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larryhammerThere is a scene about three-quarters of the way though Spirited Away in which a girl rides a train for three minutes. Nothing happens, but you don't care, because it is beautiful and astonishing and quiet and the emotional climax of the story.
The girl, Chihiro, is traveling with a mouse that used to be a baby, a mosquito-bird-thing that used to be a sorceress's familiar, and a masked spirit that used to be a monster. She herself used to be a ten-year-old brat, and she is taking a one-way trip* on the Soul Train to return a signature seal that was stolen from a witch by her friend, a dragon. Everything Chihiro has gone through and grown through aims toward this scene. That she is even ON the train shows how much she has matured. The rest of the movie is just wrapping things up. Which, yes, involves the plot climaxes of redeeming the dragon and then her parents from bondage, tests of her identity and ability. But her journey is capped by this journey. And it's perfectly animated, directed, and scored.
There's one moment that nearly breaks my heart: departing a station, we look back at a shadow of a girl on the platform watching the train pull away -- waiting for some spirit who didn't get off. Two seconds, nothing dwelled upon. A single moment, and then it's gone, as this is not her tale. Stories, intersecting, departing.
And then there's the music. I've gotten so conditioned, that initial low piano line with its simple progression of slow broken chords, sometimes backed by strings -- just hearing that makes my hair stand up. And then that descant that starts at the shadow-girl's station ... *shiver*
The scene in question (Greek dub, because you don't need to know what little is being said, really).
Live concert performance of the music, with composer Joe Hisaishi on the piano:
* We are told it used to travel both ways. So many implications in that one line.
---L.
The girl, Chihiro, is traveling with a mouse that used to be a baby, a mosquito-bird-thing that used to be a sorceress's familiar, and a masked spirit that used to be a monster. She herself used to be a ten-year-old brat, and she is taking a one-way trip* on the Soul Train to return a signature seal that was stolen from a witch by her friend, a dragon. Everything Chihiro has gone through and grown through aims toward this scene. That she is even ON the train shows how much she has matured. The rest of the movie is just wrapping things up. Which, yes, involves the plot climaxes of redeeming the dragon and then her parents from bondage, tests of her identity and ability. But her journey is capped by this journey. And it's perfectly animated, directed, and scored.
There's one moment that nearly breaks my heart: departing a station, we look back at a shadow of a girl on the platform watching the train pull away -- waiting for some spirit who didn't get off. Two seconds, nothing dwelled upon. A single moment, and then it's gone, as this is not her tale. Stories, intersecting, departing.
And then there's the music. I've gotten so conditioned, that initial low piano line with its simple progression of slow broken chords, sometimes backed by strings -- just hearing that makes my hair stand up. And then that descant that starts at the shadow-girl's station ... *shiver*
The scene in question (Greek dub, because you don't need to know what little is being said, really).
Live concert performance of the music, with composer Joe Hisaishi on the piano:
* We are told it used to travel both ways. So many implications in that one line.
---L.
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Date: 8 December 2010 04:11 pm (UTC)You really have to see the film Night on the Galactic Railroad, (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/buried-treasure/2006-12-21) based on the story by Miyazawa Kenji (I wrote about it before, and you said you'd like to IIRC). A lot from this scene in Spirited Away draws in flavor and in actual image from that film (and from the story)--I think it's Miyazaki paying tribute.
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Date: 8 December 2010 05:48 pm (UTC)Elegy is a good word for the scene.
---L.
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Date: 8 December 2010 06:15 pm (UTC)Miyazaki is so good at incorporating those minuscule extra touches that make his worlds feel infinite and full of story. My youngest's favorite movie is My Neighbor Totoro, and I get choked up every time the father is busy at work while Mei turns his desk into a flower shop. His wife is gravely ill, he's in a new job, lives in a(n admittedly cool) shit-hole just to be near his wife, and you can see the strain beneath his forced cheer. He is such a brave parent. The story is about the girls...but his half-story is the one I watch for.
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Date: 8 December 2010 10:17 pm (UTC)Out of curiosity, how do the girls like Ponyo?
---L.
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Date: 8 December 2010 11:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 9 December 2010 12:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 9 December 2010 12:49 am (UTC)