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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Year:	1988
Country of origin:	Japan
Director:	Hayao Miyazaki
Genre:	Quality anime
Starring:	Noriko Hidaka, Chika Sakamoto
Rating:	5/5
IMDB link:	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096283/
Tagline:	No tagline
Favourite line:	N/A - Subtitled

Let me just put this in context for you.
I've just finished writing my review of A Serbian Film, one of the most ghastly, disturbing, emotionally draining horror movies I have ever seen.
And now I've got to write this one, about a Miyazaki movie.
Simply put, I can't think of a more jarring contrast.
Anyway.....
Hayao Miyazaki, the brilliant mind that later brought us such delights as Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle, here delivers a more sparing, slighter fantasy, but one that is just as effective.

The plot:
A young family are forced to move as the mother is taken ill, leaving the two young daughters in the care of their father. The house they move into sits adjacent to a small wooded area. Investigating one day, the younger of the daughters discovers a magical land apparently existing within the hollow of a tree, and befriends a giant, furry creature that serves as some sort of spirit of the forest, with power over the nature that surrounds it.
What follows is simply a delightful adventure as the girls get to know the spirits that dwell within the woods.

Achingly beautiful in places, laugh out loud funny at others, weirdly jarring on occasion, this is a sensory overload that is just a joy to experience.
Miyazaki's gift is to fuse the extraordinary with the really very ordinary indeed in ways which simply melt the toughest of hearts; the two girls at a bus stop in the pouring rain, standing beside the large furry spirit; acorns sprouting as forest spirits dance ritualistically beside them, and too many others to mention.
Though one of the more 'kiddie' of his offerings, this is far from a children's movie. Simply enchanting.