own.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-28 18:52 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-28 14:48 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-28 18:49 (UTC)Tho', I do always have a few niggling issues with the subtitling, too, the most egregious being in Ponyo when they render the sailors asking, "Did we get blown to America?" as "Is that China?", which is both incomprehensible as a choice and misleading. But I've heard that the American Ponyo production in particular had issues.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-28 22:34 (UTC)Have since watched it subbed; will never go back!
(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-29 01:33 (UTC)But yes, the dubs are pretty Establishment, though they are pretty good for dubs. I still think the Howl's dub is my favorite, or maybe Mononoke-hime. The Spirited Away one falls the flattest, I think.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-05-02 02:35 (UTC)I also love Ursula's painting and wish I could get it somehow :)
(no subject)
Date: 2010-05-02 02:37 (UTC)I liked Ursula a lot too; she just does her own thing without thought for anything but her own artistry, and her friends.
I like Whisper of the Heart a lot too. Another movie where the girl winds up on the back of the bicycle, though...
(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-28 19:48 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-29 01:35 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-29 04:45 (UTC)Kiki's is fun, and I agree on your points about its presentation of feminism and self-discovery/coming of age.
Did you listen to any of the English dub? I think it's the worst of the modern Ghibli English dubs... I love Phil Hartman, but he changes the character of Jiji for the worse, Kirsten Dunst screeches half the movie, and there's a lot of unnecessary overdubbed narration not present in the Japanese dub. Matt and I are going through all of Miyazaki's films in chronological order, and Kiki's was the only one I insisted we watch in Japanese.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-29 22:33 (UTC)I dunno, I think Mononoke-hime has a lot in common with Miyazaki's other movies, Nausicäa most obviously.